- Email: [email protected]
Create a Clearing Preparing for Leadership Transition
Create a Clearing Preparing for Leadership Transition Teri Pipe, PhD, RN
T
his article provides a reflective leadership
Suggested reflections are meant to be part of a
approach for career transition, whether
reflective leadership practice and may be revisited at
that transition is part of your current plan or not.
www.nurseleader.com
several junctures along your career path.
Nurse Leader
295
B
y virtue of the fact that you are a leader, constantly seeking to shape a more desirable future for your team and organization, you are likewise on the journey to become the best possible version of yourself. Just as imagining a better future state of your organization is part of your strategy as a health care leader, picturing how your own personal future experience might unfold is critical in actually making it happen. The best version of yourself is likely to include how you express yourself and your life purpose through your work, as your career path. As a leader, your vitality will be strengthened by regularly conducting a personal exploration into who you are becoming, how your life circumstances are changing, and whether your current career role supports or detracts from your life purpose and your personal leadership mission. Of course, this reflective process rests on the assumption that you know what your life purpose and leadership mission are. If you aren’t clear on those things, or haven’t thought about them for awhile, take a moment to refresh, remember, and possibly revise.You might want to write your life purpose and leadership mission in a simple sentence or 2 before reading the rest of this article. Keeping it to 1 or 2 sentences forces focus and prioritization. This clarity will make the process of considering a career transition more personally meaningful and less stressful because you will be aligning your decisions with your ideal best version of yourself as a human being and as a leader. By staying with what is true for you, you will cut through the distractions, using your time and energy instead on the things that reflect your values and purpose. To put yourself in a state of preparedness (whether you plan to make a change soon or not), it is helpful to ask yourself some questions and deeply ponder the answers. The questions will help get you out of “analytic mode” and into a more reflective state where new insights and observations are likely to occur. Consider your life’s journey, specifically your career trajectory. • Are you ready for a career transition? • How will you know what to aspire to next? • How can you tell that you are really ready? • Are you seeking more responsibility, or do you want fewer demands? • What kind of work is the right kind for you? • What do you want from your life? • How do you want to serve others? • Are you deriving meaning and joy from your career, and if not, will this transition support you in doing so? Each person’s journey is unique; there is no exact recipe for career transition and success, especially in the leadership realm. However, it is the case, especially in the health care sector, that new roles and opportunities are opening quickly. And conversely, leadership positions may end abruptly for a variety of reasons. Thus, maintaining a state of personal preparedness to make a transition is a winning strategy. The purpose of this article is to provide a reflective approach to preparedness for career transition, whether that transition is part of your current plan or not. The guiding questions contained here are meant to be thought-provoking and perhaps revisited at several junctures along your career
296
Nurse Leader
path. The following poem by Martha Postlethwaite1 provides a beautiful frame for the process. Clearing By Martha Postlethwaite Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands and you recognize and greet it. Only then will you know how to give yourself to this world so worthy of rescue.
DO NOT TRY TO SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD OR DO ANYTHING GRANDIOSE.1 When was the last time you were told to stop trying so hard to do everything, trying to save the whole world? Just for now, can you take this instruction to heart? “Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose.” Sometimes when we release our tight grasp on trying to do everything, be everything, please everyone, we actually get clear on what it is we can do or how it is we can be. In considering the following questions, please see if you can create a sense of adventure, of taking things seriously enough, but not inserting unnecessary drama or tension. The next few questions can be used to prepare you for the more concrete aspects of the decision to follow. • What energizes you? • What motivates you? • What do you really love? • Looking back on your career, what experiences are you most grateful for? • If you were a very much younger version of yourself peering into your life now, what would you think? What would you say to the younger version of yourself? • What was it that drew you to your current role? Is it still an active characteristic of your work? • When you took your current role, what was your life circumstance? How has it changed? • When you remember really making a positive difference, what was that like? How did it feel? How can you bring that type of experience into your present and future roles? • What are career peak moments for you? • How could bring ease to this work and to this decision in particular? • If the career transition is happening without your input or control, how might you shape the situation (or your response to it?)
