- Email: [email protected]
Lesson in Joy
Sage Advice Rose Rivers, PhD, RN, NEA-BC
Lesson in Joy A
s a young nursing leader, I signed up to attend a course on compassion fatigue. My intention was to help others better manage, or better yet, eliminate compassion fatigue. However, I did not know I would become my first customer. The more I learned about compassion fatigue, the more I realized that I was as vulnerable as the group I desired to support. As we learned strategies to minimize the effects of compassion fatigue, I began to understand that it was about more than typical basic stress management and self-care. As I observed signs of increasing stress in my division, I sensed a type of unfamiliar sadness. Initially, I thought we just needed to give it some time after the reorganization and everything would be back to the usual crazy normal, naive huh! From that experience, I learned that morale is an individual responsibility. This was a defining moment for my leadership. Organizational leaders can set the tone, and provide guidance and direction. However, morale is a spiritual issue. Upon reflection, I knew there was a missing ingredient or missing piece to the puzzle. On my journey to master self-knowledge as a leadership competency, I learned that often my emotions did not serve me well. Healthy beliefs were much more of a stabilizer for me. Given that I had the personal power to determine my attitude and beliefs, I also had the power to sustain joy. I challenged myself to clarify what I truly believed about my profession, organization, leaders, etc., because my beliefs were either strengthening or undermining my leadership potential. It is important to note that invalid assumptions distort reality. I have learned that when I make a covenant with my mind to choose the thoughts I will allow to live there, I am able to discern whether barriers are real or imagined. Unhealthy fear robs us of our joy because it causes us to have blurred vision and selective memory, which results in diminished capacity to see options and opportunities. Joy is about being satisfied at the soul level despite feelings or circumstances. We can become blinded by our own success, and we can be deceived by good intentions. Self-reflection is required to gain self-knowledge and is key to reframe hindsight and provide foresight for forward movement to achieve your goals.
80
Nurse Leader
I have come to believe that leaders’ spiritual development is an economic issue because leaders impact organizational results on all levels. The value of spiritual leadership is priceless. It is about integrity, meaning, and voice and can have a profound impact on productivity and retention. Having a joyful work life calls for us to face the truth and become our own best friend. Although happiness is situational based on circumstances, joy is internally anchored based on choice of attitude. Joy is embedded in moral courage, which allows us to stand firm on values, principles, and convictions. Joy makes it possible to have stress without being distressed. Joy creates resiliency based on faith, not feelings! Rose Rivers, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, is founder, consultant, and coach at Restoring Joy To Leadership, LLC in Jacksonville, Florida. She can be reached at [email protected]. 1541-4612/2014/ $ See front matter Copyright 2015 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2015.03.006
June 2015
Lesson in Joy A
s a young nursing leader, I signed up to attend a course on compassion fatigue. My intention was to help others better manage, or better yet, eliminate compassion fatigue. However, I did not know I would become my first customer. The more I learned about compassion fatigue, the more I realized that I was as vulnerable as the group I desired to support. As we learned strategies to minimize the effects of compassion fatigue, I began to understand that it was about more than typical basic stress management and self-care. As I observed signs of increasing stress in my division, I sensed a type of unfamiliar sadness. Initially, I thought we just needed to give it some time after the reorganization and everything would be back to the usual crazy normal, naive huh! From that experience, I learned that morale is an individual responsibility. This was a defining moment for my leadership. Organizational leaders can set the tone, and provide guidance and direction. However, morale is a spiritual issue. Upon reflection, I knew there was a missing ingredient or missing piece to the puzzle. On my journey to master self-knowledge as a leadership competency, I learned that often my emotions did not serve me well. Healthy beliefs were much more of a stabilizer for me. Given that I had the personal power to determine my attitude and beliefs, I also had the power to sustain joy. I challenged myself to clarify what I truly believed about my profession, organization, leaders, etc., because my beliefs were either strengthening or undermining my leadership potential. It is important to note that invalid assumptions distort reality. I have learned that when I make a covenant with my mind to choose the thoughts I will allow to live there, I am able to discern whether barriers are real or imagined. Unhealthy fear robs us of our joy because it causes us to have blurred vision and selective memory, which results in diminished capacity to see options and opportunities. Joy is about being satisfied at the soul level despite feelings or circumstances. We can become blinded by our own success, and we can be deceived by good intentions. Self-reflection is required to gain self-knowledge and is key to reframe hindsight and provide foresight for forward movement to achieve your goals.
80
Nurse Leader
I have come to believe that leaders’ spiritual development is an economic issue because leaders impact organizational results on all levels. The value of spiritual leadership is priceless. It is about integrity, meaning, and voice and can have a profound impact on productivity and retention. Having a joyful work life calls for us to face the truth and become our own best friend. Although happiness is situational based on circumstances, joy is internally anchored based on choice of attitude. Joy is embedded in moral courage, which allows us to stand firm on values, principles, and convictions. Joy makes it possible to have stress without being distressed. Joy creates resiliency based on faith, not feelings! Rose Rivers, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, is founder, consultant, and coach at Restoring Joy To Leadership, LLC in Jacksonville, Florida. She can be reached at [email protected]. 1541-4612/2014/ $ See front matter Copyright 2015 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2015.03.006
June 2015