Every nurse is a leader. Nursing leaders aren’t just those that sit in the boardrooms, make executive decisions or create the nursing policy.  Nursing leadership is everywhere, and in everyone.

And guess what?

It comes from within.

From a very early age, I’ve been told I am a ‘leader’. In high school it was when I was cut my senior year from the Varsity basketball team (though I played the year before). “No, this isn’t happening. You ARE on that team, Elizabeth.” In eighth grade it was when I was shocked to find out I was voted into class president (I had nominated my best friend for the role!). In early grammar school it’s when I got made fun of for wearing glasses; my mother made sure to point out that fitting in with the ‘clique’ crowd doesn’t always make us happy.

OK. So what if you haven’t been told all along that you are a leader? Are you able to develop leadership qualities? In your nursing role, whatever that may be, can you be a team leader? A workplace leader? A pioneer, visionary, out-of-the-box thinker?

Of course you can!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: leadership comes from within. Nursing leaders can be both born, and made. Nursing from within is an inner shift that creates more enjoyable external environments.

And what’s an ‘external environment’? The nursing workplace of course!

So how can we do this? What are two ways you can step into your nurse leader and uplift the nursing workplace:

• Believe you are a leader. Thought equals action. In every single circumstance, in each moment, in all aspects of life. It’s as simple as what you think about, you bring about. Leadership is a mindset. How you get there can take many forms. Whether you use intentional affirmations to boost your confidence, visualization to see and feel yourself as a natural born leader or mindful meditation to become more aware of the inner critic. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you start believing in yourself and your innate leadership capacities. Think it and you will start to see it.
• Be yourself. Leaders aren’t followers. They aren’t trying to fit in with a certain crowd or impress a group of people. They know what they want and go after it. They work hard for their dreams and create their own experiences. Leaders are beings comfortable in their own skin. If you waste your time trying to be somebody you’re not, people will know. The trust won’t be there and the respect will be hit or miss. The best way to lead is through example. Being that role-model of an authentic being who walks their talk is how leaders create movements.

So what do you think? How will you step into your nursing power? What will you do to awaken the leader within?

I’d love to hear from you! What is one thing you will do to embrace your nursing leadership? How will you express nursing from within to enjoy the nursing environments around you?