TONL Monthly
August 2017

Disruptive Leadership

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Disruptive Leadership

By Gretchen Hunt, MSN, RN, ACNS-BC, NEA-BC

July 17 2017

If you have recently read a journal article, listened to a podcast, or reviewed a blog you have probably heard about “disruptive” leadership. This buzzword is quickly becoming a recognized leadership style that is a necessary component of driving change into today’s fast paced industry. Early origins of this leadership style emerged in the technology world.

An interesting TED talk on Disruptive Leadership includes several speakers who describe how leaders emerge and build a following. These leaders acknowledge the importance of failure and celebrating the lessons that occur with failure, how small actions influence others to perceive you as a leader and the importance of considering those who are sometimes not the obvious person(s) to lead. Disruptive leaders are described as resilient, self- aware, authentic.

So what does disruptive leadership have to do with success in our changing healthcare environment? Everything! With our advancing technology and innovation this leadership style may be appropriate in the healthcare setting. Disruptive leaders can navigate uncertainty, using courage and innovation. Making the conscious decision to pull on the boots, stroll down an unchartered trail and serve as a disruptive pioneer in the changing landscape is important to our future success. We will need to think and more importantly lead differently.

Disruptive leadership is not just about the leader but also the team. Disruptive leaders are unafraid of providing critical feedback to team members. The leader will “shake things up” refusing to settle for the status quo. Leadership self-awareness is important since there is a fine line between healthy and unhealthy criticism. Taking time to mutually recognize the lessons in failures plays a role in dual ownership of the failure and recommitment to continued efforts on the project.

Disruptive leaders do things differently and this may have an unexpected impact on individuals. One of the TED talk guest speakers was Drew Dudley. Drew asks the audience how many think they are leaders with less than 50 % of the audience raising their hand. Drew then proceeds to share a story on how he changed a young lady’s life early in her first year of college. His story eloquently describes how she shared with him the impact he made and how he does not even remember the brief encounter. His actions “disrupted” her plan to quit and gave her courage to move forward. It’s a wonderful story of how our brief intentional 1:1 encounters with individuals can provide forward momentum to someone who may need it.

How do we as leaders apply this in our everyday actions? I suggest we take the leap of faith. If it seems scary, unusual, un-contemporary and a little crazy maybe it is the right thing to do. So go forth and be bravely disruptive.

Bibliography

Lopata, J. (2017, January 30). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/30/zen-steve-jobs-and-the-art-of-disruptive-leadership/#333d365a4470

Raz, G. (2017, July 12). Disruptive Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/261084166/disruptive-leadership

 

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