Katie's Leadership Lounge

This episode is for anyone who has ever left a team, a job, or a role, or supported someone else through it. I’m reflecting on what it means to lead through endings, personally and professionally, with the help of Tuckman’s Adjourning stage and Bridges’ Transition Model. I share what I’ve learned (and am still learning) about letting go, closure, grief, uncertainty, and grace. It’s the wrap-up to Season 4 — and a personal pause as I take the leap and we move back to the UK.

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5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders

3-step model for times of transition (The Bridges Model)

Introduction to the SCARF model

Leading through uncertainty with the SCARF model

Your team development workbook

With only two weeks till my big move, the period of Matarki and Midwinter has created a space of pause for me. So this week, I’m sharing a calm, reflective episode as this is a natural moment to reflect and take stock.

Links and Resources

Take this time to reflect on your values

Consider your purpose

Gratitude when you don’t think you have time for gratitude

Complete Gratitude Workbook

5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders

What is the type of leader you want to be, and are your habits supporting that idea?

In this episode, we look at the difference between routines and habits and why that distinction matters for healthcare leaders under pressure. Drawing on practical examples and experience (including how a one-minute action can spark major change), I’m talking about how habits form the backbone of leadership identity. You'll hear how even in chaos, small, consistent actions build the leader you want to become.
With reflective prompts to close, this episode is both a reset and a reframe for leaders ready to align their daily actions with the impact they want to have.

Habit 3 of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is Putting First Things First.

This means moving out of always being in crisis mode and considering planning, prevention, relationship building and recreation. This is the zone of effectiveness, and to move there more often will take courage, real conversations and a personal challenge where you ask what zone you prefer working in.

I ask, why does every layer of healthcare hierarchy need to be involved in the day-to-day crisis management, and if we’re all doing that, who is being effective and thinking about prevention and building the relationships and plans we need to move us out of the always-on crisis mode?

In this episode, I share a story of how I leaned into something important that was not urgent, but made all the difference for my soul and mind. This story creates a bridge to The Healthy Mind Platter, a tool that reminds us of what we need to stay mentally well and that there is synergy when we integrate the tools at our disposal.

Links and Resources

Register for the free Healthy Mind Platter Intro session

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

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5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders

As a slightly lost and overwhelmed charge nurse, I knew I wanted to be effective. I also knew that the skills I had learnt in the clinical setting needed to be expanded. Picking up a second-hand copy of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People got me started.

Taking me from chaos to clarity and giving me confidence to make the impact I wanted to make.

The 7 Habits gives you a framework to build from, wherever you are in your leadership, and it’s a set of ideas and concepts I’m leaning back into now, as I prepare for a move to the other side of the world.

In this episode, you get an overview of the 7 Habits, the relevance to the healthcare setting and the practical examples of the impact I had from the ideas in the book.

Links and Resources

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People from FranklinCovey

Your circle of control

Sharpen the saw

Leading through scarcity

When a sense of scarcity takes over

5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders

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Summary

Joy: the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune

Joy in work is not a flaky, soft, fluffy thing to add on when you have the time or money to do so. Joy in work should be a right for everyone who is committing themselves to the work and leadership in healthcare. It connects us with meaning and purpose, and that’s just the first course.

Its measure starts with engagement and satisfaction, and then the ball is rolling. We get lower turnover, reduced burnout, improved patient experience, outcomes and safety. People are more productive and effective, and make fewer errors. All of that adds up to lower costs: Joy in work saves money.

The steps you take are laid out in the IHI framework, starting with asking ‘what matters to you’. This is leadership in action, and while system and organisation backing, support and engagement make a difference, there is nothing to stop you starting a movement of joy.

It’s an act of resistance, your way to raise the power of the human spirit in yourself and everyone around you. It’s a counterweight to overwhelm and disconnection, where you reclaim your own emotional and mental agency.

And with that, we can positively change the way it feels to work in healthcare so that you can make a difference for those you are serving.

Links and Resources

The IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work

How does joy in work advance quality and safety

The three foundations for joy in work

Let’s admit we need to have joy in work

5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders

Joy as an act of resistance

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If feeling feelings is part of being human and our emotions are data, not direction, how does the healthcare leader respond in the emotionally charged workplace that is healthcare? 

This episode, I’m tapping into the experts and sharing the ideas that help you manage your emotions - the wanted and the not-so-wanted in the work setting. We’re factoring in the specific healthcare challenges and realising the impact of not managing your emotions can have, for you as a leader and for those around you. 

These are skills, ideas and tactics I wish I had learned much earlier in my career and will enable you to establish yourself with confidence and clarity. 

Don’t miss your opportunity to be part of the ‘how you want to feel at work’ conversation, coming up on Friday, 23rd May. Grab your place here. 

Links and Resources

Register for the Emotional Culture Deck Free ‘How do you want to feel at work’ session

Sign up for the No Jedi email

5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders

Liz and Mollie

How to manage your anger at work

Susan David

This episode isn’t polished (like it ever is), it’s personal. In this week’s episode, I’m sharing what many leaders are too scared to say out loud—what it’s like to be accused of bullying, and what it feels like to be on the receiving end.

These real-life stories are a wake-up call to pay attention to what’s said, unsaid, and misunderstood in our teams. Bullying in healthcare leadership doesn’t always look like we expect, but its impact is always real, and it’s always personal

We get into why my favourite topics of connection, belonging and trust as so important to any work or efforts to address the culture you have at work.

Pink Shirt Day is coming up, and it’s your chance to remind, refresh and re-commit to not only who you are as a leader, but how you want others to feel.

Links and Resources

5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders

Pink Shirt Day

I’m being bullied

You’ve first steps when someone says ‘I’m being bullied’

Pink Shirt Day for Life

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Summary

As Star Wars fans celebrate May the 4th, we’re kicking off season 4, reflecting on the stories that shape us.

Star Wars was a big childhood influence that I’ve carried with me into my work and my leadership. Knowing ‘I’m no Jedi but I know the force’ is about saying that I don’t have all the answers, but I know these conversations matter. And along the way, I’ll have a few things to share with you that will help, support and encourage you.

We’re looking at the shadow sides we all have, and that, like overusing our strengths, we can get tripped up if we’re not aware, but you don’t need to be a hero to be a great leader

I’m also exploring the deeper truth: fear-based tight control isn’t just ineffective in healthcare—it’s exhausting. Instead, connection, purpose and curiosity are powerful antidotes.

If you’ve ever felt like you should know more as a leader, this episode is a permission slip to lead with curiosity and courage instead.

Links

Grab your spot at one of two workshops - how do you want to feel at work?

Wrapping up season 3 with planning ahead tips in a mini-mid-week episode because I completely forgot it was Easter.

Links and Resources

5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders

Get started, get simplified and organise your work life

The digital declutter you didn’t know you needed

Two things I know about getting things done

I don’t want to keep fighting fires

What’s a topic you want the lounge to explore? Let me know here.