In December 2024, I was elected as the South East Regional Council representative. I have now completed my induction and attended my first council meeting in January 2025. I am also a senior lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, lecturing on health and social care leadership, mastering professional practice and work-based learning.

For me, these three subject areas are central to our role as registered nurses and nursing team members, regardless of our speciality or employer type. I believe we all have a leadership role to play; how we learn to do this is mainly done in the workplace, and becoming the leader we want to be and our patients need us to be means we must continuously and consciously work to master the practice of leadership. Fortunately, we can learn to become effective leaders - it is not a trait that only some people possess, though some might have more confidence in their identity as leaders than others. 

Leadership is defined in so many ways that it can be perplexing, particularly if we associate it with something that is only part of a formal job title. This can lead us to feel it has nothing to do with us in our clinical, educational, or research roles. When I think about leadership, I have an image of what good leadership looks like, and I like to break it down into essential parts. For me, leadership is an outcome of how a person, a ‘leader’ engages with another; we could call them a ‘follower’. A leader and follower together take action to improve and shape future ways of working. This can be how services are organised and how standards of nursing care are improved and delivered. Working in this way is not reliant on being a particular grade or being seen as a formal leader. 

Thinking about leadership as about setting a direction or as an aim to improve things can help us see that who we are as individuals, and our values, are critical to being a successful leader. Communicating to inspire others to follow you is essential to being a leader. As a leader, you consider how to motivate others to work with you, you think about how to influence and persuade others to support your ideas to change things, and consider how you can work together to make that change happen. It also means that leadership development is not always about going on a formal training course, though these are helpful!

We can all reflect on how well we communicate what is important to us, how we share our ideas, how we encourage people to trust us and encourage people to commit to work with us. Developing ourselves through critical reflection on these essential elements and considering how we can improve our skills in listening to and learning about the different perspectives of others is part of our daily work. A valuable skill for a leader is the ability to ask coaching questions to understand the perspectives and issues of others better and to look for opportunities to collaborate and share different perspectives constructively.

An essential element of leadership is the quality of your relationships with others. Your personal credibility will influence the reputational view others hold about you. Our reputation is critical to others trusting us. Building trust and reputation is something that is primarily within our control to determine, for example, the specialist knowledge and experience we choose to acquire, the attitude we adopt towards solving problems, dealing with challenges, and continuously working on developing these behaviours and the skills.

Reputation and credibility are often framed as whether we are seen as a good role model. One of the pressures of being a good role model is managing the challenges you may face as a leader in the workplace. What is often not acknowledged is how challenging it can be to work in some settings.  Unlike the NHS, in the independent and private sectors, the nature of the financial risks are very different, and they bring another level of complexity and pressure to those who work in them. 

However, what is commonly shared across all sectors is the isolation that leaders can sometimes feel within their organisation and from others as they battle to do their best work, especially if, as a formal leader, you are also a manager. I have said leadership is about setting a direction and bringing about change. Management, in contrast, is about delivery and performance, often related to achieving targets. Many roles are a hybrid of being a manager, a clinician and a leader - this can create tensions between the competing professional and operational values that a formal leader may have to deal with. Challenges to accessing resources, including accessing professional development for themselves and colleagues, differences in the aims of different stakeholders and the sharing of clinical and non-clinical risks. 

These competing agendas are a reality for many leaders, and there are no easy answers to dealing with them. A way that successful leaders make sense of and cope with challenges is to invest time in building supportive relationships across multiple networks and with diverse colleagues. These relationships will also help you influence the nursing agenda across the health and social care system. Time to do this may feel in short supply, but it is an investment that will pay dividends if you do it.

Identifying people and networks can also be tricky; you may have to be proactive, confident, and direct with telling others what you need and asking for help. The RCN has professional forums you can join, and the staff may be able to connect you across regions with potential mentors or coaches. Asking your employer to facilitate mentorship can be an option for some. Social media, if you use it with care, can be a place to connect with others who share your interests and challenges.

When times are hard, it can also help to step back and revisit your values and motivations, remind yourself of who you want to be as a leader and how you want to practice being a leader can be rejuvenating.

I said earlier that I have an image of what leadership means to me that helps keep me grounded. Many years ago, I came across a leadership metaphor that inspires and still motivates me today. I visit it often to remind me of what's important to me. The metaphor comes in various forms but can be found on YouTube - Wisdom of Leading like a Goose. 

I look forward to being your Regional Council Representative for the next two years. I know I have lots to learn from you all, and I am keen to hear from you. I can be contacted at sally.bassett@reps.rcn.org.uk.

I believe that by standing together, we can work to secure greater recognition of nursing as a profession, which can lead to greater rewards for registered nurses and all members of the nursing team. I wish you the greatest success in becoming the leader you aspire to be.