When you think about developing leadership skills for yourself or others picture a triangle. Draw a triangle on a piece of paper and label the three points: education, experience and feedback.

Let’s start with Education Shall We?

I think most of us would agree that the foundation of a leadership training program is education.  But, I think that’s an incomplete assumption. What we gain from education is an understanding of the fundamental theories in a historical frame work. In other words a standardized body of knowledge for the discipline being studied. We rely on our college and university systems to deliver this foundation.

Your formal education helps you to think differently about the challenges you are facing. It becomes your intellectual experiences that go your day to day work activities. Education broadens your thoughts and views by introducing you to general theories and principles that you’ll use to formulate situational conclusions.

Education and professional development courses or programs include, reading and discussing, books, E-books, articles, seminars, and best practices, audio and video programs by well know experts.

Use your education and professional development knowledge to help you think out side the box and adapt to a changing environment. You will never again accept that’s the way we’ve always done it.

Education alone is not enough to develop your current and future leaders.

Let’s move on to the second element of the triangle Experience.

We’ve all heard the expression ‘experience is the best teacher.” But is it really? Not without education and feedback.

What’s the best way to get good experience?

I believe it’s best developed by assigning a task to the individual or team when the task is completed according to standards the level of difficulty in the next task is increased. Applying this process increases performance and sets a high standard of excellence. By increasing the level of difficulty or stress over time your subordinates will gain competence and confidence.  Experience comes from requiring the right training in the right way to perform the task plus practice, practice, practice in short repetition.  There is an element of risk on your part if the individual or team does not meet standards as the leader you are responsible. This is not necessarily a bad thing. When the mind is put under stress the mind releases a chemical that fosters learning.

I became a believer in combining the three elements of education, experience and feedback in the training process as a culinary student a Johnson and Wales University.  From 6 AM to 8 AM we would study the history and theory of cooking from 8 AM to 11 AM we would be assigned menu items to cook for lunch and then serve the meal at 11:30 AM.  AT 1 PM we received feedback from the Chef Instructor and student.  It was a process that kept you humble with a level of stress that drove you to perform according to standards.

Be on guard for poor repetition and practice it is just as habit forming as good repetition and practice. Experience alone is not enough to gain leadership competence and good judgment.

The third element of the leadership triangle is my favorite feedback.

Feedback allows the leader to use their experience and education to guide, teach and mentor their subordinates. Leaders must actively search for opportunities to give and receive feedback. It is critical to your success that subordinates always know where they stand and how to improve their performance. In my judgment feedback offers the leader the greatest opportunity to teach and mentor in a collaborative way by building trust, confidence and rapport with your subordinates.

Feedback comes in various forms: face-to-face discussion or instruction, written reports, e-mails, hands on demonstrations, counseling, letters of appreciation, performance reviews and role playing or a simple thank you to name a few.

We spend far too much time giving negative feedback. For feedback to be successful it must complete a circle. It is not enough to tell an employee what was done wrong or what could be improved. Catch your employees doing things right then reinforce their positive actions. Your staff will perform well those tasks that you pay attention too. Ask yourself the following questions; is the feedback timely, specific, understandable, accurate, controllable, given by someone who the employee respects, and demonstrates your desire for the employee to be successful.

Bring out the best in others by what is best in you. Use the leadership triangle as your guide. Great leaders invest considerable time and energy developing subordinates for successful leadership assignments.

By include the three elements of the leadership triangle: education, experience and feedback in your leadership development you create a holistic view of your assessments to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.

Your goal should be to create a leader with well rounded skills; excellent people skills first and foremost and solid technical skills.

Be a leader who is remembered for a life time because you made a positive impact on the people you led.

The Affinity Diagram is an Effective Language Tool.
It generates ideas, opinions and issues which can then be organized into natural groupings. It is a creative as well as a logical process that enables team members to participate in an issue’s solution rather than simply restating the problem.  It is best done with six to twelve members.

It Requires a Minimum of Equipment
You need only a flip chart, markers and post-it notes.

Getting Started
The facilitator vaguely states the issue and writes it at the top of the flip chart. Examples are “What are the issues involved in becoming a successful supervisory team?” or “What are all the things we need to do to be successful in our vision?”

