Good healthcare leaders need to have strong clinical skills, as well as business/operational skills. Good healthcare leaders also need to be people who build teams that want to stick with them. To be successful at that, you have to be likeable. You also have to have a keen sense of awareness, and emotional intelligence. There’s a high cost to ignoring these three core principles, as a leader.
What’s the cost? You won’t be able to retain your health care staff.
Episode 56 – 3 Core Principles For Good Healthcare Leadership
Most hospitals need leaders with strong clinical skills, as well as business/operational skills. To be a really good healthcare leader, whatever stage you’re at in the chain of command, you also need people who want to stick with you. To be successful at that, you have to be likeable.
Episode 56 show notes:
For some people, it’s easy to be amazing in their job. They magically lead people who want to stick with them. And for those folks, their teams have better job satisfaction. That just makes sense. But the reality is COVID-19 is causing significant challenges across all industries. This makes good healthcare leadership especially challenging, and difficult.
The fact is, the health care industry is imploding as we speak. From speaking with policy makers, health administrators, managers and the frontline, there is a huge divide amongst all these disciplines. This was always there, and might very well remain. But it makes for a very difficult work environment. Despite each discipline sharing the sentiment of caring, some people might be out for themselves.
The Research On Good Leadership
Based on the research by Wu and colleagues, the three strategic principles for good leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic are as follows:
#1. Effective Crisis Management, Planning and Action
A recent Forbes article on the ROI of health care leadership discussed how Temple Health in North Philadelphia had “taken a two-pronged approach in identifying the most important skills for healthcare leaders.” The article discussed that its Director of Leadership and Organizational Development, Allyson Saccomandi, took a dual focus on employee engagement and development. This showed successful results.
It is widely acknowledged that all types of organizations should assess and manage the risk of work-related stress. Allyson Saccomandi planned, and took appropriate action through a range of initiatives. As a result, her team likely trusts her and wants to work for her. If you are struggling to take different action in the health care space, you’re not alone. These are unprecedented times, forcing many managers to be working off-site at critical times.
At Satori Health & Wellness Coaching Ltd, we provide the inspiration that many hospitals need right now. We take you & your employees through a dynamic personal development process, which provides easy, yet practical ways, to divert the crisis, plan and give employees a powerful experience.
#2. Be Amazing At Communicating, Show Empathy & Empower Your Staff
Health care leaders rely on empathy in the workplace (have a listen to Episode 49 on The Top 7 Ways To Add More Empathy). Without empathy, your staff will perform at sub-optimal levels and burnout entirely. It’s not very inspiring to work for a manager who’s all about the numbers and lacks personality. If you don’t believe me on this one, have a quick glance at Simon Sinek’s powerful talk on Empathy. Sinek discusses the power of empathy, and tells a great story of a Barista who served him coffee at The Four Seasons Hotel. This Barista loved his job so much due to the compassion and empathy provided by the many hotel managers, daily.
We are seeing widespread burnout of health care workers, which can’t only be a result of COVID-19. Nursing retention, due to burnout, has been a long-standing issue for health practitioners. So, if you come off as being harsh to your staff, or disempower them through dinosaur-age workplace policies – that ignore the challenges they face – you’ll end up with angry nurses who feel dis-empowered, and slighted. See this Canadian news article “nurse want national and retention strategies amidst staffing crisis”.
Now more than ever, hospitals need to evaluate their leadership communication responses to the pandemic challenges, no matter what. This doesn’t mean you have to craft-out some long and drawn out “leadership communication workshop”. Instead, use your common sense on how you’d want to be treated and try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes for a brief moment before reacting. By communicating with empathy, leaders are taking the time to acknowledge the whole person. This type of leader is inspiring and exhibits one of the 3 Core Principles For Good Health Care Leadership!!
#3. The Continuum of Staff Support To Build Your Hospital’s Competitive Edge In Nursing Retention
The nursing retention formula is complex for the average HR executive. To be a good leader, you need to fully understand what makes your staff leave. Poor work/life balance and burnout are key employment disruptors at the moment. So don’t let that happen. Be the leader that is obsessed with getting your staff to build the right mindset to be healthy and well, which leads to getting the job done. See post on 3 Keys to an effective retention strategy for healthcare HR here.
Programs like The ProMind Experience provide solutions that maximize the company’s competitive edge by creating healthier and more mindful employees, reducing illness and preventing burnout. To have an effective nursing retention strategy, you need to take into account your staff’s personal wellbeing. When your staff is feeling like they have adequate work/life balance, and they know they hold value to the organization, they are more apt to show up at work.
We should not forget that key workers typically feel a strong sense of duty to continue working even when exhausted. Therefore, it is crucial to encourage staff to take a day off from the demands of their job to sustain their wellbeing over time.
Although managers play a key role in monitoring and supporting their staff’s mental health, they need the opportunity, time, and resources to effectively perform their duties. Managers also need their own space to prioritize their own wellbeing.
Improving Work-Life Balance With The ProMind Experience
Work-life balance and nursing wellbeing go together. By arming your employees with the right mindset strategies and personal development solutions, you can facilitate the development of personal wellbeing and sustainable healthy habits.
Satori’s The ProMind Experience enables hospitals to help frontline nurses achieve work-life balance in 7 weeks or less.
- The bonus training, Banish Burnout Bootcamp, offers tips and strategies to help with stress management
- Our Team Approach helps staff to navigate their own personalized health journey through fitness and nutrition
- Opportunities to build social connections with coworkers through the mindful clinician community
- Seamlessly gamified platform offers a fun experience that hits the dopamine button
- A fun and engaging closed community-based group to boost collaboration and enhance wellbeing
- And so much more….Sound like a good fit? Request a demo to see for yourself how The ProMind Experience(TM) can help improve work-life balance at your hospital and organization.
Articles on Mindfulness
1. Baking and Cooking as Mindfulness Activities
2. The Benefits of Everyday Mindfulness
3. Your Own Happy Pill Through Mindfulness Coaching
4. How Meditation Helps for Stress-Management
5. Episode 33. 5 Interesting Facts On Meditation
6. 4 Easy Steps To Build A Meditation Practice
7. Create Your Own Meditation Space – Episode 15 Satori Radio Podcast
Questions about my journey? Check out Our Story for more details on what qualifies me to talk Mindset with health administrators.
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