October 2018
• When you consider your life purpose and leadership mission, how is your current role aligned? • What are your signals that now might be time for a change? • Do you want to create a new role or follow a path that already exists? • If your next role were a blank canvas, how would you paint it? Be as precise and detailed as possible. • If your leadership style and skills were to stretch, how would you envision yourself as leading in the future? • If your current role is stressful, what (exactly) is it that is makes it so? How have you been managing the pressure? How would you imagine managing the challenges in a future role? • Thinking of leaders you admire, what aspects of their leadership would you like to emulate or expand?
INSTEAD, CREATE A CLEARING IN THE DENSE FOREST OF YOUR LIFE1 In the swirl of pressing issues, important decisions, resource allocations, boundary spanning, time pressures, and shifting priorities that characterize your day-to-day life as a leader, the momentum carrying you forward can often seem too strong to “create a clearing,” to pause, evaluate, and take stock. Whether or not you are in the process of weighing the pros and cons of pursuing a new role, it can be fruitful to step back from your everyday life and contemplate a career transition. The reflections can provide a healthy process evaluation of your career maintenance and growth. Sometimes the best time for this pause may be well before the actual opportunity presents itself. Often careful reflection actually reinforces the decision to stay the course instead of pursuing a role transition. And other times, reflection reveals that transition is clearly the best path forward. Create a space, some time, some thinking room. Making a career transition is an important decision; it deserves your undivided attention. Although it is certainly a personal decision, your choice will also impact your family, the organizations involved, and those you lead. Taking time and energy to consider your options is very worthwhile for all involved. Block off some time to reflect on some or all of the following. You may want to write your answers in longhand to help you process your decision. As preparation for this step, you may want to try the following: Go to a place you won’t be disturbed. Get in a relaxed but alert posture. Close your eyes or soften your gaze, take a few deep breaths until you feel centered and calm. Now imagine that you can look into a mirror that shows you all of yourself, well beyond just your physical self. See yourself through your entire childhood and growing up years, moving slowly from stage to stage. Give yourself genuine appreciation for all you have been through, all you have accomplished, all the people you have helped, and all who have helped you. See yourself as you are right now, in this moment. Appreciate how you are in this very moment. Now imagine with gratitude how you might be prepared to take a next step, how you might take all that brought you to this point and all of who you are, and www.nurseleader.com
transform into the next best version of yourself. Let yourself enjoy this exercise for as long as you like.
AND WAIT THERE PATIENTLY1 As much as you can, give yourself a chance to let the decision sit awhile before activating it. This gives you time for further reflection, collection of additional inputs, and the chance to really imagine what the change will mean for you. For a busy leader like yourself, this may feel like “wasting time.” Perhaps this is exactly what is required. The following passage is from “The World Is Too Much With Me” by Alan Lightman.2 “More narrowly, what have I personally lost when I no longer permit myself to ‘waste’ time?... “I believe that I have lost something of my inner self. By inner self, I mean that part of me that imagines, that dreams, that explores, that is constantly questioning who I am and what is important to me... “When I listen to my inner self, I hear the breathing of my spirit. Those breaths are so tiny and delicate, I need stillness to hear them, I need aloneness to hear them. I need vast, silent spaces in my mind. “Without the breathing and the voice of my inner self, I am a prisoner of the world around me. Worse than a prisoner, because I do not know what has been taken away from me, I do not know who I am.”
