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By Kristin Baird
A few years ago, I was invited to meet with the executive team of a healthcare system. The team included two CEOs – one led the hospitals and the other oversaw the medical practices. While waiting in the lobby prior to the meeting, I saw a beautiful display featuring their values. I was impressed that the values were so prominently displayed. To me, it implied that they were foundational to the organization. Respect and dignity were two of the values listed. When it was time for the meeting to begin, both CEOs were absent, and we were told to wait for them. One was 15 minutes late and the other was 20 minutes late. Only when they were both in the room, was I invited to begin my presentation. I was only five minutes into my presentation when I noticed that both CEOs were reading and responding to emails on their phones. Within minutes, several other executives followed suit. At one point, one of the CEOs took a phone call and stepped out of the meeting for a few minutes but told me to keep going with a dismissive hand gesture. VALUES START AT THE TOP The CEO’s behavior was appalling. What they modeled for the rest of the executive team was blatant disrespect. No wonder they all followed suit. Ironically, I was invited to speak with them about their culture which gave me a clear starting point. There was no way they were going to make significant culture change until they began living their values. The whole experience was awkward for me but gave me a great opportunity to re-introduce the CEOs to the values and how they are clearly not a driving force in their leadership. I called each of them separately to discuss my observations and point out that they had clearly breached two of their core values including respect and dignity. Both were apologetic and clearly taken aback that I would confront them. They both told me no one had ever called them out on their behavior before. The next day they asked the executive team to reconvene. They apologized for their behavior at the previous day’s meeting and committed to begin living the values consciously and consistently. Our discussion created a new beginning and over the next several months they made great strides in the culture. They took ownership and committed to making the values more than a display on the wall. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
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By Josh Linkner
Pilots are required to invest hundreds of hours in simulated flight scenarios before taking command of a live aircraft. Race car simulators help drivers prepare for the unexpected, so that they’ll be fully ready for unforeseen circumstances. Astronauts first experience weightlessness in a simulation chamber so they can become accustomed to a gravity-free environment. Simulations are used by top performing surgeons, symphony conductors, and professional athletes. Attorneys hone their skills in mock trials while boxers spend hours sparring in the ring before the big fight. Closely mimicking a high-stakes experience before it actually happens invariably leads to better performance. Now think for a moment about the work that matters most to you. The importance of interviewing a new job candidate, holding that mission-critical team meeting, or giving an impactful performance review of your team member. Or maybe you’ve got a big upcoming pitch – to an investor, new client, or key partner. Your products and services may be high stakes as well, whether you organize mountain climbing excursions, produce luxury hand-finished furniture, or run a retail shop in a busy shopping mall. How you perform determines how well you’ll serve your customers, family, and community. With such important outcomes on the line, have you first bothered to do a dry run? In the business world, we’re just supposed to know what we’re doing: 50+ hours a week of performance with virtually no time for training and preparation. The idea of an NFL player running zero practice drills before the Super Bowl or a Broadway performer never bothering to rehearse for opening night sounds crazy. Yet isn’t that exactly what we do in our professional lives? If we truly care about performing at the highest level, we must follow the lead of the greats in other professions by embracing a series of simulations before game day. In business, this can often be accomplished through role-playing. For example, if you have a big sales presentation coming up, don’t do the pitch for the first time in front of your prospective client. Instead, gather two colleagues and present to one while the other takes notes and records key points of feedback. Next, rotate and have one of your colleagues pitch you while the other plays the observer role. A few rotations a day, and you’ll start to build powerful muscle memory, which will allow you to optimize performance when it really matters. This small investment in simulation can become a game-changer when it comes to results. I have no interest in flying on a plane with a pilot who’s never bothered to practice in a simulated setting. And you should have the same discomfort when performing critical business tasks without the requisite pre-game training. If you run the drills in advance, your odds of success skyrocket. Use simulations to stimulate optimal performance. To perfect your craft. To drive better outcomes. And when you do, your victory will be anything but simulated. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By LeAnn Thieman. This was originally published on LeAnn's blog.
