SixSEED Partners

Six Seeds

National Stress Awareness Month Campaign Series: “I’m a Fixer”

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I can’t tell you how often I hear that declaration of identity from my clients. It is often said with pride as they acknowledge their strength of identifying and solving problems.

At SixSEED Partners, we honor that declaration AND we will nudge you to expand it! What’s wrong with being a fixer? Isn’t that a noble deed? For sure, except when:

  • The person or situation in front of you isn’t asking for a fix
  • There isn’t a problem to solve
  • By ‘fixing’ the problem in front of you, you inadvertently cause more problems downstream that are part of the system
  • You take on a responsibility that isn’t yours to take on and by doing so, become overwhelmed

So, what’s the answer?? Try these options for consideration:

  • Ask whoever is in front of you what they most need from you in this moment? You may be pleased to find they just want you to listen and empathize
  • Ask: Might this be a tension that has other systemic impact? What other perspectives might you invite to the table?
  • Consider: For whom might wrestling with this problem be a developmental opportunity where I might grow leadership capacity within my team or organization?

The next time you’re tempted to declare: “I’m a fixer–” consider saying “I’m a fixer.. and I’m so much more than that!”

Fixers Anonymous: “A 12-Step Program for ‘Fixers’”

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By Joy W. Goldman RN, MS, PCC: A recovering fixer!

Over the next several weeks, we will post stress management strategies for those of us who identify as “I’m a fixer!—I fix things!” — usually said with much pride. Fixing, also known as problem-solving, is a valuable skill, until we approach everything in our work and personal lives as problems to fix. Here we’ve adapted the time-tested 12-step program from Alcoholics Anonymous to habitual problem solvers/ fixers!

1. We admitted that we were powerless over wanting to fix everything and everyone. As healthcare practitioners and leaders, we have been groomed to notice the gap: our filters have been cultured to look for what’s wrong as compared with what’s right. We’ve fallen hostage to the dopamine/ neurochemical surge that occurs when we believe we’ve solved a problem and fixed something. We’ve enjoyed the feeling of power when we believe we have the answer and share our wisdom with those with a need to learn from us. In an increasingly unpredictable and fast-moving world, fixing problems seems less injurious than eating lots of chocolate! We’ve also noticed others coming to us less frequently- seemingly not wanting our advice, or coming to us ALL the time to solve their problems.

2. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity and provide hope that others wouldn’t run when we approached. As we become overwhelmed with everyone running to us to solve their problems, we realized there had to be a better way. Constantly “fixing” is exhausting! There are some leaders who don’t seem as harried as we do and seem to be getting results—from where does their power come and how might I have the courage to be vulnerable and ask for help?

3. We made a decision to turn our fixing compulsion over to the care of a higher power as we understand them. We really enjoy appearing to be the master of our craft where others see us as the expert. And while we recognize that there are places and times when our fixing is a tremendous contribution, we’re also aware that we are a limited resource and can’t tackle all of work and life problems. We also notice that, like bell-bottoms, the same problems keep reappearing. They may seem fixed for a time, but then they reappear, like a pesty mosquito that just won’t quit! We need and surrender to getting help.

SixSEED Recognizes National Doctor’s Day

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On National Doctor’s Day, we’d like to share a true story. I was contacted by a physician who was interested in coaching. The client’s complaint was: “I don’t like who I’m becoming.” On further exploration (we coaches are curious beings!), the physician was a relatively new leader who managed a small clinical department but had to interface with numerous others to coordinate care. This female physician said that she found herself becoming more reactive and angry and feared that she would alienate people instead of inspiring their partnership.

I inquired about her life and she mentioned that she had been providing direct care during the ongoing pandemic; that she was the primary caregiver to a parent who died 3 months earlier; and that she was the mother of 3 adolescent children. She said all of this in a matter-of-fact tone and I wondered if she was noticing my eyebrows creeping higher and higher on my brow as she told her story.

Why do we choose to share this story on Doctor’s Day? In our experience as we’ve worked with physician providers and leaders, this superhero mindset is common. Our nation has expected it and you have molded yourself into this “it’s my job and what must be done” identity.

