This holiday season, we celebrate “SixSEED Holiday Giving”, where each team member donates to an organization that is meaningful.

Ashley-Dior Thomas:  Sr. Executive Assistant, SixSEED Partners

ASHLEY-DIOR THOMAS CONTRIBUTES TO SOME (SO OTHERS MIGHT EAT) Ashley-Dior explains why this is organization is important to her: “Food insecurity and homelessness is a huge issue in this country. With the rise in homelessness, the pandemic exposed how many people are undernourished and don’t have access to quality food and shelter. SOME has been a leader in the DC area to feed people and provide holistic counseling to help people get back on their feet. The holidays remind us to think more about others and help whenever we can and I’m thankful that organizations like SOME exist to combat these issues.

ABOUT SOME (So Others Might Eat)

The cycle of poverty and homelessness can be broken. SOME’s (So Others Might Eat) comprehensive programs are designed to help our most vulnerable neighbors—people experiencing homelessness and extreme poverty—find pathways out of poverty and achieve long-term stability and success. SOME is an interfaith, community-based service organization that exists to help and support residents of our nation’s capital experiencing homelessness and poverty. SOME offers a variety of services, including affordable housing, counseling, substance use disorder treatment, and job training. In addition, SOME helps meet immediate daily needs by providing food, clothing, and healthcare to those in need. Learn more about this organization at https://some.org/.

This holiday season, we celebrate “SixSEED Holiday Giving”, where each team member donates to an organization that is meaningful.

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

JOY GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTES TO THE SCHWARTZ CENTER FOR COMPASSIONATE HEALTHCARE. For Joy, when she heard about this non-profit during the Ending Physician Burnout Global Summit, she knew she wanted to support their work. SixSEED Partners’ mission is “to provide integrated solutions to heal healthcare.” Joy’s personal mission is to model and grow compassion in the world. The mission of The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare is “To put compassion at the heart of healthcare through programs, education, and advocacy.” What better alignment could there be?

Joy states, “In today’s fast-paced healthcare environment, crowded with competing priorities, the human connection is too easily overlooked leaving caregivers burned out and patients and families fearful and suffering. Through innovative programs, education, and advocacy, the Schwartz Center is working to support caregivers, healthcare leaders, and others and bring compassion to every healthcare experience.”

She is also impressed with their Healing Healthcare Initiative Framework that takes an ecosystem approach to healing healthcare. At this time of unprecedented burnout and resignations within healthcare, it is essential to support organizations like The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare to create healing cultures where excellent care and well-being exists for ALL.

ABOUT THE SCHWARTZ CENTER FOR COMPASSIONATE HEALTHCARE

The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare provides research-based strategies, tools, and the support that caregivers need to create and sustain cultures of compassion. Together with their members, partners, and other supporters, they are bringing their vision to light by helping caregivers, healthcare leaders, and others across all sectors of healthcare experience and share compassion through their work and in their organizations and communities. They are making compassion a priority for every healthcare organization across the country and around the world. Learn more about this organization at https://www.theschwartzcenter.org/.

Healthcare Executive Interviewed Five CEOs

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

The November/December 2021 cover story for the issue of Healthcare Executive interviews five CEOs from across the country as they describe their breakthrough moments in leading during this unprecedented time. There were two messages that resonated deeply with our work at SixSEED Partners. Tina Freese Decker: President and CEO of Spectrum Health System in Grand Rapids, Michigan highlights three interdependent tensions: polarities necessary for impactful leadership. She calls them paradoxical skills to be balanced: we would call them polarities to be leveraged, as we minimize the downsides of over-focusing on either of them to the neglect of the other: “Leaders must think big and small.”

At SixSEED, we coach our leaders and systems to leverage operational and strategic priorities– details and big picture. “Leaders must be decisive yet collaborative.” Yes….we must know when to be swift in our decision making, at the risk of not being inclusive, and when we have time and will make better decisions when we invite in numerous perspectives. “Leaders must be comfortable with sitting at the head of the table AND taking a seat at the table.” At SixSEED, we would call this leveraging executive as leader AND leveraging others as leaders. Lastly, Decker highlights that “leaders must over-communicate AND over-listen.” Advocacy- sharing what we know, while also being curious – Inquiry are two essential polarities to leverage.

Read more from the source at https://bit.ly/3ykT2eQ.

This holiday season, we celebrate “SixSEED Holiday Giving”, where each team member donates to an organization that is meaningful.

