Playing the Long Game in Leadership - Emerging Nurse Leader

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

These are tough times to be a nurse leader. You may be asking yourself the question – do I really want to do this anymore? So many leaders from the frontline to the C-suite have verbalized this sentiment to me in the last six months. Nursing needs leaders like you more than ever.

A staff nurse recently told me on a webinar that “my manager quit and told us this was too hard – if it was too hard for her, what hope is there for us?” This saddened me. The manager, she told me, was great, and now they had no leader.

I have found in my career; sometimes you need to play the long game in your career. The long game is a powerful idea. In simplest terms, playing the long game means you take small, necessary steps every day to set yourself up for success down the road. In other words, you stay ahead of the curve and continue to swim in the choppy water.

Many nurse leaders are doing just that. They have tried to be very stoic about their true feelings about the current healthcare environment by taking one day (sometimes one shift) at a time. They, like I, believe that a portion of the turbulence we see will pass – but none of us are sure on the timing. Playing the long game becomes easier when you focus on what you are learning from the situation that you are in. Some things leaders tell me that they have learned include the following:

It is okay to be wrong – just about leader has made at least one bad decision in the past 18 months.
Demographics matter – we have a very different workforce than we did in 2019. Their wants and needs differ from the Boomers and Gen X.
Mental health and wellbeing are critical – no one leaves their mental health and wellbeing issues at home. It is now part of who we are in nursing.
Show grace – there is a lot of anger out there – don’t take things as personally as you once did.
Be more relational – ask staff how they are doing before you ask what they are doing.
Ask for help – staffing is a critical issue nationwide. Ask the staff for their best ideas on recruitment, retention, and staffing.
Learn to subtract work, not add it – everyone is overwhelmed. Look for ways to eliminate everything your staff does that does not add value to care.
It is okay to be vulnerable with your leadership team – leaders need to support one another through this tough time.
Be appreciative – thank the staff for showing up at the beginning of the day and their contributions at the end of the day.
Shut down after work – leave on time; it will be there in the morning.
Don’t take resignations personally – nurses are trying to recalibrate their lives, and part of that may mean leaving.

I believe someday we will look back on this time and wonder how we did it. There will also be a sense of pride that we kept perspective and stayed with it. Just not now.

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