A recent study by the International Council of Nurses found that burnout rates in nursing were 40 percent before the pandemic, and now the figure has grown to 70 percent. I believe nurses are not burned out but drained out. I’ve seen the absolute devastation of burned land in the Colorado fires — land that will never be recovered the same. With the proper care, however, nurses and caregivers can recover. We can refill their wells by offering programs to give them specific tools to care for themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. This will rebuild their resiliency because people want to work for people who care for them. Forward-thinking, honorable companies establish cultures of caring to prevent burnout before it exhausts their staff. They make it that part of their mission statements, vision statements, and strategic plans. They don’t just tell employees to take care of themselves, they offer time-tested evidence-based programs to do so. Over and over I hear from drained-out healthcare workers, “I really want to take care of myself, but I don’t know where to begin.” Hospitals and healthcare organizations must make caring for their staff a top priority. After all, it is the best recruitment and retention tool. New recruits have a choice between numerous companies these days, and they will gravitate toward the ones that have programs and a commitment to care for them, mind, body, and spirit. Companies with cultures of caring have happier, healthier, more productive workers. And, as one CNO said, “Besides, it’s the right thing to do.” Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Shep Hyken
We just released our annual customer service research where we surveyed more than 1,000 consumers and asked what customer service experiences are most likely to cause you to come back. The top answers belong together: helpful and friendly. That seems pretty simple. All a typical customer wants is for someone to be nice to them, with a willingness to take care of them. How hard can that be? It seems like it’s just common sense, right? Yet we all have the customer service horror stories that are the exact opposite of people being helpful and friendly. Please keep reading, even though this is basic information. I emphasize the word basic because it is foundational to the success of your customer service program. That means it’s really, really important. You have to work on the basics before you can move to something more advanced. Customers want the basics before anything else. Let’s approach this from another angle. While, in general, helpful and friendly interactions get customers to come back, here’s another statistic from something more specific, which focuses on complaints. We asked, “When you have a problem or issue with a company or brand, which solutions do you prefer to help you solve your problem?” 89% of customers want employees who are kind and helpful. So, whether it’s a general interaction with employees or a problem or complaint you want resolved, those two words, friendly and helpful, are right at the top of why customers come back. So, what makes customers want to stop doing business and switch to another company? The opposite of helpful and friendly, which it turns out is rudeness and apathy. 75% of customers would switch companies or leave a brand after experiencing rudeness and apathy. When working with our clients on their customer service and customer experience initiatives, I always preach the basics have to be in place. Sure, we get into very advanced discussions about how to create the best processes, self-service solutions, the proper way to use data, implement artificial intelligence programs, and more. But none of that will mean anything if the customer ends up interacting with one of your employees and experiences anything less than friendly and helpful. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Kenneth Kaufman
When it comes to equity, healthcare organizations face three different and very difficult challenges: health disparities among patient populations, income inequality in the healthcare workforce, and of diversity in the C-suite and the boardroom. To get the job done, you have to tackle all three. And that takes an uncommon—even selfless—type of leadership. In his decision to retire from coaching, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians showed what that kind of leadership looks like. If you follow football, you know that Arians’ retirement announcement came as a surprise, if not a shock, to the NFL community. With a stellar 80-48-1 career win-loss record, a Super Bowl victory in 2021, and the recent return of superstar quarterback Tom Brady, Arians had good prospects of coaching the Bucs to another Super Bowl victory this year. That would have virtually assured his ascension to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But Arians had a different kind of legacy in mind. After assembling one of the most diverse staffs in football, Arians saw an opportunity to elevate defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, his handpicked successor, at a time when the Bucs were poised for success. Surely it was clear to Arians that no one is tackling the abysmal diversity hiring record in the NFL in a meaningful way despite the recent lawsuit alleging discriminatory hiring practices by the league. Of 500-plus head coaches in the NFL since its inception in 1920, just 24 were Black and most of those held interim positions. Bowles is one of only four Blacks who are currently working as a head coach. Arians saw an opportunity to be