Tag: Employee Engagement

3 Tips for Dealing With Politics (or Other Touchy Subjects)

Sometimes, inspiration for my blog post comes from unexpected places – like a quiet, late-evening dinner on the road. After a successful day with a client, I arrived back at my hotel for a later-than-usual dinner. There were only a few people left in the restaurant, and I was seated near a table of three gentlemen. While I wasn’t interested in eavesdropping, it was impossible to not hear their conversation in the quiet room. From their discussion it was clear that they all worked for the same company and were traveling together on business. Two middle-aged men were obviously more senior managers, and they were accompanied by a junior colleague who appeared to be in his 20s. What surprised me was how their discussion turned

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purpose sign graphic from stamp & chase

Have we lost the power of purpose in health care?

Understanding purpose in organizations seems to be one of the most talked about issues – and opportunities – in companies today. A few weeks ago, 181 CEOs who are part of the prestigious Business Roundtable signed a new statement on the “Purpose of a Corporation.” No longer is simply driving shareholder value the top priority, they said. Rather, the statement recognized that the purpose of an organization in management is key in engaging and serving all stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders. Haven’t we always understood purpose in healthcare? Many in health care would argue that we’ve always understood the purpose of our organizations in management. After all, can there be a higher purpose than serving our fellow human beings at some of the

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good economy graphic from stamp & chase

What’s not to love about a booming economy – unless you’re a middle manager

What’s not to love about America’s strong economy? More people are employed, wages are finally beginning to inch up for workers left behind in the past, and stock prices are rising. But for middle managers, a growing economy can bring unexpected consequences. Simply keeping a department staffed can be more challenging, let alone developing employees so that they are individually and collectively more successful. In September, Bloomberg reported that U.S. job openings rose in July to a new record. At the same time, so did the share of workers who decided to quit their jobs, hitting a level not seen since 2001. Job postings exceeded the number of unemployed individuals by 659,000. In our work with leading companies to support improved employee engagement, Stamp&Chase reminds managers

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team of medical staff holding up a thumbs up graphic from stamp & chase

Why a “5-to-1 Mindset” Fosters a High-Performance Culture

In our work with major health systems across the country, we’ve advocated leaders adopt the golden 5-to-1 ratio in their interactions with colleagues and their teams. This research-based strategy reveals the power of five positive comments for every one criticism in high-performing teams and 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.” But an insightful observation from Dr. Matthew Wayne, chief medical officer of Summa Health Medical Group and NewHealth Collaborative, in a leadership workshop last week helped me see a flaw in the way people think about the 5-to-1 ratio. By definition, this leadership principle focuses on quantity. Dr. Wayne wisely pointed out that the practice works

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medical staffers in meeting with stamp & chase

The Power of Empowerment: “The Village has it Handled!”

In a leadership workshop earlier this month at Summa Health in Akron, OH, a manager shared one of the most definitive, straightforward affirmations of true staff empowerment that I’ve ever heard.  She explained that often when an issue or problem arises, by the time she becomes aware of it and approaches her team to work through a solution, she is confidently told, “Don’t worry; the village has it handled.”Empowerment is a frequently vaunted goal for high-functioning teams in today’s leadership literature. But while the term is commonly accepted, I’m not sure it best describes the true power of empowerment. When I clicked on the thesaurus feature in Microsoft Word while writing this post, I actually found a much better list of options: inspire, embolden, encourage,

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man with a clipboard graphic at stamp & chase

Five Sure-Fire Ways to Wreck Rounding

Over the past decade, health care leadership rounding has become a best-practice staple for organizations that are striving to improve patient experience, employee engagement and the overall culture of performance. While in healthcare we sometimes act like we invented the practice, it has been pursued in different forms for many years in other industries. If you are a disciple of Lean Manufacturing and the Toyota Production System, you call it “going to the gemba.” Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard coined the term “management by walking around” in the 1960s when their rapidly-expanding technology company was growing beyond their capacity and ability to be involved in every detail of the business. In health care, our name for the practice of going to where the most important

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Healthcare Employee Engagement

Everyone Can Be a Caregiver (Even a CEO!)

Several years ago I was leading a management workshop at a very large health system. With over 200 people in the room, there was spirited discussion about the opportunities and obstacles to improving the patient experience in the system’s hospitals. I noticed one of the leaders patiently holding her hand up near the back of the room and made my way back to give her the microphone. She hesitantly started, “I’m the director of Environmental Services, and I know we don’t have a direct impact on patients’ care, but ….” While I hated to interrupt her, I just couldn’t let her opening statement stand without a polite challenge. “I’m really sorry, but I have to interrupt,” I respectfully said. “I have a list of stories

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stamp & chase my team app on iphone

Five Ways to Keep Goal Achievement On Track

Part 6 in our Series: A Smarter Approach to S.M.A.R.T. Goals In our six-part series, A Smarter Approach to S.M.A.R.T. Goals, our first five posts have focused primarily on the front end of the goal setting process. Making sure your goals are specific enough to change behavior, meaningful so they engage the team, agreed-upon for shared success, and realistic enough to be achievable is a great start. Now you have to effectively implement. The final element of our model, “T,” stands for tracked and addresses how the implementation plan and monitoring of results are critical to success.How often are well-stated organizational goals developed and distributed at the start of a new year – then barely addressed by individual teams until 12 months later when we

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astronaut on moon graphic from stamp & chase

Why B.H.A.G.s without B.H.A.R.s are Pipe Dreams

Part 5 in our Series: A Smarter Approach to S.M.A.R.T. Goals “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” That quote from President John F. Kennedy’s speech to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961, is perhaps the most often cited example of the philosophy that when you set big goals, amazing things can happen. And who doesn’t want to accomplish amazing things.So the fact that the “R” in our smarter S.M.A.R.T. goals model stands for “realistic” may be surprising. Realistic sounds so safe … hum-drum … even boring. Don’t we want bigger, transformative, inspiring goals? Maybe even “B.H.A.G.s”?Even if

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Medical employee holding patients hand

The Ultimate Compliment for Healthcare Providers

It was almost nine o’clock in the evening when I finally arrived at my hotel in Indianapolis from a long day of meetings and travel in preparation for the full-day workshop I would lead the next day. I was tired, but I was also hungry. I asked the front-desk clerk as I checked in if there was a place nearby where I could still get a quick bite. She pointed across the lobby and said, “I think Joan over in the bar can still get you something to eat.” The bar at the suburban hotel where I was staying was not exactly a hot spot on a Monday night. There were only two other people at a small table talking when I walked in and

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