Hardworking leaders often believe every disappointing result calls for more effort. When performance slips, you stay later, push harder, and question what you should…
Dr. Thom Mayer is known for practical ideas that get results. His new book, Leading for Exceptional Patient Experience: Making Jobs Easier, Patients’ Lives…
The aftermath of COVID-19, combined with the realities of the aging workforce (retiring Baby Boomers), has created more position turnover than normal. This is…
Healthcare doesn’t need a fresh start—it needs a thoughtful rewire. Rewiring Healthcare: Foundation to Future brings together senior leaders to step back…
Never, never, never give up. This quote is associated with Winston Churchill, based on his famous speech delivered during World War II. It is often used to inspire people to persevere, to hold the line, to refuse to quit no matter what—in other words, to display grit. It is a great quote. But when I started digging deeper, I found it’s actually a shortened version of what Churchill really said: “Never give in. Never give…
Employee engagement is discussed and written about often. What does engagement look like in action? People who work in healthcare have great intentions. They care deeply about their patients and want the best outcomes for them and for the organization. Due to the industry’s being hyper-specialized, people can naturally be so focused on their own responsibilities that they may not see opportunities to make the patient’s experience even better. When leaders narrate how to truly…
My wife, Rishy, and I are owners of the Beloit Sky Carp baseball team, the high-A minor league affiliate of the Miami Marlins. I received a nice note from an employee saying they liked that I had ended an email with the words “gung ho!” I replied with a group message explaining a little more about the term and how it sums up what we want in the Sky Carp culture: an enthusiastic atmosphere created…
“Drop the Rock” is a short talk by the late speaker Richard (“Sandy”) Beach. It is a favorite message of mine. You can click here to listen to it on YouTube, but to summarize, the story describes a person struggling to swim out to a boat where her friends were waiting. She was weighed down by a rock around her neck (her friends could see it, yet she could not). The friends kept yelling, “Drop the…
At many of my talks on creating a positive culture, I ask the group this question: “When you receive a text from your supervisor to call or see them, what is your first thought? Is it, Here comes more positive feedback. This positive feedback I am getting is really cutting into my productivity?” The group always chuckles. It is common for an employee to feel anxiety when they hear their leader wants to see them.…
Self-replenishment matters. Today it is understood how important it is to keep ourselves hydrated with water. If we do not do so, there can be serious health consequences. I feel the same is true of replenishing oneself with good thoughts and messages. I recently coauthored a book with my good friend Dr. Janet Pilcher. The book is called The Extraordinary Gift: Our Teachers. The idea for the book came from a previous book of mine titled The…
Is it possible for a company to not achieve key goals while most if not all of those in leadership receive a positive yearly evaluation? I have seen this happen over the years. It brings up some questions: How can it be that there is such a disconnect between a leader’s evaluation and their actual performance? And why aren’t leaders moving the needle on organizational goals? The answer typically comes down to one of two issues…
When great results are achieved, the top leader is often asked how it happened. A frequent response is, “The credit goes to the team.” Let’s dig deeper. What makes a team (the people who make the results happen) successful? In studying high-performing organizations, there are common themes. The biggest one is that successful companies invest considerable amounts of time and dollars in selecting and developing talent. I was reminded of this recently at a session…
Capital follows talent, but talent follows place. I first heard this statement from placemaking expert James Lima. Most of my time is spent helping organizations create great places to work. The ability to attract and retain talent is the difference between successful organizations and others. But is being a great place to work enough to ensure that people will accept a job offer and that a company can build a strong workforce? At one time, it…
They are poaching our people. They stole one of our best employees. Such statements are heard periodically. They reflect a misunderstanding of the employee/company relationship. Employees, unless contracted in a way that does not allow departures (or allows them only under certain conditions), are free to work where they want to and leave when they want to. No one “poaches” or “steals” anyone. They might try to recruit an employee, and they might succeed if the…