Top 9 Leadership Nursing Skills and Qualities

Every nurse has the potential to be a leader regardless of their job title. You can work on cultivating the essential leadership nursing skills and qualities, which include empathy and compassion, communication skills, critical thinking, mentorship and accountability. Additional nursing leadership skills include professionalism, emotional intelligence and patient care skills.

Nurses can become leaders in healthcare, regardless of their title. Examine the top 9 leadership nursing skills and qualities here.

Nursing is a deeply meaningful field that needs dedicated leaders to inspire, motivate, and guide their colleagues toward ever-higher standards of nursing excellence. Leadership often requires decades of experience, advanced degrees, and other credentials. Nursing is unique: virtually every nurse has the potential to become a leader, whether or not they hold a graduate degree.

At Concordia University Irvine, our Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program prepares students to provide compassionate, patient-focused care with a curriculum informed by Christian principles. It instills the values and skills needed for healthcare leadership.

Of course, it takes a special person to step into nursing leadership. The ASBN allows aspiring nurse leaders to cultivate their leadership nursing skills and qualities to prepare for leadership roles.

What Is Leadership in Nursing?

In some cases, a nurse leader is defined by their job title. For instance, nurse managers, charge nurses, and nurse administrators are leaders in their organizations, as they oversee and direct their teams’ and departments’ activities.

However, holding a supervisory job title isn’t a strict requirement for nursing leadership. Rather, nursing leadership is most often defined by personal conduct and actions. A nurse leader—regardless of job title—is someone who inspires and motivates their team to achieve nursing excellence.

Their influence inspires colleagues to reach their full potential in the workplace by encouraging continuing learning and professional development, prioritizing patient care, and cultivating an inclusive and safe workplace culture.

Nurse leaders may also influence healthcare organizations by developing innovative solutions and improvements. A nurse leader might identify workflow inefficiencies and develop solutions for improvement. They may embrace the use of new healthcare technologies and advocate for the resources their department needs, whether increased staffing or sufficient patient transfer equipment.

To succeed, aspiring nurse leaders need the right combination of nursing leadership skills and qualities.

Could nursing be the right career choice for you? Explore how one Concordia University Irvine student fulfilled her calling here.

What Are the Qualities of Good Nurse Leadership?

It’s often thought that a person’s characteristics are something they are born with and cannot be cultivated over time. Yet, it’s possible to actively develop certain qualities and traits—for example, empathy can be learned and practiced. Spend some time in thoughtful, honest self-reflection to decide which areas you can work on to become a better nurse leader.

1. Empathy and Compassion

Of all leadership nursing skills and qualities, empathy and compassion are among the most important. These terms are often interchangeable, but they are not the same. Empathy refers to the awareness of other people’s emotional needs and the ability to see things from their perspective. Compassion is the desire to help others who are in need, which can naturally grow from empathy.

You can cultivate greater empathy by taking a few moments to reflect on other people’s experiences. Imagine yourself in their shoes—for example, consider speaking to a patient who has been told by their healthcare provider that they have had a stroke and lost the ability to use their left arm.

News like this can be frightening, even traumatizing, for patients who aren't sure how it can affect their lives. You can develop empathy by considering how you might feel in the same situation and adjust your bedside manner and patient education approach accordingly.

Empathy and compassion are integral to patient care. This idea is foundational to our nursing philosophy at Concordia University Irvine, which encapsulates a scientific and philosophical approach that prepares students to provide holistic care, helping patients meet their mental, bodily, and spiritual needs.

2. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI or EQ) is also something that can develop empathy and compassion. EQ is the ability to perceive, understand, and interpret other people's emotions, and to control, demonstrate, and use emotions to relate to and communicate with others.

People who have high EQ tend to demonstrate the following attributes:

• Curiosity about other people and a desire to develop an authentic understanding of them
• Self-acceptance and self-confidence
• Awareness of personal limitations and strengths
• Understanding and awareness of other people’s emotions
• Sensitivity towards others
• Control over their emotions, particularly in challenging, emotionally fraught circumstances
• Concern for others

3. Accountability

All nurse leaders must hold themselves accountable, which is why accountability is an essential part of our curriculum’s nursing philosophy. This is also one of the attributes of EQ—the ability to accept responsibility for one’s mistakes.

No one is perfect—not even the most accomplished, experienced leader. An essential hallmark of leadership is the ability to take ownership of decisions, acknowledge and accept responsibility for mistakes, and actively learn and grow from the situation. Leaders who demonstrate accountability can gain the respect of their team.

4. Commitment to Professional Development

The nursing profession is always adapting and requires a commitment to lifelong learning. Nurse leaders must continue their professional development to keep updated with the latest advancements in the field. They must also encourage the ongoing education of their team members

5. Professionalism and Ethics

To step into leadership roles, nurses must develop essential nursing leadership skills and qualities like professionalism and unwavering ethics. Nurse leaders must conduct themselves with integrity at all times and inspire others to do the same.

When you’re ready to make the switch to nursing, you can learn how to become a nurse online here.

Top Nursing Leadership Skills

While you’re cultivating the essential personal characteristics for effective leadership, you can also actively develop stronger leadership nursing skills. There are many helpful skills for leaders in nursing.

6. Critical Thinking and Analytical Reasoning

Like empathy and compassion, critical thinking and analytical reasoning are often used interchangeably. Yet, there are distinct differences between the two.

Critical thinking is a form of analysis that involves interpreting information to develop a conclusion. It involves making judgments after reviewing all the available information. A strong critical thinker considers all viewpoints, opinions, and solutions before choosing the best course of action.

Analytical reasoning processes and breaks down information into its most basic components. It’s particularly helpful for assessing cause-and-effect relationships, which is essential in nursing. If a patient experiences an unusual complication, nurses must analyze each piece of information to determine the probable cause.

The Concordia ABSN program provides an environment for students to develop their nursing competency by practicing their critical thinking and analytical reasoning in a variety of clinical environments. As part of our learning outcomes, students learn to exercise these skills in their evidence-based practice.

7. Communication

Nursing leadership skills also require all forms of communication skills. Nurse leaders must be active listeners who strive to develop a genuine understanding of what other people are saying, both verbally and nonverbally. They must excel at clear written and spoken communication to reduce or eliminate the possibility of misunderstandings and must be attuned to nonverbal conversation cues (e.g., body language and facial expressions).

8. Patient Centered Care

Of course, nurse leaders need excellent patient care skills and well-developed bedside manners. They must be highly competent at the bedside, paying attention to every detail and double-checking information to reduce the possibility of mistakes.

9. Mentorship

Nurse leaders often lead by example; their commitment to professional excellence and integrity inspires others to achieve the same standards. They can also actively influence their team members through mentorship. Nurse leaders who mentor their team members demonstrate commitment to team building, collaboration, and collective growth.

Earn Leadership Nursing Skills at Concordia University Irvine

The Concordia ABSN can prepare you to step up into nursing leadership roles. Our ABSN is designed to graduate caring, compassionate, and highly competent nurses who uphold Christian values in their practice and are ready to lead with integrity and conviction in any healthcare setting.

If you already have a non-nursing bachelor’s degree or a minimum of 65 college credits, you may be eligible to study nursing at our campus-based program in Irvine, California, or in our hybrid program in Rancho Cucamonga, California. You can graduate in as few as 15 months, fully prepared to sit for the nursing licensure exam.

Contact our specialized admissions counselors today and take the first step toward a rewarding career in nursing.