UNTIL THE SONG THAT IS YOUR LIFE1 From the silence and stillness, you can hear the song that is your life. From the reflection, you reach clarity about what it is you can do, what direction is next, and how to use your inner compass to guide you into next steps. Reflective leadership practice brings a better understanding the possible ways you can “save the world” in your own corner of the planet. • What are your gifts, and in what unique combination do they show up in you? • What is holding you back from being able to fully use your gifts in the service of others? • Are there positive aspects of your current role that you haven’t fully appreciated or that you’re not fully maximizing? • How can you build on the strengths you already possess to move forward? • Are you ready to “own” your gift, to be responsible for using it its fullest? What would that look like, specifically? • What comes easily for you that others seem to have to work hard to accomplish? • Is this gift fully developed in you, or are there specific ways you need to develop it further? Are there people who can help? • Have you had experiences in the past that you can link with this possible future adventure? • When you look at your curriculum vitae, resume, or portfolio, would it be clear to a reader what your gifts are and how you are using them? If not, how could you make it clear?
Nurse Leader
297
• In an interview, how would you make sure your unique gifts are apparent to the interviewer(s)? • In an executive summary, how would you articulate your gifts as they align with your life purpose and your leadership mission? • Do you think the people you work for can see your gifts clearly? Do you think the people who report to you can see your gifts clearly? • What strategies might help you broadcast your gifts effectively, striking the right balance between being overly humble versus overly self-promoting? • How do you feel when you can’t express your gifts? • Why is it like for you when your gifts are not seen, appreciated, or received? What is it like when your gifts are received fully?
FALLS INTO YOUR OWN CUPPED HANDS AND YOU RECOGNIZE AND GREET IT.1 This opportunity, this risk, this new idea comes to you, and you “see” that it is your own. This is your chance, you could really use your gifts in a meaningful way here.You can really have an impact well beyond what is currently reality. • Imagine what your life will look like a year from now if you make this change (and if you don’t). Go into as much detail as possible. Now imagine 3 years from now in as much detail as possible. • What small steps can you take today to move you in the direction of your 1- and 3-year vision? • When you imagine a more desirable future, does it involve a new position inside or outside your current organization? • What aspects of your personal life will need special attention if you change roles? • Specifically, how will you plan, implement, and evaluate those aspects of your personal life? • How have you managed change and transition in the past? • Are there ways you would like to take on this change in a different way? • What positive strategies have you used in the past that you will call on now? • Specifically, how will you implement self-care strategies while you make the career transition? • When is the right time for seeking advice from family, friends and colleagues? How will you balance the desire for advice and input with the need for privacy, discretion, and autonomy? • Since you are in a leadership role, your role transition is likely to affect many other people. How will you help them understand the transition and the possible impacts on their work?
ONLY THEN WILL YOU KNOW HOW TO GIVE YOURSELF TO THIS WORLD SO WORTHY OF RESCUE.1 And then there is this energy and freedom and responsibility of knowing you have a chance to give your gift generously
298
Nurse Leader
and well. It will be received. And if all goes splendidly, as you give, you receive back with abundance—time, energy, focus, joy, contentment. If you decide to change roles and move on, it is important to also take stock of how you will release your “old” role and the aspects of it that are no longer relevant or appropriate to keep. As you communicate the change, you can expect a variety of responses from other people. It may be helpful to remind yourself that you have had a longer time to think about the change and that other people’s responses may not yet be fully formed when they are expressed. It is also important to give dedicated thought to how you will leave your current role in a way that supports your successor. The unfinished story of “Mount Analogue” by Rene Daumal as recalled by Jon Kabat-Zinn3 provides a helpful metaphor: “Climbing the mountain involves inner and outer work. The path upward is symbolic of growth, maturation, understanding and transformation. The challenges we encounter along the way stretch our capabilities and expand what is possible. The risks and sacrifices are considerable. We learn what the mountain is like at the base, and then continuing gradually upward, we finally reach the summit. From there we have a new prospective, one that may have forever changed us. The rule on Mt. Analogue is that ‘before you move up the mountain to your next encampment, you must replenish the camp you are leaving for those who will come after you, and go down the mountain a way to share with the other climbers your knowledge from farther up so that they may have some benefit from what you have learned so far on your own ascent.’ ”3(211-212) • What do you need to let go of in order to move on? • What are the tangible and intangible things about your old role that you need to pass along, discard or keep? • Are there relationships with colleagues, stakeholders, supervisors and community members that require special attention and communication during this time? • If the transition is in the public eye, how will you work with communications and media personnel to convey key messages? • What celebrations or gestures will help mark the time as a meaningful transition for yourself and others? • What kinds of information transfers will be most helpful for those now filling your role? • Conventional wisdom says that “How you leave a position is as important as how you start it.” How will you do your best to create a positive ending and smooth transition? In conclusion, as you contemplate making a transition, reflect on career changes you’ve made in the past or cultivate contentment about your current role, pausing for self-reflection is a key leadership strategy. There is often a lot of mental energy required to decide, identify the next steps, and enact the transition, so it is a good time to exercise gentleness and self-compassion. Now is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the freedom and strength that comes from intentional exploration and growth. NL
October 2018
Note: The author wishes to acknowledge Martha Postlethwaite for her gracious generosity of allowing the use of her poem for this article.
