Healthcare workers are hurting, and the American Psychiatric Association anticipates “a great deal of post-traumatic stress” among medical professionals as the pandemic stretches. As a healthcare leader, supporting the mental health of your team is a critical part of your COVID-19 response, warn researchers. In this post, we’ll cover mitigation tactics to help protect your...Read More

“Leaders who believe they can [succeed] without any formal training often succeed for some time, but eventually will encounter critical situations they are not prepared to handle alone. Then they urgently seek the resources to help them succeed, often too late to salvage a career.” ~ Journal of Healthcare Leadership Not all leadership development approaches...Read More

An ancient proverb says it best: “The best day to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best day to plant a tree is TODAY.” In our work with health system leaders nationwide, we often get called upon to help find physicians who can lead an immediate strategic initiative. But the obvious reality is that’s...Read More

You can’t lead well unless you are well. It’s that simple. Almost all the leaders I work with know this. Almost all leaders I work with want to be well. Despite this, many leaders are not well. They are limping in their life and their leadership. In a previous post I pointed out the similarities...Read More

May is National Mental Health Awareness month. It seems like the appropriate time to share my thoughts regarding the stigma that exists regarding Mental Health treatment in the world of Executive Leaders, Physician Leaders, and the like in healthcare. I recently had an intense conversation with a young medical professional, I will refer to him...Read More

It is all about the taper. In a former life, I was an exercise physiologist and competitive swimming coach. In my youth, I was a competitive swimmer. None of us were famous, neither the coach nor the swimmers. We had a mix of talent. Some were national champions and record holders, and most were not. However,...Read More

In this third post, in my series on effective leadership, I want to single out the Three Secrets to Energy Management. Leadership is harder than it looks to those who’ve never tried it.  It exacts a real toll in mental and emotional energy that must be methodically recharged to avoid burnout. Effective leaders, like world-class athletes,...Read More

The indisputable fact is that physician burnout is prevalent and growing. A brief conversation with one’s private physician or a discussion at a gathering of friends confirms an extraordinary level of dissatisfaction among the medical profession. This year, Medscape’s annual Physician Lifestyle Report surveyed more than 15,000 physicians from 29 specialties about burnout, characterized by...Read More

High-performance leadership is demanding. Leaders must be decisive creative decision-makers, wise cultivators of high-impact relationships, adaptably resilient within a sea of change, and consistently deliver results that measurably and meaningfully matter. Transformational Leadership behaviors demand that we routinely bring our healthy and whole being to our work. There are indicators that few leaders in healthcare can...Read More