By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
The other day, one of my students called me to ask advice about a “crisis” she was having at work with her director. In talking with her, it occurred to me (and later to her) that she could be misinterpreting the events that we discussed. I asked her how she knew that her perspective on the incident was an accurate interpretation of what had happened. Was there another way of looking at the event? The student acknowledged that when things happened in her life, she immediately tended to assume the worst and rarely challenged her version of the story.
Dr. Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania writes about explanatory style when evaluating events. Some people (like my student) naturally have a more negative explanatory style. Elizabeth Scott points out that when something happens in our lives, our explanatory style is part of how we process it, the meaning we attach to it, and how we assess it as a threat or a challenge in our lives. It impacts both our stress level and resiliency.
This is why we can see two people go through the same stressful event and emerge with very different stories about what happened. More pessimistic individuals often focus on their losses while optimists often focus on the fact that things could be much worse. Your explanatory style affects your life in ways you may not realize. How you respond can either minimize your stress response or exacerbate it. With different explanatory styles, one individual may feel safe in socially dangerous situations or endangered in relatively safe ones. It can contribute to your motivation or leave you feeling more vulnerable than ever.
Challenging Explanatory Style
As nurse leaders, we need to challenge our negative explanatory style and coach staff also to challenge how they may be processing events. Let’s use the example of a new graduate nurse who has challenges with feedback from her preceptor. Her explanatory style about performance feedback is that it is very negative and stressful. When her preceptor tries to discuss situations where improvement is needed, she shuts down feeling psychologically unsafe. As a nurse leader coach, your goal in this situation would be to encourage the nurse to challenge her explanatory style. To do this, you could ask some strong, open-ended reflective questions such as:
- What would be a different way to view the feedback you receive from your preceptor?
- How might your stress level be different if you perceived the feedback as professional development?
- What are you not seeing or acknowledging in this situation?
- What are other areas of your life are affected by the stress that you currently feel from feedback?
- If you don’t change your perspective, how might this impact your professional career?
- What actions can you take when you receive feedback to react more positively?
- Who could you ask for help to act as a sounding board in these situations?
- How can I help you to view professional feedback differently?
Seligman is a strong believer that explanatory styles can be altered with attention and practice. He has worked for years with the military to proactively help soldiers with their explanatory style when stationed in areas with high conflict. He notes that “habits of thinking need not be forever.” We have the capability as leaders to help staff (and ourselves) with how events are perceived. The payoff is lower stress levels and resiliency.
Read to Lead
Scott, E. (July 10th, 2018 Blog) Explanatory Styles and their role in Stress.
Seligman, M. (2006) Learned Optimism, How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. Vintage Press.
© emergingrnleader.com 2019
Coming Soon: The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss that No One Wants to Leave
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