By Glenna Murdock, RN, contributor
Sept. 25, 2009 - Do you aspire to move into a management position, but are a bit baffled about what you need to do to get there? There is more to consider than you might think.
Julie Fuimano, RN, BSN, MBA, is the owner and chief executive officer of Nurturing Your Success, Inc., a business that specializes in personal leadership development. Many of her clients are nurses who want to advance their careers. Fuimano emphasized that one must have a game plan that begins with a self-assessment to determine what skills you have, what skills you need and how you are going to acquire those you may be lacking.
“Successful managers don’t just happen, they are created,” Fuimano stated.
E. Mary Johnson, RN, BSN, NE-BC, the career coach for nurses at The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, concurs.
“A nurse who wants to climb the management ladder must become the CEO of his or her own career and develop a strategy,” Johnson said. “It involves positioning yourself to get what you want and matching what you want with what the hospital needs.”
Johnson also stressed the value of being politically astute.
“People who move up in the world are politically savvy, meaning they understand and abide by the unspoken limits within their work situations,” she said. “They know when there is a line in the sand that must not be crossed. It is important to understand the environment you are in and how the work gets done.”
Fuimano says the skills necessary for being a good manager in health care or any other field fall into three categories: business skills, leadership skills and personal development.
“Managers focus on results and the business aspects of an organization,” Fuimano explained. “Take an inventory of your business know-how and fill in the gaps in areas where your skills are weak. Leaders are proficient at helping their people achieve. Learn to do both and you’ll become an exceptional manager.”
Because it sometimes means altering long-practiced behaviors, personal development may be the most difficult area in which to make improvements, according to Fuimano.
“We often need to get out of our own way in order to become a good manager,” she said. “The need to be liked, for instance, can interfere with a manager’s ability to confront employee performance issues. The need to control or the need for power can interfere with a manager’s ability to delegate. Even empathy, when overdone, can be a hindrance.”
Fuimano offers 10 tips to help you decide if you are nurse manager material, and, if so, what skill sets you will need to move up the nursing ladder:
1. Consider educational requirements. If you need more education to meet your goals, wait no longer to get it.
2. Assess your business know-how. Learn what you need to know in areas where you are deficient.
3. Improve your communication skills. Communication is as much about listening as it is about speaking style and is a manager’s most valuable skill. Gain confidence in your ability to communicate by identifying negative aspects of your style and tweaking them.
4. Develop management qualities. Make a list of important qualities you feel a manager needs, such as dependability, empathetic listening and objectivity. If you lack those qualities or you are weak in those areas, think about how you would like to see yourself perform and practice better behaviors.
5. Display leadership skills. Take yourself seriously and project yourself as capable and confident.
6. Model professional values. Being a manager opens you up to public scrutiny. Monitor how you behave, what you say and how you treat others.
7. Share your goals with your manager. He or she may be able to see areas where you might be challenged and recommend a course of action for you.
8. Seek support. Many facilities offer formal or informal mentors to support you. Take advantage of such resources.
9. Assess where your strengths lie. Management may look appealing, but it’s not for everyone. If you love your current nursing job, realize that management will be markedly different.
10. Learn to manage “up.” As a nurse manager, positioned between upper management and staff, you must learn to impart your views clearly to your direct manager and other executives, in addition to communicating the facets of business to staff members who may be more interested in personal satisfaction. Be honest with yourself; is this a skill you think you can master?
Johnson offered additional advice for nurses who want to move up to management.
“Many jobs are found through networking and you need to stretch your network beyond the hospital,” she pointed out. “Volunteer for committees inside and outside the hospital. Learn your community and offer to speak at schools and churches about health issues. Volunteer to present at career days. Then, keep that network going with follow-up thank you notes and letters of appreciation. Attention to these kinds of small details do not go unnoticed. If you communicate broadly across lines, you are seen more broadly across lines.”
“There is a tremendous need for nurse leadership,” Johnson emphasized. “Every nurse is a leader and has opportunities every day to lead, even in small ways. It is important to remember that your performance in areas considered most basic—delivery of customer service, willingness to help in a pinch, the respect you show others—is always being observed.”
© 2009. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.