Having Situational Humility

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

A nurse leader told me about a recent conversation with staff on her unit. They were vocalizing concerns about their assignments and the volume of patients admitted to their unit. The conversation had taken a very negative turn when she backed off and said the following:

You may think I or any of us have all the answers to what is happening in healthcare today, but we don’t. We have never seen sustained volumes like this before. We can’t go on a diversion like before because every hospital in our community is experiencing the same thing. Then she flipped the question to the group and asked what we thought about pathways out. It led to some of the best conversations we have ever had as a team.

The manager in this story was practicing a powerful leadership strategy called situational humility. We all pride ourselves on our leadership expertise, but there are limits to what we can know, especially in situations like the present. Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson coined situational humility. She describes situational humility as a willingness to transparently acknowledge the gaps in our knowledge and remain relentlessly curious about the opinions of others. It leads to better outcomes in uncertain situations because the leader creates psychological safety for others to share their ideas. A leader who practices situational humility seeks to know what they don’t know about situations.

Edmondson observes that situational humility is strangely rare in organizations. Leaders believe they are paid for their expertise, so they sometimes err on the side of being overly certain about situations to the point of arrogance. Edmonson introduces what she describes as “the basic human problem: it’s hard to learn if you already know.”

I can’t think of a time in nursing when we need to maintain situational humility more than we do now. I have had discussions with some senior nursing leaders who describe what they see as another cyclical nursing shortage. The solution, they contend, is to pull together a commission or task force to make recommendations. That is what we have always done – bring together the “experts” and solve the problem. There is a lack of curiosity about what is happening at the frontline of care and how nurses today view their work and future. We think we know what is happening, but maybe we don’t.

Frontline nurse leaders are far more likely to admit they don’t know what to do because tried and true leadership strategies often don’t work today.  They paint a much more nuanced picture of nursing, with many frequently telling me – I am seeing things today in my leadership career that I have never seen before, and I am not sure what these changes might mean in the long term. 

Many leaders want to control everything. But some things can’t be known upfront or beforehand. You have to know when to take charge or let go and seek better information. This requires keeping an open mind and staying curious for a little longer by maintaining situational humility.

Read to Lead

Edmondson, A. (2018). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Boston: Harvard Press.