Teri Pipe, PhD, RN, is ASU chief well-being officer at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. She can be reached at [email protected].
References
1541-4612/2018/ $ See front matter Copyright 2018 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2018.07.005
1. Postlethwaite M. Clearing. Wild & Precious Life website. https:// wildandpreciouslife0.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/clearing-by-by-marthapostlewaite/. Accessed June 5, 2018. 2. Lightman A. The World Is Too Much With Me: Finding Private Space in the Wired World. The Second Hart House Lecture, March 2002. https://www.crsd.org/cms/lib5/PA01000188/Centricity/Domain/450/ worldtoomuchwithme.pdf, Accessed June 5, 2018. 3. Kabat-Zinn J. Mount Analogue. In: Kabat-Zinn J. Wherever You Go, There You Are. New York, NY: Hyperion Press; 1994.
www.nurseleader.com
Nurse Leader
299
T
his article provides a reflective leadership
Suggested reflections are meant to be part of a
approach for career transition, whether
reflective leadership practice and may be revisited at
that transition is part of your current plan or not.
www.nurseleader.com
several junctures along your career path.
Nurse Leader
295
B
y virtue of the fact that you are a leader, constantly seeking to shape a more desirable future for your team and organization, you are likewise on the journey to become the best possible version of yourself. Just as imagining a better future state of your organization is part of your strategy as a health care leader, picturing how your own personal future experience might unfold is critical in actually making it happen. The best version of yourself is likely to include how you express yourself and your life purpose through your work, as your career path. As a leader, your vitality will be strengthened by regularly conducting a personal exploration into who you are becoming, how your life circumstances are changing, and whether your current career role supports or detracts from your life purpose and your personal leadership mission. Of course, this reflective process rests on the assumption that you know what your life purpose and leadership mission are. If you aren’t clear on those things, or haven’t thought about them for awhile, take a moment to refresh, remember, and possibly revise.You might want to write your life purpose and leadership mission in a simple sentence or 2 before reading the rest of this article. Keeping it to 1 or 2 sentences forces focus and prioritization. This clarity will make the process of considering a career transition more personally meaningful and less stressful because you will be aligning your decisions with your ideal best version of yourself as a human being and as a leader. By staying with what is true for you, you will cut through the distractions, using your time and energy instead on the things that reflect your values and purpose. To put yourself in a state of preparedness (whether you plan to make a change soon or not), it is helpful to ask yourself some questions and deeply ponder the answers. The questions will help get you out of “analytic mode” and into a more reflective state where new insights and observations are likely to occur. Consider your life’s journey, specifically your career trajectory. • Are you ready for a career transition? • How will you know what to aspire to next? • How can you tell that you are really ready? • Are you seeking more responsibility, or do you want fewer demands? • What kind of work is the right kind for you? • What do you want from your life? • How do you want to serve others? • Are you deriving meaning and joy from your career, and if not, will this transition support you in doing so? Each person’s journey is unique; there is no exact recipe for career transition and success, especially in the leadership realm. However, it is the case, especially in the health care sector, that new roles and opportunities are opening quickly. And conversely, leadership positions may end abruptly for a variety of reasons. Thus, maintaining a state of personal preparedness to make a transition is a winning strategy. The purpose of this article is to provide a reflective approach to preparedness for career transition, whether that transition is part of your current plan or not. The guiding questions contained here are meant to be thought-provoking and perhaps revisited at several junctures along your career
296
Nurse Leader
path. The following poem by Martha Postlethwaite1 provides a beautiful frame for the process. Clearing By Martha Postlethwaite Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands and you recognize and greet it. Only then will you know how to give yourself to this world so worthy of rescue.
