Burnout Proof Leadership: Identify Shift and Leadership Skills for Midlife Women Entrepreneurs

In this episode we focus on a personal level polarity that we believe is universal.  We venture to say that there isn’t anyone who isn’t or hasn’t been impacted by this polarity.  Clinicians especially, because caring for others is at the core of our roles and responsibilities.  Some individuals become clinicians because of their desire to care for others or to serve others or because they feel called to do so.  

In healthcare today leaders and clinicians are facing significant challenges such as increasing suicide rates, burnout and moral distress.  In addition, some are members of the “sandwich generation”, taking care of kids and parents!   Because this is a polarity, we know it won’t go away, so learning to leverage it is the best option for all.  

Taking care of self and taking care of others occurs in a lot of different contexts.  We experience it as healthcare clinicians, as parents, and as leaders.

During this episode we talk with Dr. Diane Gilbert Bradley about her experiences with managing and leveraging the self and other polarity as she navigated her way through medical school, being a rehab medicine physician and as a corporate executive.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

Both of us have spent a good portion of our careers developing and helping organizations implement tools, processes and infrastructures that support interprofessional education and collaborative practice.  As you might guess this is a topic that is near and dear to our hearts. 

During the episode we talk about how the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reports, To Err is Human:  Building a Safer Health System (1999); Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century (2001) and Health Professions Education:  A Bridge to Quality (2003), served to heighten the awareness of concerns about safe, quality, cost-effective care within the United States healthcare system.  These reports also reinforced the need for interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaborative practice (ICP).  

We talk about what is being learned and the current realities educators and leaders are facing.  Recent reports indicate the traditional cultures and practices in healthcare settings do not support ICP (Brandt, KItto, & Cervero, in press) and those who have experienced IPE go into practice settings that do not support what they have learned.  IPE and ICP represent an interdependent pair.  Both are necessary to prepare the future and the current workforce to work collaboratively.

Achieving the national goals of safe, quality, efficient, effective care will require a healthcare workforce prepared and supported to work collaboratively.  Managing the IPE and ICP polarity is key in achieving sustainable outcomes.  Leveraging strong partnering relationships between practice and education leaders may be one way to manage the IPE/ICP polarity and support current and future workforce preparation.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

We were so excited to have Dr. Erin Craft-Otterbacher join us for this episode.  Erin is a new Family Practice DNP graduate. She is a very bright, knowledgeable young lady who we know you will enjoy learning from and listening to.

During this episode Erin helps us shine a light on caregiver burden and the need to manage the tension between the needs of the caregiver and the needs of the care recipient. 

Managing the tension between this pair of needs is an emerging and significant polarity in healthcare.  The polarity is universal.  Most of us have had caregiver experiences or even care recipient experiences. More and more middle-aged adults are becoming members of the “sandwich generation” and feeling the squeeze and burden of caring for aging parents and children at the same time.  

Have you felt this tension or do you know someone who has?

Join us as we talk about the negative consequences from neglecting the needs of the caregiver, the potential negative and devastating outcomes that can manifest and the call to recognize this significant and highly valuable role of caregivers.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

Today we are exploring a major crux polarity in the healthcare system that is often looked at as two separate or independent issues.  The topic today is the patient satisfaction and clinician satisfaction polarity.  While this pair appears to be opposites, they have an interdependent relationship.  Achieving positive sustainable outcomes cannot be accomplished by focusing on one or the other  – heck no!  It’s a both/and opportunity.

In this episode we will discuss the current realities surrounding this polarity.  Why an over-emphasis on patient satisfaction actually got healthcare leaders into trouble over time and how the Triple Aim may have contributed to our current realities.

This episode invites you to consider your own experience as a healthcare leader and/or practicing clinician and expand your thinking to see patient and clinician satisfaction as a “good tension” that can be leveraged to create organizations that are the best for patients to receive care and for clinicians give care.  

If you are a first time listener, we suggest you listen to Episode #1 to gain a foundational understanding of polarities before listening to other episodes.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

We are so grateful to have two “living legends” as our first guests on the podcast, Dr. Barry Johnson and Bonnie Wesorick.  They are both phenomenal leaders whose life’s work has been to bring Polarity Thinking™ to the world.  We are blessed to have them as our mentors, colleagues and friends!

During the interview Barry shares how the original Polarity Map®  emerged in 1975 and how the work has expanded globally.  Barry partnered with Bonnie Wesorick in the 1990’s as she recognized the significance of managing polarities to achieve healthcare transformation. Bonnie shares her journey in supporting a consortium of over 400 healthcare organizations in applying Polarity Thinking™ and how that led to the development of the first healthcare specific Polarity Assessment™ .

If you are a first time listener, we suggest you listen to Episode #1 to gain a foundational understanding of polarities before listening to other episodes.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.

In this introductory episode, Tracy and Michelle share their 30+ years experience with healthcare transformation and how they are “mad as hell” about the wasted time, money and resources spent on addressing the same challenges over and over.  It is hard to take when you know it doesn’t have to be that way.  

 As healthcare clinicians, leaders and educators we are excellent problems solvers, so why do we face the same challenges over and over?  It’s because not every challenge is a problem that can be solved!  Some challenges are polarities and polarities can’t be solved, they need to be managed and leveraged.    

Healthcare’s “missing logic” is recognizing that problem solving is not enough and healthcare leaders need to look at their current challenges through a new lens! When you misdiagnose a polarity as a problem you are 100% guaranteed to fail over time.  Healthcare leaders must compliment their problem solving skills with Polarity Thinking™ to recognize, leverage and manage polarities so they can achieve sustainable positive outcomes.

Tracy and Michelle invite you to join them in the movement to make Polarity Thinking™ mainstream in healthcare and listen to them each week as they discuss the crux polarities in healthcare.

In this podcast, business leaders navigate the challenges of high-pressure jobs, tackling burnout, micromanagement, and decision fatigue while honing emotional intelligence, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to strengthen their leadership identity. Through discussions on leadership development, stress management, conflict resolution, and time management, listeners gain insights into achieving work-life balance, overcoming the struggles of being overworked, and fostering personal growth in the ever-evolving workplace.