Nursing Inquiry 2013; 21(4): 301–310
Feature
Journey to become a nurse leader mentor: past, present and future influences Andrea McCloughen,a Louise O’Brienb and Debra Jacksonc aUniversity of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, bUniversity of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, cUniversity of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Accepted for publication 24 November 2013 DOI: 10.1111/nin.12053
McCLOUGHEN A, O’BRIEN L and JACKSON D. Nursing Inquiry 2014; 21: 301–310 Journey to become a nurse leader mentor: past, present and future influences Mentorship, often viewed as a central capacity of leadership, is acknowledged as influential in growing nurse leaders. Mentoring relationships are perceived as empowering connections offering a dynamic guided experience to promote growth and development in personal and professional life. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach informed by Heidegger and Gadamer was used to explore understandings and experiences of mentorship for nurse leadership by 13 Australian nurse leaders. We found that learning and transformation associated with becoming a nurse leader mentor was experienced as an enduring evolutionary process. Participants’ life journeys provided experiences that developed their understandings and established their personal identity as a leader and mentor. We considered the journey motif in terms of its inextricable connection with lived time and used Heidegger’s ecstasies of temporality as a lens to understand how the temporal dimensions of past, present and future influenced and shaped the development of nurse leader mentors. We found that our temporal existence influences interpretation of ourselves and the world. Individuals can benefit from multiple separate mentoring interludes, with different mentors, over a lifetime. For some nurses, becoming a leader and mentor is a lifelong transformative process that grows from diverse experience and influential role modelling rather than formal instruction. Key words: Heidegger, hermeneutics, leadership, mentorship, phenomenology.
Within the healthcare domain, mentoring is proposed as a vehicle for nurturing personal, career, and intellectual growth and development, improving corporate knowledge and making employees feel valued, as well as encouraging and challenging leadership potential and leadership opportunities, and preparing future nurse leaders (O’Neil et al. 2008; Fielden, Davidson and Sutherland 2009). In nursing, mentorship programmes have increasingly been used to facilitate career development and are considered a strategic means to help mitigate nursing shortages, promote socialisation and retention, support development and retention of intellectual
Correspondence: Andrea McCloughen, Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney, 88 Mallett Street Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales 2050, Australia. E-mail: © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
capital and succession planning (Thomka 2007; Valiga and Grossman 2007; Johnson et al. 2011). Mentorship in nursing has also expanded from specific relationships between individuals, to the creation of mentoring cultures as a means of empowering and developing the profession more broadly (Grossman 2007). Provision of mentorship to followers has been identified as a key aspect of effective leadership (Lapierre, Naidoo and Bonaccio 2012), and the nursing profession commonly views mentorship and leadership as integrated phenomena; the context and processes of mentorship are perceived to be characteristic of leadership. Mentoring relationships are unique connections that incorporate mutual sharing, learning and acquisition of knowledge and influence individual growth and transition (Darwin 2008; Thompson, Wolf and Sabatine 2012). Effec-
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tive mentors enable mentees to grow across spheres of life and career therefore these relationships are described as developmental, empowering and nurturing alliances (Vance 2005). Mentorship occurs in structured or informal ways, highlighted by varied international understandings. The sponsorship-focused approach from the United States of America, comprising an emotional and relationship dimension, is more classical or informal than the developmentfocused model from the United Kingdom and Europe that favours work-based learning in a formalised framework (McCloughen, O’Brien and Jackson 2011). Mentorship is often distinguished by types of mentoring support provided (Eby, Rhodes and Allen 2008), typically broadly classified as instrumental/career and/or psychosocial/personal support (Kram 1985). Career development functions target the mentee’s career advancement through, for example, assistance with work-related challenges, provision of high profile assignments and increased exposure to organisation and/or professional leaders (Lapierre et al. 2012). Psychosocial development functions enhance the mentee’s sense of professional competence and identity (Dougherty, Turban and Haggard 2007) and are provided through encouragement, listening, sharing experiences and being empathic (Lapierre et al. 2012). The evolving mentoring relationship is often defined in terms of universal stages first identified by Levinson et al. (1978). The stages incorporate developmental functions, affective experiences and interaction patterns shaped by the individual and organisation (Kram 1983) and depict modification of mentor behaviours in relation to the mentee’s development as he/she matures within the relationship. Unlike other support mechanisms, for example preceptorship, mentorship is concerned with long-term acquisition of skills in a developing career rather than more immediate improvement of performance and skills (Thompson et al. 2012). Mentoring is generally accepted as a core function of nurse leaders. Within the profession, mentors are typically viewed positively and are recognised as making essential contributions to leadership preparation and ensuring achievement, success and satisfaction in aspiring professionals (Vance 2005; Porter-O’Grady and Malloch 2009). Mentorship is acknowledged as a developing process rather than an outcome (Milton 2004), and mentoring relationships are described as having increasing impact with the passage of time. In nursing, mentorship is perceived as having a generative influence, ensuring that important legacies, values and beliefs of the profession can be preserved and passed to successive generations (Grossman 2007). Mentorship has long been regarded as a resonating phenomenon, whereby 302
aspiring leaders go on to lead, and mentees go on to become mentors (Stewart and Kruger 1996; Vance 2005). To more fully understand the role of mentoring in the development of nurse leaders, there is a need to explore the synergy of mentorship and leadership in nursing and to understand the experiences of nurse leaders who have been mentored or mentor others. Furthermore, for the value of mentoring as a mechanism for leadership generativity to be fully realised, claims of the benefits of mentoring cited in literature need to be substantiated. This paper is drawn from a larger study that explored the experiences of mentoring relationships by Australian nurse leaders. Primarily, we were concerned with what experiences they had of mentorship for leadership, that is, ‘Does the process of mentorship contribute to leadership development?’ We also wanted to know how they thought about, and understood, mentoring.
PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK The aim of the study was to understand how mentorship was conceptualised by nurse leaders and to identify whether mentoring relationships had contributed to their development as nurse leaders. Our focus was on developing meaning and interpretation of life world experience therefore we used hermeneutic phenomenology, informed by key concepts from Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer, as the philosophical framework to guide the study. Hermeneutic phenomenology is both descriptive and interpretive. As a research method, it can be used to directly investigate and describe phenomena as experienced in the life world by using phenomenological reflection and writing to understand the forms of life. Insight into the essence of the phenomenon (mentorship for leadership) was gained through a process of reflectively appropriating, clarifying and making explicit the structure of the meaning of the lived experience (interview and writing). That meaning was multidimensional; therefore, it was communicated textually through organised narrative and prose (van Manen 1997). We particularly attended to Heidegger’s concern with temporality, how it shapes our understandings and influences our constructions of reality (Papadimitriou and Stone 2011) and Gadamer’s (2004) concept that understanding occurs through fusion of present and past horizons.
Heidegger and the ecstasies of temporality Objective time is public, identifiable and measured using a clock (Sokolowski 2000). It is substantive, a thing within which objects and events exist. This is how human relatedness to time is generally understood (Papadimitriou and © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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Stone 2011). Conversely, subjective time belongs to the duration and sequence of mental acts or conscious life events that cannot be objectively timed with a clock and is referred to as lived time (van Manen 1997). Heidegger (1962) was interested in questions related to ‘being’, the constituted meaning of a human in the world. He wanted to know what it meant to be in time and how the past, present and future are meaningful (Guignon 2006). Heidegger saw us as existing in a world saturated with meanings that we inherit, discover, disagree with and change, and this meaningful existence is attributed to our relation to time (Papadimitriou and Stone 2011). Heidegger’s (1962) temporality means that we exist as three temporal dimensions simultaneously. Being ahead of ourselves (projecting ourselves into the future), drawing on and taking with us our past and being concerned with and immersed in the present, all constitute our being (Guignon 2006). These ‘ecstasies’ of temporality mean that we are not confined to or by time or solely contained in here and now (Heidegger 1962).
