By Rose O. Sherman, EdD., RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
I was interviewing an experienced leader to prepare for an upcoming webinar. She has been in her department director role for twenty years. “The past year has been very hard for me, she shared – it is the first time I found myself asking whether I am the right leader for this situation.” She knows most of her staff well and has seen some shocking changes in their mental health. “Some of my most positive and upbeat staff are struggling, and I am not always sure how to help them. When I need to give performance feedback – it is often not well received. One of my best staff recently told me that she is exhausted and overworked. My gentle reminder about something she had forgotten led to an explosion of anger. She said to me – you are working us to death, and now you come and tell me that I did something wrong. Morale is at an all-time low, and I am running out of ideas. I myself am totally burned out and know it. Maybe a new leader would do a better job with this.”
There is little being written about nurse leader burnout right now, but it is a critical issue. It is not unusual to second guess yourself and question your leadership effectiveness during a time like this. As I have written in other blogs, this has turned into a real marathon, still without a clear end. The leader I was interviewing had a great deal of experience, but what about new leaders. I asked her about this because she had several new managers in her department. She told me that one of her newest managers was having a very rough time. The staff was pushing back on her leadership, and she was having challenges building trust. I asked her if she could imagine what things would be like if she did not know her team as well as she does. She told me that, “I know I would not be as supportive as I am right now because we have a deep relational history.”
Reflection like this is important when you have self-doubt in your leadership. Some key questions to ask yourself include the following:
- Do I want to try to be successful in leading through this? It is hard to lead if you are not motivated to do what it takes but if you are – have confidence in yourself.
- Am I doing my best to be an effective communicator? You will have missteps in this type of crisis, but are you learning from them and working to become more skilled.
- Am I making sound decisions with the information that I have? Decision-making right now is fraught with complexity. The question is whether you use the best information that is currently available to you to make decisions even when they are subject to change.
- Do I show empathy? This is an important question, but staff needs this now. If you have lost some of your empathy – work to regain it.
- Am I doing the best I can in my leadership at this time? All you can do is to be the very best version of yourself at this time. This includes demonstrating self-care. It is hard to coach staff about resiliency when you are burned out.
What was interesting about my conversation with this leader is that I assessed that she is terrific – asking all the right questions and deeply caring about being a servant leader. I guess that if she raised this topic with many of her colleagues – their self-doubt right now would be similar. Leadership is always challenging, but questioning your own leadership is a natural response, especially in times of crisis. We can learn and grow from our answers.
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Read the Nurse Leader Coach – Available at Amazon and Other Book Sellers.
Coming Soon a New Book to Strengthen Your Leadership in 2021 – The Nuts and Bolts of Nursing Leadership: Your Toolkit for Success
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