On behalf of SixSEED Partners, we’d like to support your “reaction” of “no more.” We’d like to offer you this “GIFT”:

+ Grace to appreciate your humanity and courage while offering yourself compassion and forgiveness as you so generously offer others.

+ Integrity to continue to advocate for patients, families, your colleagues, and yourself.

+ Faith to realize there is much out of your control and there is a larger purpose.

+ Time to take care of YOU – we need you for the long haul!

Happy National Doctor’s Day! SixSEED Partners honors and appreciates physicians around the country for the work they do and their commitment to providing quality care to their patients and community. We thank you for caring for us and our loved ones!

“The Last Time” Meditation

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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.

Moral Injury: HealthCare’s Public Health Crisis

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A Systemic Lens Perspective

Joy W. Goldman RN, MS PCC:  CEO SixSEED Partners

Background:  

On March 10th of this year, I published a blog focused on “Caring for the Organization AND Caring for the Workforce.”  The higher purpose of that tension was to support a healthy ecosystem within healthcare.  Writing this close to six months later, not only is that tension still relevant, it has reached a crisis point in healthcare as droves of physicians and nurses leave their organizations and/or professions.  How do we take care of healthcare as a system, as we take care of the public’s healthcare needs?  In this writer’s opinion, right now we are failing.  The purpose of this blog is to invite creative, systemic solutions to this thorny challenge.

Impact and Case for Change:

Panagioti, Geraghty, and Johnson published an article in JAMA Intern Med 2018 (10) entitled: “The Association Between Physician Burnout and Patient Safety, Professionalism, and Patient Satisfaction.  Their review of the literature revealed that there is a 2-fold increase in odds for unsafe care, unprofessional behaviors, and low patient satisfaction amongst physicians experiencing burnout.   Reith published another article in Cureus titled: Burnout in United States Healthcare Professionals: A Narrative Review.   He expands the impacts from both physician and nursing burnout to include higher rates of patient mortality; transmission of hospital-acquired infections; increase in medical errors and an increase in medical student alcohol abuse and suicide.  Of note is that both of these articles were published in 2018:  prior to Covid 19.

One less quoted yet just as serious sequelae for nursing and physician burnout is your ability to get timely and effective care for you and your loved ones.

Complex and Interdependent Challenges:  Variations of Individual AND Team Tensions:

Many of us are familiar with the process of looking at root causes for problems to permanently eradicate the disease.  The challenge with Covid and burnout in healthcare is that they are not problems to solve.  They are systemic and interdependent challenges to leverage that can be boiled down to a tension between meeting individual needs AND meeting collective needs.

Look at the below examples:

Impact (So What?):

  As Einstein said: “The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”  We must facilitate dialogues that address these thorny challenges, and which include healthcare worker well-being. If we don’t, physicians and nurses will do more of what they are starting to do which is saying “no more.”  They are saying this as they submit their resignations; leave for higher-paying jobs; or leave the profession altogether.  This leaves hospitals struggling to manage the finances of healthcare with their mission to serve and meet the needs of their communities.  What solutions are people creating to respond to the fear of closing beds and not being able to meet expense needs?  We hear from our clients their staffing challenges as Traveling Nursing companies are perceived as stealing staff from hospitals less equipped to pay higher salaries and offering to those who can.  I liken this strategy to one that hopes to improve nutritional health by offering organic produce to affluent communities while depriving or limiting healthy food choices to lower socioeconomic communities.  When will we learn that localized or individual approaches will not eradicate systemic challenges?

SixSEED Partners Interdependent Solutions:

We believe that these times of epidemic crisis require a different way of thinking and acting to sustainably impact and transform these issues.  Examples include:

