Leading with Optimism in 2024

Leading with Optimism in 2024

Modeling calm, respect and listening, promotes awareness, optimism.

Effective leaders share their expertise, experiences and ideas — especially when it comes to encouraging others to evolve as leaders themselves. It’s something we can all look at closely in the new year.

A great example of that at Northwell Health comes from a leadership workshop led by Jon Sendach, FACHE , executive director of North Shore University Hospital. Jon, also deputy regional executive director of Northwell's central region, shares a list of workplace “don’ts” adapted from author Marshall Goldsmith ’s book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, with workshop participants. As a healthcare optimist, I’d like to reframe those tips into “dos” for 2024.

Goldsmith says:

  • Sometimes we may have an overwhelming desire to add our “two cents” to work discussions — but that need doesn’t always elevate efforts. Instead, we can let our actions and support do the talking.
  • Anger and emotional volatility are not inspiring management tools; they’re intimidating and can stifle ideas and communication. Instead, we should hold off expressing any frustration we may feel and take a few moments to cool off, setting aside hostility and rudeness in favor of addressing a problem with respect.
  • Phrases like, “Let me explain why that won’t work,” are negative and often unwelcome. Instead, we can lead with optimism by asking questions to uncover and propose alternatives.
  • ?Not listening is passive aggressive — a form of disrespect toward colleagues. Instead, we can give colleagues a chance to share knowledge, learning from each other and using those perspectives to innovate and tackle challenges.

Goldsmith’s list also taps into optimism: it can be harmful to cling to the past, he notes, using it as a way to “deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past.” While it is important to reflect, clinging to the past is not helpful. More important is learning from past experiences and changing our behavior based on what we have learned. Especially in the world of health care, it is critical that we evaluate past errors or missteps to avoid them and move forward together to tackle new challenges.

Lifelong learning is ingrained in the culture of Northwell and is something we can all embrace this year. It goes beyond developing new technical skills or pursuing new career opportunities; developing or advancing interpersonal skills enhances us personally and brings out the best in our colleagues.

Walter Houlihan

Senior Director at Baystate Health

5 个月

Optimism opens the mind’s creative abilities!

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Michael Pizzi

Co-Founder, Clear Function Rehab, LLC

9 个月

Mr. Dowling - I would be VERY optimistic if you would include occupational therapy in your plan for your health care high schools. Every article I read so far does not include OT. Can you please comment on that? Yours - Michael Pizzi, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA

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Sudhakar Nandury

Business Coach & Facilitator for MSMEs || Identifying Bottlenecks & Resolving them in a fun way || Author

10 个月

Love this. " Not listening to our colleagues (anyone ) is passive aggression". Realising this makes me mindful with all my relationships.

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Kristin Baird

Culture catalyst helping healthcare leaders achieve high employee engagement, retention, and consistently positive patient experiences. I bring the magnifying glass, mirror and roadmap.

10 个月

Thank you for these great reminders. I especially appreciate, "learning from past experiences and changing our behavior based on what we have learned."

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Max Trenti

Partnerships at Gleac | Managing and developing strategic partnerships to drive business growth and create mutually beneficial collaborations.

10 个月

Michael Dowling, Love the reframing of Goldsmith's "don'ts" into action-oriented "dos"! Thank you for sharing this insightful post! It's a great reminder that we can all choose to lead with optimism and make a positive impact in 2024

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