Why Coaching Matters in Leadership - Emerging Nurse Leader

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

This week, I am attending the annual Gallup Summit. This conference brings together Gallup coaches from across the globe. A big focus of the 2019 conference is information and data in the new book just published by Gallup titled Its the Manager. This book is a repository and analysis of more than 40 years of research by the Gallup corporation on what makes a great manager. Gallup recommends in this work that if organizations could prioritize only one leadership action to improve performance, it should be to equip their managers to be coaches. Coaching matters in leadership today and it is no longer a nice to do but rather a must do.

Leader coaching has the potential to impact organizational outcomes in four key areas. These include staff engagement, staff retention, creation of a healthier work environment and patient outcomes. Gallup has found that staff who agree that their manager coaches and involves them in goal setting are 4x more engaged than other employees. When considering career opportunities, nurses now look at whether leaders are supportive of their professional and career goals. When managers don’t coach and are not supportive of career goals, then young nurses leave as evidenced by new turnover statistics from Nursing Solutions Inc that indicate bedside RN turnover is now 17.2% nationally. The costs of this turnover are staggering with the typical hospital in the US losing between 4.4 and 6.9 million dollars each year. Nurse leader coaching can also help staff feel more psychological safe in their environments, which is a key component of a healthier work environment. Variances in the quality of work environments have been found to impact performance measures in areas such as safety, quality, and patient experience.

Why would you not consider an intervention such as intentional coaching that has the potential of decreasing organizational costs by $328,400 for every percent of nurses retained? You may think your managers already do this but the data suggests otherwise. Gallup data indicates that one-half of the workforce report that they receive minimal coaching. Harvard researchers Milner and Milner found in their work that managers think they are coaching when in fact, they are telling their employees what to do. Coaching is a skill set and not one that most managers naturally have but it can be learned with practice.

Read to Lead

Clifton, J. & Harter, J. (2019). It’s the Manager. New York: Gallup Press.

Milner, J., & Milner, T. (2018, August 14). Most Managers Don’t Know How to Coach People. But They Can Learn.

Nursing Solutions Inc. (2019) 2019 National Healthcare Retention and RN Staffing Report.

Read Rose Sherman’s new book available now – The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave