Leadership IN THIS SECTION
Feature The game that spots Feature The senior leaders at
you’re a leader, even if you in two organisations who are
don’t know it p53 empowering their staff p55
COMMENT
Collective leadership – why
it’s our direction of travel
Nursing is stronger when every one of us feels empowered to influence change
O
ver the past decade
we have seen an
increasing focus on
nurses as leaders.
We are all familiar with the
traditional leadership narrative
and the often complex debate
about ‘how to lead’ in today’s
By Ruth May challenging and changing
chief nursing officer landscape of health and care.
for England Leadership is a requirement
in standards of training and
education, and we see it in
measurements of regulation.
But does a traditional leadership
model still fit with today’s
models of health and care?
Collective leadership is about
everyone taking responsibility,
nursingstandard.com
Feature The power of
recognising individuals’
achievements p58
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not just for their own job or
role but for the success of their
team and their organisation as
a whole. It is about ensuring
that all voices are valued and
contribute to decisions.
To do this we must embrace
the fact we are all leaders.
Banding, titles and area of
practice do not determine a
leader. The ability to influence
a situation and its outcome is
something we all have in our
gift. We must encourage and
empower those in our teams and
around us to be involved.
In my first few months in this
role I’ve seen many examples of
collective leadership first-hand,
Peer-reviewed article Developing
effective nurse leadership
skills p61
in my visits to trusts and with
teams across England.
Nursing staff, including
clinical support workers and
newly registered nurses, have
generated ideas for improvement
in their work areas that the
whole nursing team has agreed
and embraced. This in turn
has helped sustain change and
improve patient outcomes. Staff
are more naturally engaged and
empowered, and learning and
‘The ability to
influence a situation
and its outcome is
something we all have
in our gift’
appetite for improvement is
increased. Collective leadership
style is about enabling all
nursing staff and teams to
improve patient outcomes
and experience.
In March we launched a
ward accreditation resource
that contains a variety of
local initiatives that embrace
the leadership potential of all
staff. These are just highlights
of a new style of collective
leadership and decision-making
that we are seeing more and
more of in our professions and
across healthcare.
Speaking with one voice
I take leadership very seriously.
In addition to being CNO for
England I advise the Department
of Health and Social Care on
nursing – which enables me to
be able to lead both strategically
and operationally. This also
provides a strong infrastructure
to enable us to develop
and speak with a powerful
shared agenda. R
volume 34 number 6 / June 2019 / 51
 leadership /
comment

R My position has responsibility
for bringing us together and
ensuring we can speak with
a collective voice, not just in
the NHS but across the entire
system. During the past months I
have given much thought to this.
One of my main priorities is
to build a workforce fit for the
future. This means recruiting
and retaining people with the
skills we need, ensuring places of
work are filled with opportunity,
tackling inequality that prevents
anyone from reaching their
potential and developing
leadership at every level.
It is also about empowering
the workforce to get involved
and to know the value of their
contribution – something that
is at the heart of my call for us
to speak with a bold, collective
voice as #teamCNO.
We know there are lots of
great examples of this, but how
can we get to a place where
collective leadership is the norm,
something we are all part of?
Nurses already work across
systems and pathways and
bring a unique and valuable
perspective. We have strong,
visible senior nursing leaders
whose oversight of the quality
and safety agendas means
our professions are at the
heart of delivery of the NHS
Long Term Plan.
Involvement of all staff
The introduction of an external
framework approach, such as the
globally respected Pathway to
Excellence means we are already
seeing the power of involving
all staff in key decision-making
and enabling them to shape the
change they want.
Positive outcomes are
reported in several areas of
quality improvement, as well as
staff satisfaction and retention
where this framework is used.
Every one of us has experience
and influence to effect change.
We now need to build on great
examples of collective leadership
already out there, to promote
consistent, wider understanding
‘We now need to build on great examples
of collective leadership, to promote wider
understanding of the value we bring’
of the value we bring. This work
is in progress in many areas
– our job now is to help turn
collective leadership into our
culture, wherever we may work.
We need colleagues who are
experienced in this area to work
m
‘Nurses play
with nurses at the start of their
careers, and with students, our
a bigger role service users and other health
than doctors professionals. We need this
in spreading combined wisdom not just to
good practice’ make decisions about patient
rcni.com/
hybrid- care but to determine our
leadership profession’s direction of travel.
This is the leadership model
for today and the future, and
with this in mind I hope we can
work together as #teamCNO to
develop our shared leadership
mindset and voice. We have
different backgrounds and
experience and we are stronger
together when valuing this.

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52 / June 2019 / volume 34 number 6 nursingstandard.com

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