part of the solution and he seized it. He timed it when the team was well situated, knowing that Black head coaches rarely get the second chances with other teams that whites do when their teams don’t succeed. Solving equity—whether in football or in healthcare—requires having the right values, making the right decisions, and implementing those decisions. By his actions, Arians came through on all counts. He went a step further by recognizing that it’s not enough to give people from underrepresented groups a chance; they need and deserve a chance to succeed. The NFL was supposed to have a structural solution for diversity in the head coaching ranks. The Rooney Rule, established in 2003, required that any NFL team with a head coach opening must include at least one diverse candidate among its slate of interviewees. I think everyone would agree that the Rooney Rule has been a failure—that including a diverse candidate did not create a situation in which a minority candidate was actually hired and, when hired, was successful. In the absence of a structural solution for diversity among NFL head coaches, Arians substituted his own personal level of leadership. The NFL is not alone in this regard. No industry vertical has come up with that solution, including healthcare. While we continue to look for those structural solutions, the kind of strategic leadership shown by Arians appears to be the way forward. Healthcare leaders can take a page from Arians’ playbook to address all three types of equity challenges in healthcare. Health disparities. People in healthcare circles have been talking about the zip code effect for years. Zip code is a proxy for a series of health inequities that have plagued marginalized communities of color for decades, affecting a person’s health and life expectancy more than any other factor. Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic began, it became clear that Blacks and Latinos were being hospitalized and dying at much higher rates than whites. At that point, it became impossible to rationalize health disparities any longer. Income inequality. About 4.5 million people working in healthcare settings are considered low-wage workers, defined as the bottom 20% of wage earners. Deemed essential workers during the pandemic, they include nursing assistants and aides as well as environmental services, laundry and food service workers. These frontline workers, who are disproportionately female, Black and Latino, are not compensated at a level that they can effectively manage within our economy. The pathway to income equity for these workers remains unclear. Diversity in leadership. At the C-suite level, progress in improving diversity has been slow. An analysis of leadership diversity in 100 leading hospitals found that only 6% of CEOs were Black. Just 18% of hospitals had at least one Black leader in a common C-suite role. The highest percentage of Black leaders in a C-suite role was in diversity/equity. Women are also under-represented at the executive level. Although they hold three-quarters of healthcare jobs, only 15% of healthcare organization CEOs are female. If you want to move the needle on diversity, having the right values is the starting point. But unless you make decisions based on those values and implement those decisions strategically, as Bruce Arians did, we will be having the same conversations about healthcare equity in five years that we’re having now. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Courtney Clark
The world is always changing: trees grow and trees get cut down. The “latest” technology becomes outdated in months. Even YOU aren’t the same person you were last year. We know change is a given. But one of the hardest things for many people to grasp about change is that it happens with or without your consent. You can fight against changes, or you can begin accepting change and figure out a way to make the most of it. The easiest way to get on board with change is by recognizing the advantages that change brings. Five Advantages of Accepting Change 1) More time. Most people who resist change find that their resistance efforts are futile. Your time is important, and it could be put to so much better use. So, why waste time resisting change? 2) Less misery. Change may feel miserable at first, but fighting a losing battle also results in misery. Getting on board with change produces less stress in the long run, and gives you a chance to make something good come of it. 3) Increased progress. When you get on board with change, you have the ability to make the most of your new situation. Change offers new opportunities and choices. 4) More control. Fighting change reinforces a sense of lack of control over life circumstances. When you turn your focus inward and spend your time controlling what you can control in the situation, you’re likely to realize a more favorable outcome. 5) More opportunities. Change can feel paralyzing. But successful people are more likely to use change as a springboard to a new, brighter future. No, those opportunities don’t happen by default. It takes work to discover them and nurture them. But it only happens if you actually reframe change as full of possibility. It’s okay to feel intimidated by change. The unknown is always scary! But the quicker you commit to taking that first step forward into change, instead of trying to avoid it, the quicker you’ll get to take advantage of the success that change can bring. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Roger Crawford. This was originally published on Roger's blog.
