Our very own Beth Stiner was recently the featured guest on Michael S. Seaver's podcast, Equal Chance to Be Unequal.

Michael introduces the interview:

By Barb Ward from an interview with Kathleen Mineo

Negativity is everywhere. It’s easy to get bogged down in thoughts that can seriously affect our happiness and quality of life—thoughts that can impact our health, social interactions, relationships, and career success. The truth of the matter is that our brains are wired to default to the negative. As a result, people’s first response is often to say “no,” or to see the negative in a situation, without even having a reason.

This tendency is called negativity bias. When we have negative thoughts, our brains go into “fight or flight” mode. While this kind of stress response was advantageous to our ancestors who had to be aware of predators and other dangers, is not a helpful in our current culture. Living day-to-day with this stress is not good for our health or our social connections with others.

If we are unable to see the good in situations, never have expectations for positive outcomes, or can’t trust and have faith in people, we set ourselves up for failure and risk living an unhappy life.

Negativity bias was first documented by psychologists Roy F. Baumister, Ellen Bratslavsky, Kathleen Vohs, and Catrin Finkenauer in an article titled Bad is Stronger than Good.

They document how negativity creeps into our lives, making an impact on the way we see the world and interact with others. Here are some examples:

• We remember insults much more than praise.
• Our minds, if allowed to wander, will recall things that upset us more often than things that made us happy.
• Positive experiences resonate only when they occur much more frequently than negative ones.
• The brain reacts more strongly to negative stimuli than to positive stimuli. In fact, studies show that there is a stronger surge in electrical activity in the brain when we see a picture of something negative than when we see something positive.

So, the question becomes, “Can we do anything to retrain our brains to think more positively?” Happily, the answer is yes. Simply recognizing and identifying negative thought patterns as they happen can help us step back and turn them into positive ones. This is why it’s the second thought that counts.

It was once believed that the brain was hard-wired and could not be changed. But scientists now know that is untrue because of experience-based neuroplasticity. The brain is a muscle, and when it is used, it grows. Therefore, it can be trained. While our first thought may habitually be negative, we can train our brains to act on the second thought, which we can choose to be positive. This gives us the opportunity to turn pessimism into optimism and to tell our brain, “This is not who I am anymore.”

Following are some strategies for counteracting natural negativity:

• Practice Positive Affirmation Keep a mental list of positive things to think about, such as good memories, inspiring quotes, lines from favorite poems—anything that  redirects your mind into a positive gear.

• Practice Gratitude We should take a few minutes to jot down things we are thankful for before we go to bed at night. People who consciously take time to reflect on these things have more positive thoughts, get better quality sleep, are healthier, and show more compassion toward others.

• Stop Complaining Complaining pulls other people into our negativity, is a passive response, and provides no end result. Instead, we should turn complaining into action by determining how we can make a positive change in the situation we are upset about.

• Do Something Nice for Someone Because of negativity bias, people will generally be more affected by the negative things we say than the positive ones. Some say that it takes three positive experiences to balance one negative experience and, in intimate relationships, the ratio is five to one. So, if we scold our children, criticize an employee, or argue with our spouse, we need to balance those negative interactions with positive ones to maintain healthy relationships with these people.

• Keep a Praise File When we’re feeling down, reading through a nice message or card someone has send us can pick us back up and put us in a positive frame of mind.

Changing negative thinking patterns takes conscious effort, but the effort is worthwhile as it can give us an entirely new outlook and improve the quality of our lives in countless ways. So remember: It’s the second thought that counts!

 

 

 

 

In organizations, culture is defined by what we do. And just hoping that culture will evolve on its own is a recipe for disaster. To have a fluid, high-performing team, you must be intentional about developing the culture consistently.

One of the most important things you can do to shape your culture is to put time and thought into hiring the right people—people who will do the right things in alignment with your stated mission, vision, and values.

The bottom line is two-fold:

1. How do you make people want to work for you?
2. How do you attract the people you want?

When you have a clear understanding of your company’s values and desired culture, then identify where the role you are hiring for fits into that vision, you will hire individuals who have both the right skill set and the right cultural fit.

How can you tell if a candidate fits your culture?

“At Innovative Connections, we use a personality assessment to help determine how an employee might work within the culture of an organization as well as how they will meet the criteria for the role,” says Laurie Cure, Ph.D., president and CEO. “The assessment can indicate how a candidate’s personality, values, and potential blind spots might impact their individual performance as well as the way they might impact team dynamics and interactions.”