Generating and Recording Ideas
No one may criticize any ideas.  Each participant is given a pad of post-it notes and a marker.    The goal is to generate a large number of ideas in a short period of time with each team member contributing five to ten ideas, with one idea per post-it note.
Each statement should have a noun and a verb and use proactive, action oriented verbs such as generate, increase, reduce.  Statements should be in five to seven words. Printing should be legible, but spelling doesn’t count until you print the final report.

Placing and Arranging Post-its on the Flip Chart
Each team member, one at a time, places the completed post-it notes on the flip chart at random.  There is no discussion at this point.  When all ideas have been placed on the flip chart, each team member reviews the post-its and at will, without talking, moves ideas that appear to be related into vertical columns.  Some post-its may be moved more than once.  If you have a strong feeling about the placement of a post-it, move it!  At this point you may ask questions about the meaning of a given post-it if it is not clear to you.

Creating Header Cards
When all post-its have been moved to the general satisfaction of the team, utilizing consensus they then work as a group to create header cards to define the central idea of each related grouping.  The header cards should be written to summarize the ideas in the individual post-its.  Some ideas may be loners. Header cards should be concisely stated in three to five words and placed at the top of each group of related ideas. The header card should be critically evaluated so they are clear to non-team members.  Jargon and cliches must be avoided.  Related groupings are placed near each other vertically and connected by lines.
Example of an Affinity Diagram

What are the issues involved in…

Header Card             Header Card         Header Card          Header card
Post-it                       Post-it                        Post-it                         Post-it
Post-it                       Post-it                        Post-it                         Post-it

Have fun with it.

Feel free to use this article, in your publications; in its entirety provided you include the following notice:
© Copyright 2008 Front Row Connections, Columbus, OH, USA, http://www.decidingtolead.com.com

Do you know what the single biggest regret a resident has after moving to a retirement community? The answer to that question is one I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard the residents answer.

Before I share the answer with you……

Imagine how secure you will feel knowing that you will never be alone. At the flick of an emergency cord or the press of an emergency pendant, security and medical assistance will come to your aid. How comforting it will be when you can leave your loved one to go on a golf outing or to the grocery knowing that help will be there when it is needed. The number one reason for moving to a retirement community is peace of mind.

 You’ll never again be at the mercy of repairmen, escalating real estate taxes, utility expenses or home insurance costs. No more cleaning rooms never used anymore or searching for someone to cut the grass, clean the gutters or simply change a light bulb. You will know what your expenses are going to be, no more guesswork. The second reason to move into a retirement community is freedom from the burdens of home ownership.

 As your health needs change over time, participating in a wellness program can maintain your health and fitness and keep you active and able to enjoy life to the fullest. It is reassuring to have health services such as assistance-in-living, skilled nursing, home health care and wellness programs available on site or nearby to help promote a speedy recovery. The third reason to move to a retirement community is health care and support services.

 Picture yourself being part of a community while maintaining your individualism and privacy. Make new friends, create new memories and entertain old friends. Enjoy private moments, in the library, the garden, on the putting green, at the fishpond or the walking trails. Select the activities and social events that you wish to participate in.

 Free transportation is available if you don’t wish to drive.  Drivers are happy to take you to your destination.  See yourself sitting in a comfortable bus riding in the mountains to see the fall foliage or to the city to see a play. If you choose not to cook you can enjoy a varied menu in a fine dining room with a lovely view. The chefs are well known for their culinary skill with nutritious, well-balanced meals and deliciously decadent desserts. You’ll never have to eat alone if you don’t choose to.

Imagine your guests delight when invited to join you for a fine meal the main dining room. The fourth reason for moving to a retirement community is to become part of a supportive community and still be able to maintain your individualism.

 You don’t have to be dependent on your children or neighbors by staying in your home when you could be living in a retirement community, improving your quality of life with supportive services you need or just enjoy. It’s almost like living on a cruise ship. It doesn’t matter where your cabin is, you still enjoy all the benefits and amenities. The fifth reason for moving to a retirement community is to enjoy carefree living. You worked hard all your life to retire and you deserve to be catered to in your retirement living.

As a couple, you have twice as many reasons to move to a retirement community now to take advantage of the benefits of an independent, maintenance free, secure life style together.

