To lead change  means you have given great thought to what the goal is for the team, indeed the alignment of the goal with the mission, vision, and values is significant.  The alignment with the team members is not always cut and dried, the process is dynamic and the experience can be exhilarating to frustrating, rewarding to having doubt.

A formal or informal leadership role the ability to recruit followers, engage and sustain their interest one needs multiple approaches, resiliency, optimism, flexibility, desire to learn and Emotional Quotient can be components in the toolbox.

The team I lead has employees who vary in motivation, self awareness, and possess variable critical thinking skills. and mixed with that are the elements of collective agreement content, legislation, standards of practice, and the organizational mission, vision, and values. The path to change a culture is not for the faint hearted, it requires vision, stamina, resilience, building trust, continuously build and sustain connections, scan the environment, respond not react, and foster mentoring behaviours.

The pillars of leadership (Stein, 2017)  that you can cultivate include authenticity, coaching, insight, and innovation.

Authenticity the real you is what needs to be shown in a consistent and credible way.  You need to be viewed by others as fair, consistent, demonstrate integrity and transparency, there is also another feature humility.  Leaders with authenticity are role models, inspire others to be fair and moral and you respect them; these are leaders who you esteem and are confident about.

Coaching is the ability to mentor and collaborate with team members; as a leader is not an enforcer that is the manager aspect of my job.  The coach walks around the unit, connects with team members, has one on one meetings and key is to act on concerns, needs, support team members and align actions that staff want to be on the team.

Insight is to truly understand what the team/organization is about, the core mission and values and know how to communicate those elements in a form that inspires staff, patients, and families.  Do you know your higher purpose?  I know that first and foremost I am a healer.  Whatever role is placed within my influence my core being is to heal others.

Innovation is to harness the energy of creativity, to learn how to take risks, to encourage autonomy, to provide ongoing opportunities to gain knowledge, and mistakes or failures are opportunities to learn from not punish individuals.

Are leaders born–no; there are intrinsic personality traits that can provide advantages, the true measures are mentoring, encouragement, opportunities, clarity of what is to be done, and mix in some resiliency, confidence, and you are really on your way.  Informal or formal roles there are ample opportunities to develop leadership skills and there is certainly room for our world to encourage authenticity, moral courage, and can do attitude.  Namaste

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Paula M

Registered Nurse Storyteller, Healer, Scribe, Transformational Leader