How do you define winning? Typically, we think of winning as being victorious over another person, about being #1, the best of the best, a world champion. I want to encourage you to rethink what it means to win. Here’s why: I’ve accepted that regardless of how hard I train or how often I practice, I will never be the best Roger in tennis! No matter what, he will be superior to me on the tennis court, and I have a better chance of surviving the Hunger Games than beating Roger Federer. Granted, very few of us can compete with the great Federer, but we can compete with ourselves to be better today than we were yesterday. You can’t control another person’s excellence, but you can control yours. Consider this: Winning is not just about beating your opponent or finishing first in a race, but if only one person can achieve the ultimate victory, how can you also be a winner? Ironically, the best way to win is by consistently beating yourself. When your entire focus is on what others are doing, you won’t be doing everything you can to become your best self. You win by beating your anxieties, limitations, and self-doubt. It’s about beating self-imposed obstacles and rising above your current level of performance. Your self-confidence is increased when you consistently better your best. The more you improve, the more you trust yourself and the more you realize what you are truly capable of. External wins begin with internal wins. By looking at winning from this perspective, you can finish second and still have a huge win. In the same respect, someone might be victorious but still lose if they don’t realize their full potential. Think about it, if winning is about beating yourself, it isn’t necessary to have an opponent. The only real competition is you. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Mary Kelly
Succession planning is an important process for any business. It helps you to prepare for the future and ensures that your business continues to operate smoothly. However, many businesses do not have a plan in place. This can lead to problems later down the road. Here are five tips to help you prepare for your succession plan. Tip 1: Define Your Goals, Objectives, Timelines When it comes to succession planning, one of the most important things you can do is to define your goals and objectives. This will help ensure that the new leadership team is aligned with your company’s overall mission and vision. This will also help you to identify who should take on which responsibilities in the event of an unexpected change or sudden emergency. Establish clear and concise goals and objectives for your organization during the transitional period. It is important to set timelines for when each goal should be accomplished, so that everyone knows what is expected of them. Tip 2: Assess Your Current Business Leadership Situation One of the most important steps in preparing for your succession plan is assessing your current business leadership situation. This helps you identify areas you may need to improve, as well as identify potential successors. Additionally, it can help you determine how soon you might need to make a transition. Tip 3: Research Potential Successors for Top Leadership Positions When it comes to succession planning, it is important to have a plan in place. But what if you are not sure who the right candidates are for top leadership positions? Start by researching potential successors for top leadership positions. Get input from your team. Ask your employees who they think could be a viable candidate for the next position and why. This will help you get a sense of who is qualified and who would be a good fit for the role. Look at industry trends. What other companies are doing? What successful leaders have been replaced in recent years? This information can give you an idea of who might be a good replacement for you, or provide pointers on how to improve Tip 4: Steps to Start Now There is no one-size-fits-all answer to creating a business leadership transition plan, as the specific details of your situation will vary. Draft an outline of who will take over each position in the organization. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands their role in the future of the company. Establish timelines for each position, and make sure that all stakeholders are aware of when they need to be ready to step into their new role. This will help avoid any surprises during the transition process. Create reasonable timeline for completing each step, based on current realities and anticipated timelines for key personnel transitions. This will help ensure that your transition goes as smoothly as possible while still meeting important objectives. Develop a communication plan to keep everyone informed of progress throughout the transition process. This will help build trust both within the organization and with major stakeholders. Tip 5: Start Implementing the Succession Plan Sooner Rather Than Later When it comes to succession planning, the sooner you start, the better. The sooner you have a plan in place, the easier it will be to execute and ensure a smooth transition for your business. 1. Define who will be responsible for each stage of your succession plan. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and knows their role in the process. 2. Create an action plan for each stage of your succession plan. This will outline what needs to be done and when it needs to be done to smoothly transition your business into the next phase. 3. Assess your current situation and make necessary changes based on what you know now. Executing a succession plan is important for any business. It can help ensure that the business stays afloat and continues to operate smoothly while the current owner or management team transitions out of their role. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Marilyn Tam