 The biggest single regret a resident has after moving to a retirement community is they didn’t make the move sooner.

 Why you may ask? I have a theory. We get comfortable in our surrounding and with the familiar and why we shouldn’t we, we have lived in our homes most of our adult life and it is filled with happy memories and we’re afraid that by leaving we will lose those memories. Why not take those memories with you and make new ones in a retirement community. Secondly we are very adaptable to our aging process and we don’t recognize our difficulties, such as getting out of a chair, walking, reading the newspaper, hearing a conversation or opening a jar of pickles. It doesn’t have to be that way.

 I am wondering, why wait any longer to move to a retirement community?

 Until next month

Enjoy the moments

By: Kenneth Strong
 Much of our management training and practices are designed to find fault and assign responsibility. We design systems to evaluate deviations from norms and measure the impact of the variations. This effort on the part of managers is an attempt to improve things generating more efficiency and cost savings.

 As a result of this long standing practice we have become good at discovering what is wrong with just about everything. Fact finding the negative results in work performance and what’s wrong with life has become easy for us, too easy.

 Perhaps it became part of our life experience when we started school. Think about when the teacher returned a test to you as you looked at it you were probably thinking I got two wrong rather that I got eight correct. Or when your got an excellent performance review and your boss said there is just one thing you need to work on improving. All the good that had been said was lost because there is only one thing that needs improvement. We waste so much of our time focusing on the negative. It is the greatest disservice that we do to ourselves and others. If you want to have an unlimited potential eliminate the negative and fault finding.

 Instead we should focus on what is right and positive. Work at finding people doing things right. Compliment them on what they are doing correctly. Positive reinforcement gets positive outcomes.

 The two most important words after a persons name is thank you. Make it a habit to say thank you to people and always add a sentence or two about why you are thanking them. It only takes a few extra seconds but demonstrates to the person that you understand what they did for you, thus making your thank you a genuine compliment.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.
    – Mark Twain

 The spider web is designed to capture prey and the ultimate mistake are being eaten. The spider represents much of the traditional management style of catching people doing something wrong, perhaps even unknowingly. The web represents the business environment, its culture, political structure and a labyrinth of rules, regulations, work flows, systems and policies and procedures.

 Yes, discipline and accountability are important and should not be minimized, but theses business elements do not have to be punitive based. In the long run by changing your focus to reinforcing positive behavior versus focusing on negative enforcement the organization will be far more successful.

Catch people doing things right!

Feel free to use this article, in your publications; in its entirety provided you include the following notice:
© Copyright 2008 www.decidingtolead.com, Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA, http://www.frontrowconnections.com

What Every Family Member Should Know About When It’s Time To Search For A Senior Health Care Community

Part Two

The first scenario in last month’s article involved admission to a senior health care community because of an unexpected medical condition that made such an admission a necessity. Our next scenario is a planned admission. This is the hard part.

 Scenario Number Two

 You may have noticed some subtle changes in your loved one’s behavior, nothing too bizarre or dangerous, but changes that cannot be ignored. For example there may be evidence of some minor forgetfulness, perhaps personal hygiene has diminished, hair is not washed, there’s body odor, and fingernails are uncut, never polished or just dirty.

 Maybe your loved one is showing signs of short temper or aggression, striking out at you or others. You may have noticed visible weight loss or bruises on his or her arms and legs. A neighbor may have called you at work to inform you about finding your loved one roaming the streets.

 Until recently your loved one may have been an immaculate housekeeper or always well dressed. His or her mail may be piling up unopened or there may be an unusual number of packages arriving from QVC. His or her checkbook may have far too many checks written to unknown agencies or lotteries from overseas. His or her car, formerly in good condition, may have unexplained dings and dents or the police department may have taken his or her driver’s license. By now perhaps you have your own additions to scenario number two.

 So, what do you do? First I suggest that you keep a journal as these things begin to happen. Make sure to record the date and time of each event. At some point your level of comfort with your loved one being alone or with your ability to provide care will reach its limit. Because you’ve recorded the events in detail your physician or other caregiver will be in a better position to make an appropriate recommendation for the benefit of your loved one. Some of the options may be adult day care, home health care or a companion.

