Writing about my experiences in Healthcare Environmental Services
Jim Rohn Quote
“Don’t join an easy crowd. Go where the challenge is great and the emotions are high. Go where the expectations are so strong that they provoke you, push you, and urgently insist that you not remain in one place. That way, you will grow and change.” -Jim Rohn
But there is no limit to the intangible rewards you can give them. These "psychological paychecks" require little effort and cost the company nothing. They represent an excellent way for you to compensate your people during times of transition and change.
Don’t underestimate the value employees place on simple things such as a word of encouragement or a compliment from you. Give them a listening ear and show empathy. Ask their opinions about things. Call them by name, ask about their family, say thank you when they have the right attitude and effort. Write a short note to the employee expressing appreciation for quality work, initiative, etc. When you hold staff meetings, single out individuals and give them a word of praise or commendation for good job performance.
If you take the time to be nicer, you will energize, and encourage your staff. This has many far reaching benefits, particularly during periods of organizational change. There is a real payoff for you, the employee, and your company.
Want to start making more progress toward your goals or business targets? If you do, here is a simple process, which is guaranteed to work for you so long as you use it. It’s based on a weekly, 3 step process of; reviewing, learning and taking action. Although the focus is on weekly progress, by making each week an improvement on the previous week, you also make each month and year better too.
Here is how it works:
Start off by doing a review of last week. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
Write your answers down and get them ready for the next step.
Reviewing your answers from the previous step, what lessons are there?
The way you invest your time, is directly linked to your success or otherwise. This is why it’s important for you to identify the activities that sucked your time up, without providing you with some kind of measurable progress. Equally, you need to determine what activities were most profitable for you.
Write down as many lessons from last week as you can. Look for the gold dust and also the dross.
If a commercial activity was not working for you last week, you need to either fix it or remove it from your work-flow. Many small business owners repeat things that don’t work, purely because they are comfortable with them. They hope that their results will “just get better”, yet as Einstein assured us:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results!
The week ahead can either be a chance for you to get a week better or a chance for you to relive the same frustrations again. The reason most people simply get a year older each year, rather than a year better each year, is that they allow themselves to get into an unproductive rut. They work hard, but mistake movement, for progress.
This final step is what separates the winners from the masses of frustrated business owners who make little if any progress. Great intentions are not enough. The world is full of people with great intentions, yet very few people action those great intentions. You need to be smarter than that, if you want to make real, measurable progress.
Identify the changes you need to make and then motivate yourself to take the action required. This is the cornerstone of all progress and the end to a life of frustration.
You’ve heard the saying….
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight
in the dog.” – Mark Twain.
That Mark Twain saying, may seem kind of cliché… but think of it that
you are hearing it for the first time; It’s pretty powerful.
The quality of ‘fierceness’ (the fight) is really not what comes to my
mind when I hear that saying — For me it’s the ‘burning desire’ and
‘persistence’ of the small dog that impress me the most.
I hear regularly that we have our staff reduced, budgets cut and
additional space added…
…yes many are having tough times now. Things are not working out as
they planned, and some don’t feel they can achieve success.
People throw the word ‘success’ around as if it defines a certain
level of achievement. A certain HCAHPS score, Press Ganey rating, NRC
Picker Score.
Success can be small improvements and victories that you already make everyday.
For example…
If you are updating routines, writing down your your target results
and desired outcomes is your first step. A small but important step.
As you sit down to craft that new routine, you feel excited about the
possibilities of success.
You gather the excitement of this simple activity and you begin to
feel more positive.
When you finish updating your job routines and assignments, you feel
elated enough — one more task completed — but don’t feel successful…
…Why? Most often, success to us is that 99%tile, perfect score, no
complaints and other stuff.
But, if we think about success in ‘small increments’, more like little
victories — it’s less overwhelming, and it’s more fun that way.
Consider every small improvement that you make in your work a huge
victory. Do more of these small improvements and be persistent.
Persistence is key to feeling successful.
There are many qualities that help us in our work, but if I were to
pick one personal quality that stands out, it would have to be
‘Persistence’.
To your Persistent Success,
John
Having diverse strengths has always been a bonus, but in the past, you may have been able to get by with a fixed set of abilities or specialties more so than we can today. Those around you that you see as successful are employing everything from shrewd business acumen to honed writing skills and the soft, subtle world of human sociology and psychology to make their way in the world.
They’ve sharpened their instincts to know which skills are needed and when. In many ways it’s the age of the generalist rather than the specialist, and I think it can be explained pretty well by the traditional serenity prayer:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
There are things – many things – that simply are what they are. We aren’t in control of the players, circumstances, or nature of these things, nor are we likely to be. So instead, the adaptable learn to maneuver within, around, or in spite of them, and continue along their own course.
It’s the ancient idea of being water around obstacles, or in this case, circumstances over which we have no control. Those that continually succeed largely do so because they’re able to identify the things that aren’t within their control and figure out how to incorporate or avoid them.
Focusing your energy in the places where you can make a difference. Applying your knowledge, skills, or curiosity to those situations is always going to net you something more than pounding away at an immovable object.
