What is it going to take to raise the leadership ability of your staff to the next level? One of the many roles you play for your staff is encouraging their professional development. Clinically, we look after their hands-on skills, assessing their critical thinking skills, and ensuring they understand the policies and procedures of the unit or organization.
I recently presented on the future trends in healthcare and what leadership skills healthcare workers will need to be successful. You know, the “trends” in healthcare have not changed much in my 37 years. Many of the trends futurists see coming are only more mature evolutions of the trends that were coming when I began in healthcare over 37 years ago. The trends seem to mature as I mature.
The leadership skills needed by today’s nursing and healthcare environments have also remained somewhat the same but matured. We still have the need for leaders to understand change management principles, a strategic vision, and being innovative in solving challenges. These leadership skills are common in most leadership industries.
Skills needed more now than ever are skills that have not always been popular. One reason is it can be difficult to train. Some leadership skills are very quantitative and specific. You can study and learn change management theories and principles to help a unit or organization evolve. How do you help a future leader build emotional intelligence?
Leaders who are working to professionally develop their workforce need to see the value in opening the dialogue to newer, more difficult skills. Adding emotional intelligence is broadening a leader’s cultural competence, ensuring their use of data-driven decision-making, exploring ethical leadership actions, and building up resilience and crisis management strategies. These more soft power leadership skills are desperately needed in our rising leaders. They need a guided mentor and leader to push them toward growing in these areas.
Professional development of leadership skills takes time. John Maxwell is known for saying that leaders are not made in the microwave, they are made in the crock pot. It takes time for new skills to be learned and to become a part of a leader’s arsenal for use. Let’s lift up your new leaders by preparing them for their future. Arm them with a skillset that will make them successful, but also relevant to our nursing and healthcare communities.
The future of nursing will require a well-rounded skill set that goes beyond traditional clinical training. Emotional intelligence, cultural competence, data-driven decision-making, ethical leadership, and resilience are all critical to meeting the challenges of tomorrow’s healthcare landscape. By developing these skills, nurses will not only improve patient outcomes but will also contribute to the evolution of the nursing profession, ensuring it remains relevant, compassionate, and effective in an increasingly complex world. Investing in these skill sets today will prepare nurses for the demands of the future and enable them to continue providing exceptional care for all. n
