Through the years I have worked here in South City as a nurse manager, and now as a director, I’ve witnessed different styles of leadership. One of those leadership styles is what I call “Covert Leadership.”

Covert Leadership, to me, is characterized by the relentless progress towards goals, and unwavering support for individuals and teams without seeking recognition or taking center stage. It’s so important that we recognize the contributions of these Covert Leaders because, without their behind-the-scenes efforts, our departments would fail. They truly have a huge impact on our department's culture, our readiness, and the care we provide to our patients and each other.

Kelly Carlson exemplifies Covert Leadership; she performs to the highest standard and accomplishes her tasks efficiently and meaningfully. She does this without seeking recognition or acknowledgment. Everything she does is in service to her manager colleagues, the department staff and physicians, and the medical center at large.

Kelly's morning routine is tedious and rigid. However, it keeps the department on track and ready. Ready for any eventuality to save lives and make our team's job more accessible and worthwhile. She finds meaning in every conversation. Knowingly or unknowingly, she has touched the lives of many of our staff and done so with compassion and empathy. Some examples of this is how she’s worked to find alternative venues of work for our staff when on modified duty, enabling them to sustain their financial needs. She also follows up with our team about their expiring certification and employment requirements, keeping our departments compliant and regulatory-ready.

Our Nursing Unit Council continues to shine with Kelly in the driving set. The Emergency Department is top performing regionally in meeting our goals and, under Kelly’s leadership, we’ve actually sustained our momentum to outperform the entire region in all Magnet Metrics. Our ED performed exceedingly well in our Magnet Survey, garnering eight out of nine in all indices and four out of four in the last four quarters.

Kelly also leads the team in our Pediatric initiatives. With her leadership, we can attest that our ED is pediatric competent and ready. In addition, with her persistence, we are happy to report that our SUNS (Substance Use Navigator) initiative is now running.

Not only does Kelly drive toward meaningful impact on key initiatives, but she does so while remaining above the fray and out of political posturing. Kelly’s focus is always on the needs of our patients and the department. Recently, our ED saw a record-breaking volume; however, even with limited resources and space, Kelly steered our team to render quality and expeditious care to our members safely and efficiently. 

I want to end this with this quote from Nelson Mandela: "A leader is like a shepherd. They stay behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead; the others follow, not realizing that they are being directed from behind all along."

That one Leader is Kelly Carlson… I humbly but proudly recommend Her for this recognition.