Future: Heidegger saw the future as meaningful, more than simply ‘yet-to-come’ (Blattner 2008). Possibilities including personality traits, lifestyles and attitudes shape identity, and we exist as ‘being-toward ‘a final configuration of those defining possibilities. ‘Everything we do contribute to making us people of a particular sort’ (Guignon 2006, 278). Past: Heidegger (1962) viewed the past as significant in a present tense. Yesterday has bearing on us today therefore instead of being no longer, the past is always in existence (Gelven 1989). ‘Who I already am … is not the phases of my life that have gone by. Rather … who I have-been is who I find myself to be in so far as I press forward into my life’ (Heidegger 1962, 165). Present: For Heidegger (1962), the present retains importance because it is related to a direct awareness of our actions. The present is actually making present therefore consciously performing actions and creating situations ensures that the present becomes meaningful and significant (Gelven 1989).
Gadamer and the fusion of horizons We meet the world with preconceived expectations of it based on prior experience, or, the necessary conditions of prejudice and preunderstanding (Debesay, N aden and Slettebø 2008). Therefore, our understanding takes place when a fusion of past and present horizons occur (Gadamer 2004). Gadamer described the metaphor of a horizon as a range of vision that includes everything that can be seen © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
from a particular vantage point. To have a horizon means being able to see beyond it rather than being limited to what is near. ‘The horizon of the present is continually in the process of being formed because we are continually having to test all our prejudices’ (Gadamer 2004, 305), and an important aspect of that testing occurs in encountering the past and understanding the tradition from which we come. Gadamer (2004, 305) identified that because the horizon of the present must be formed with the past, understanding is always the fusion of these horizons. Further explanation of how Heidegger and Gadamer’s work guided the conduct of the study has been highlighted elsewhere (McCloughen, O’Brien and Jackson 2009, 2010).
METHOD Participants, data collection and analysis Human research ethics approval was obtained for the study. We used purposive sampling and selection criteria to identify suitable participants who were in leader positions (more than institutional power); possessed leader attributes, for example being professionally active and demonstrating generativity; had peer recognition as leaders; and had the experience of being in mentoring relationships in Australia, as mentors or mentees. Involvement in the study was voluntary and anonymous. Ten female and three male nurse leaders aged in their 40–60s participated. Each had been nursing for over 20 years and at the time of the study was involved in mentoring relationships. Their work and leadership included the contexts of academia, executive management and expert practice. A single detailed conversational face-to-face interview was conducted with each participant in their natural everyday environments. Participants shared subjective perceptions and interpretations of mentorship while the interviewer used open-ended questions integrated with informal conversation, to encourage reflection and further exploration of meaning. Interviews were audiotaped and then transcribed by the first author so that written texts were produced for interpretation. Participants were provided with pseudonyms. The first author conducted the analysis and held collaborative discussions with the other authors to examine emerging thematic descriptions of the phenomena. The aim was to seek interpretive insights from others who were also orientated to the phenomenon under investigation (Gadamer 2004). We used van Manen’s (1997) approach to uncovering experiential structures and Kvale’s (Kvale and Brinkman 2009) canons of hermeneutic meaning interpretation to guide data analysis. This included holistic, selective and 303
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detailed reading of the transcripts to illuminate the structures of meanings around which the lived experience of mentorship could be naively described and interpreted (van Manen 1997). Interpretation and understanding occurred through a continuous process of moving between the meaning of discrete parts of the texts and the global meaning of the texts (McCloughen et al. 2010). As preliminary vague and intuitive understandings grew deeper and more distinguishable, the changing meanings of the separate parts influenced the total meaning, which in turn influenced the parts and so on (Kvale and Brinkman 2009). Philosophical rigour (Debesay et al. 2008) was ensured by having methodological congruence (method was not significantly modified); philosophies informing the study were borne out in the conduct of the study (for example, preserving language and descriptions demonstrates significance of participant narrative); appropriate sampling (for sufficient rich information); and concurrent collecting and analysing of (ongoing interaction between what was known and needed to be known).
FINDINGS All the participants were both nurse leaders and mentors. Mentorship was identified as a significant contributor to leadership development and also influenced the development of mentoring capacity and orientation among nurse leaders. Participants attributed their own leadership (attainment of leader roles and success as leaders) to mentorship from others, and in turn, all mentored others, specifically for leadership. The collective experience of mentorship for nurse leadership (mentorship received and provided to others’ for leader development) was understood and articulated through three existential motifs: imagination, mode of being and journey. Imagination was an essential characteristic of being a nurse leader-mentor that significantly impacted on their ability to recognise and nurture leader potential in others (McCloughen et al. 2010). Being a mentor was a fully integrated aspect of their person that meant mentoring others permeated all of their leader behaviours, intentions and understandings (McCloughen et al. 2011). Their life journeys provided experiences that developed their understandings and formed their identities as leaders and mentors. These motifs are interconnected; however, they also offer substantial discrete meanings. In this paper, we address the study findings in relation to the journey motif. Mentorship for leadership was experienced as a journey – evolutionary connections that commenced in childhood when participants started to identify and connect with
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mentors around them. The connections evolved further during their youth and into their early nursing careers, when they continued to be exposed to and impacted by mentorship that encouraged leader development. At the same time, their personal attitude of mentoring and leadership matured. The evolutionary progress was revealed through the participants’ intuitive connection with the mentor and leader role, whereby as nurse leaders they automatically engaged with others in mentorship. The existential motif of journey was described in three subthemes: being in the company of mentors; learning from mentors; and becoming a leader mentor.
Being in the company of mentors During the participants’ early lives, they were exposed to individuals who demonstrated mentor characteristics and behaviours. Although not acknowledged as mentors at the time, participants later recalled those individuals as standing out and having a significant impact on their perception of and being in the world. Most participants singled out particular teachers who gave of themselves in a manner that other teachers did not. One participant recalled their mentorteacher as providing support and nurturance that set them apart from others. Robin: One person who stands out vividly was my music teacher at high school. She… had a remarkable capacity to recognise budding talent and to really nurture… that talent, and in a mostly unassuming and not very aggressive way, allow that to develop… She fired me up so much and gave me such a sense of confidence… Her sheer enthusiasm and her way of working with me as a high school student was indeed mentoring, there is no doubt about it.
Family members were also identified as demonstrating specific mentoring behaviours. Participants selected family who had made a particular impression that was different to other relatives and especially looked to those who inspired them. Ricki: My aunty believed in me and she nurtured my ambition. She said “you’re a good writer” or “you’re very smart” or “you’re very creative”… she also in her life, modeled for me something that I would want to aspire to be…. So she had those sorts of good attributes that I found attractive. So I guess I wanted to be like her and when I had her approval that was energising.
The participants recalled people from their early nursing training, who demonstrated characteristic mentor behaviours within the clinical environment. Most participants had experienced a hospital-based apprenticeship system of
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nursing education. They recalled and differentiated particular senior nursing colleagues who were supportive and nurturing. Ellen: I was probably mentored all through my training, which was hospital based training and while it wasn’t under the umbrella of a mentor, that’s truly what it was. Because I can remember as a very junior nurse going into the wards and having a senior nurse connect with me, take me under her wing.
A sense of collective mentorship during nurse training was also acknowledged. They spoke about working closely with peers in a supportive and nurturing manner, helping each other to ‘develop a passion for nursing’ and ‘ability to stay committed’. The participants sensed the whole working to keep the parts together. Marion: There was a level of congeniality and mentorship…. On one level it was knowledge sharing and skill sharing and showing people the ropes if you like, and on another level was the emotional support because it was a pretty tough system, and on the other level it was a real notion of team work… at that level there was a… real mutual mentorship.
Exposure to mentors continued after initial nursing training. Participants identified mentors in the early part of their nursing careers that directed and inspired them to progress professionally and to advance towards leadership. This first subtheme reveals that the evolutionary process of developing an intuitive attitude of mentoring and leading commenced with early and sustained exposure to mentors. The young person sensed something unique about these adult-mentors, attended to them, and was influenced by them. The young person began to develop an impression of mentorship and leadership and experienced a subtle shaping of beliefs long before they gained a full and conscious understanding of these concepts.
