https://www.infirmiere-canadienne.com/blogs/ic-contenu/2025/07/14/diriger-dans-domaine-soins-sante
Practical advice for connecting with the right people who can help you succeed
By Leah Wuitschik
July 14, 2025
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One of the most challenging aspects of leadership is the level of vulnerability that comes with it. Leaders who create the space for genuine vulnerability in themselves and others cultivate psychologically safe workplaces where people feel free to “show up” authentically and are able to do their best work.
What you are doing is so important. It’s also really, really hard.
I’ll bet no one told you how difficult leadership can be, how lonely it can feel, or how feeling “stuck in the middle” can become the norm.
Courtesy of Leah Wuitschik
“Taking a step into a leadership role is more like a leap, and it’s not as simple as showing up for work on Monday with a different title. You need to think and do things differently,” Leah Wuitschik says.
Being a leader in health care is truly meaningful, enjoyable work. However, what it takes to succeed and enjoy a leadership role isn’t straightforward and often does not feel natural.
Marshall Goldsmith, the well-known American executive coach and leadership author, famously said, “What got you here won’t get you there.” His message centres around the fact that the skills, behaviours, and habits required at a leadership level differ from those that make you successful in clinical roles.
Taking a step into a leadership role is more like a leap, and it’s not as simple as showing up for work on Monday with a different title. You need to think and do things differently.
The rub is that very few health-care organizations provide new leaders with adequate support to learn what they need to do differently. They incorrectly believe that if a person is good at their current job, which is often a clinical role, they’ll automatically be good in a leadership role. For many people, this can be far from the truth.
The reality is that every leaderhas insecurities, fear, and frustration. Everyone says “I quit” silently to themselves or screams into a pillow at home from time to time. The uncertainty you experience as a health-care leader (new or not) is part of your development; it’s par for the course. However, you don’t have to figure it all out alone.
You can become the leader you want to be
Don’t wait for support to come knocking
Your career is in your hands. No one is going to create it for you. Even if you are fortunate to have someone take an interest in your career or are part of an organization that provides leadership development, it’s up to you to glean all you can from your opportunities to become the health-care leader you want to be.
Tap into support around you
One of the most effective ways to bolster your leadership development is to tap into the people around you for learning and support. Before we get specific, let’s note the differences among a coach, a mentor, and a sponsor.
- A mentor is someone who shares their knowledge, skills, and experience to help another develop and grow.
- A coach is someone who provides support and guidance to others to help them tackle their challenges and take action toward their goals.
- A sponsoris someone who helps others progress in their career, seeks out opportunities for them, and goes to bat to support their development.
Find a mentor
Mentors can have a great impact on your development. They will typically have more experience than you and will share their learning, make suggestions, and help you make decisions.
Look for nurse leaders around you and identify one or more from whom you would like to learn. Don’t be shy about asking for their mentorship; most people feel honoured to have someone look up to them and will step into this role without too much, or any, prodding.
Find a coach
Coaches have a special skill: they inspire and guide others to push past their limits, tackle challenges head on, and accomplish exceptional goals. They are skilled at asking questions, providing observations and insight, helping you see different perspectives, creating action, and unlocking the potential that already exists inside you. Many highly successful nursing and health-care leaders have a coach by their side as they navigate their careers.
Find a sponsor
Sponsors typically hold senior leadership roles and, hopefully, have influence within the systems in which you work. Sponsors are harder to identify and often approach you rather than the other way around.
In either case, if you become aware of someone of high regard, role, and respect willing to sponsor you, don’t say no! If you want to attain higher leadership levels, sponsorship is one of the most effective ways to reach your goals.
Connect with peers
Peers can be wonderful resources and support. Building a network of relationships with nurses in similar roles, organizations, and career trajectories can support your own likelihood of success. Your peers can make you feel less alone, be a sounding board, and offer suggestions for managing the challenges in your life.
Your mentorship of them, in turn, allows you to practise your leadership skills in a safe environment. Apart from peers, even people in different roles, organizations, and career trajectories can be useful mentors because they have varied experiences and might see things differently.
If a formalpeer circle isn’t available to you (it’s rare for organizations to offer formal opportunities to connect with others for development), what’s stopping you from pulling some people together and doing it on your own? Taking your development by the horns this way is an act of true leadership. And your peers will thank you.
It may not be easy
It may feel awkward to reach out to others, admit you don’t know everything, ask for help, and do new things or old things differently. Telling people you respect (and want to respect you) that you don’t have it all figured out may feel bad, and even risky for your reputation. You might think that if you continue to hide the possibility that you’re going to mess up, no one will ever question whether you’ve got what it takes. Wrong!
One of the most challenging aspects of leadership is the level of vulnerability that comes with it. Leaders who create the space for genuine vulnerability in themselves and others cultivate psychologically safe workplaces where people feel free to “show up” authentically and are able to do their best work.
However, this ability is not intuitive or comfortable for many people. Working with someone such as a coach provides a safe space to explore personal challenges and insecurities. You can gain understanding of your strengths, acknowledge your imperfections (we all have them), and confidently navigate your discomfort by engaging in open and deep conversations. In turn, leaders who model vulnerability create a place of trust, inclusivity, and growth.
No one, and I mean no one, is meant to go through life alone, and that goes for our nursing careers as much as it does for our personal lives. There is no way that any human being can know everything and be good at everything.
Just as we do when caring for patients/clients, we all need to surround ourselves with others who care, know things we don’t, and can help us figure things out when we can’t. Admitting to ourselves that we sometimes don’t know what we’re doing, and allowing others to help us, is the way to get unstuck.
When we admit that we’re all human, we do better with the other humans around us.
Leah Wuitschik, BN, MA, CEC, PCC, is president and co-founder of TallTrees Leadership.
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