PRO Level Leadership: People, PuRpose, and POssibilities

An innovative, successful leader is one who has a vision, engages others, works toward an identified goal, and achieves higher levels of productivity or outcomes by trying novel solutions while applying the PRO model of leadership.  A PRO Level Leader is one who focuses on People, PuRpose, and POssibilities by influencing (Patterson et al., 2008) and effecting change.  The purpose of this presentation is to define, describe, and detail a PRO Level Leader as one who knows the People, establishes a common PuRpose, and is open to different POssibilities to solve a problem.

The PRO Level Leader will gather People and environmental knowledge by having a spirit of inquiry and seeking to understand the values, cultures, belief systems, and personal strengths of the People and environment (Adams, 2009; Rubino, Esparza, & Chassiakos, 2014). People are defined as those who bring the best assets to the team. People may be nurses on a unit, faculty members, or interprofessional colleagues. Networking, visiting, and meeting with your performance team is critical to establish a sense of community. A successful leader will appreciate team diversity and embrace the challenges of eclectic thinking and work to place the right people in the right place on the team (Collins, 2001). Interprofessional and interdisciplinary teams are ideal in creating innovative steps toward developing new solutions to solve problems. It is the differences of the members that make the team strong and unique in approaching the identified goal. The success of the leader is demonstrated when the team members move together as one toward a common PuRpose.

The PRO Level Leader encourages dialogue, differences of opinion, and mutual trust among the People to work together and develop a common PuRpose (goal). Once the People are on board with the PuRpose, then an accomplished leader can step out of the way and allow the momentum of the People pursuing the PuRpose to accelerate. This is similar to a peloton of cyclists moving together to cover more distance faster and more efficiently than a solo cyclists. Under a PRO Level Leader, the team will find its distinct rhythm and capitalize on the strengths of the People to move toward the PuRpose in an economical, timed, disciplined, and calculated manner. SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) goals (Doran, 1981) are developed to streamline the action toward the PuRpose (Heath & Heath, 2010). The PuRpose is a clinical or academic goal that is defined, developed, and agreed upon by the team. Once the common PuRpose is known, the leader will move toward exploring with the team the different POssibilities to meet the PuRpose.

The PRO Level Leader will challenge the People to meet the PuRpose through creative and new POssible solutions. John F. Kennedy (1962) once said “we choose to go to the moon...and other things …not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Being open to nontraditional and progressive POssibilities is the beginning of innovative change. Porter-O’Grady and Malloch (2013) discuss the gap between evidence, patient needs, and the desired interventions. The POssibility becomes the mechanism to close the gap by employing innovation and change. You can lead through innovation by describing and exploring what the impossible may be and then capitalizing on how to make the impossible become POssible. The strengths of having an interprofessional team include the ability to explore novel solutions to common problems such as decreases in staffing, no new positions, cost cuts, and increasing enrollment. A successful and innovative leader will review history while reaching forward to find future solutions to obtain improved products related to safe and quality patient care initiatives or academic success for students. A PRO Level Leader is an ideal leader for nursing science, nursing practice, education, administration, and policy making.

A PRO Level Leader is someone who embraces change and does not fear being challenged. The Cheaha Challenge states “challenge your limits. Don’t limit your challenges” (Alabama Backroad Century Series, 2016). The type of leader needed to move nursing clinical and academic areas into new frontiers with new solutions is a PRO Level Leader. During this presentation, PRO Level Leader vignettes will be provided. This presentation will also provide answers to the following questions: 1) What is the level of interest in being a leader of the future? 2) What does it take to be a PRO Level Leader?,  3) What are challenges to becoming a PRO? This presentation will provide the tools to be able to step out and step up to future challenges as a PRO Level Leader.