Tuning Into Information You May Not Want to Hear

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

A wise mentor once told me that just because you are not hearing about something as a leader does not mean it is not happening. I have realized throughout my career that this is sage advice. A nurse manager recently told me about her CNO, who had instructed her, “Don’t be so negative and focus on what is wrong – I want to hear what is going well. So now, I tell her very little about what is happening with the staff. I heard through the grapevine that when staff disengagement was discussed at a state nurse leader’s meeting, she told the group that she did not have these problems in her hospital. Who is she kidding?”

A failure to tune into information you are not hearing is usually the result of one of two problems. The first problem happens when leaders deliberately shut down any data that does not fit into their worldview of what is happening. They are so tuned into impression management that they want to avoid the truth. Like the CNO in the above scenario, staff stops bringing information to the leader because they don’t want to hear it. The second problem is more nuanced. Some leaders have a tiny inner circle that they listen to and fail to seek out diverging opinions. You can only solve a challenge if you know it exists.

With either of these two problems, leaders risk allowing situations to spiral out of control and then wonder how things derailed so quickly. The best leaders understand that silence is deadly. “All too often, behind failed products, broken processes, and mistaken decisions are people who chose to hold their tongues rather than to speak up,” wrote authors of the 2003 article “Is Silence Killing Your Company?” published in Harvard Business Review. Sometimes when nurses feel they are not heard, they may go public with their concerns as nurse influencers now do regularly.

A challenge in leadership is that it can take time to get real-time information about what is happening, especially in today’s turbulent environment. So how can you be more effective at tuning into news you are not hearing? Here are some suggestions on how to do this:

1. Stay close to the frontline through leadership rounds, ask staff questions about their experiences, and include staff at all levels.
2. Use this question often – what should I know is happening here but maybe don’t?
3. Ask nurses if they have picked up additional responsibilities because of staffing shortages in other departments or supply chain issues.
4. Stay silent for a moment after staff share their viewpoints and then ask – and what else?
5. Ask staff the one thing you could do right now that would make their jobs easier.
6. Ask managers regularly what trends they see with the unit staff.
7. Debrief with managers about the results of stay interviews they do with staff.
8. Meet with other department leaders and ask them for feedback on what they see in their areas?
9. what do we need to stop doing here because it does not add value?
10. Don’t be defensive about what you hear – you may disagree, but continue to listen because there are often nuggets of truth in the feedback

The very best nurse leaders are great learners. Their never-ending pursuit of information pushes them to constantly improve even when it is uncomfortable. It is this practice that sets them apart from the rest.

© emergingrnleader.com 2023

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