APPENDIX A
INTERVIEW WRITE-UP

1. I had a lot of opportunity to be a team leader on various nursing units, where I was responsible for multiple staff. In this case, it was the opportunity to be a team leader on a hospital ward where I had to work with some difficult staff.
2. I think the fact that I was trying different things. I think that was a big part of getting me to where I am today and that's trying new things. And that position, team leader on a hospital ward, provided me that opportunity to work with some difficult staff. So there was a lot of development going on because I was trying new and different things, and I had an opportunity to sit down with the head nurse on a regular basis to say this is what I tried, this is what worked, this is what I found worked for me and get ideas, so there was a lot of, you know, collaboration going on with my top supervisor, but also a lot of freedom for trial and error.
3. It was early in my career as a nurse.
4. I was asked to apply for it. In fact, as I thought back over my life in the leadership role, every position up until the dean position, I was asked to apply for the position.
5. Nobody, as I recall, came to me and said this is the way you need to handle this person. I am not a good one, a good person to handle other people. One of the things that over the years I have learned, and a lot of it was observing my parents in working with a variety of people, is to get right in there and work right alongside them and get to know those people and, you know, lead by doing, right alongside of them. So you became more of a peer than them looking upon you as a supervisor, even though you were many times evaluating those individuals.
6. This experience gave me the opportunity to try different things and to try new things that I hadn't done before. It gave me an opportunity to work with a variety of people; an opportunity to lead by doing rather than just by telling. It provided an opportunity to build my self-confidence. I think another one that stands out really strongly is that I had a lot of opportunity to get people to work together: team building skills. You know, we (nurses on duty) would sit down and talk about our particular wing and patients on that wing and what might work, what might not work. Getting a variety of people working together was a real feat, but also a real satisfaction when it did happen. I think I mentioned the leading by doing, which I think is a big thing. You can't, I don't think, read it out of a book and then go out and do it. I think there has to be, for most people, some trial and error. Being willing to take those risks I think is important. It helped me develop a risk-taking ability. I was not a risk-taker when I first got out of college. I was very much into a safe environment.
   
   I think, probably indirectly, I talked about the growth that I feel I had in listening to others. Certainly I had a lot of opportunity to do that or not do that depending upon how well I did with it. But on a team, because of the variety of people that I worked with, you know, some (nurse members of the team) were very dominating and wanted to talk all the time and others, you know, were in their shell and not willing to share. But I think listening was a big thing that I grew in during that time.
   
   A lot of teaching. Because as a team leader I was looked upon as one to make sure that the correct nursing procedures were being followed and you know follow up on patient complaints and so, yes I did a lot of teaching of the aides and nurses under me. I frequently had student nurses on the team also and the aides were also modeling after the way I did things and saw that things needed to be done. I think I mentioned getting people to work together.
7. [Was the timing of this activity kind of critical in terms of your leadership development?] That's kind of hard for me to say. I think if I were to answer that very quickly, I would say yes that it (experience early in career) was important for me. I am probably a better leader because it came to me early in my life, before I had developed a lot of set patterns and modes of operation. I was probably easier to bend, you know, I wasn't as staid in my ideas. I was probably more willing to listen and change.
8. [If we wanted to try to provide similar on-the-job developmental experiences for someone else, what would we need to know? What would we need to do?] I think there needs to be an environment whereby the person who is developing the leadership has some authority. In other words, I don't think it can be a shadowing. I think it needs to be where you can lead--actually do the work of leading and experience these successes and failures--but have somebody there behind you to be a sounding board. It needs to be a real experience with real responsibility, but with a person there that one could go to for advice and counsel as he or she needed.