SixSEED Partners

#leadershipdevelopment

A Modern Twist on Succession Planning

by Leave a Comment

Preventing The Most Common & Expensive Hiring Mistake

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

Background

SixSEED Partners was approached about providing coaching and leadership development for a tenured leader in an academic medical center who was two-three years away from retirement. The executive was concerned, however, in allocating resources for the leader, who had an immediate need for development but would be leaving the organization in a relatively short period of time. His question was how he could best use his resources so that both immediate and longer-term needs were met.

The Strategy

Upon further exploration, we discovered that the senior leader of advanced practice clinicians had not designated any successors for his role. The organization needed to mitigate some immediate development needs while also investing in leadership development for current high performers. The organization was also concerned about attrition given the extraordinary demands that had been placed on this department during covid 19 and beyond. The aging workforce coupled with high degrees of burnout and exhaustion were contributing to a perfect storm that could result in a crisis at the same time the leadership transition would occur.

The Solution

As we have done in past engagements, we challenged the executive to consider investing in expanding the thinking capacity of high potential leaders as compared to identifying one or two individuals as a potential successor. They could do this through a blend of individual and group coaching and facilitation where the leaders were invited to progressively move out of their comfort zones of being technical experts and more into leading with others in unfamiliar multi-department systems’ issues. Through a multi-year team development effort, the senior clinical leader received time-limited coaching on immediate development needs along with ways to further mentor and develop her staff. The high potential advance practice leaders were offered training on both/and thinking (Barry Johnson thought leader); leading above and below the line (the Conscious Leadership Group); the Empowerment Dynamic (David Emerald and Donna Zajonc); and conversational intelligence (Judith Glaser).

The Impact

The senior clinical leader improved her performance and appreciated an opportunity to safeguard her legacy. There was less turnover in the department as the high potential leaders felt that they were being given an opportunity to learn and grow, and in the moment development occurred with support for mistakes instead of being placed in roles with heightened pressure to perform. If you’d like to learn more, contact us at SixSEED Partners.

If you’d like to learn more, contact us at SixSEED Partners. Reach us at:  SixSEED Partners.

Improving Capacity for Leading In Complex Times through Both/And Thinking: An Experiential Approach

by Leave a Comment

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

Background:

Joy W. Goldman RN, MS, PCC: CEO SixSEED partners and Dr. Larry McEvoy, Founder of Epidemic Leadership co-facilitated a half-day workshop on both/and thinking- polarity thinking for over forty nurse, physician and administrative leaders at WellSpan Health. This was the third year presenting this workshop to WellSpan’s high potential leaders.  WellSpan has expanded the audience from only physician leaders to all leaders in their leadership academy.  Expanding the audience facilitated the collegial sharing within populations that may, absent both/and thinking awareness and capacity, engage in unnecessary conflict which contributes to burnout.

The Strategy:

Dr. McEvoy and Ms. Goldman designed the half-day workshop so that most of the time would be spent physically walking the interdependent tension of “Care for Self” and “Care for Others.”  Since WellSpan, like so many other healthcare systems, are focusing on clinician wellbeing, this tension was relevant for each participant.  In addition to providing an experience of standing in the upsides and downsides of each tension, the participants also used each other as internal consultants with a designed liberating structure that facilitated effective listening.

The Solution: 

The leaders were asked to progress through the polarity map of “Care for Self” and “Care for Others” in silence.  They were invited to scan their body for images, colors, and sensations experienced as they stood in each quadrant of the map.  This provided a profound and clear experience of their values—“This is like me,” and their fear- “This is NOT me.”  When the participants were engaged in the listening exercise, we noticed their difficulty in turning their chairs around and refraining from being part of their triad conversation.

