Professional Identity: Leadership Principles (Nursing)

00:00 Welcome back everyone.

00:02 There's an extraordinary quality of spirit that prompts one to desire to lead.

00:07 Now, whether you consider yourself an informal leader or you aspire to a formal leadership position, today's video will address effective leadership principles to help you.

00:16 Now, the discovery and integration of nursing leadership principles will help develop your professional nursing identity.

00:24 So let's talk about the 9 leadership principles.

00:27 First, commit to excellence.

00:29 Now as a leader, you must be committed to your passion and purpose and have the type of commitment that turns into perseverance.

00:35 Many nursing leaders are committed patient advocates, clinicians or employee advocates.

00:40 But the true test of commitment comes when it's difficult to get out of bed and go to work with a smile, yet you do so because you know you're there to serve a purpose.

00:49 Second, have emotional intelligence.

00:52 Emotional intelligence has 5 primary characteristics.

00:55 Self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.

01:02 Next, create a culture of service.

01:04 Today's patients are well informed and they know they have a choice in health care providers.

01:08 Encourage your staff and peers to appreciate patients and families as their customers.

01:13 You may or may not have the most state of the art facility or the latest technology but if employees treat patients and families with personalized care and compassion, they will always come back.

01:24 Create and develop leaders.

01:26 If you're in a leadership position, develop your succession plan early.

01:30 Identify your informal and formal leaders and invest in them.

01:34 Take them to meetings with you, have them provide presentations to the staff and senior level leaders.

01:39 Find opportunities to highlight their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

01:43 Train them to be the next generation of leaders.

01:47 Foster employee satisfaction.

01:49 Make your work environment a great place to work.

01:51 Celebrate what each individual employee brings to the team.

01:54 Make rounds daily to connect with your employees on the unit or in your department.

01:58 Focus on establishing a relationship with each staff member by getting to know them on a very personal level.

02:04 Help them feel valued by sending thank you cards or birthday cards and recognizing key events in their lives.

02:11 Support individual accountability.

02:13 It's imperative to hold all employees accountable for the part they play in the overall goal.

02:18 Develop a plan for each employee and meet with them every 3 months to measure their progress, accomplishments and opportunities for growth.

02:26 Recognize and reward success.

02:28 Ongoing rewards and recognition go a really long way to motivating staff and enhancing innovation and creativity.

02:34 Offering words of praise and encouragement and taking the time to meet with your staff one on one, lets them know that you're interested in them.

02:42 Lead with integrity.

02:44 Set behavioral standards for all employees that are aligned with the organization's values, missions and standards.

02:50 As a leader, role model these standards and use them in everyday conversation with your staff.

02:55 Refer to standards when you're developing or counseling staff.

02:59 Effective communication.

03:01 To serve our patient population as an interdisciplinary team, we need to communicate as an interdisciplinary team.

03:07 Consider incorporating support services, physicians, staff and senior leadership into daily rounding on all units as this will help assist in fostering trust and opening the lines of communication.

03:18 So let's go over an example.

03:20 Matt is a nurse manager for a busy intensive care unit at a large city hospital.

03:25 He understands how hard his nurses work and many times under stressful conditions.

03:29 Matt frequently sends small thank you cards to his staff, he facilitates group lunches on busy days and he provides flexible schedules so his nurses can have consecutive days off if they desired that.

03:41 So which leadership principle is Matt demonstrating with his staff? If you selected "Recognize and reward succes", you're correct.

03:53 In this instance, Matt took very small gestures but they were very meaningful and this can certainly help promote staff satisfaction.

04:02 So remember.

04:04 Nursing is a dynamic profession that requires competent, confident leadership.

04:08 Incorporating contemporary leadership principles will foster your evolving professional identity.

04:14 So, as a review of what we've learned today, consider this question: What are the five characteristics of emotional intelligence in leadership? They are self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.

04:35 I hope you've enjoyed today's video on leadership principles Thanks so much for watching.