Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1233999
96 96 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP event self-report, sharing stories of your own failures, what you have learned from them and how they have made you a better leader, will show your team that their mistakes can be opportunities for growth and development. Create a culture where your team feels they can learn from their mis- takes, where energy is not wasted blaming. Eliminating the energy associated with blame does not mean eliminating the virtue of accountability. It means we are in this together and will support each other through difficult times. Questions to consider: • What failures could you use to teach your leadership team in a way that gives them the value of the lessons learned without the pain of the experience? • How well do you celebrate mistakes? • How are you creating a blame-free culture that holds individuals accountable without creating an atmo- sphere of fear? 3. Eliminate the situations which allow frustration to devolve into anger Tolerating open expressions of anger, from microaggres- sions to behavioral explosions, creates an uncontrolled environment in which employees will not feel safe. This problem is amplified by the escalating of verbal and physi- cal violence directed at staff from patients, family members and visitors. This serves as a major source of stress from frontline team members in all our hospitals. For frontline staff and physicians, anger doesn't generally emerge on its own. It is drawn out by processes that don't work and by promises that are not kept. It evolves from a seed of frustration. We owe it to our teams to catch frustra- tion as it begins to germinate. Remember a simple lesson that all military officers are taught: calm is contagious. We need to have processes and structures – like our lean daily management system at Stanford Children's Health - that give our team members greater control over their environments. This ensures improved responsiveness, pro- motes psychological safety and prevents small problems from exploding into bigger ones. System structure becomes even more important for orga- nizations in financial or operational crisis. In nature, we ob- serve "fight or flight" behaviors. In complex organizations, we observe an ever more interesting behavior: panic lead- ing to paralysis. If you are leading an organization under- going significant challenges, your biggest problem is not that good people will leave. Rather it's that the people who stay will put forth an effort that will be insufficient to help you meet the difficulties before you. Over time, a team in paralysis will only create motion, not movement. Questions to consider: • How do you assist your physicians and frontline staff in better recognizing the pebbles in their shoes during their daily work? • Do you have regular forums for them to express frus- trations and share proposed solutions? • Are you comfortable encouraging radical candor in your organization, so that problems can be identified before they cause major frustration? • In what ways are you creating panic and paralysis in your organization? 4. Make your organization about distance, not height As senior leaders, we are not the "higher ups." We are not "above" the staff. We are farther from the patient. Let our language reflect that fact — more importantly, let our deci- sion making reflect that. Ensure that your meeting structure involves your physician and frontline leaders. Make it easy to escalate problems. Hierarchy should support an orga- nization, not inhibit truth from passing through it. If your frontline employees aren't comfortable talking to you as you round throughout your organization, you might have a problem. The good news — you can be the solution. Questions to consider: • Look at the last three decisions you made. Were they made as close to the patient as possible? • Examine your language about the hierarchy of your organization — what messages do your words send? • When you walk onto a patient floor unannounced, how are you received? 5. Remember the power of a simple thank you for in- creasing positive emotions – for recipient and giver We've all received a thank you at some point in our careers that was especially memorable. It may be hanging on your wall, tucked away in a drawer, or a memory that inspires you in times of difficulty. You have the ability to create that moment every day for a member of your team. Challenge yourself to deliver a thank you to someone each day – it costs nothing and can mean everything. • Question: Who did you thank today? Closing thought: It's not all about you, but it's all up to you Everyone deserves a great leader. Eliminate fear, guilt, blame, shame and anger in your organization, and you will be closer to becoming that leader. You will create an un- paralleled employee experience in terms of daily contribu- tion and career development. You will create a wonderful place for your physician colleagues to practice medicine. And in some small way, you will have left your imprint on your organization, a legacy to the leaders who follow you. n