How often have you heard an old-school boss say (or at least think), “Hey, they should consider themselves lucky to have a job.” Our next few blog posts will feature excerpts from Burl Stamp’s upcoming new book, Becoming a Better Boss, which is scheduled to be published early next year. This entry is from the chapter titled “The Better Boss Mindset.” This mindset probably traces some of its roots all the way back to the Great Depression, when individuals did indeed feel lucky to have any job at all. I still remember spending time as a kid with my grandparents who spent a good part of their early working life during the Depression. That frightening, discouraging time influenced the way they thought about life and

Another meeting. (Sigh.) In our work with healthcare teams, there are few shared beliefs that are more widely held than, “We have too many meetings!” And healthcare isn’t alone. When you search “meetings” in the Harvard Business Review archive, 381 magazine articles, 1,016 digital articles, and 4,071 case studies show up. Clearly, we know there’s a problem. So, why have most organizations made so little progress in crafting solutions? It’s likely because the core issue is complex and requires meaningful change. When companies jump to the conclusion that “too many” is the only problem with meetings, predictable solutions emerge. Believing that reducing supply will reduce demand, organizations try implementing every imaginable version of “No Meeting Zones,” from blocking one-hour-a-day, to one-day-a-week, to flexible versions that

“I’m not cancelling my gym session to attend your pre-work meeting.”    Not surprisingly, this recent LinkedIn post from Stephanie Brown of Creative Career Lab was met with polarizing responses. Feedback ranged from “Couldn’t agree more!” and “Love this!” to “Nope!” and “Balance doesn’t mean selfishness and inflexibility.”  The desire for a healthy work-life balance has become one of the rallying cries for younger generations.  And while this has been met to some degree with headshaking and questioning of work ethics and laziness, the truth is, something needed to change.   Due to their intrinsic interconnection, the ability to achieve a true “harmonious equilibrium” may be a misconception, as highlighted in a recent Forbes article.1   However, a shift in the way organizational culture supports overall employee well-being

“Another meeting?!” It’s a frustration we hear often, especially in health care provider organizations. And for good reason. Staff meetings are often held for the wrong reasons, are poorly planned, and can be just plain boring. But when they are inclusive, open and well-structured, department staff meetings can be one of the most powerful places to cultivate teamwork and trust. Like so many long-standing, accepted management practices, the key to success is in the how and why we deploy them. First, if leaders believe that the primary purpose of a staff meeting is to share information, they will likely continue to be disappointed in the lukewarm reception they get from their staff. Too many department meetings consist of 55 minutes of standard reports, recitation of

In our work with major health systems over the past 20+ years, the “golden” 5-to-1 ratio has been one of the most enduring recommendations we make to leaders who want to better engage and support team members is to provide balanced feedback. This research-based strategy reveals the power of five positive comments for every one criticism in high-performing organizations. This practice and the underlying research were cited in a 2013 Harvard Business Review article by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, “The Ideal Praise-to-Criticism Ratio.”  By design, this leadership principle focuses on quantity. But sometimes we see a limiting flaw in the way people think about the 5-to-1 ratio.   Insightful leaders understand that the practice works best when they develop a mindset and bias toward

Transformative leaders who make exciting, innovative things happen in their companies usually possess a higher sense of urgency than their colleagues. They have a bias for action over indecision that others admire. But to be successful over the long-term, these same great leaders also know when to suppress that sense of urgency. Their emotionally intelligent side tells them their best reaction sometimes is to sleep on it. Especially when it comes to people-centric leadership skills and practices, effective bosses understand that knee-jerk reactions are seldom productive. Even worse than being ineffective, they can leave lingering scars that affect an employee’s sense of engagement, commitment, and drive to improve.  Philosophically, that may make perfect sense. But the challenge for leaders is that knee-jerk reactions are emotional,

“You’re not a very strong leader.” I still remember that feedback from one of my first bosses soon after I was “rewarded” with supervisory responsibilities. I was promoted because I was a hard-working, strong individual performer. But I was 23 years old and didn’t know what I didn’t know. My immediate thought and gut reaction: “What the hell do you mean that I’m not a very good leader?!” It was several years – and many more life experiences – later that I finally began to understand the gift my boss had given me. Leadership was something I needed to work on. “Leadership is a process of self-development,” Linda Hill, a Harvard Business School professor and leadership guru commented in a recent HBR article. “You need

From frontline workers to senior executives, ask anyone in healthcare what common challenges they are experiencing, and you are sure to hear frustrations about the “new generation of employees.”  Leaders who just made sense of Millennials are now trying to figure out how to engage Gen Z, and pre-existing negative stereotypes of this cohort have become further entrenched as TikTok videos and the concept of “quiet quitting” began making the rounds. Despite their notorious reputation, Gen Zers are actually highly practical and recognize the importance of hard work. Dr. Jean Twenge’s extensive research on generations reveals that they are more likely than the previous generation to say that work will be a central part of their lives.1 So, how can healthcare leaders engage Gen Z’s

How often do organizations develop and share annual goals at the start of a new year, then barely talk with work teams about them until 12 months later when posting results. Is it any wonder teams often miss the target when we don’t consistently track goal performance? Successful leaders help teams stay focused on achieving critical operational, financial, and quality goals every day. Monitoring, sharing, and discussing progress throughout the year are all essential practices to make that happen. That’s why the “T” in our Smarter S.M.A.R.T. goals model stands for tracked. Following are five key ideas for effectively tracking goals performance in ways that engage staff and improve results. Go beyond simply posting results To be meaningful and influence team priorities, updated reports from

Exasperated by current staffing and financial challenges, a friend who is a top executive at a major health system seemed uncharacteristically discouraged in a recent conversation. He admitted that their employee engagement, retention, and morale were at all-time lows. He also reluctantly confessed that he didn’t see a clear path out of the current morass.  Looking for a bright spot, he quickly shared, “But managers are doing action plans with employee engagement strategies right now to try to turn things around.”  Since we were both being open and candid with one another, I asked, “Have you really found those action plans to be effective?”  Without hesitation, he admitted, “No, you’re right. We usually check off the box that they’re done, then they go on the