Bill, CEO of the industry leading company smiled, nodded and said, my people will go through walls for me. He was confident that his team would follow his direction in the upcoming challenges. We were working together to significantly improve the standards for the industry, and there are potentially significant obstacles along the way. Making dramatic changes are disruptive, and some of the team may resist and/or sabotage the process. What about you? Are you certain that your crew would stand with you when you lead them into demanding situations? This is the test of leadership. This is the heart of leadership.Leadership’s task is to get to the heart of the matter. Today’s tight labor market and proliferation of remote work have given workers more employment options. People are seeking reasons to be committed to an organization where they are spending the bulk of their time. According to Harvard Business Review and Gallup research , people are looking for meaning and growth in their work even before a bigger paycheck. Microsoft, one of the world’s most respected and highest ranked company’s CEO, Satya Nadella states that empathy is the center of their agenda for innovation. Respect, understanding, and support is at the core of their flourishing and ability to attract, retain and develop their team. Satya Nadella, CEO MIcrosoft states ”Empathy is the center of our agenda for innovation”On the employer review site Glassdoor, Microsoft is rated 4.5 out of 5.0 by their employees. This rating is second only to Bain and Company, a company also known for treating their team with heart, after all as a consulting company, Bain and Company must treat their biggest asset, their consultants well. They need their workers, without them they have absolutely nothing. Building our heart — mind connection is essential for personal wellbeing as well as a leadership skill. Deborah Rozman, President & CEO of HeartMath, author and psychologist knows this very well. Her organization is founded on guiding and training leaders on how incorporate heart into leadership. Frequently, accumulated stress results in anxiety, anger, depression, sleeplessness, illness, and more. When your physical, mental and emotional systems are aligned, you are more able to access your heart’s intuitive guidance and connect with your higher creative potentials and enable you to manage and interact from compassion and understanding. Recently Deborah Rozman and I discussed why and how to lead, recruit, retain and motivate an organization’s teams. The podcast and video are now offered on HeartMath’s website and on Youtube. A leader with heart means that they listen, build confidence and respect, while establishing and executing on the mission and purpose of the organization. They sincerely appreciate, understand, and train their workforce with understanding and compassion. And the results are remarkable and well documented scientifically. Exactly what is needed for the current times, when workers are looking for meaning and connection in their work. How to build your heart-mind coherence? Below are five tools you can use from HeartMath and my experience, to support your development of this powerful connection: 1. Establish a quiet and safe environment — where you can take a few moments to reflect and center. You can be inside a building or in nature where you can spend by yourself for the duration of the exercise, which can be as short as a few minutes to 30 minutes or more. 2. Heart Focused Breathing — turn your focus to your heart/chest area and breathe from there. Take slower and more conscious breaths. Notice how that relaxes your body by gently sensing into each limb, your torso and your head and shoulders. Close your eyes and continue to breathe in this manner. 3. Enliven a positive mindset — recall and hold a pleasing and fond incident or memory and/or invoke gratitude and a feeling of love. Keep that feeling in your mind and heart. Continue your heart focused breathing. 4. Hold that positive mindset and relax in that space for 3 minutes or more. You can stay in this condition as long as you are comfortable. Notice how your body and mind continue to unwind and de-stress. 