Learning from mentors Participants sensed that exposure to particular human qualities and nurturing behaviours during their early lives and nursing careers had an enduring impact. They believed that it influenced personal growth and development and, in part, shaped some of their behaviours and beliefs. They acknowledged a direct connection between some of their early relationships and the way they now positioned themselves in the world. Specific mentor behaviours during the participants’ early nursing careers were described. Typically, these included facilitation to acquire higher positions, promotion into © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
positions they might not otherwise have applied for early in their careers, and provision of opportunities to do things outside their usual practice. Mentors encouraged participation in and attendance at conferences or professional meetings and orchestrated temporary fill-in for more advanced or senior-/managerial-type positions. Megan recalled being given an opportunity, not long after she qualified, to relieve in a higher position on a unit that specialised in an area in which she lacked experience but possessed enthusiasm. Other participants acknowledged senior colleagues who took an active interest in their developing careers: Teresa and Merle described them as ‘offering unequivocal support that was invaluable’ and extending a kind of mentorship in the way they offered ‘ongoing emotional, professional and technical support’. Jan highlighted them as providing counsel, strategic direction and advice. The participants learned specific lessons from their early and ongoing exposure to mentorship and continued to be influenced by the actions and beliefs of early mentors. Gair: [The mentor] was always educating me, she was always explaining to me why she did this, or why we might do it this way or what the consequences of something might be. So I learned a lot from her and still it’s in my mind a lot of the ways that I conduct my day-today business and where I think I am going is according to [her].
They consciously adopted particular behaviours that shaped the way they acted in the world and unconsciously developed certain values and principles from those early mentors. Participants spoke about specifically watching, listening and figuring out their mentors’ ways of operating. Robin deliberately ‘tried on some of their behaviours’ to see whether they also worked for him. Participants identified that mentor behaviours observed when they were young, coupled with ongoing exposure to mentorship in their professional life, had an enriching influence that contributed to the development of what Merilyn called ‘personal principles’. Many participants actively sought out and created opportunities for professional growth in others because their early mentors had opened up professional opportunities for them. Anita described aspects of her mentorship as assisting mentees to network, accompanying them to meetings/ forums and introducing them to key people. These behaviours, such as those referred to by other participants, were a developmental strategy learned from the actions of early mentors. The second subtheme reveals the continuing evolutionary process that accompanied the development of an intuitive attitude of mentoring and leading. Young people and novice nurses were profoundly impacted on by direct and indirect exposure to mentors. The qualities and actions of 305
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those mentors had a lingering influence on young mentees, shaping their personal development and behaviours over time and ultimately affecting their adult and career choices and actions.
Becoming a leader mentor Participants had not been formally taught to recognise mentorship or to be a mentor; however, they had all engaged in mentoring relationships as mentees and were mentors. Most believed that being a mentor could not be taught in a formal didactic way. They acknowledged that mentorship was a particular attitude, or way of being, rather than a specific set of skills or actions for which an individual could be trained. Christopher: I think you can teach people the importance of [mentorship], but what they do with that is really up to them. Some people will take it and it will only further reinforce the goodness in them, other people you can spend the rest of your life teaching them mentoring and not get anywhere, you know?… I don’t think you have to be a good mentor; you have to be a good person.
It was apparent that the participants had assumed their current mentor roles customarily and automatically. Mentorship was a natural extension of themselves and adjunctive to being a nurse and leader. The ‘personal characteristic’ or ‘attitude of mentorship’ was evident in the participants during childhood when most held leader- and mentor-type roles. As children, they did not recognise their behaviour as mentorship, but in adulthood they reflected that it was. For some, childhood mentorship occurred via structured leader roles including class captain, president of student council and youth group leader and they described ‘communicating with, nurturing and offering unconditional respect’. Others identified less structured childhood mentorship demonstrated in the way they established connections with other children, provided support and nurturance and were ‘empathic and caring and wanting to give someone a go’. The attitude of mentorship extended beyond childhood into participants’ early nursing careers when as nursing students they ‘took people under my wing’ and ‘looked out for those coming behind’. Once they assumed qualified nurse positions including charge nurse and educator, their attitude of mentorship surfaced in how they supported and nurtured the progress of others, beyond the usual parameters of the job. Their behaviours were automatic and aimed at promoting others rather than themselves. They referred to ‘Going the extra mile, putting in more… than what I was paid to do, more than what my job was about’. Participants believed mentorship was an established component of their current working life and a core feature of 306
their specific leadership positions, regardless of whether their employer formally directed it. They had a strong sense of mentorship that was aligned with being a nurse and leader and they expressly mentored others for leadership as a way of preserving the future of the nursing profession. Ellen explained, ‘For me it’s [mentorship]… part of being a nurse, being able to guide and shape the careers of those coming behind me’. They struggled to articulate how they had so easily become mentors. Ellen said ‘It’s part of my character’ and Merle identified ‘It’s just what I do, the way I approach life’. Whereas they acknowledged this attitude of mentorship had been with them for a long time, they did not believe they were a ‘born’ mentor or leader, nor that they been formally trained for either. What they experienced as a natural or inherent attitude of mentoring was an intuitive response to the previous learning that had occurred over an extended period of time, in a variety of settings, through ongoing influence and exposure, rather than direct instruction. Bill: [I have] internalised my own relationships with mentors in my life…. To a large extent my concept and idea of mentorship… are very much constructed on the basis of my past experience… which is probably very normal and very human. I think it’s shaped by the informal mentor relationships I had in the past.
The third subtheme reveals the outcome phase of the evolutionary process of developing an intuitive attitude of mentoring. The mentor role is not necessarily learned through a formalised process; rather mentors can be created over time, learning their role (often unconsciously) through ongoing exposure, enduring influence and role modelling of other mentors. This evolutionary process determines that individuals might experience being a mentor as instinctive or intuitive. In summary, the study revealed a close association between mentorship for leadership and the notion of journey. Attention was drawn to temporality being an integral aspect of and a way of more fully understanding that journey. Being a leader-mentor was achieved by more than assuming a title. It was shown to be a continuous and evolving learning process that endured from childhood through to adulthood, and even then, was ongoing. Mentorship was possible because these individuals had grown into mentors as a result of their life experience. Their life journey involving the subtle shaping of beliefs, attitudes and perceptions had impressed on them a particular way of being.
