What nurses expect from their leaders is changing. Gone are the days of command and control leadership when staff were expected to be grateful because they had a job. Today's nurses want their leaders to be coaches who will help them to learn and grow as professionals. The nurse leader has become the linchpin in staff recruitment and retention. When nurses don't receive the coaching and feedback that they desire, they will leave as evidenced by high nursing turnover in many healthcare organizations.

Coaching is a different approach to developing the potential of your staff. When you coach, you provide staff with the opportunity to grow and gain expertise through more consistent feedback, counseling and mentoring. The relationship moves from being leader dominated to a partnership with staff. You don't wait until the annual review to discuss areas in need of improvement. The effective manager-coach takes the time to understand the motivations of individual staff, enables optimal performance, encourages professional success and removes barriers to high-level performance. If you perfect your skills as a coach, you can help staff to grow and put them on a path to success and greater ownership of their professional practice. It also makes performance management much easier because your staff will expect regular feedback.

Moving from being a manager to a nurse leader coach requires a different leadership mindset and skillset to add to your leadership toolbox. The key characteristics of a coaching leadership approach include partnership and collaboration versus command and control. A coaching leadership approach involves less time talking and more time listening. Coaching for performance is an ongoing process that becomes easier over time if you commit to doing it. It will make you a better leader. Included in this book are new ideas, action steps and resources to help you do this.

Research indicates that staff highly value managers who adopt a coaching style of managing performance. Yet for many leaders, this will change how they look at their leadership. Any new change in behavior can be challenging until it becomes routine. Give yourself a competitive edge by learning the secrets of how to become a great leader through coaching. Let this book be your roadmap on this journey. If you commit to becoming a nurse leader coach, you will become the boss that no one wants to leave.