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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 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.

There are many definitions and manifestations of love. As we think about the last two years, the dedication and commitment that healthcare workers and leaders have shown to their patients, teams, and each other is the highest example of love in action. It takes love to show up fully, in life’s messiness; to not turn away but to stay in the mess with the intent to make things better. To our clients who show up every day, with courage and vulnerability, and despite numerous competing priorities, invest in their own and their team’s development, we say “Brava! and We love you!”

“The important thing is not to think much, but to love much; and so do that which best stirs you to love.”
– ST. TERESA OF ÁVILA

Experiment: Listen to yourself and those around you and every time you hear yourself or someone else blame someone or something else, make a tik mark on a piece of paper or in your cell phone notes. At the end of the day, count the tik marks. What do you notice? We as humans seem to love to blame others for pretty much everything, including our own feelings! “You made me feel this way!”

In coaching a client recently, we discussed the sad reality (not really…. sad, just meaning we have work to do..) that we own how we feel. It is as Eleanor Roosevelt said: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” A leader’s work includes having the courage to reflect on their own “triggers” or reactive behaviors and examine the root cause. In the moment, this might look like breathing and visualizing a relaxing, grounded image, giving yourself a hug of compassion, and then refocusing on your desired outcome. For our client, her trigger was her life experience that “people will let me down and I can only count on myself.” Her recognizing this allowed her to have compassion for herself, while setting boundaries with an employee. She still had work to do but she didn’t have to carry anger and resentment into the rest of her day and her home life. We’d love to hear your thoughts for yourself and others around this challenge.