DISCUSSION This study confirms other research findings that mentorship can contribute to nurses’ recognition and development of © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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leader potential. Although multiple factors have been identified as influencing nurse leader development, including selfconfidence, innate leader qualities, progression of experiences and successes, influence of significant people and personal life factors (Allen 1998), mentorship appears to be a common feature that dynamically facilitates the other elements. The study findings are limited in that they evolve from the life stories of a single group of Australian nurse leaders; individuals whose subjective experiences of mentoring were informal and unequivocally positive. The nursing literature reveals that mentoring relationships are experienced by nurses with diverse experience, come in a range of forms and can be toxic as well as favourable (Grossman 2007; Thomka 2007). Nevertheless, the findings do highlight some issues that might be considered in other settings in which nurses aspire to or are prepared for leadership. Nurse leaders self-identified as mentors and mentored others for leadership. From an early age, at some level of (sub)consciousness, they were orientated towards being a mentor and possibly, also a leader. The fundamental inclination that surfaced in their youth was transformed by a myriad of influential people and circumstances that collectively ensured their mentor disposition was always meaningful in the present. The significant impact of those influences might be attributed to them occurring during the period of childhood/adolescence when individuals are most sensitive to change and rapid growth is happening. These impacts are more readily observed in adulthood rather than immediately (Bornstein 1989). Murphy and Johnson (2011) propose that adequate development during this sensitive period sets the stage for future development and profound impacts, particularly in relation to leader development. Once they were in recognised leadership positions as adults, perceived to be achieved in part or fully through mentorship, the nurse leaders actively contributed to the mentoring journey of others. They intentionally acted to prepare the next generation of nurse leaders, and their focus on safeguarding the profession ensured that their mentoring endeavours were meaningful in the present, and held significance for the future. Their mentoring journey resonated across time. Time is an important component of mentoring relationships and is context bound. Within these relationships, time is often conceptualised as predictable, purposeful transitional stages associated with particular mentor and mentee functions that align with the mentee’s learning and growth (Clutterbuck 2004a,b). Based on Kram’s (1983) early work, the stages of the developmental mentoring process include initiation (6–12 months; relationship formation), cultivation (2–5 years; mentee learning; mentor promotes, protects, supports), separation (6 months to 2 years; relationship © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
becomes informal; mentee moves on), and final redefinition (collaborative peer relationship) (Dunham-Taylor et al. 2008). The findings presented here are conceivably incompatible with sequentially mapping developmental mentoring relationships against discrete passages of time comprising prescribed interventions with predetermined outcomes (Brockbank and McGill 2006). While some mentoring relationships may be constructed in this way, it is clear that not all mentoring relationships have a sequential phased trajectory. The progress of the participants’ mentoring relationships (as mentees) was not time-limited and could not be deconstructed to specific passages of time or episodes of learning. The fluidity of their transformational journey incorporated a continuous recommitting to various relationships or connections over time and assessment and reassessment of multiple impressions, influences and perspectives, all of which had enduring impacts. Similarly, in Murphy’s (2012) study on authentic nurse leader development, nurse leaders valued their ability to look back and reflect on the meaning of influential people and experiences, to move forward and to look back again and reflect later for new meanings, and attributed to this to their capacity to create their own coherent life stories and find their purpose in the world. There are potential benefits from various guises of mentoring. Rather than conceptualising a dualistic phenomenon, a classical developmental relationship or a formal structured relationship, we need to consider the benefits of multiple mentoring interludes within or outside of defined relationships and with several mentors at various times. Jackson (2008) refers to random acts of guidance and professional generosity and suggests that a solitary nurturing act arising from a single encounter could be as valuable as multiple acts occurring in the context of an ongoing formal supportive professional relationship. In Thomka’s (2007) study, nurse mentees identified positive mentoring relationships resulting from proximity to individuals they admired and wanted to learn from, rather than being consciously and formally contrived; they described a natural evolution, rarely named as mentoring at the time. Typically, only the mentees identified these informal and unique connections with others from whom they gained knowledge and guidance, as mentoring, and mentors were unaware they had been identified as such (Thomka 2007). Learning is acknowledged as the fundamental process, purpose and product of mentorship (Allen and Eby 2007; Thompson et al. 2012). Mentors as teachers/guides assist mentees/learners to make significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking (Darwin 2008; Fielden et al. 2009). 307
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In this study, learning was inherent to the mentee’s transformation to nurse leader and then leader-mentor and comprised an unfolding collection of moments in which messages were given and taken; meanings were explicitly and tacitly cocreated, and insights were discerned. Learning was unpredictable and grew out of remembering, prospecting and imagining (Milton 2004; Parse 2008), rather than being preordained or necessarily explicit. These learning experiences contrast with the functionalist mentoring of formal programmes where mentorship corresponds with organisational norms and specific learning outcomes (Blauvelt and Spath 2008; Myall, Levett-Jones and Lathlean 2008) and with the continuing and purposeful association of a classic mentoring relationship (Grossman 2007). They also differ from structured programmes that teach nurses to be mentors (Zannini et al. 2011). Becoming a leader and mentor was not a conscious objective, nor was their learning the result of a specific instruction. The participants could not pinpoint a particular moment when they became a mentor and acknowledged no formal training. Similarly, in Thomka’s (2007) study, nurses became mentors without conscious intent and outside of typical mentoring dyads. They sought out the intellectual capital of colleagues, saw something in the mentor they wanted to pattern their life after and upon receiving the mentors’ knowledge and kindness and continued that positive work informally as they met and influenced others. Stewart and Kruger’s (1996) early work also identified generativity of mentorship as an outcome of mentoring. The propensity to mentor others that evolved from personal experience and motivation to develop new nurse leaders is also likely to have been closely linked to self-concept; self-identity profoundly impacts emotions, thoughts and actions (van Knippenberg et al. 2004). A range of levels of self-conception have been distinguished including the relational self, defined in terms of close relationships (Cross, Bacon and Morris 2000), specifically an individual’s role in relationships with significant others where mutual benefit or interest is salient (van Knippenberg et al. 2004). Those with a strong relational identity act for the benefit of specific others and gain self-worth through developing and maintaining close relationships therefore might be more readily disposed to mentoring (Lord and Brown 2004). Lapierre et al. (2012) found that leaders with high relational self-concept were more likely to mentor followers; however, mentoring type was moderated by followers’ job performance; high performing individuals were offered more career support. It may well be that these nurse leaders, who identified multiple connections with significant others (mentors), developed a robust relational self-concept that particularly motivated 308
them to mentor those who displayed emergent nurse leader capability (strong job performance). A lifelong journey to leadership and mentorship and having multiple mentors are not practical for everyone. In healthcare organisations where time and staff are costly resources, protracted mentoring relationships are likely be inappropriate/irrelevant and programmes for leader development/career progression will typically be time-limited with clear expectations around knowledge and skill acquisition. There are a range of structured programmes supporting nurse leader (Fielden et al. 2009; Johnson et al. 2011) and mentor development (Zannini et al. 2011) that demonstrate significant professional and personal benefits. However, the experiences of becoming a nurse leader-mentor revealed in this study highlight some considerations regarding preparation and development of nurse mentors in current nursing contexts. For some nurses becoming a mentor is a lifelong transformative process, where mentorship begins in youth, emerging at a time of naivety and enquiry. There is potential value in targeting mentor development to nurses early in their careers, so that their emerging identity as a nurse can be broadened to encompass being both a nurse and mentor. Although formal preparation programmes have relevance, the broader influences of supportive attitudes and behaviours, and environments and cultures in which acts of professional generosity are promoted should not be underestimated. Additionally, the links between strong relational identity and mentoring, career development and job performance indicate that healthcare organisations broadly and mentorship programmes specifically need to consider strategies for cultivating nurses’ relational self-concept and could perhaps utilise relational self-concept measures (cf. Lapierre et al. 2012) as a discretionary means to address leader and mentor positions. There is also a need for novice nurses and aspiring nurse leaders to seek ways of enhancing their job performance and to take advantage of relevant organisational/professional opportunities to increase their accomplishments. Becoming a nurse mentor can grow from diverse subjective experience, be influenced by role modelling and exposure to mentors and impacted on by collective external and internal influences. Therefore, any preparation/development of nurse mentors, whether they be novices or experienced nurse leaders, should acknowledge the significance of lived experience and promote a reflexive attitude that encourages nurses to reflect on their life story, recognise their own or others informal or unspoken mentorship and examine their evolving identity, beliefs and attitudes. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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CONCLUSION Nurse leaders identified that their path to being leaders and mentors commenced in their youth before they possessed conscious understanding of mentorship. It began with exposure to certain people and experiences that influenced how they thought about themselves and the world around them. As they grew older and commenced their nursing careers, that journey continued. As they grew in age, they also grew into a clearer understanding of themselves as a mentee and a mentor. What they learned was not left in the past to be forgotten or only retrieved as memories, rather their experience of being mentored at another time became part of who they were; the person they were was simultaneously becoming the person they would be. The future was perceived as significant and was inextricably connected with moving forward in their careers. That forward orientation influenced their hopes and aspirations and impacted on how they were in the world. Being a mentee, a mentor and a nurse were integral aspects of their evolving self that they took forward into the future. All our experiences contribute to making us who we are, and the past, present and future are always meaningful and significantly tied to how we exist. The journey of becoming a nurse-leader mentor illustrates how our temporal existence influences interpretation of ourselves and the world. There is value in nurses consciously and actively supporting and encouraging each other, as each single act of mentorship can collectively have an enduring impact on both individuals and the profession.
