Enabling Staff to Act - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

A frequent complaint that I hear from staff nurses when I ask why shared governance is so hard to implement is that they don’t feel empowered by their leaders. James Kouzes and Barry Posner are well known leadership researchers and authors. Their leadership framework The Leadership Challenge has been used for more than 30 years in organizations (including healthcare) throughout the world. A key finding is that followers want their leaders to be honest, forward-looking, competent and inspiring. Based on their research, Kouzes and Posner identified five practices of exemplary leadership. Great leaders do the following:

Model the Way
Inspire a Shared Vision
Challenge the Process
Enable Others to Act
Encourage the Heart

Enabling Others to Act

Success in healthcare requires a team effort. Leaders who enable others to act are able to foster collaboration and build trust on their teams. They also make it possible for others to do their best work by maximizing their strengths versus focusing on their weaknesses. This means a willingness to share power and develop others. Building a climate of trust on the team is an important first step. Current research with younger staff indicates that leaders who are dedicated to the development others are much more successful in their recruitment and retention efforts. A key job of any leader is to serve as a coach to help staff organize their work, build competence and accept accountability. Great leaders foster self-confidence by believing in their staff and offering choices about how work is done. When you consider whether you as a leader do in fact enable others, ask yourself the following questions:

Do I readily share information with others or do I hold back believing it will give me less power if I share it?
Do I recommend staff for educational development opportunities?
Can I identify at least one staff member who could easily step into my role if I left the organization?
How do I react when staff leave the team for a growth opportunity?
Do I trust staff to act in my absence or do I question their decisions?
Do I ask staff about their career goals and aspirations?
Do I take credit for work done by my staff or do I acknowledge their contributions?
Do I use the word “we versus I” in talking about our work?
Do I play favorites with staff or work hard to be fair?
Do I give staff stretch assignments?
Do I hold people accountable for their work?

We want our staff to be engaged in their work. Part of being engaged is feeling ownership in the process. There is little point in establishing shared governance if the decisions made by staff are not supported for implementation by their leaders. True shared governance will only come if we are willing as leaders to share our power and enable others to act.

Read to Lead

Kouzes, J. & Posner, B. (2012). The Leadership Challenge 5^th Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.