On the Healthcare Plus podcast, I recently interviewed Leonard Friedman, PhD, FACHE, director of the Executive MHA program at the George Washington University, Washington,…
Sharing can be a good thing—almost a magical thing. It often leads to an increase in self-awareness. In this column, we will focus on what happens when you share with someone you trust, who cares enough to provide you with objective feedback. The tape one plays in their head may not be accurate. Just the process of saying something aloud can be helpful. I am so fortunate to spend time with many people, both in…
Serving in a leadership role, whether formal or informal, is a fantastic opportunity to be helpful and make a difference. Being in leadership means that others recognize an individual’s ability. While I spend most of my time with people in formal leadership roles, my community work means I also interact with people who are informal leaders. I work with community volunteers who serve in a variety of community roles. Often these are nonpaid committee roles.…
Mark Clement, president/CEO of TriHealth in Cincinnati, Ohio, sent me a link to the video “Handle Hard Better.” The video is a talk by Kara Lawson, the women’s basketball coach at Duke. As I watched it, my own experiences came to mind: times when the going got tough and I quit, times when I did not quit, and the difference between the two. I also recalled stories about occasions when someone wanted to quit and did not,…
Graduation season is here again. It’s exciting to think about all the young people with a lifetime ahead to shape as they choose. There are so many possibilities available, so many paths they can take. Yet, another word for “many possibilities” is uncertainty. Sometimes, for young people (and for all people!), uncertainty can be quite scary. They may worry that the decisions they make right now will set their course for life. What if they’re making…
Originally published by Becker’s Healthcare – click here to read in Becker’s Hospital Review. In last month’s column, I wrote about how leader development is shifting. Many have traditionally used foundational group training (LDIs) as the center of their leader development. Now, more organizations are viewing LDIs as a valuable starting point; however, they’re then moving on to develop people in tailored, personalized ways. At Healthcare Plus Solutions Group®, we call this approach Precision Leader Development™ (PLD), and…
Anxiety is a real emotion, and one that receives lots of attention. Why? Because it can be a very serious issue that impacts a person’s well-being. But anxiety isn’t just connected to issues in our personal life. It also manifests in the professional realm. The form of anxiety we’ll explore today is the anxiety that can happen when we don’t “close the loop” to assure others that action has been taken. If the person you…
My job provides me with a fantastic opportunity to learn from many smart and successful leaders. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Ralph Stayer, owner of Johnsonville Foods, headquartered in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. I was presenting at NCH Healthcare System in Naples, Florida, and he was in the audience. Johnsonville Foods started as a small butcher shop. Today it has more than a billion dollars in annual sales and offers products in more than…
We all have moments of clarity, those times when something we may not have been aware of becomes noticeably clear to us. A few of these came to mind over the past several weeks. One is around how we think about deliverables. Employee engagement is a topic most organizations focus on. It shows up in goals. Yet, is engagement the goal, or are items like reduced employee turnover and increased productivity the desired outcomes? This point comes up often when I…
Part Five in a Five-Part Series on Communication and Cultures of Trust Over the past four weeks, we have explored the subject of communication and the role it plays in building a culture of trust. As we discussed early on, great communication helps leaders create clarity and reduce anxiety, demonstrate empathy and understanding, build strong relationships with employees, and much more. (All of these contribute to trust and, ultimately, high performance.) We’ve also talked about what keeps…
COVID-19 was tough on everyone, but one of the hardest hit areas was post-acute. It was a scary time. Residents were struggling. Caregivers were leaving. Stress and burnout were rampant. Organizations were in survival mode—just trying to get through the day. In the aftermath of the pandemic, post-acute is struggling with several realities. One, there’s a serious staffing shortage and high turnover. Two, morale continues to be low, in large part because of that short-staffing. Three, with…