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Feature
Journey to become a nurse leader mentor: past, present and future influences Andrea McCloughen,a Louise O’Brienb and Debra Jacksonc aUniversity of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia, bUniversity of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, cUniversity of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Accepted for publication 24 November 2013 DOI: 10.1111/nin.12053
McCLOUGHEN A, O’BRIEN L and JACKSON D. Nursing Inquiry 2014; 21: 301–310 Journey to become a nurse leader mentor: past, present and future influences Mentorship, often viewed as a central capacity of leadership, is acknowledged as influential in growing nurse leaders. Mentoring relationships are perceived as empowering connections offering a dynamic guided experience to promote growth and development in personal and professional life. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach informed by Heidegger and Gadamer was used to explore understandings and experiences of mentorship for nurse leadership by 13 Australian nurse leaders. We found that learning and transformation associated with becoming a nurse leader mentor was experienced as an enduring evolutionary process. Participants’ life journeys provided experiences that developed their understandings and established their personal identity as a leader and mentor. We considered the journey motif in terms of its inextricable connection with lived time and used Heidegger’s ecstasies of temporality as a lens to understand how the temporal dimensions of past, present and future influenced and shaped the development of nurse leader mentors. We found that our temporal existence influences interpretation of ourselves and the world. Individuals can benefit from multiple separate mentoring interludes, with different mentors, over a lifetime. For some nurses, becoming a leader and mentor is a lifelong transformative process that grows from diverse experience and influential role modelling rather than formal instruction. Key words: Heidegger, hermeneutics, leadership, mentorship, phenomenology.
Within the healthcare domain, mentoring is proposed as a vehicle for nurturing personal, career, and intellectual growth and development, improving corporate knowledge and making employees feel valued, as well as encouraging and challenging leadership potential and leadership opportunities, and preparing future nurse leaders (O’Neil et al. 2008; Fielden, Davidson and Sutherland 2009). In nursing, mentorship programmes have increasingly been used to facilitate career development and are considered a strategic means to help mitigate nursing shortages, promote socialisation and retention, support development and retention of intellectual
Correspondence: Andrea McCloughen, Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney, 88 Mallett Street Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales 2050, Australia. E-mail: © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
capital and succession planning (Thomka 2007; Valiga and Grossman 2007; Johnson et al. 2011). Mentorship in nursing has also expanded from specific relationships between individuals, to the creation of mentoring cultures as a means of empowering and developing the profession more broadly (Grossman 2007). Provision of mentorship to followers has been identified as a key aspect of effective leadership (Lapierre, Naidoo and Bonaccio 2012), and the nursing profession commonly views mentorship and leadership as integrated phenomena; the context and processes of mentorship are perceived to be characteristic of leadership. Mentoring relationships are unique connections that incorporate mutual sharing, learning and acquisition of knowledge and influence individual growth and transition (Darwin 2008; Thompson, Wolf and Sabatine 2012). Effec-
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tive mentors enable mentees to grow across spheres of life and career therefore these relationships are described as developmental, empowering and nurturing alliances (Vance 2005). Mentorship occurs in structured or informal ways, highlighted by varied international understandings. The sponsorship-focused approach from the United States of America, comprising an emotional and relationship dimension, is more classical or informal than the developmentfocused model from the United Kingdom and Europe that favours work-based learning in a formalised framework (McCloughen, O’Brien and Jackson 2011). Mentorship is often distinguished by types of mentoring support provided (Eby, Rhodes and Allen 2008), typically broadly classified as instrumental/career and/or psychosocial/personal support (Kram 1985). Career development functions target the mentee’s career advancement through, for example, assistance with work-related challenges, provision of high profile assignments and increased exposure to organisation and/or professional leaders (Lapierre et al. 2012). Psychosocial development functions enhance the mentee’s sense of professional competence and identity (Dougherty, Turban and Haggard 2007) and are provided through encouragement, listening, sharing experiences and being empathic (Lapierre et al. 2012). The evolving mentoring relationship is often defined in terms of universal stages first identified by Levinson et al. (1978). The stages incorporate developmental functions, affective experiences and interaction patterns shaped by the individual and organisation (Kram 1983) and depict modification of mentor behaviours in relation to the mentee’s development as he/she matures within the relationship. Unlike other support mechanisms, for example preceptorship, mentorship is concerned with long-term acquisition of skills in a developing career rather than more immediate improvement of performance and skills (Thompson et al. 2012). Mentoring is generally accepted as a core function of nurse leaders. Within the profession, mentors are typically viewed positively and are recognised as making essential contributions to leadership preparation and ensuring achievement, success and satisfaction in aspiring professionals (Vance 2005; Porter-O’Grady and Malloch 2009). Mentorship is acknowledged as a developing process rather than an outcome (Milton 2004), and mentoring relationships are described as having increasing impact with the passage of time. In nursing, mentorship is perceived as having a generative influence, ensuring that important legacies, values and beliefs of the profession can be preserved and passed to successive generations (Grossman 2007). Mentorship has long been regarded as a resonating phenomenon, whereby 302
aspiring leaders go on to lead, and mentees go on to become mentors (Stewart and Kruger 1996; Vance 2005). To more fully understand the role of mentoring in the development of nurse leaders, there is a need to explore the synergy of mentorship and leadership in nursing and to understand the experiences of nurse leaders who have been mentored or mentor others. Furthermore, for the value of mentoring as a mechanism for leadership generativity to be fully realised, claims of the benefits of mentoring cited in literature need to be substantiated. This paper is drawn from a larger study that explored the experiences of mentoring relationships by Australian nurse leaders. Primarily, we were concerned with what experiences they had of mentorship for leadership, that is, ‘Does the process of mentorship contribute to leadership development?’ We also wanted to know how they thought about, and understood, mentoring.
PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK The aim of the study was to understand how mentorship was conceptualised by nurse leaders and to identify whether mentoring relationships had contributed to their development as nurse leaders. Our focus was on developing meaning and interpretation of life world experience therefore we used hermeneutic phenomenology, informed by key concepts from Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer, as the philosophical framework to guide the study. Hermeneutic phenomenology is both descriptive and interpretive. As a research method, it can be used to directly investigate and describe phenomena as experienced in the life world by using phenomenological reflection and writing to understand the forms of life. Insight into the essence of the phenomenon (mentorship for leadership) was gained through a process of reflectively appropriating, clarifying and making explicit the structure of the meaning of the lived experience (interview and writing). That meaning was multidimensional; therefore, it was communicated textually through organised narrative and prose (van Manen 1997). We particularly attended to Heidegger’s concern with temporality, how it shapes our understandings and influences our constructions of reality (Papadimitriou and Stone 2011) and Gadamer’s (2004) concept that understanding occurs through fusion of present and past horizons.
Heidegger and the ecstasies of temporality Objective time is public, identifiable and measured using a clock (Sokolowski 2000). It is substantive, a thing within which objects and events exist. This is how human relatedness to time is generally understood (Papadimitriou and © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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Stone 2011). Conversely, subjective time belongs to the duration and sequence of mental acts or conscious life events that cannot be objectively timed with a clock and is referred to as lived time (van Manen 1997). Heidegger (1962) was interested in questions related to ‘being’, the constituted meaning of a human in the world. He wanted to know what it meant to be in time and how the past, present and future are meaningful (Guignon 2006). Heidegger saw us as existing in a world saturated with meanings that we inherit, discover, disagree with and change, and this meaningful existence is attributed to our relation to time (Papadimitriou and Stone 2011). Heidegger’s (1962) temporality means that we exist as three temporal dimensions simultaneously. Being ahead of ourselves (projecting ourselves into the future), drawing on and taking with us our past and being concerned with and immersed in the present, all constitute our being (Guignon 2006). These ‘ecstasies’ of temporality mean that we are not confined to or by time or solely contained in here and now (Heidegger 1962).