 You may have wonderful memories of your loved one being healthy, vibrant, active and engaging, but that is not what you are seeing and experiencing now. You are determined to do anything necessary to avoid placing your loved one in a senior health care community and to provide the care required and support, but there is a danger in that.

The danger is that many times the caregiver’s health and financial resources fail. In some cases the excessive energy required to care for a loved one results in the premature death of the caregiver or divorce of the adult child (usually the daughter) taking care of an ill, aging parent. You must not sacrifice your health, your family or your financial resources to care for a loved one.

 Two of your goals should be to protect your loved one from self-neglect and to improve his or her quality of life. That’s why we are going to learn how to find a great nursing home.

Now the question becomes which senior health care community is the best option for your loved one and you? (I will be discussing each of these options in future articles.)

 It is best to have an array of options rather than advice when talking about moving to a senior health care community. Ask your loved one to share his or her thoughts about making a move. You want to make it an open conversation without framing it with your values and needs. While the senior years may be a rewarding time full of adventure and satisfaction it is also a time of loss of loved ones, friends, independence and health. Think of yourself as a guide rather than a decision maker as to what is best for your loved one, especially as an adult child.

 Treat your loved one with dignity and respect, tell them that you love them and you will be there for them no matter what happens in the future.  If possible involve siblings in the discussions to avoid conflicting messages and confusion. I urge you to begin these discussions prior to an event that makes the decision for you. Remember it is a very emotional time to decide to move to a senior health care community.

 Until Next Month

Enjoy the Moment

 Kenneth E. Strong Jr. is the Executive Director of Glenwood Retirement Community

Strategic Planning is a tool to become more future oriented. Many managers, when pressed, will admit that their strategic plans reveal more about today’s problems than tomorrow’s opportunities. Your current Long Range Planning must always been forward thinking and must continue to be so.

The one element that may have been lacking has been the full participation of the Board of Trustees primarily in articulating their vision for the organizations future. The Board is ultimately responsible for Strategic Planning; must be an ongoing process that will continue as long as your organization is in business. A Strategic Plan can only be developed by using strategic thinking, which is a change in one’s mindset, thinking beyond one’s experience and planning beyond one’s tenure, whatever one’s role in the organization. A strategic plan must have the full participation of the Board or it will be have negligible value and be a misuse of the time of those who do participate.

For many organizations the vision for the Long Range Plan has been disconnected due to its development primarily by staff with very little input, modification, comments or challenges from the trustees. The Board should formulate a Steering Team to bring together one long range vision for the organization and determine the composition of the team and the meeting frequency.

Long Range Planning is the responsibility of the Board of Trustees; management’s responsibility is to carry out the plan and provide input, gather data and report progress to the Board of Trustees through the Steering Team.

The foundation of a strong team is its members. It must have people who are committed to making the team a success. The members must know how to get their ideas across, listen to each other, be open to new ideas, and be willing to expose and deal with problems rather than hide them.

At the Steering Team’s first meeting you must define the team’s purpose, appoint a Team Leader, time keeper and scribe. It is important to understand that there is no rank or status on the team other than the Team Leader. As a team member, your views will be questioned and challenged without regard to your trustee status.  Establish a meeting schedule and issue assignments. The Team Leader guides and manages the day-to-day activity of the team and is also a team member who shares in the team member responsibilities.

All members of the team must understand and use the seven management and planning tools which assist the team by identifying issues, measuring progress, identifying priorities, generating deployment schedules, establishing assignments and developing “what if” options. These tools are critical to the team’s success and are the primary communication tools of the team.

Anyone who is concerned about the amount of time to be spent working on the Steering Team should consider how much time your organization deserves to ensure its success in the future. Anyone who cannot make the needed time commitment should not be on the team.

The formation of a Steering Team is the last necessary step in a complete Long Range Plan that unifies the vision of the trustees and staff in an organization’s vision for the future.

Feel free to use this article, in your publications; in its entirety provided you include the following notice:
© Copyright 2008  Front Row Connections, Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA, http://www.decidingtolead.com.com

What Every Family Member Should Know About When It’s Time To Search For A Senior Health Care Community

Part One

How do you know when it’s time to find a senior health care facility for your loved one? This is both the hardest and the easiest of questions to answer. Let me explain. There are primarily two scenarios that result in seeking senior community health care.

