Curiosity and Open-Ended Questions:  These vital competencies should headline skills labs for healthcare professionals with the dual intent of enhancing their own abilities while developing others. Our quiver of leadership skills is incomplete until we add coaching inquiries, delivered from a true attitude of curiosity, allowing us to learn together with those we lead:  patients, […]

A Cure for Leadership Loneliness?  An unanticipated surprise in my first leadership role was the unwelcome abrupt detachment from my former collegial teammates.   Jettisoned from the warm cocoon of a backup group, I was seen as a “suit.”  I discovered that my new supervisor was a limited confidant because she was simultaneously judging my abilities […]

4 Benefits of Building a Coaching Culture: If your ultimate vision is of an organization brimming with superior thinkers and doers, teams of people inspired with joy and resolve toward their common purpose, then begin developing a coaching culture. Once basic required skill competencies have been assured, a team is ready to be coached. Effective […]

Rich rewards can be reaped by incorporating reflection into your leadership routine.  Any resistors out there?  Full disclosure demands that I state that I am a reformed, recovering Instant Decision-Maker Just-Do- It You-Can-Have-it-All Diligent Worker.  I grew up in a home with 2nd generation immigrants just off the homestead with the belief that if you […]

Today in our 54 minute conversation about 2014,  Ruth Hansten and 10 participants discussed an overview of 2014 trends, celebrated improvements in patient outcomes and safety, and discussed methods to help nurses and other healthcare leaders and educators to improve their understanding of their own roles and professional practice. Ruth discussed the questions she has […]