However, personality assessment should not be the sole criteria. “We also look at emotional intelligence (“EI”) in the hiring process. People with high EI scores are typically very self-aware, meaning they manage their own emotional experiences, handle conflict appropriately, are critical thinkers, can build trust, and are good at building strong relationships,” Laurie explains. There is a direct positive correlation between EI and leadership success.

“The research shows,” she says, “that, all other things being equal, a person’s emotional intelligence score dictates 80 percent of their success in a role. This tool identifies critical attributes for success.”

Using these two tools, in combination with a personal interview process, can be beneficial. Occasionally, a candidate’s personality profile in isolation may not indicate that they are a great fit for the company; however, further analysis through emotional intelligence profiles and interviews may reveal a more nuanced picture.

“We have had hires who, at first glance, would not have been identified as the ideal candidate based on their personality profile. But upon further discussion and assessment was determined their personality was right for the job,” she explains. “For instance, someone may have a strong ‘derailer’ (e.g., passive-aggressive or narcissistic behavior indicators, which can come across as unempathetic or uncaring). But if this same individual has high EI, they likely have a high level of awareness around their derailers and can effectively navigate and manage them to be a strength rather than a weakness.”

The interview process is also critical in deepening awareness of a candidate’s personality and EI traits. “It’s important to ask questions that will reveal the authenticity of a candidate, not just their technical skill set,” Cure says. Some key EI indicators that may predict a candidate’s potential for success include:

• Do they think about how others are affected by their actions?
• Do they think before they speak or act?
• Can they process their emotions internally before reacting to a situation?
• Can they use their own emotions to problem-solve?
• Are they adaptable in different situations?

To summarize, it is important to use more than one method or tool to make a judgement on the desirability of a candidate.

“Having a very strong sense of your company’s culture and vision prior to even beginning to write your job description is helpful in the process of making good hiring decisions,” Laurie recaps. “Then using a personality assessment in conjunction with EI indicators, as well as really honing your interviewing process, is a great way to ensure you are hiring the right person for the right reason for the right job.”

Next up? Once you have hired the perfect candidate, how do you keep them? Employee turnover is expensive.  In fact, according to statistics, it can cost employers up to 33 percent of the employee’s salary to replace them once they leave. Stay tuned for a future post with some insights into engagement and retention.

By David Quigley,MSW, PHR, Board-Certified Coach

How would you answer a physician who asked during new employee orientation, “Do you really expect us to smile all the time?” That question stimulated an interesting discussion in a group of newly-hired clinical and non-clinical hospital staff which resulted in clarifications and several key insights. I continue to reflect on it years later—more so recently, in light of my “deep dive” into patient experience with a loved one.

The physician who asked the question in orientation had not been born in the U.S. He went on to explain that, in his country of origin, if you walked around smiling all the time it might get you an all-expenses-paid full psychological assessment at the local mental health facility. In other words, smiling constantly could have been seen as unusual, concerning, and perhaps a sign of other issues.

What is the culture in your healthcare facility regarding smiling? And more to my point, does it make any difference? Is it simply a social pleasantry, or does smiling hold the potential to impact patients, families, other staff, and perhaps even the “smiling staff person” themselves? Farfetched? Perhaps; perhaps not.

For the past several years I have worked in the realm of patient experience. I have coached, taught, and observed delivery of care models in hospitals, medical clinics, hospices, home care agencies, and nursing homes across the country. Adding to the professional experience is my recent personal “deep dive,” spending 561 hours (and counting) witnessing care delivery to a loved one in hospitals and, now, a long-term care facility.

We, the patient and family, have benefited greatly and are deeply appreciative to have received some truly outstanding care from physicians, nurses, techs, food and nutrition staff, physical, occupational, and speech therapists, and housekeeping. Some has been subpar too, but for now I want to focus on two specific elements that have been present in every one of the individuals who delivered exceptional care to us. And I submit to you that these characteristics not only benefit the patient and family, but also the employee themselves.

• First, many of the outstanding care providers that I’ve had conversations with possess a positive attitude about their role, the work they do, and how their work benefits others. They believe in what they do and are committed to it. Although this is a small sample, every one of the high-performing staff that I’ve had a chance to visit with over time exhibits this “positive role perspective.”
• The next element is that they exuded a warmth, and nearly always presented with a smile. There was a felt sense of the unconditional positive human regard, a phrase developed by psychologist Carl Rogers.

These qualities could be considered essential engagement attributes that increase patient communication, patient compliance, and patient well-being. And they seem to be part of empathetic communication and a language of caring.