  • Leverage Competition & Collaboration:  bring local hospital systems together to look at community health needs and discuss how blending resources and talent might be able to better meet community needs and organizational needs.  Instead of three hospital systems vying for digestive disorder patients, consolidate and refer specialties across hospital systems, in service to patient care AND provider well-being.
  • Medical and Nursing Professional Associations uniting in lobbying their governments to establish temporary laws that promote access to resources and prohibit possible poaching of scarce resources by any one organization at the expense of others.
  • Leverage social media to impress the public of OUR responsibility.  Just as we’ve seen the near -death lung cancer patient with poor color, on oxygen, doing commercials on TV, healthcare workers should be posting photos on social media of their tears; their marked faces; bodies lining hallways due to lack of beds and/or staff.    The story of healthcare’s reality must be presented unfiltered, visible and in a media venue that the public see’s frequently and consistently.  The public has a role and responsibility for decreasing the demands on our healthcare systems and this is one way to keep the public informed of what is happening behind the scenes in the delivery of healthcare.
  • Gather regulatory, professional and education/ training organizations in dialogue around training that could take place to upskill volunteers or provide jobs for those needing work in supplementing nursing and physician staff.  As with scribes, how can we lessen the burden on our clinicians so that they are doing only the highest acuity patient care needs.  The  other tasks which require less clinical expertise can be done by other members of the care team.   

These examples require both/and thinking and require us to get out of our silos, holding our greater purpose and not just our lone survival as paramount.

SixSEED Partners is looking for leaders and systems who are ready to do this work.  We have no time to waste.  The time is NOW.  Will you join us?  If you are curious, please email me directly:  joy@sixseedpartners.com.  

#systemintegration #leadershipecosystemcapacitation #wellbeing #burnout #ecosystem 

A Grounded Approach to Healthy Leadership

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Celebrating the work of Bob Rosen and The Healthy Leader®

Joy W. Goldman RN, MS PCC:  CEO SixSEED Partners

Background:  

One of our Six SEEDS includes a focus on Well-Being and our passion has only increased given the numerous traumas healthcare leaders and their teams have been exposed to during the pandemic.  It is our firm belief that healthcare delivery can’t be at its best if those working within it are unhealthy.  Therefore, it seemed perfect that we would affiliate with The Healthy Leader® in facilitating their Grounded and Conscious Healthy Leader Content.  Since we’ve been focusing on building resilience, we wanted to showcase the great work that Bob Rosen, Rick Auman, and the team have been doing and the impact it makes in creating healthy leaders.

 The Grounded Leader Model:  Recently, we commented on a posting on Linked In that referenced a Center for Creative Leadership Article on Eight Steps to Become More Resilient.(provide link).  In our work with The Healthy Leader,® we focus on evidence-based research that links the six dimensions of the Grounded Leader to business performance results.  You’ll note in the above graphic that the six dimensions of the Grounded Leader model include: 

  • Physical Health:  How you live
  • Emotional Health: How you feel
  • Intellectual Health: How you think
  • Social Health: How you interact
  • Vocational Health: How you perform
  • Spiritual Health: How you view the world

As we reflect on resilience, we can easily discern that it is the interplay of all six of these dimensions that prepares us for resilience, adaptation and thriving.  Resilience is a root within the emotional dimension yet it is our assertion that one cannot be resilient without growing the other five dimensions as well.

The model also links the six dimensions to the major disruptors of our current world.  For example, the more we attend to the dimension of physical health and energy management, the better able we are to effectively deal with the unrelenting speed of life.  Technology was a gift during Covid 19 isolation yet we would argue that it was an inadequate substitute without the addition of social health and nourishing communities.

All of these resonated with the participants from a Fortune 500 Technology firm for whom we are delivering this content.  Through small group interactions and accountability partners; the support of an online portal with videos and reflection/ journaling exercises, and integration of their organization’s leadership imperatives, the participants are living and learning new habits to support their resilience and that of their teams.

Application: 

To those who might think this content is “soft,” The Healthy Leader® has partnered in conducting research on the impact of healthy leaders to business results.  Ross and Squires published a 2015 article entitled “Tone at the Top: Leadership as the Foundation of Organizational Health and Wellness” in which they describe the impact of leaders who score high in these six dimensions to job performance.  Below you can see two of the charts included in the article.  Of note is the significance of spiritual health to performance.  When’s the last time you discussed spiritual health with your employees?

Let’s hear from you

If you’d like to chat more about The Grounded and Conscious Leader Program, and about a methodical and systemic approach that supports the individual and systemic change and resilience, we’d love to hear from you. Please message us on our LinkedIn page or send us an email here.

#culture, #systemintegration, #wellbeing

Acknowledgment: The Healthy Leader