5. Slowly open your eyes — and consciously re-enter the physical space you are in. Acknowledge your strengthened coherence between your heart and mind. Gently move your body and resume your day with renewed energy and insight. What happened to Bill and his challenging project? He incorporated the 5 mind-heart coherence steps into the beginning of his strategy meetings. He shared the bold and potentially hugely rewarding venture with his team. Indeed, his team stood with him as they took on the biggest and riskiest project in their company history. They exchanged ideas, outlined opportunities and pitfalls that are inherent in the ambitious venture. They bonded and felt safe to share, innovate and co-create. Now six months later, they have secured the foundation of what will be the next step forward in their company’s future. Even a solid team needs a boost when the stakes are very high. In our assessment review, Bill gave me a high five as we celebrated the enthusiastic reception to what was a perilous journey. They are not home yet, but they know the way, and the 5 mind-heart coherence steps are now part of their meeting protocol. The heart in leadership is now part of their company culture. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By John O'Leary. This was originally posted on JohnOLearyInspires.com. When John O'Leary was 9 years old, he suffered burns over 100% of his body and was expected to die. He is now an inspirational speaker and bestselling author, teaching more than 50,000 people around the world each year how to live inspired. John's first book, ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life was published March 15, 2016. John is a contributing writer for Huff Post and Parade.com. John is a proud husband and father of four and resides in St. Louis, MO. Order John’s book today anywhere books are sold
“John, everything is going to work out fine.” With these words, my sweet dad was trying to encourage me and cheer me up. It wasn’t working, though. After being burned as a little boy and spending five months in a hospital, I was finally about to go home. From my wheelchair, still connected to a heart monitor, with a feeding tube snaking up through my nose, body wrapped in bandages covering either open sores or fresh scars, it sure didn’t feel like everything would work out fine. Unbelievingly, I looked back at my dad and responded: That’s easy for you to say. You’ve got Mom, a family, a job, and a home. Dad, I may never have those things. And for many years, some of them difficult, I was proven right. Although passionate, precocious, and courageous as a little guy, there were many moments in my life dominated by fear. I was anxious about how people would respond to my injuries, saddened by all I could not do, and angry at the potential life robbed from me. And I was definitely afraid, perhaps even certain, I’d never have anyone to share that life with anyway. During those years, I was completely preoccupied with what I wanted for my life, what I needed from a relationship, what someone else could do for me. My focus was entirely on me. This emphasis on self, by the way, is one strongly encouraged by the society in which we live today. We’re challenged by self-help gurus to focus singularly on our personal lives and our individual versions of happiness. Our celebrities share the freedom they’ve found in letting go of expectations from others and choosing themselves first. Celebrations of self-care are everywhere on social media. Many spiritual teachers and new age preachers share how to find personal peace and individual success. Paradoxically, it’s in letting go of our self-centered desires we find serenity. It’s in faithfully keeping our hearts open to serving others – even sometimes having them broken by those we love – that the meaning, joy and real peace we seek is gradually revealed. This realization began for me in my early 20s. After years of rejection, self-pity and self-doubt, I stopped trying to convince others I was lovable and just started loving others as they were. I let go of my fear of being alone, and embraced the gift of time by myself. I let go of operating from a place of self-centered fear and began leading and living from a place of unconditional love. No strings attached. No expectations. No agenda hidden or validation sought. In other words: I loved. On this Valentine’s Day, whether you are going on a hot date with your special someone, heading out with dear friends, or longingly waiting for the phone to ring, be reminded of the overwhelming demands true love requires and the profound blessing it delivers in return. Ultimately, the way we discover the love we seek is to let go of our needs, remain absolutely vulnerable in the face of fear, say yes to serving others, allow our hearts to be broken repeatedly and strive diligently to make our lives about something far bigger than ourselves. This reality may not trend on social media, it may not sell Valentine’s Day cards, chocolates or lingerie, but it will ensure authentic peace for this day, the thrill of hope for tomorrow and a life of sincere significance. It turns out Dad was right. Everything is going to work out fine. Today and always, I want to remind you of that same truth in your life. This is your day. Live Inspired. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! |
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