From Boss to Coach: Evolving Nurisng Leadership

In this episode, we learn how to provide our staff with coaching moments rather than staff feeling like they had a gotcha moment 

Transcript

Choehns: 0:00

Welcome to Leading Nursing Together, the podcast where we build community, grow as professionals, and elevate our practice. One conversation at a time. I'm your host, Michelle Hoen and Tanner, CNE. Today we're diving into something that is transforming nursing leadership, the shift from transitional command and control management to coaching centered leadership. This episode is about helping leaders like you build the skills to guide, grow, and inspire your teams, especially in today's challenging healthcare landscape, what do nurses expect from their leaders? Is changing. Gone are the days when the command and control approach could sustain a team. Nurses today, especially the millennials and Gen Zs, aren't looking for bosses. They're looking for coaches. But here's the nuance. While nursing. Is craving autonomy, growth and mentorship. They are also expecting structure and accountability. It's about blending the support with standards and that is where leadership coaching comes in. Coaching is not just about fixing a problem. For staffs, it is about partnering with them, helping them build competence and develop their ability to think critically and act independently. And that takes consistency, including feedback, mentoring, in real time conversations. It is not just about annual reviews. Let me take you back just a little bit. When I was managing two different pediatric units. One was a surgical and oncology unit, and the other one was a med surg unit. A patient was being transferred from a non pediatric facility, but the med-surg unit, unfortunately at the time, were short staffed and the surgical unit declined the patient because it wasn't their type of patient. When I came in the next morning, I was really. Really frustrated. I wanted to react, raise my voice, lay down the law, but I took a deep breath and I chose a different route. I actually invited the charge nurse into my office for a quick conversation to talk about what just happened, and did we need to go into a different direction. I asked why the decision was made and then I asked her. Something personal. I said, what if this was your grandbaby? Would you have accepted this patient? Would you have come with the same conclusion? At that moment, everything changed. She realized on her own that we needed to do better. Not just for the sake of a policy, but because we were the only pediatric hospital in the area, she acknowledged that she was really only focused on her unit and not wanting to take the patient because it was a quote unquote sick patient rather than making sure we were doing what was right for the patient. Putting them in the right spot at the right time. And you know what? This was growth for her. She realized that it was about that patient and she would not want a pediatric patient anywhere but on our two units. We did talk about later on how we could manage that later. Once the other unit got more staff in, we could transfer that patient down immediately and making sure that they got on the right unit. We also talked about could we have moved another nurse down to that. Med-surg unit, rather than them staying on their surgical unit, we realized that we could think of different options together. It was about coaching her up rather than disciplining her. And to tell you the God's honest truth, that experience stuck with both of us. Bus. So when you coach, you move from an authoritative figure. To a collaborator, you start asking better questions like, what's on your mind? What else? What do you think would be the next best step? Here are five ways to start building that coaching mindset rather than that disciplinary mindset. For first and foremost, we have to be fully present. Don't. Try to avoid that conflict. I know it's hard. I know that you just don't wanna have to either listen or you don't wanna have to get fully involved in something that seems a little bit uncomfortable. But face it with empathy and curiosity. And believe it or not, most of the time people will figure it out on their own. But the second thing is, is we also need to practice active listening. We have to learn to speak less, guide more, provide the guidance when needed we need to ask open-ended questions. Have the staff explore their thoughts, allow them to come to the conclusion that it was either a wrong decision or we could have done just something differently, or they, as a staff member could have been better at being proactive and dealing with the conflict in an empathetic way with their coworkers. Next, we need to communicate directly. We do need to point out the blind spots with the care. We do need to show them why we felt like the a decision that they made was not maybe in the right direction, and that while maybe you would've made that decision differently, you have to make them understand. How they came up with that decision, and then could we look at that decision differently and could we come up with a different solution? And then finally, and probably most importantly is promote accountability. Staff have to not only understand that there are consequences. to their actions But begin to grow from that consequence. And it's not about punishment or discipline, it's about pointing out something and allowing them to understand how they could grow better from that. So you might think, well, Michelle, this all sounds great, but I really don't have time to coach. I get it. Leadership is demanding, but if we wanna retain our staff and we wanna reduce turnover and create a culture of excellence, we can't afford not to. Coach. Lemme tell you one more quick story about, a new graduate that I had, when she came in and. She was really good, a go-getter. But she came into my office after a couple months of working and asked me about advancement. I was kind of shocked. But mainly I was curious, instead of instantaneously shutting her