I’m curious ….
Is love a foreign thought in leadership to you?
Do you feel love for your work and the nurses on your teams, yet it is unspoken?
Do you distance yourself from love with your nurses?
Do you fear it would be inappropriate or awkward to speak of your love openly?
I’ll start with me.
I recently heard myself say, “I never thought of love in my leadership.”
And that’s not quite true.
Three forces had been stirring love into my leadership philosophy in prior years:
- Watson’s caring philosophy and theory—Human Caring Theory and Caritas nursing
These learnings resonated deeply within me, but I didn’t see Caritas nursing as a realistic option in my organizations.
- Parenting adolescents — When our girls hit adolescence, I hit the parenting books.
I was reminded from these learnings that …
People need to feel good about themselves,
to feel good about life and to be good at what they do.
As a leader, I knew that this notion applied to those I worked with, and that I had a role in it. But what and how?
- Then, I heard this quote that really turned me around,
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” (by Ian Maclaren).
Suddenly my sense of humanity opened up. My heart got a lot bigger. And I began to deepen my caring with loving-kindness.
I became clearer about caring and more authentic. I became aware that I deeply cared about my leaders and nurses and staff, and that more expressed kindness was required.
But I never thought of it as love.
I never thought of expressing love in my nursing leadership.
Expressing love to nurses did not make sense. That would be confusing, awkward and inappropriate.
Yet now, after exploring Authentic Caring, Caritas Nursing and Caring Language in depth,
I can say that these have delivered me to LOVE in the work place.
Love language is actually Simpler,
Clearer,
and Authentic
This may not seem correct to you now, but hold on.
I believe that there is no one path to authentic caring and Caritas nursing.
I believe that it is a life long journey of learning and growing, individually customized.
I believe that Love of humanity is at the core of it.
Love is a language people already know how to listen to.
Love is an experience that resonates within each of us.
Love is mutually understood.
Love is a destination and a guide.
Each of us can use some of this Love ….