On the Healthcare Plus podcast, I recently interviewed Leonard Friedman, PhD, FACHE, director of the Executive MHA program at the George Washington University, Washington,…
Modern Healthcare just released its 2024 Best Places to Work in Healthcare List. We were so pleased that three Healthcare Plus Solutions Group® (HPSG) partners—Floyd Lee…
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…
Originally published by Becker’s Healthcare – click here to read in Becker’s Hospital Review. Many healthcare leaders (those who’ve been around for a while) cut our teeth on a certain style of development: the Leadership Development Institute, or LDI (the “big tent” approach). Everyone would get together in a big room for a day and a half while coaches and speakers downloaded a ton of content into our heads. Then, we’d walk out of the…
Part Four in a Five-Part Series on Communication and Cultures of Trust Welcome to the latest installment in a series on trust and communication. Last week we talked about what leaders can do to create the best odds that employees will “hear” what they’re saying and engage in the conversation. (Click here to review.) This week we’ll share some powerful tactics leaders can use to spark trust-building conversations. A great way to build trust is…