 Scenario Number One

A fall occurs and a hip is broken or the loved one has a stroke, heart attack, or contracts pneumonia. These are examples of medical conditions that required hospitalization. Up until this point, admission to a senior health care community was never considered.

 The hospital has now finished caring for the immediate medical needs. You are contacted by the hospital discharge planner who tells you that your loved one will be discharged to a senior health care community for rehabilitation within a few days, gives you a list of senior health care communities in your area, and wishes you good luck in your search.

 If you are lucky, area senior health care communities will have their admission coordinators visiting the hospitals daily to “shop for residents.” The senior health care community admission coordinator will look at your loved one’s medical file and determine whether the care required and the estimated length of stay will fit the senior health care community’s patient mix.

  The senior health care community wants to balance the needs of your loved one with the current demands of their residents both medically and for staff availability. The senior health care community will also look at how the care will be paid for. Keep in mind that the senior health care community can’t discriminate on your loved one’s admission based on how the care will be paid for, whether it’s Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care insurance, an HMO, private funds, or other payment plans.

 However, senior health care communities, like other businesses, have bills to pay, not the least of which is payroll. So naturally, they will look for the maximum reimbursement possible.

 Your challenge now becomes deciding in which senior health care community you will place your loved one, within the time allocated by the hospital. Note that the reason the hospital is pushing you to transfer your loved one to a senior health care community is money. The reimbursement for the care received is about to run out. However, keep this in the back of your mind; the hospital will find it extremely difficult to force your loved one into a senior health care community that isn’t agreeable with you or that is at a distance that is unreasonable for you to travel.

The best way to avoid confrontation with the hospital is to have a discussion with the discharge planner about which senior health care communities have the best reputation in the area and in which one the discharge planner would place his or her loved one. However, remember that the job of the discharge planner is to discharge your loved one to the senior health care community that has the first available bed. After you visit each facility talk with the discharge planner about your observations, what you thought about how you were received, and your likes and dislikes about the facility. Your feedback is very helpful to the discharge planner for future recommendations.

 As long as you keep the hospital informed that you are making a good faith effort to transfer your loved one to a senior health care community they will be less likely to put pressure on you. You will have enough pressure on you at this point; you don’t want to have any that is avoidable. Remember that your primary goal is to find a great senior health care community for your loved one.

In this scenario the decision to admit your loved one to a senior health care community has been made for you by an unexpected medical condition; that’s the easy part. Whether the stay in the senior health care community is short or long-term, the process of finding a great senior health care community is the same, but in this case, time is of the essence.

 Two of your goals should be to protect your loved one from self-neglect and to improve his or her quality of life.

 Until Next Month

Enjoy the Moment

 Kenneth E. Strong Jr. is the Executive Director of Glenwood Retirement Community

There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them have come about through encouragement from someone else.  I don’t care how great, how famous or successful a man or woman may be, each hungers for applause.
   
   There is a great deal written about leadership today. It seems to be the topic that will bring us to the promised land of efficient and effective staff. The questions become: How do I get staff to follow my lead? What training do I need to become a good leader? Much of what leadership has been centered around in the past has been closely associated with ego: position, title, office size or location, having a college education, a parking spot and the key to the executive wash room.

I’m being facetious of course, leadership is serious business. Someone has to take the lead to move a department or company forward. But I don’t think it has to be difficult or a complex process to develop or learn. Anyone who has spent time in the military learns that leaders are not born, they’re made.

A leader has a different attitude than other staff members. It is an attitude of action, inclusion, cheering, encouraging, accountability, continuous learning and passion. He or she has no doubt that all things are possible. Everything will work out. Without the skills and resources of others and goals to be accomplished there is no need for a leader.

Ronald Reagan is credited with saying. “You can accomplish anything you want if you don’t care who gets the credit.” I have a similar view; it is about finding ways to make people famous. Seek out ways to acknowledge, praise, reward positive and exceptional efforts of staff at all levels of the organization. Sometimes it’s hard work making people famous. Your success as a leader will be judged by the famous people you help to develop in your organization who outshine you.