down and letting her go, Hey, you know. You're a new grad, you're, you're not getting advancement anytime soon. We sat down and we talked about what her goals were, what was she looking to do, and then we set some realistic goals, some timelines, and some. Guidelines on what kind of clinical competencies that she needed to advance in her role. I also let her know that there were ways that she could get into leadership without actually being a formal leader, such as getting involved in shared governance and. Guiding that practice, leading on some of those committees, being a chair, being a co-chair, that would give her those opportunities to learn how to be a leader so that she could eventually advance in her training. Sometimes it's not about a leadership role. Sometimes it's just understanding the competencies that they want. And dealing with those competencies and growing them and those competencies so they can transition maybe into a specialty area like an ICU or labor and delivery or a nicu. That is why listening is a foundation for coaching. We need to ask, what does this nurse want and how can we help them get there? As a leader, we often say my door is always open, but sometimes the truth of the matter is we shut our doors behind ourselves. When we go into our office, we try to fix problems without understanding the whys, and then things never really change. So. What are those things that we can put in place to start turning our mindset from that I have to be the enforcer to the leadership. I wanna coach first. We have to have a commitment to four really short check-ins. A day, like for just different people. You just, they have to be quick check-ins. How are you doing? What's going on? How can I help you today? How's your day been? What do you think some things need to do to be changed? Do you have any ideas? Can we bring that to shared governance? Next, we need to make sure that when we have these check-ins, these short little coaching check-ins. That we're keeping them meaningful and not lengthy, and then of course we need to take those moments and then turn them into longer conversations that we can then determine pathways for them to not only feel like they are advancing on the unit, but also in their own career. I am gonna leave you with one last story, and I think this is probably one of the most important stories that I have to give in regards to coaching rather than leading, and that is. When I was a new med surg manger I got very, very frustrated that my unit was constantly turning over with new grads. I would get'em, I'd have'em for a couple of years, and then they would go or I'd get'em for a year and they would go. They'd wanna advance. They wanted to go somewhere else. They wanted to do something. And because I got frustrated with that. My leadership style was not very defined and very developed because I felt like I never really had a team to try to do that. So I decided I was gonna embrace the fact that I was never going to have staff for more than two years, and I changed my mindset. To being the best nurse leader I could, the best manager to those new grads. For the little bit of time that I had them, I created pathways. I found ways to mentor them. I found out what their passions were, where they wanted to go, what they wanted to do, how they wanted to have their career, and then I went outta my way. To make sure that I tried to help them in that journey. I would talk to other nurse leaders and let them know what a great employee that I had, they're really looking into trying to get into cardiac, or they wanna go into labor and delivery, or they wanna go over into pediatrics. And I would help them find the steps and the ways to be able to do that. Because for me it was important to celebrate their milestones. It was important for me to help them with their dreams, and it was help important for me to make sure that I was growing people. And from that I actually got a talent that I never really thought that I would have. And I really can start seeing people and what they do and kind of envision where they need to be based on the skillset that they have. And I always try to get the right. Person on the right seat of the bus because ultimately if you're on the right seat of the bus, you thrive even more. The funny thing about this whole story is something changed within our unit and people felt valued. People felt important. People felt like we were really trying to make a difference, and all of a sudden people weren't leaving. I didn't have turnover anymore. I started having people for 3, 4, 5 years. People started coming out of the woodwork saying, can I come and work on your unit? We want that kind of collaboration. We want that kind of empowerment that your unit feels. And I didn't have openings. We had one of the strongest med-surg units because we worked together and we were all. Willing to allow one another to grow. And we coached and we mentored, and we actually managed each other up. It was probably one of my most fulfilling leadership roles that I've ever had. So I just wanna say that when they're heard. When you stop trying to put your twist on what you would like that unit to look like, they will stay because they're heard, they're valued, and they're supported. In conclusion, I just wanna say that coaching is not a soft skill. It's a strategic one. It takes practice, humility and intention. But the return on investment is enormous retention, engagement, trust, and a healthier workplace. So here's my challenge for you this week. Pick a staff member and have a real coaching conversation. Ask. What's the one thing that you'd like to grow this month? And then listen, be present. Be curious. Ask additional questions and see where it takes you. Thank you so much for tuning in to leading Nursing together. If you found today's episode helpful, share it with a fellow nurse leader. Don't forget to subscribe, so you'll never miss a conversation that matters to you. Until next time, keep leading, keep learning, and most of all, keep showing up for each other.