I have a book titled Daily Reflections that I read every morning. A recent reflection was titled “A Full and Thankful Heart.” The author stated, “I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot contain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one’s heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion that we can ever know.” That author went on to share that most of us are very fortunate. We…

Is it doable? That is the question. As regular readers know, I have been able to get back into healthcare. However, at times, I still work with non-healthcare companies and also communities based on the ideas in my book Building a Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change Is Reshaping America. In all fields, I find it so useful to ask that short, yet powerful question. Prior to making a recommendation, it’s best to complete a diagnosis. In any situation, if…

A main role in my career is creating ways to build and sustain high performance. By “high performance” I mean the organization’s key success metrics. “Sustainability” is performing at a high level over time. A few of the items I’ve focused on over the years have been retaining employees and creating great patient experiences in the healthcare sector. Due to experiencing some success in healthcare, many of my methods and books are used in non-healthcare…

A flashback is a past incident recurring vividly in the mind. When one has been around a long time, there are more situations that bring back past situations and/or experiences. Almost 20 years ago, I put together over 100 questions I had received from people and published them. The book is titled 101 Answers to Questions Leaders Ask. The goal was to be helpful to those in leadership by providing suggested ways to respond to…

What people want and need from us can be different from what we think. We can make assumptions, but until we ask, we can’t truly know. Recent research from the University of Colorado School of Medicine shows that while healthcare professionals might think they know a patient’s biggest worry, very often they don’t. I read about this in the book Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself,…

“We all make mistakes” is a phrase we all have likely heard. It is often used to reduce someone’s guilt over making a mistake and/or the fear of the consequences of that mistake. Because it is human to make mistakes, forgiveness is crucial inside organizations. We know that some mistakes are much more serious than others. I recently heard a presentation from an engineer who worked in nuclear energy. The talk was on Human Factor…

I am fortunate to hear from a variety of people each week sharing questions as well as their thoughts on different topics. Having my own companies, I am in the field each week experiencing the same situations they do. I received a call from a CEO of a company. He said he reached out to me because he felt I would have an answer to the situation he was in. After he explained, I said,…