DO NOT TRY TO SAVE THE WHOLE WORLD OR DO ANYTHING GRANDIOSE.1 When was the last time you were told to stop trying so hard to do everything, trying to save the whole world? Just for now, can you take this instruction to heart? “Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose.” Sometimes when we release our tight grasp on trying to do everything, be everything, please everyone, we actually get clear on what it is we can do or how it is we can be. In considering the following questions, please see if you can create a sense of adventure, of taking things seriously enough, but not inserting unnecessary drama or tension. The next few questions can be used to prepare you for the more concrete aspects of the decision to follow. • What energizes you? • What motivates you? • What do you really love? • Looking back on your career, what experiences are you most grateful for? • If you were a very much younger version of yourself peering into your life now, what would you think? What would you say to the younger version of yourself? • What was it that drew you to your current role? Is it still an active characteristic of your work? • When you took your current role, what was your life circumstance? How has it changed? • When you remember really making a positive difference, what was that like? How did it feel? How can you bring that type of experience into your present and future roles? • What are career peak moments for you? • How could bring ease to this work and to this decision in particular? • If the career transition is happening without your input or control, how might you shape the situation (or your response to it?)
October 2018
• When you consider your life purpose and leadership mission, how is your current role aligned? • What are your signals that now might be time for a change? • Do you want to create a new role or follow a path that already exists? • If your next role were a blank canvas, how would you paint it? Be as precise and detailed as possible. • If your leadership style and skills were to stretch, how would you envision yourself as leading in the future? • If your current role is stressful, what (exactly) is it that is makes it so? How have you been managing the pressure? How would you imagine managing the challenges in a future role? • Thinking of leaders you admire, what aspects of their leadership would you like to emulate or expand?
INSTEAD, CREATE A CLEARING IN THE DENSE FOREST OF YOUR LIFE1 In the swirl of pressing issues, important decisions, resource allocations, boundary spanning, time pressures, and shifting priorities that characterize your day-to-day life as a leader, the momentum carrying you forward can often seem too strong to “create a clearing,” to pause, evaluate, and take stock. Whether or not you are in the process of weighing the pros and cons of pursuing a new role, it can be fruitful to step back from your everyday life and contemplate a career transition. The reflections can provide a healthy process evaluation of your career maintenance and growth. Sometimes the best time for this pause may be well before the actual opportunity presents itself. Often careful reflection actually reinforces the decision to stay the course instead of pursuing a role transition. And other times, reflection reveals that transition is clearly the best path forward. Create a space, some time, some thinking room. Making a career transition is an important decision; it deserves your undivided attention. Although it is certainly a personal decision, your choice will also impact your family, the organizations involved, and those you lead. Taking time and energy to consider your options is very worthwhile for all involved. Block off some time to reflect on some or all of the following. You may want to write your answers in longhand to help you process your decision. As preparation for this step, you may want to try the following: Go to a place you won’t be disturbed. Get in a relaxed but alert posture. Close your eyes or soften your gaze, take a few deep breaths until you feel centered and calm. Now imagine that you can look into a mirror that shows you all of yourself, well beyond just your physical self. See yourself through your entire childhood and growing up years, moving slowly from stage to stage. Give yourself genuine appreciation for all you have been through, all you have accomplished, all the people you have helped, and all who have helped you. See yourself as you are right now, in this moment. Appreciate how you are in this very moment. Now imagine with gratitude how you might be prepared to take a next step, how you might take all that brought you to this point and all of who you are, and www.nurseleader.com
transform into the next best version of yourself. Let yourself enjoy this exercise for as long as you like.