Future: Heidegger saw the future as meaningful, more than simply ‘yet-to-come’ (Blattner 2008). Possibilities including personality traits, lifestyles and attitudes shape identity, and we exist as ‘being-toward ‘a final configuration of those defining possibilities. ‘Everything we do contribute to making us people of a particular sort’ (Guignon 2006, 278). Past: Heidegger (1962) viewed the past as significant in a present tense. Yesterday has bearing on us today therefore instead of being no longer, the past is always in existence (Gelven 1989). ‘Who I already am … is not the phases of my life that have gone by. Rather … who I have-been is who I find myself to be in so far as I press forward into my life’ (Heidegger 1962, 165). Present: For Heidegger (1962), the present retains importance because it is related to a direct awareness of our actions. The present is actually making present therefore consciously performing actions and creating situations ensures that the present becomes meaningful and significant (Gelven 1989).
Gadamer and the fusion of horizons We meet the world with preconceived expectations of it based on prior experience, or, the necessary conditions of prejudice and preunderstanding (Debesay, N aden and Slettebø 2008). Therefore, our understanding takes place when a fusion of past and present horizons occur (Gadamer 2004). Gadamer described the metaphor of a horizon as a range of vision that includes everything that can be seen © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
from a particular vantage point. To have a horizon means being able to see beyond it rather than being limited to what is near. ‘The horizon of the present is continually in the process of being formed because we are continually having to test all our prejudices’ (Gadamer 2004, 305), and an important aspect of that testing occurs in encountering the past and understanding the tradition from which we come. Gadamer (2004, 305) identified that because the horizon of the present must be formed with the past, understanding is always the fusion of these horizons. Further explanation of how Heidegger and Gadamer’s work guided the conduct of the study has been highlighted elsewhere (McCloughen, O’Brien and Jackson 2009, 2010).
METHOD Participants, data collection and analysis Human research ethics approval was obtained for the study. We used purposive sampling and selection criteria to identify suitable participants who were in leader positions (more than institutional power); possessed leader attributes, for example being professionally active and demonstrating generativity; had peer recognition as leaders; and had the experience of being in mentoring relationships in Australia, as mentors or mentees. Involvement in the study was voluntary and anonymous. Ten female and three male nurse leaders aged in their 40–60s participated. Each had been nursing for over 20 years and at the time of the study was involved in mentoring relationships. Their work and leadership included the contexts of academia, executive management and expert practice. A single detailed conversational face-to-face interview was conducted with each participant in their natural everyday environments. Participants shared subjective perceptions and interpretations of mentorship while the interviewer used open-ended questions integrated with informal conversation, to encourage reflection and further exploration of meaning. Interviews were audiotaped and then transcribed by the first author so that written texts were produced for interpretation. Participants were provided with pseudonyms. The first author conducted the analysis and held collaborative discussions with the other authors to examine emerging thematic descriptions of the phenomena. The aim was to seek interpretive insights from others who were also orientated to the phenomenon under investigation (Gadamer 2004). We used van Manen’s (1997) approach to uncovering experiential structures and Kvale’s (Kvale and Brinkman 2009) canons of hermeneutic meaning interpretation to guide data analysis. This included holistic, selective and 303
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detailed reading of the transcripts to illuminate the structures of meanings around which the lived experience of mentorship could be naively described and interpreted (van Manen 1997). Interpretation and understanding occurred through a continuous process of moving between the meaning of discrete parts of the texts and the global meaning of the texts (McCloughen et al. 2010). As preliminary vague and intuitive understandings grew deeper and more distinguishable, the changing meanings of the separate parts influenced the total meaning, which in turn influenced the parts and so on (Kvale and Brinkman 2009). Philosophical rigour (Debesay et al. 2008) was ensured by having methodological congruence (method was not significantly modified); philosophies informing the study were borne out in the conduct of the study (for example, preserving language and descriptions demonstrates significance of participant narrative); appropriate sampling (for sufficient rich information); and concurrent collecting and analysing of (ongoing interaction between what was known and needed to be known).
FINDINGS All the participants were both nurse leaders and mentors. Mentorship was identified as a significant contributor to leadership development and also influenced the development of mentoring capacity and orientation among nurse leaders. Participants attributed their own leadership (attainment of leader roles and success as leaders) to mentorship from others, and in turn, all mentored others, specifically for leadership. The collective experience of mentorship for nurse leadership (mentorship received and provided to others’ for leader development) was understood and articulated through three existential motifs: imagination, mode of being and journey. Imagination was an essential characteristic of being a nurse leader-mentor that significantly impacted on their ability to recognise and nurture leader potential in others (McCloughen et al. 2010). Being a mentor was a fully integrated aspect of their person that meant mentoring others permeated all of their leader behaviours, intentions and understandings (McCloughen et al. 2011). Their life journeys provided experiences that developed their understandings and formed their identities as leaders and mentors. These motifs are interconnected; however, they also offer substantial discrete meanings. In this paper, we address the study findings in relation to the journey motif. Mentorship for leadership was experienced as a journey – evolutionary connections that commenced in childhood when participants started to identify and connect with
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mentors around them. The connections evolved further during their youth and into their early nursing careers, when they continued to be exposed to and impacted by mentorship that encouraged leader development. At the same time, their personal attitude of mentoring and leadership matured. The evolutionary progress was revealed through the participants’ intuitive connection with the mentor and leader role, whereby as nurse leaders they automatically engaged with others in mentorship. The existential motif of journey was described in three subthemes: being in the company of mentors; learning from mentors; and becoming a leader mentor.
Being in the company of mentors During the participants’ early lives, they were exposed to individuals who demonstrated mentor characteristics and behaviours. Although not acknowledged as mentors at the time, participants later recalled those individuals as standing out and having a significant impact on their perception of and being in the world. Most participants singled out particular teachers who gave of themselves in a manner that other teachers did not. One participant recalled their mentorteacher as providing support and nurturance that set them apart from others. Robin: One person who stands out vividly was my music teacher at high school. She… had a remarkable capacity to recognise budding talent and to really nurture… that talent, and in a mostly unassuming and not very aggressive way, allow that to develop… She fired me up so much and gave me such a sense of confidence… Her sheer enthusiasm and her way of working with me as a high school student was indeed mentoring, there is no doubt about it.
Family members were also identified as demonstrating specific mentoring behaviours. Participants selected family who had made a particular impression that was different to other relatives and especially looked to those who inspired them. Ricki: My aunty believed in me and she nurtured my ambition. She said “you’re a good writer” or “you’re very smart” or “you’re very creative”… she also in her life, modeled for me something that I would want to aspire to be…. So she had those sorts of good attributes that I found attractive. So I guess I wanted to be like her and when I had her approval that was energising.
The participants recalled people from their early nursing training, who demonstrated characteristic mentor behaviours within the clinical environment. Most participants had experienced a hospital-based apprenticeship system of
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nursing education. They recalled and differentiated particular senior nursing colleagues who were supportive and nurturing. Ellen: I was probably mentored all through my training, which was hospital based training and while it wasn’t under the umbrella of a mentor, that’s truly what it was. Because I can remember as a very junior nurse going into the wards and having a senior nurse connect with me, take me under her wing.
A sense of collective mentorship during nurse training was also acknowledged. They spoke about working closely with peers in a supportive and nurturing manner, helping each other to ‘develop a passion for nursing’ and ‘ability to stay committed’. The participants sensed the whole working to keep the parts together. Marion: There was a level of congeniality and mentorship…. On one level it was knowledge sharing and skill sharing and showing people the ropes if you like, and on another level was the emotional support because it was a pretty tough system, and on the other level it was a real notion of team work… at that level there was a… real mutual mentorship.
Exposure to mentors continued after initial nursing training. Participants identified mentors in the early part of their nursing careers that directed and inspired them to progress professionally and to advance towards leadership. This first subtheme reveals that the evolutionary process of developing an intuitive attitude of mentoring and leading commenced with early and sustained exposure to mentors. The young person sensed something unique about these adult-mentors, attended to them, and was influenced by them. The young person began to develop an impression of mentorship and leadership and experienced a subtle shaping of beliefs long before they gained a full and conscious understanding of these concepts.