Adaptability means that you not only aim to affect change, but that you’re patient enough to select the right tools, pace, and approach for the job.
There is so much turmoil in humans that often we can’t tell a solvable problem from a fixed one.
We fight against immutable laws of human dynamics, instead of spending energy on forging relationships that matter to us. We judge other people for their perceived shortcomings rather than focusing on honing our own skills and exploring our own values.
This is a hard thing for us to accept sometimes. I’m guilty of it, too. But the more I observe, the more I think that those who are nimble, adaptable, and capable of improvising from a broad toolbox are the ones that will continue to thrive. Evolution keeps proving it over and over again.
Next time you’re frustrated or up against an obstacle, ask yourself whether or not you can change it, and if not, what you can do to work around it. You might just find yourself capable of solving more problems and making more progress than you might have imagined.
John
1. If you really want to do something, write it down. I have proven this several times.
2. Don’t listen to negative people who think something can’t be done.
3. While you don’t listen to the negative people, try to help them see the positive in life.
4. Budgets are more important each year. See item 1.
5. Exercise is important each day. Don’t fool yourself into thinking three days a week is enough. This is a great stress reducer.
6. Friends should come first, Try to make friends with everyone. See item 3.
7. Having a personal journal really helps with the year end review. See item 1 again.
8. Books and other self education is an investment with guaranteed returns. Better than any stock market.
9. It is ok to try new things.
10. Don’t sweat the small things. Really.
First plant 3 rows of peace: PERSISTENCE, PATIENCE, PEACE OF MIND
Next, plant 4 hills of squash: SQUASH GOSSIP, SQUASH GRUMBLING, SQUASH SELFISHNESS, SQUASH APATHY
Then plant 3 rows of lettuce: LET US BE KIND, LET US BE RESPONSIBLE, LET US BE RESPECTFUL.
No garden is complete without turnips: TURN UP WITH A SMILE, TURN UP WITH A HEALTHY ATTITUDE
Water regularly with confidence and love and let your garden bring forth both thankfulness and forgiveness.
IF WE COULD ALL REMEMBER TO CULTIVATE THIS, NO CHALLENGE WOULD BE TOO GREAT; AND WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD THIS WOULD BE.
WISHING YOU & YOUR LOVED ONES A BLESSED AND SAFE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY!
I want to share this news story because it really explains a common, recurring situation that occurs when custodian, housekeepers and other service workers really love their jobs and the people they serve.
MUSKOGEE, OK — Everyone remembers Pete Robbins’ characteristic greeting to the children as they came into the building at the start of the school day, according to the Muskogee Phoenix.
"Every morning he stood at the door and gave every child a high-five, a smile and a ‘good morning’ as they came through that door," said Carolyn Stach, a teacher at Fort Gibson for 43 years.
Robbins died on Sept. 27 at the age of 89, the article noted.
"Pete was the kind of guy who never met a stranger," said Roger Shaw, long-time principal at Fort Gibson School while Robbins worked there.
"He knew every child in school. Every one of them had a nickname," Shaw added.
"Sometimes it is the people who seem to have a small part in our lives that make the biggest impact, and Pete was certainly one of those people," said Cheryl Todd, a 1989 graduate of Fort Gibson High School.
"He would still recognize you 30 years after you were in school. For many of us, he was our parents’ custodian, then ours, then our kids’," Todd stated.
Click here to read the complete article.
Remember, HIPAA is very important, our patients are counting on us to protect them.
A quick tip regarding recognition.
Successful leadership in healthcare environmental services requires constant vigilance, ongoing education, willingness to identify opportunities for improvement in ourselves first, and staff second. In that spirit I share 11 principles and 14 traits for leading in this ever changing environment.
Resonant Leaders engage us. They evoke positive emotions and inspire us through their positive thoughts and clear vision. Leaders develop their resonance through compassion, hope, mindfulness and they maintain their resonance. Is it any wonder this leads to increased revenue in an organization?
Leaders of all kinds possess these abilities. However, their level of emotional intelligence determines their ability to manage the feeling and emotions that motivate groups to meet its goals. Resonance, in terms of brain function, means that people’s emotional centers are in synch in a positive way. We have to do everything we can to promote resonant leadership skills.
Time sure goes by fast. Sorry to have been away so long. I’ve been staying very busy, writing 83 performance evaluations, finishing my totally updated training manual, and learning as much as I can to be a great hospital safety officer.
I’m going to be posting some questions I’ve been asked recently, and give you my answers. I’ll be posting these at least a couple times each week. Hopefully some of the housekeeping questions will be helpful to you.
If I asked how many of you have seen a killer phrases poster … or even have one hanging in your office … I’m sure I’d see hands going up all over the world. What I seldom see are the replacements for the killer phrases … the things we can say instead of those old negative chestnuts. The one most of us already know is to replace “Yes, but …” with “Yes, and …” in order to build on ideas. But there are a lot more killer phrases that need replacing. I’ve listed a few and would like to invite you to send us your killer phrase with an appropriate Leap Stimulator.
John Michael Weir – BBA, CHESP, REH is Stephen Fry proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache