Trying to become an Influential Leader

      21 st Century Leadership At this current stage in my life, I fit into numerous roles: mom, wife, daughter, sister, nurse, co-worker, friend, etc. In my professional career I am the Team Trainer, Patient Safety Nurse, High Reliability Organization Lead, and Change Management Lead Practitioner. Many titles in my professional life, but all lacking any authority because I’m not officially “in charge” of anyone. In the 21 st century it is now essential and a necessity to understand how to lead others without having designated authority. People want to follow those they feel authentic trust from. These types of influential leaders are self-aware, have well intentions, and are consistent in their commitments, deadlines, and behaviors. Authentic trust builds strong relationships that are reciprocated back. In turn, leaders can lead, and followers will follow, all without official authority and designation (Russell, 2012). Before becoming a nurse, I worked in retail mana...

                      The Broken Way was a beautiful video and reminder of how every struggle you are faced with is meant to build you up and strengthen who you are (Voskamp, 2016). She mentions that we no longer need to fear broken things. Her words remind me of one of my favorite quotes: “People are in your life for a reason, others are there for a season and it’s important to realize when those seasons are over (Gibson, n.d.).” There are many variations of this quote, but overall, I always felt that things happen to us for life lessons, we may not understand it at the time, but when we’re older we can reflect back on them and understand the why on why we had to go through that experience.  As I’ve talked about in previous posts, I feel that my experience as a new graduate nurse at my first hospital shaped me into the person I am today. I am the type of leader who is cognizant on the culture of the environment and...

              As a former psychiatric nurse I think its absolutely necessary to connect with your patients so that they feel the trust, therefore building a strong rapport. Once you can do this then you know they can turn to you in time of their darkest hour. That darkest time could be why they’re admitted to the acute inpatient mental health unit. I feel that this correlates to Brene Brown’s webcast on vulnerability. It really resonated with me when she said that there was a theme of courage in her research data (Ted, 2011). Especially when it comes to mental health. Patients who voluntarily admit themselves into to the psych ward are courageous for setting aside stigmas because they know they need the professional help. Brene described compassion, connections, and vulnerability as well (Ted, 2011). Her words really struck me into why I felt that need to connect with my patients in order to build solid rapport. I love how she describes vulnerabil...