AND WAIT THERE PATIENTLY1 As much as you can, give yourself a chance to let the decision sit awhile before activating it. This gives you time for further reflection, collection of additional inputs, and the chance to really imagine what the change will mean for you. For a busy leader like yourself, this may feel like “wasting time.” Perhaps this is exactly what is required. The following passage is from “The World Is Too Much With Me” by Alan Lightman.2 “More narrowly, what have I personally lost when I no longer permit myself to ‘waste’ time?... “I believe that I have lost something of my inner self. By inner self, I mean that part of me that imagines, that dreams, that explores, that is constantly questioning who I am and what is important to me... “When I listen to my inner self, I hear the breathing of my spirit. Those breaths are so tiny and delicate, I need stillness to hear them, I need aloneness to hear them. I need vast, silent spaces in my mind. “Without the breathing and the voice of my inner self, I am a prisoner of the world around me. Worse than a prisoner, because I do not know what has been taken away from me, I do not know who I am.”
UNTIL THE SONG THAT IS YOUR LIFE1 From the silence and stillness, you can hear the song that is your life. From the reflection, you reach clarity about what it is you can do, what direction is next, and how to use your inner compass to guide you into next steps. Reflective leadership practice brings a better understanding the possible ways you can “save the world” in your own corner of the planet. • What are your gifts, and in what unique combination do they show up in you? • What is holding you back from being able to fully use your gifts in the service of others? • Are there positive aspects of your current role that you haven’t fully appreciated or that you’re not fully maximizing? • How can you build on the strengths you already possess to move forward? • Are you ready to “own” your gift, to be responsible for using it its fullest? What would that look like, specifically? • What comes easily for you that others seem to have to work hard to accomplish? • Is this gift fully developed in you, or are there specific ways you need to develop it further? Are there people who can help? • Have you had experiences in the past that you can link with this possible future adventure? • When you look at your curriculum vitae, resume, or portfolio, would it be clear to a reader what your gifts are and how you are using them? If not, how could you make it clear?
Nurse Leader
297
• In an interview, how would you make sure your unique gifts are apparent to the interviewer(s)? • In an executive summary, how would you articulate your gifts as they align with your life purpose and your leadership mission? • Do you think the people you work for can see your gifts clearly? Do you think the people who report to you can see your gifts clearly? • What strategies might help you broadcast your gifts effectively, striking the right balance between being overly humble versus overly self-promoting? • How do you feel when you can’t express your gifts? • Why is it like for you when your gifts are not seen, appreciated, or received? What is it like when your gifts are received fully?
FALLS INTO YOUR OWN CUPPED HANDS AND YOU RECOGNIZE AND GREET IT.1 This opportunity, this risk, this new idea comes to you, and you “see” that it is your own. This is your chance, you could really use your gifts in a meaningful way here.You can really have an impact well beyond what is currently reality. • Imagine what your life will look like a year from now if you make this change (and if you don’t). Go into as much detail as possible. Now imagine 3 years from now in as much detail as possible. • What small steps can you take today to move you in the direction of your 1- and 3-year vision? • When you imagine a more desirable future, does it involve a new position inside or outside your current organization? • What aspects of your personal life will need special attention if you change roles? • Specifically, how will you plan, implement, and evaluate those aspects of your personal life? • How have you managed change and transition in the past? • Are there ways you would like to take on this change in a different way? • What positive strategies have you used in the past that you will call on now? • Specifically, how will you implement self-care strategies while you make the career transition? • When is the right time for seeking advice from family, friends and colleagues? How will you balance the desire for advice and input with the need for privacy, discretion, and autonomy? • Since you are in a leadership role, your role transition is likely to affect many other people. How will you help them understand the transition and the possible impacts on their work?