The Impact:

Organically, the leaders had difficulty being associated with the upside of “care for self.”  Their instinctual reaction was to perceive that as being “selfish,” (the overdone expression of care for self).  Their comfort zone was caring for others and they resonated with the overdone care for others to the neglect of care for self, resulting in burnout.  Because their fear (not me) is in the overdone care for self, they began to see that there are healthy actions they can take to better care for themselves.  A participant commented: “Just the eight minutes tuning into my body was healing and when I stood in care for self, it felt relaxing and healthy.” Self care was the topic for their peer coaching/consulting resulting in clear action steps and peer accountability after the workshop.

If this sounds like something from which your leaders can benefit, please reach out and let us know at info@sixseedpartners.com.  Four hours powerfully engaged in this work can lessen burnout!

The Shift from Burnout to a Focus on Purpose and Well-Being

by Leave a Comment

“Far from being out of touch, leaders who work to reconnect the health care workforce to a sense of purpose and restore the meaning behind what we do and how we do it are facing some of health care’s biggest challenges head on. Health care leaders have to understand that their choice is not between addressing all the pressures on the system or supporting the workforce. To improve our whole system and get out of this morass we find ourselves in today, leaders have to first support those who devote their lives to health care.”

Today’s post quotes an article from IHI (the Institute for Healthcare Improvement) titled: “Don’t Talk To Me About Joy in Work” by Kedar Mate. This shift from burnout to a focus on purpose and well-being is the topic of a few workshops that SixSEED Partners will be facilitating in healthcare organizations over the next couple of months. As Mate states in his article, this isn’t an either/or situation. We can have compassion for the numerous demands facing healthcare workers and leaders as we also courageously lead our purpose-driven work.

We’d love to hear what resonated for you. Feel free to offer a comment at: https://sixseedpartners.com/contact/

To Create Results, Leaders Must Take Actions

by Leave a Comment

With deep gratitude to our colleague Vinay Kumar for his work in powerfully training leaders on shifting their IOS: internal operating system to better manage complexity. Vinay and I will be co-facilitating a leadership retreat for healthcare leaders where we will continue our work using the leadership circle profile mat to help them notice reactive thinking and behaviors and shifting those to create cultures focused on well-being and excellence. In this LinkedIn post, he discusses OAR: How we observe, leads to our taking actions which get results. If we want different results, we need to shift how we observe.

We’d love to hear what resonated for you. Feel free to offer a comment at: https://sixseedpartners.com/contact/

Conscious Leaders Step Up & Take Responsibility

by Leave a Comment

Most of the leaders we work with possess an Uber-sense of responsibility– they take on much more than is theirs to do. Yet in their “get it done” spirit, they are quick to act which can also mean quick to direct others without realizing they may be omitting essential data in communicating the conditions of “done” for their direct reports. Our colleagues at the Conscious Leadership Group offer this simple and powerful algorithm for assessing your own actions in contributing to an unsatisfactory outcome, regardless what that outcome might be. Ben and Rosamund Zander, in the “Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life” (buy here: https://tinyurl.com/2jzbd4ky) talk about “looking in the mirror” before blaming others. The Conscious Leadership Group aligns with this thinking in this framework.

We’d love to hear how this might apply to you. Feel free to offer a comment at: https://sixseedpartners.com/contact/

NOVA Conference Opening Video

by Leave a Comment

On December 1st, Brian Berman, President of the Nova Institute for Health and Founding Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, presented “Integrated whole-systems approaches at all scales: for health, healing, and flourishing.” The conference opening video is worth two minutes of your time.

The Nova Institute’s Goal is: The ultimate aim of planetary health is flourishing along every level of the person, place, and planet continuum. In an era of so many interconnected challenges, there could not be a more important time for ambitious, integrative approaches.” Dr. Berman is quoted: “In challenging times there are also great opportunities to reach beyond boundaries and fundamentally shift how we think about well-being at all scales.”

At SixSEED Partners, our mission is to provide integrated solutions to heal healthcare. Supporting and implementing the tools from the IDG are critical to our mission for sustainable change.