Of course, there are many other critical staff qualities such as competence and communication. Yet the care we receive that is delivered by staff who are intelligent and competent, but lack a smile and the accompanying warmth, empathy and compassion, feels like a lesser quality of care.

Now, what the potential benefits of positive attitude and smiles to the employees, themselves? Several years ago, Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great described a dynamic that is now being empirically demonstrated by neuroscience and positive psychology. At the “center of the flywheel” for all outstanding companies, he said, was the sense of meaning and purpose—doing worthwhile work and making a difference—embedded in the organizational culture and experienced by employees. This felt sense of meaning and purpose in and about one’s role can:

• Increase engagement
• Deepen fulfillment
• Enhance creativity and innovation
• Increase employee resilience and change hardiness
• Reduce turnover
• Propel the organization’s success

Given that healthcare is a complex, rapidly changing, and ambiguous environment these qualities might just be an excellent vaccine against burnout and compassion fatigue. So, go ahead…smile!

 

by David Quigley, MSW, PHR, Board-certified Coach

Have you ever had a loved one in a nursing home?

My spouse and I have both worked in hospitals and healthcare for the past several decades and I have been keenly interested in what constitutes exceptional care for the patient and family. We are currently in a situation where our work experience and life experiences have overlapped: for the first time we have a family member who has become a nursing home resident. It has been an emotional roller coaster with lots of inspirational highs and some sad and bitter lows.

As I experience the day-to-day care my loved one (let’s call him “Sam”) receives from the family member’s perspective, I’ve come up with the following short list of basic essential elements of quality patient care. I would coach caregivers in any hospital, clinic, or nursing home to communicate with their patients in this way:

• Connect first, then provide care. Take the time to get to know the patient and let him get to know you. His mentation varies from day to day, so take that into consideration. For example, you might introduce yourself by saying, “Hi Sam. You may not remember me but I met you yesterday.” (In one comedic moment during our experience, after an unintroduced doctor got done with his spiel, Sam asked him, “Are you a doctor?” Pretty relevant question isn’t it?)
• Always, always explain what you intend to do on this visit and ask his permission. I have seen caregivers walk in and begin to draw blood or give medications without saying a word.
• After you assess the patient’s mentation at the current moment, speak slowly and don’t “stack” your questions. Let him answer one question at a time and give him one instruction at a time.  For example, “Sam, first we are going to stand you up and then move you over into the wheel chair, okay? Here we go, first let’s stand you up. Good job, now over into the wheel chair.”

We have witnessed firsthand the difference that compassion and competence make, for both the patient and the family members, and we are deeply grateful to the caregivers out there doing this important work. Thank you for your competence, compassion, and empathy.

Now I would like to hear from you: What would you add to the above short list?

Interview with Pat Samples by Holly LeMaster

This is the third in a five-part series on physician leadership.

What’s the impact of physician and nurse leaders partnering effectively—or not? Some of the literature is beginning to show that, since the advent of EMR, nurses and physicians are working more in parallel to one another versus in true collaboration. They don’t actually have to be in the same place at the same time anymore to “talk about” the patient. So a lot of the work I do with nursing leaders and physicians is about getting them back in the room together. We cannot deliver good care if the physician and the nurse aren’t partnering. That’s true at the front line, at middle management, and the executive level. Physicians and nurses must partner in the delivery of care. That’s all there is to it. We’ve let the EMR separate us, and we’ve got to get back to collaborating on patient care. There’s a lot of thinking outside the box and brainstorming about how to do this. What’s the vision? How are you going to get there? What behaviors are you willing to tolerate? How is the medical director going to support their nursing leader, and vice versa?

I recently went into an organization where the medical director was struggling with relationships and was highly frustrated. As I observed him go through his day, it became apparent to me that the nursing leader and the physician leader weren’t on the same page. As a result of understanding this, what I’ve come to do in most organizations is to ask the physician right away: who is your nursing leader and where are you two headed together? You must be going in the same direction, especially if you’re trying to drive a service line or a fast-paced procedure area. You must align your approaches to operational issues, skill mix, and strategic direction. It has to be an intentional conversation.

These relationships are often dysfunctional due to processes which aren’t ideal. But there’s a natural magnet between physicians and nurses that’s been depolarized by the EMR. We need to get back in there and fix it, for the best interest of the patient. Nurses spend more time with the patient, they know more about the social issues—information the physician needs. The two leaders need collaboration and role clarity. What you don’t want to happen is for the medical director to get bogged down in too much operational detail—it skews their perspective and they begin to have discussions with employees that they shouldn’t be having. The trick is learning how to use the power of the physician to leverage relationships and processes in the appropriate places. We do a lot of work around that.