Learning from mentors Participants sensed that exposure to particular human qualities and nurturing behaviours during their early lives and nursing careers had an enduring impact. They believed that it influenced personal growth and development and, in part, shaped some of their behaviours and beliefs. They acknowledged a direct connection between some of their early relationships and the way they now positioned themselves in the world. Specific mentor behaviours during the participants’ early nursing careers were described. Typically, these included facilitation to acquire higher positions, promotion into © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
positions they might not otherwise have applied for early in their careers, and provision of opportunities to do things outside their usual practice. Mentors encouraged participation in and attendance at conferences or professional meetings and orchestrated temporary fill-in for more advanced or senior-/managerial-type positions. Megan recalled being given an opportunity, not long after she qualified, to relieve in a higher position on a unit that specialised in an area in which she lacked experience but possessed enthusiasm. Other participants acknowledged senior colleagues who took an active interest in their developing careers: Teresa and Merle described them as ‘offering unequivocal support that was invaluable’ and extending a kind of mentorship in the way they offered ‘ongoing emotional, professional and technical support’. Jan highlighted them as providing counsel, strategic direction and advice. The participants learned specific lessons from their early and ongoing exposure to mentorship and continued to be influenced by the actions and beliefs of early mentors. Gair: [The mentor] was always educating me, she was always explaining to me why she did this, or why we might do it this way or what the consequences of something might be. So I learned a lot from her and still it’s in my mind a lot of the ways that I conduct my day-today business and where I think I am going is according to [her].
They consciously adopted particular behaviours that shaped the way they acted in the world and unconsciously developed certain values and principles from those early mentors. Participants spoke about specifically watching, listening and figuring out their mentors’ ways of operating. Robin deliberately ‘tried on some of their behaviours’ to see whether they also worked for him. Participants identified that mentor behaviours observed when they were young, coupled with ongoing exposure to mentorship in their professional life, had an enriching influence that contributed to the development of what Merilyn called ‘personal principles’. Many participants actively sought out and created opportunities for professional growth in others because their early mentors had opened up professional opportunities for them. Anita described aspects of her mentorship as assisting mentees to network, accompanying them to meetings/ forums and introducing them to key people. These behaviours, such as those referred to by other participants, were a developmental strategy learned from the actions of early mentors. The second subtheme reveals the continuing evolutionary process that accompanied the development of an intuitive attitude of mentoring and leading. Young people and novice nurses were profoundly impacted on by direct and indirect exposure to mentors. The qualities and actions of 305
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those mentors had a lingering influence on young mentees, shaping their personal development and behaviours over time and ultimately affecting their adult and career choices and actions.
Becoming a leader mentor Participants had not been formally taught to recognise mentorship or to be a mentor; however, they had all engaged in mentoring relationships as mentees and were mentors. Most believed that being a mentor could not be taught in a formal didactic way. They acknowledged that mentorship was a particular attitude, or way of being, rather than a specific set of skills or actions for which an individual could be trained. Christopher: I think you can teach people the importance of [mentorship], but what they do with that is really up to them. Some people will take it and it will only further reinforce the goodness in them, other people you can spend the rest of your life teaching them mentoring and not get anywhere, you know?… I don’t think you have to be a good mentor; you have to be a good person.
It was apparent that the participants had assumed their current mentor roles customarily and automatically. Mentorship was a natural extension of themselves and adjunctive to being a nurse and leader. The ‘personal characteristic’ or ‘attitude of mentorship’ was evident in the participants during childhood when most held leader- and mentor-type roles. As children, they did not recognise their behaviour as mentorship, but in adulthood they reflected that it was. For some, childhood mentorship occurred via structured leader roles including class captain, president of student council and youth group leader and they described ‘communicating with, nurturing and offering unconditional respect’. Others identified less structured childhood mentorship demonstrated in the way they established connections with other children, provided support and nurturance and were ‘empathic and caring and wanting to give someone a go’. The attitude of mentorship extended beyond childhood into participants’ early nursing careers when as nursing students they ‘took people under my wing’ and ‘looked out for those coming behind’. Once they assumed qualified nurse positions including charge nurse and educator, their attitude of mentorship surfaced in how they supported and nurtured the progress of others, beyond the usual parameters of the job. Their behaviours were automatic and aimed at promoting others rather than themselves. They referred to ‘Going the extra mile, putting in more… than what I was paid to do, more than what my job was about’. Participants believed mentorship was an established component of their current working life and a core feature of 306
their specific leadership positions, regardless of whether their employer formally directed it. They had a strong sense of mentorship that was aligned with being a nurse and leader and they expressly mentored others for leadership as a way of preserving the future of the nursing profession. Ellen explained, ‘For me it’s [mentorship]… part of being a nurse, being able to guide and shape the careers of those coming behind me’. They struggled to articulate how they had so easily become mentors. Ellen said ‘It’s part of my character’ and Merle identified ‘It’s just what I do, the way I approach life’. Whereas they acknowledged this attitude of mentorship had been with them for a long time, they did not believe they were a ‘born’ mentor or leader, nor that they been formally trained for either. What they experienced as a natural or inherent attitude of mentoring was an intuitive response to the previous learning that had occurred over an extended period of time, in a variety of settings, through ongoing influence and exposure, rather than direct instruction. Bill: [I have] internalised my own relationships with mentors in my life…. To a large extent my concept and idea of mentorship… are very much constructed on the basis of my past experience… which is probably very normal and very human. I think it’s shaped by the informal mentor relationships I had in the past.
The third subtheme reveals the outcome phase of the evolutionary process of developing an intuitive attitude of mentoring. The mentor role is not necessarily learned through a formalised process; rather mentors can be created over time, learning their role (often unconsciously) through ongoing exposure, enduring influence and role modelling of other mentors. This evolutionary process determines that individuals might experience being a mentor as instinctive or intuitive. In summary, the study revealed a close association between mentorship for leadership and the notion of journey. Attention was drawn to temporality being an integral aspect of and a way of more fully understanding that journey. Being a leader-mentor was achieved by more than assuming a title. It was shown to be a continuous and evolving learning process that endured from childhood through to adulthood, and even then, was ongoing. Mentorship was possible because these individuals had grown into mentors as a result of their life experience. Their life journey involving the subtle shaping of beliefs, attitudes and perceptions had impressed on them a particular way of being.
DISCUSSION This study confirms other research findings that mentorship can contribute to nurses’ recognition and development of © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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leader potential. Although multiple factors have been identified as influencing nurse leader development, including selfconfidence, innate leader qualities, progression of experiences and successes, influence of significant people and personal life factors (Allen 1998), mentorship appears to be a common feature that dynamically facilitates the other elements. The study findings are limited in that they evolve from the life stories of a single group of Australian nurse leaders; individuals whose subjective experiences of mentoring were informal and unequivocally positive. The nursing literature reveals that mentoring relationships are experienced by nurses with diverse experience, come in a range of forms and can be toxic as well as favourable (Grossman 2007; Thomka 2007). Nevertheless, the findings do highlight some issues that might be considered in other settings in which nurses aspire to or are prepared for leadership. Nurse leaders self-identified as mentors and mentored others for leadership. From an early age, at some level of (sub)consciousness, they were orientated towards being a mentor and possibly, also a leader. The fundamental inclination that surfaced in their youth was transformed by a myriad of influential people and circumstances that collectively ensured their mentor disposition was always meaningful in the present. The significant impact of those influences might be attributed to them occurring during the period of childhood/adolescence when individuals are most sensitive to change and rapid growth is happening. These impacts are more readily observed in adulthood rather than immediately (Bornstein 1989). Murphy and Johnson (2011) propose that adequate development during this sensitive period sets the stage for future development and profound impacts, particularly in relation to leader development. Once they were in recognised leadership positions as adults, perceived to be achieved in part or fully through mentorship, the nurse leaders actively contributed to the mentoring journey of others. They intentionally acted to prepare the next generation of nurse leaders, and their focus on safeguarding the profession ensured that their mentoring endeavours were meaningful in the present, and held significance for the future. Their mentoring journey resonated across time. Time is an important component of mentoring relationships and is context bound. Within these relationships, time is often conceptualised as predictable, purposeful transitional stages associated with particular mentor and mentee functions that align with the mentee’s learning and growth (Clutterbuck 2004a,b). Based on Kram’s (1983) early work, the stages of the developmental mentoring process include initiation (6–12 months; relationship formation), cultivation (2–5 years; mentee learning; mentor promotes, protects, supports), separation (6 months to 2 years; relationship © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
becomes informal; mentee moves on), and final redefinition (collaborative peer relationship) (Dunham-Taylor et al. 2008). The findings presented here are conceivably incompatible with sequentially mapping developmental mentoring relationships against discrete passages of time comprising prescribed interventions with predetermined outcomes (Brockbank and McGill 2006). While some mentoring relationships may be constructed in this way, it is clear that not all mentoring relationships have a sequential phased trajectory. The progress of the participants’ mentoring relationships (as mentees) was not time-limited and could not be deconstructed to specific passages of time or episodes of learning. The fluidity of their transformational journey incorporated a continuous recommitting to various relationships or connections over time and assessment and reassessment of multiple impressions, influences and perspectives, all of which had enduring impacts. Similarly, in Murphy’s (2012) study on authentic nurse leader development, nurse leaders valued their ability to look back and reflect on the meaning of influential people and experiences, to move forward and to look back again and reflect later for new meanings, and attributed to this to their capacity to create their own coherent life stories and find their purpose in the world. There are potential benefits from various guises of mentoring. Rather than conceptualising a dualistic phenomenon, a classical developmental relationship or a formal structured relationship, we need to consider the benefits of multiple mentoring interludes within or outside of defined relationships and with several mentors at various times. Jackson (2008) refers to random acts of guidance and professional generosity and suggests that a solitary nurturing act arising from a single encounter could be as valuable as multiple acts occurring in the context of an ongoing formal supportive professional relationship. In Thomka’s (2007) study, nurse mentees identified positive mentoring relationships resulting from proximity to individuals they admired and wanted to learn from, rather than being consciously and formally contrived; they described a natural evolution, rarely named as mentoring at the time. Typically, only the mentees identified these informal and unique connections with others from whom they gained knowledge and guidance, as mentoring, and mentors were unaware they had been identified as such (Thomka 2007). Learning is acknowledged as the fundamental process, purpose and product of mentorship (Allen and Eby 2007; Thompson et al. 2012). Mentors as teachers/guides assist mentees/learners to make significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking (Darwin 2008; Fielden et al. 2009). 307
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In this study, learning was inherent to the mentee’s transformation to nurse leader and then leader-mentor and comprised an unfolding collection of moments in which messages were given and taken; meanings were explicitly and tacitly cocreated, and insights were discerned. Learning was unpredictable and grew out of remembering, prospecting and imagining (Milton 2004; Parse 2008), rather than being preordained or necessarily explicit. These learning experiences contrast with the functionalist mentoring of formal programmes where mentorship corresponds with organisational norms and specific learning outcomes (Blauvelt and Spath 2008; Myall, Levett-Jones and Lathlean 2008) and with the continuing and purposeful association of a classic mentoring relationship (Grossman 2007). They also differ from structured programmes that teach nurses to be mentors (Zannini et al. 2011). Becoming a leader and mentor was not a conscious objective, nor was their learning the result of a specific instruction. The participants could not pinpoint a particular moment when they became a mentor and acknowledged no formal training. Similarly, in Thomka’s (2007) study, nurses became mentors without conscious intent and outside of typical mentoring dyads. They sought out the intellectual capital of colleagues, saw something in the mentor they wanted to pattern their life after and upon receiving the mentors’ knowledge and kindness and continued that positive work informally as they met and influenced others. Stewart and Kruger’s (1996) early work also identified generativity of mentorship as an outcome of mentoring. The propensity to mentor others that evolved from personal experience and motivation to develop new nurse leaders is also likely to have been closely linked to self-concept; self-identity profoundly impacts emotions, thoughts and actions (van Knippenberg et al. 2004). A range of levels of self-conception have been distinguished including the relational self, defined in terms of close relationships (Cross, Bacon and Morris 2000), specifically an individual’s role in relationships with significant others where mutual benefit or interest is salient (van Knippenberg et al. 2004). Those with a strong relational identity act for the benefit of specific others and gain self-worth through developing and maintaining close relationships therefore might be more readily disposed to mentoring (Lord and Brown 2004). Lapierre et al. (2012) found that leaders with high relational self-concept were more likely to mentor followers; however, mentoring type was moderated by followers’ job performance; high performing individuals were offered more career support. It may well be that these nurse leaders, who identified multiple connections with significant others (mentors), developed a robust relational self-concept that particularly motivated 308
them to mentor those who displayed emergent nurse leader capability (strong job performance). A lifelong journey to leadership and mentorship and having multiple mentors are not practical for everyone. In healthcare organisations where time and staff are costly resources, protracted mentoring relationships are likely be inappropriate/irrelevant and programmes for leader development/career progression will typically be time-limited with clear expectations around knowledge and skill acquisition. There are a range of structured programmes supporting nurse leader (Fielden et al. 2009; Johnson et al. 2011) and mentor development (Zannini et al. 2011) that demonstrate significant professional and personal benefits. However, the experiences of becoming a nurse leader-mentor revealed in this study highlight some considerations regarding preparation and development of nurse mentors in current nursing contexts. For some nurses becoming a mentor is a lifelong transformative process, where mentorship begins in youth, emerging at a time of naivety and enquiry. There is potential value in targeting mentor development to nurses early in their careers, so that their emerging identity as a nurse can be broadened to encompass being both a nurse and mentor. Although formal preparation programmes have relevance, the broader influences of supportive attitudes and behaviours, and environments and cultures in which acts of professional generosity are promoted should not be underestimated. Additionally, the links between strong relational identity and mentoring, career development and job performance indicate that healthcare organisations broadly and mentorship programmes specifically need to consider strategies for cultivating nurses’ relational self-concept and could perhaps utilise relational self-concept measures (cf. Lapierre et al. 2012) as a discretionary means to address leader and mentor positions. There is also a need for novice nurses and aspiring nurse leaders to seek ways of enhancing their job performance and to take advantage of relevant organisational/professional opportunities to increase their accomplishments. Becoming a nurse mentor can grow from diverse subjective experience, be influenced by role modelling and exposure to mentors and impacted on by collective external and internal influences. Therefore, any preparation/development of nurse mentors, whether they be novices or experienced nurse leaders, should acknowledge the significance of lived experience and promote a reflexive attitude that encourages nurses to reflect on their life story, recognise their own or others informal or unspoken mentorship and examine their evolving identity, beliefs and attitudes. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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CONCLUSION Nurse leaders identified that their path to being leaders and mentors commenced in their youth before they possessed conscious understanding of mentorship. It began with exposure to certain people and experiences that influenced how they thought about themselves and the world around them. As they grew older and commenced their nursing careers, that journey continued. As they grew in age, they also grew into a clearer understanding of themselves as a mentee and a mentor. What they learned was not left in the past to be forgotten or only retrieved as memories, rather their experience of being mentored at another time became part of who they were; the person they were was simultaneously becoming the person they would be. The future was perceived as significant and was inextricably connected with moving forward in their careers. That forward orientation influenced their hopes and aspirations and impacted on how they were in the world. Being a mentee, a mentor and a nurse were integral aspects of their evolving self that they took forward into the future. All our experiences contribute to making us who we are, and the past, present and future are always meaningful and significantly tied to how we exist. The journey of becoming a nurse-leader mentor illustrates how our temporal existence influences interpretation of ourselves and the world. There is value in nurses consciously and actively supporting and encouraging each other, as each single act of mentorship can collectively have an enduring impact on both individuals and the profession.
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