ONLY THEN WILL YOU KNOW HOW TO GIVE YOURSELF TO THIS WORLD SO WORTHY OF RESCUE.1 And then there is this energy and freedom and responsibility of knowing you have a chance to give your gift generously
298
Nurse Leader
and well. It will be received. And if all goes splendidly, as you give, you receive back with abundance—time, energy, focus, joy, contentment. If you decide to change roles and move on, it is important to also take stock of how you will release your “old” role and the aspects of it that are no longer relevant or appropriate to keep. As you communicate the change, you can expect a variety of responses from other people. It may be helpful to remind yourself that you have had a longer time to think about the change and that other people’s responses may not yet be fully formed when they are expressed. It is also important to give dedicated thought to how you will leave your current role in a way that supports your successor. The unfinished story of “Mount Analogue” by Rene Daumal as recalled by Jon Kabat-Zinn3 provides a helpful metaphor: “Climbing the mountain involves inner and outer work. The path upward is symbolic of growth, maturation, understanding and transformation. The challenges we encounter along the way stretch our capabilities and expand what is possible. The risks and sacrifices are considerable. We learn what the mountain is like at the base, and then continuing gradually upward, we finally reach the summit. From there we have a new prospective, one that may have forever changed us. The rule on Mt. Analogue is that ‘before you move up the mountain to your next encampment, you must replenish the camp you are leaving for those who will come after you, and go down the mountain a way to share with the other climbers your knowledge from farther up so that they may have some benefit from what you have learned so far on your own ascent.’ ”3(211-212) • What do you need to let go of in order to move on? • What are the tangible and intangible things about your old role that you need to pass along, discard or keep? • Are there relationships with colleagues, stakeholders, supervisors and community members that require special attention and communication during this time? • If the transition is in the public eye, how will you work with communications and media personnel to convey key messages? • What celebrations or gestures will help mark the time as a meaningful transition for yourself and others? • What kinds of information transfers will be most helpful for those now filling your role? • Conventional wisdom says that “How you leave a position is as important as how you start it.” How will you do your best to create a positive ending and smooth transition? In conclusion, as you contemplate making a transition, reflect on career changes you’ve made in the past or cultivate contentment about your current role, pausing for self-reflection is a key leadership strategy. There is often a lot of mental energy required to decide, identify the next steps, and enact the transition, so it is a good time to exercise gentleness and self-compassion. Now is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the freedom and strength that comes from intentional exploration and growth. NL
October 2018
Note: The author wishes to acknowledge Martha Postlethwaite for her gracious generosity of allowing the use of her poem for this article.
Teri Pipe, PhD, RN, is ASU chief well-being officer at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. She can be reached at [email protected].
References
1541-4612/2018/ $ See front matter Copyright 2018 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2018.07.005
1. Postlethwaite M. Clearing. Wild & Precious Life website. https:// wildandpreciouslife0.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/clearing-by-by-marthapostlewaite/. Accessed June 5, 2018. 2. Lightman A. The World Is Too Much With Me: Finding Private Space in the Wired World. The Second Hart House Lecture, March 2002. https://www.crsd.org/cms/lib5/PA01000188/Centricity/Domain/450/ worldtoomuchwithme.pdf, Accessed June 5, 2018. 3. Kabat-Zinn J. Mount Analogue. In: Kabat-Zinn J. Wherever You Go, There You Are. New York, NY: Hyperion Press; 1994.
www.nurseleader.com
Nurse Leader
299