Petra Platzer, PhD, NBC-HWC, PCC

PETRA PLATZER CONTRIBUTES TO MENDED HEARTS. For Petra, this year has found several pointers toward the Heart – from the work she and Joy have enjoyed doing with the Executive Committee of the Heart & Vascular Institute at Centra Health; to the latest Brene Brown book (Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience); and getting to work closely with her new colleague Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a nationally recognized pioneer in women’s heart health. The most poignant of all for Petra is her mom’s recent diagnosis of Atrial Fibrillation, and the journey she’s been on surrounding the ER trips and various doctor’s appointments surrounding that diagnosis. The support she has received from Mended Hearts outside of those medical care processes has been pivotal for how Petra’s mom is now able to navigate her own health and wellness amidst this new illness. That is why this year, Petra is supporting Mended Hearts, just as they have been supporting her mom. 

ABOUT MENDED HEARTS

The Mended Hearts program is the nation’s premier peer-support program for patients who have cardiovascular disease, their caregivers, and their families. Since its humble beginning in 1951, Mended Hearts has served millions by providing support and education, bringing awareness to issues that those living with heart disease face, and advocating to improve quality of life across the lifespan. Learn more about this organization at https://mendedhearts.org/.

This holiday season, we celebrate “SixSEED Holiday Giving”, where each team member donates to an organization that is meaningful.

Cliff Kayser, MS, PCC: CSO

CLIFF KAYSER CONTRIBUTES TO SLOAN KETTERING INSTITUTE (SKI) For Cliff Kayser, he will contribute to Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI). Cliff explains why this is organization is important to him: “We all know someone challenged by a cancer diagnosis. One of my heroes, my sister Lori, has been living with a currently incurable cancer. The longer she follows the current protocols and takes good care of herself, her chances improve. Her hard work combined with scientific discoveries from experimental research is why I’m donating to the research arm of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, “SKI” – the Sloan Kettering Institute. SKI was formed 70-years ago to fuel progress in cancer treatment by supporting scientific advances in the understanding of biology and medicine (such as: cancer-related genes, unraveled signaling pathways that control cell growth and division, and identified the cell types involved in mounting and repressing immune responses). SKI research has also been a driver of clinical advances in cancer treatment, from chemotherapy to targeted therapy to immunotherapy. I’ve had the pleasure of working with the amazing Leadership Training and Organization Development team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and several team members became fully certified in PACT (Polarity Approach for Continuity and Transformation). It’s great knowing my colleagues are doing such great work to develop leaders there to accomplish their vision to harness the latest research techniques to conquer cancer. 

ABOUT SLOAN KETTERING INSTITUTE (SKI):

In 1945, philanthropist Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., and engineer Charles F. Kettering founded the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) on New York City’s Upper East Side, with the vision of harnessing the latest research techniques in order to conquer cancer. This goal endures today. As the experimental research arm of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, SKI is focused on the pursuit of fundamental scientific discoveries. The institute’s philosophy is that the best way to fuel progress in cancer treatment is to support scientists as they explore the unknown.

SKI is distinguished by its:

• world-renowned faculty
• cutting-edge technological resources
• relatively small size and open academic community
• extensive collaboration between scientists and clinicians

SKI exists as a distinct entity within the larger community of scholars, clinicians, and researchers that make up MSK. SKI hosts more than 100 laboratory investigators, 400 postdoctoral research fellows (including clinical fellows), and 300 PhD and MD/PhD graduate students. The institute enjoys a close relationship with neighbors Weill Cornell Medicine and The Rockefeller University.

Over the course of its 70-year history, SKI has produced many advances in our understanding of biology and medicine. SKI scientists have discovered cancer-related genes, unraveled signaling pathways that control cell growth and division, and identified the cell types involved in mounting and repressing immune responses. SKI research has also been a driver of clinical advances in cancer treatment, from chemotherapy to targeted therapy to immunotherapy.

SKI scientists are leaders in their fields. Many are members of the National Academies of Science and Medicine. Many are Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. They are the recipients of numerous awards and honors.

In the HBR article: “Becoming a More Humane Leader,” Hougaard and Carter cite an 86% increase in job satisfaction for those who work for a wise and compassionate leader.

“If you start to think about what our role is as leaders, it’s actually quite simple,” Chris Toth, CEO of the medical device company Varian, told us. “Our role is not to be the ones who make the decision or to be the smartest person in the room. In fact, it can be exceptionally dangerous if the decision-making always goes to the leader. Instead, you must create a culture of compassion and empowerment that is accepting of diverse perspectives. This unlocks people’s creativity, productivity, and happiness.”

Click the source to learn what you can do to be that wise and compassionate leader: there is no time to waste!