Someone’s Always Listening

How good of a recruiter are you for your job?

The current work situation I find myself allows me to see different organizations and very different departments interact on a daily basis. I observe leaders from different organizations and different departments collaborating to make the mission happen. It is inspiring in several aspects to see this much synergy working together.

     An observation from the other day though made me wonder how any of us got to these positions. If an aspect of leadership is to develop and grow followers to be our replacement, then many of us may never be able to leave our jobs! We have portrayed our jobs as laborious, thankless, painful, and make comments about how much we hate our jobs. I’m having a hard time figuring out who would want my job when I talk like that to others.

Leaders need to be developers of followers to take our place in an organization. If we want the organizations to succeed, then we need to recruit, retain, and train our replacements. Succession planning prepares and organization to continue moving forward and is a responsibility of leadership at all levels (Warshawsky & Havens, 2014). The importance of leaders to help mold and select the next group of leaders keeps career opportunities open, improves job satisfaction, and advances long term goals of the organization according to Warshawsky and Havens.

So how do you present your job to your followers or other leaders? If you are like many of us, the first thing out of our mouths when we are asked about our job is usually not a positive statement. Don’t worry, you are not alone. It is almost a common acceptable norm to berate or complain about our jobs. It makes us like everyone else, we fit in, we are acceptable to others. Should we just be like everyone else, just fit in, and be acceptable? Maybe we shouldn’t be like everyone else. We should lead a positive change in our organization, and set a higher standard.

The opportunity to make a difference and begin a change could be as simple as changing our response when asked how we are doing and about our job. Yes, I know every day is not rainbows and puppy dogs, but is every day as bad as you portray it to others? This may seem like small step, but the impact can be felt throughout your unit. Unruh and Zhang (2014) looked into job satisfaction of newly registered nurses and discussed the importance of followers to have leaders to mentor and guide and to set an example of culture on the unit.

Is your attitude about your job that you share daily the culture you would like for your unit? The good thing is one small change could begin the change you would like and your followers would like. Start with your attitude about your job. Look and find the positive things, if only one to start with, to talk about when asked. Like any other habit, it is not easy when you begin. The end result though would be worth the effort.

So let’s start with something simple. You know, the one thing I like about my job is the quality people I get to work with every day. Simple. Truthful. Honest. Your turn…

Leading with you,

Dean

References:
Unruh, L. & Zhang, N. J. (2014) The hospital work environment and job satisfaction on newly licensed registered nurses. Nursing Economic$, 32(6), 296-311.

Warshawsky, N. E. & Havens, D. S. (2014) Nurse manager job satisfaction and intent to leave. Nursing Economic$, 32(1), 32-39.

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