SixSEED Partners
This concise article, “Are You Facing a Problem? Or a Polarity?” by the Leading Effectively Staff at the Center for Creative Leadership delves into the necessity for teams to leverage both tasks AND relationships.
You can read more about mapping polarities in their follow-up article, “How to Manage Paradox.”
If you’d like to read how SixSEED Partners has applied this framework within healthcare teams and systems, check out our Resources webpage at https://sixseedpartners.com/resources/.
How many of you have read the seminal book by Jim Collins: “From Good to Great?” As you will see in this graphic, a recent HBR article: “Level 5 leaders: Personal Humility and Professional Will” highlights the need for level 5 leaders to be able to leverage the paradox of confidence AND humility.
One error we see repeatedly in healthcare organizations is their selecting new leaders based on technical competencies– high performance in their clinical roles. If we aren’t developing healthcare leaders to think differently, which includes the ability to manage paradox, we set them up to fail, which systemically contributes to the pervasive burnout we now see.
At SixSEED Partners, we create with you a methodical and measurable way to develop this capacity. Read our Case Study: New Leader Transition to learn more.
This HBR article published in January of this year, highlights a leader’s need to “balance the need to perform and transform.” As we coach leaders, one of the more common system tensions we help our leaders leverage is honoring what is working well in the organization as they also take action to adapt and modify processes to meet future demands. Whether called “continuity and transformation,” or “tactical and strategic,” it is essential that all leaders have the capacity to think both/and as they lead their teams toward more agile forms of performance.
Read more at https://bit.ly/3Kjdm4W
Interested in a data-driven, proven methodology to do this? Send us a message at info@sixseedpartners.com.
During a recent snowstorm in Baltimore, I recalled a meditation from the app, Waking Up, by Sam Harris. The meditation is called: “The Last Time” and it is narrated by William B. Irvine.
In it, he asks us to imagine that whatever we are doing, we are doing it for the last time. As I prepared to go out shoveling, I paused and looked at the red cardinals, the Bluejays, the nuthatches and chickadees frolicking at my bird-feeders and felt a sense of calm and gratitude pervade my being.
How might a perspective of “the last time” impact you today?
Listen to the meditation at https://bit.ly/3IdYGUb.
During American Heart Month, we want to highlight the great work at the HeartMath Institute where the team offers evidence-based and quick methods for improving heart-brain coherence. Heart-focused breathing has been found to short circuit our sympathetic nervous system response to threat and results in clearer thinking; feelings of peace and ease; and improved results.
According to the CDC, “February is American Heart Month, a time when all people can focus on their cardiovascular health. The Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention is shining a light on hypertension (high blood pressure), a leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke.”
For more information about American Heart Month and resources to help, visit the CDC’s ‘American Heart Month Toolkits 2022‘ website.
Joy W. Goldman RN, MS, PCC: CEO and Founding Partner, SixSEED Partners
Background
OneSixSEED Partners (SSP) was contacted by a Chief Clinical Officer for a large faith-based health system concerning our providing coaching services to two cardiac surgeons who needed to partner for overall program success and were currently in conflict. The behaviors demonstrated were interfering with the engagement of other team members and posed a risk of departure for one of the surgeons who happened to be a high-volume, high revenue producer.
The Strategy:
SSP met with the local hospital Chief Clinical Officer (CCO) to determine measures of success and also to assess dynamics within the larger health system. As may be common with less urban areas, the CCO’s marital partner was a peer to one of the referred physicians which impacted the CCO’s proclivity in setting firm boundaries. SSP modeled being compassionate AND direct in establishing performance expectations and outcomes. While there was some interest in bringing the two physicians together immediately, we agreed that our approach would combine the organization establishing firm expectations and providing coaching support in developing these physician leaders.
The Solution:
Choosing the right coach for the clients was essential in establishing trust in order to provide both challenge and support. We decided to use the @CoreStrengths Strength Deployment Inventory to help each physician deepen their emotional intelligence as they understood their motivators and values within the context of six other motivational value styles and conflict styles. In debriefing the physicians individually, each client was true to their style, often demonstrating their strengths and overdone strengths within the debrief conversation.
As you will note from the attached SDI triangle, the two surgeons had very different styles which contributed greatly to their sense of conflict. One physician valued inclusion and the other physician valued autonomy and competition. As with all interdependent tensions/ polarities, what was essential was helping each physician understand their unique gifts/ strengths and how to leverage those, while also understanding their overdone strengths and the impact on their teams. Each physician’s development plan included strengthening the opposite pole/ style: to better leverage competition and collaboration.
The Impact:
One of the strengths of the Core Strengths platform is that it has an app that allows a user to review their results and also compare their style to that of others and learn “do’s and don’ts” for emailing, messaging, communicating, and meeting with those who are different than them. They learn how to flex their style to their audience so they can partner better and perceive behaviors less personally. In being able to do so, not only is the partnership strengthened but there is less wear and tear on the physicians so their energy can go where it is most needed which is program development and patient care. I’m noticing the desire to want to tie a pretty bow and say this story had a happy ending, and I’m sure it will. The work continues yet it might be easy to guess that the surgeon with a high-performance motivation (red) is considering moving on to what’s next. As leaders, our roles include establishing cultures where all can thrive. There are times when that might mean people leave our organizations. If we’ve done our job in creating strong development cultures, we increase overall leadership capacity so that regardless of departures, the organization continues to thrive and patient care is sustained.