So find ways to publicly celebrate achievements of others. Send them a handwritten note describing the accomplishment. Send the note home, walk up to the person in the employee break room and congratulate him or her. Ask him or her for their autograph.
Make a commitment each day to discover people doing things right and make them famous. I ‘m making you famous!

Feel free to use this article, in your publications; in its entirety provided you include the following notice:
© Copyright 2008 Front Row Connections, Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA, http://www.decidingtolead.com I’ll see you in the front row of success

  
     When most people think of nursing homes, they envision long-term stays of several years or more.  Increasingly, however, short-term stays are being used for a variety of purposes.  A number of factors play into the decision for a short-term stay. 

     Short-term stays are often used as an alternative to a hospital or other rehabilitative facility, and are generally defined as stays less than six months in length.  Instead of paying the high fees of hospital care, stable patients are often housed in long-term care facilities while they complete a recommended physical therapy or recovery period.  This is especially common in patients who have suffered injuries or completed surgery on body parts that affect mobility. 

     Other patients in short-term care may be there because their primary caregiver is temporarily incapacitated or in need of a break.  These stays are generally very short, rarely lasting more than one or two weeks.  Adult daycare or sleepover programs are also considered short-term programs, even though they provide part-time care on a long-term basis. 

     Most short-term stays are just that – short-term stays.  Sometimes, unfortunately, the patient’s condition worsens and the stay becomes long-term.  Patients who are receiving physical, occupational or speech therapy with ongoing needs may easily be converted to long-term stays if doctors determine that prospects for rehabilitation are not good.  Family support is important in these cases, as assistance may enable the patient to continue in part-time therapy and return home the rest of the time. 

     When a patient is chronically ill or unable to care for him or herself, long-term care is usually considered as a starting point.  In these cases, the likelihood of improvement is small, and health needs are often moderate, requiring ongoing custodial care for a period longer than six months.  Custodial care involves housing and assistance in all areas of day-to-day living, including food and hygiene needs.  Generally speaking, these patients’ needs have become too great for family members to handle, and assisted living facilities are no longer an option. 
 
     While it is not uncommon for a short-term stay to become a long-term stay, the reverse is less often true.  Many are quick to blame the deteriorating effects of long-term care, and prefer to try a short-term solution initially, switching to long-term care only if absolutely necessary.  Other times, the decision is motivated by insurance.  While health insurance does not generally pay for long-term care, it will often pay for long-term care housing on a short-term basis.  A short-term stay may “buy time” to decide if a long-term stay will be absolutely necessary. 

     When dealing with care decisions for a loved one, it’s important to understand the different motivations for a short-term or long-term stay in a skilled care facility.  Understanding the options can help you make the best choice for your unique situation.

Feel free to use this article, in your publications; in its entirety provided you include the following notice:

© Copyright 2008, Front Row Connections,Upper Arlington, Ohio, USA, http://www.selectanursinghome.com

As a leader you are goal oriented and somewhat futuristic in your planning. Reaching long-range goals can be a daunting and frustrating endeavor. Sometimes you may think that you will never reach your goal because the end seems so far away.

When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.
- Greg Anderson

That’s the trouble with goals; you reach certain milestones and then something changes and the goal is pushed out further on the timeline just over the horizon. Goals are like the horizon; once you get there you still have more distance to travel. The horizon keeps moving forward; the closer you get the more it seems the journey will never end. The result is a loss of focus and high level of frustration. The closer you get to the horizon the further it moves away from you. It becomes a never ending chase.

One way to eliminate this effect is to schedule a periodic turn around or coming about as a sailor would say. Your perspective is completely changed, now you can immediately and clearly see how far you’ve come. Seeing where you’ve come from and all that you have accomplished gives you a greater sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, focus and fun.

It is much less what we do than what we think, which fits us for the future.
- Philip James Bailey

The horizon in the form of your goals, personal or professional, are by their nature future looking. The future is always just outside of our grasp. Make periodic turn around a habit and appreciate the distance you have traveled on your journey.

Feel free to use this article, in your publications; in its entirety provided you include the following notice: © Copyright 2008 Front Row Connection, Upper Arlington, Ohio USA, http://www.decidingtolead.com