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2: Power, Politics, and Possibilities: Managing the Art of the Possible

DOI:

10.1891/9780826127891.0002

Abstract

P words such as positive, personal and professional power in practice, politics, and possibility can be the foundation for individual and workplace transformation. This chapter explains that attitude is the seat of personal and professional power and discusses how “P” words can transform nurse managers’ professional practice and that of their staff. Facilitating professional power through self-discovery and self-mastery is both a gift and a responsibility of nurse managers. Nurse managers can model the use of positive language that reflects personal and professional power in order to help staff members move beyond using “soft” language that demeans, minimizes, or marginal their practice. The manager is the person with the positional power to lead nurses to discover the possibilities that lie within and the capacity to help facilitate their professional transformation. The chapter also describes the strategies to guide the nurse managers’ political development using personal and professional power.