FigureI'M IMPRESSED BY INDIVIDUALS who have embedded excellent value-based leadership practices into their daily work with rigor and consistency. Do you know leaders who purposefully round in patient care areas every day? Or regularly stop to talk to patients/families they see in the hallway? Or ensure they have a meeting with their interdisciplinary counterpart(s) every week, even if only for 10 minutes? Maybe you're one of those disciplined leaders who habitually model behaviors that demonstrate your values. Those leadership practices require structure, purpose, and consistency, and should become habits, not one-off, “when I have time” behaviors. Habits are established routines characterized by consistent behavior patterns and can take several months to develop fully. But once “baked in,” disappointment and guilt may result when you can't perform them. As a CNO, I felt disappointment in myself on Fridays if I hadn't rounded enough that week. How could I be the leader if I wasn't in touch with the real work and the real workers routinely and regularly? How could anyone trust me if they didn't see me? Once a value-based practice turns into a habit, it feels natural and genuine. Both authenticity and consistency build trust, strengthen your brand, and support a positive workplace culture. It's the same for our clinical nurses. When we think of clinical practice, we see the same characteristics—structured and predictable actions (the science of evidence-based practice and potentially policy) and behaviors with meaning and purpose (the art of caring and finding significance). There's overlap with the science of caring and the art of avoiding rote performance. Although assessments and routine care may be standard work, patients view their nurse's attention as personal and valued. A nurse feels the same negative feelings of disappointment and guilt from “missed care,” a concept we see frequently in the literature, which is analogous to not carrying out a habit. As leaders we must acknowledge and fix systems to minimize missed care, for many reasons. Is it boring to have repetitive leadership habits? I don't think so. What's boring is administrative standard work that has you chained to your desktop or laptop. Ensuring protected time for what's meaningful and impactful could be an antidote for exhaustion and burnout. Make self-care a habit too. Consider that yoga class on Wednesday evenings something you can't imagine missing, not an “extra.” There are “bad” leadership habits too. Avoiding difficult conversations or situations. Allowing employees who are low performers or are creating toxic working conditions to stay employed despite repeated coaching and counseling. Not getting to know your team personally. Taking over when you should let team members lead. You know all these habits. Rewiring your brain is key to turn the opposite of these undesirable habits into your own leadership practice, which, admittedly, isn't easy. Our practice is complex and impactful at every level, and positive, relational, value-based behaviors should be habitual. It's our work. Accidental leadership won't achieve your goals, although we all revel when a surprise win occurs that we didn't anticipate. Figure out how that win happened and turn it into everyday practice. Leadership isn't about isolated actions or dramatic events; it's about embedding purposeful habits into our daily practice that reflect who we are and what we value. The consistency of our behaviors helps shape the culture and strengthen authenticity, well-being, and trust. Let's commit to intentional, habitual leadership practice that demonstrates our values every single day. Small acts are big leadership.Figure
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