Physicians and many executives throw themselves at decades of technical development. This often leads to neglected adaptive capacities. The Rub: the adaptive capacities are essential to function in complex environments and for competent leadership. Fear-based avoidance thinking and behavior, power struggles, unnecessary conflict, burnout, and worse. Our organizational clients understand the need to development their…
Collectively, the following four archetypes symbolize how humans organize thoughts, feelings, relationships, memories, and more.* We can use them to map the mind, essentially. Each archetype has its positive and negative expression. Benevolent leaders nurture the positive expressions of these archetypes in themselves and in the people they lead. The King-Queen Archetype The King or…
“… relationship conflict is generally bad for performance, but some task conflict can be beneficial: it’s been linked to higher creativity and smarter choices.”* Task conflict is productive because the collective cognitive and passion energies of your team, division, or organization are focused (as the name indicates) on the task, mission, or purpose. Relationship conflict…
The over-engineered term we used in graduate school was “misapperceptions.” The self-defeating thought constructs that lead to anxiety, depression, and some interpersonal difficulties. Change the misapperceptions, the thinking went, and you will liberate the individual from anxiety, help them get their feet back on the ground, and empower them to reclaim wasted cognitive and emotional…
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In healthcare, the Golden Rule can be a dangerous thing. Most healthcare providers easily forgive others’ mistakes, and they tend to be great at offering and endorsing support for their colleagues. Often, they are not good at doing the same for themselves. As a…
Is your Adaptive Child or your Functional Adult running the show?[1] This is a crucial question whether you’re a leader or if you simply face complexity in your personal or professional life. (Remember! All significant relationships are complex circumstances.) The Adaptive Child endures or confronts its world using a fear-based, reactive operating system. The Functional…
Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is being afraid and not letting it stop you. Rumi says, “Today, like every other day, we wake up emptyand frightened. Don’t open the door to the studyand begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do.There are hundreds of…
“I need to quit healthcare and find another profession.” I’ve heard several versions of this sentiment from clients over the years. Our healthcare system is out of balance, no doubt. But you don’t need to change careers to regain psychological equilibrium and passion. (And you’re not going to make the healthcare world less dysfunctional either.)…
“How do I thrive in a dysfunctional healthcare system and not let it discourage me or drive me insane?” Several of my physician clients have presented different versions of this question in sessions. Before discussing “stay-sane” action items, we must start by articulating the nuance of the healthcare dysfunction we’re dealing with. Know the Function…