New Years Resolutions - Cultivating Motivation

Welcome to the new calendar year. This one feels different from years past. 2020 created (or maybe demanded) an opportunity to grow, acknowledging responsibilities as a citizen and as a member of our communities. In 2021, it is with maturity and humility that we can move forward and embrace change.  

Did you make a New Year's Resolution? Many frame resolutions as an aspirational goal. We set intentions focusing on who we want to become, but if the destination's journey isn't straightforward, we can set ourselves up to fail. 

This year we'd like to offer a different practice;...

Employee Engagement Surveys - What Do You Do with the Results?

'Tis the season for surveys. As we go into the New Year, many organizations use vendors to send out employee engagement or satisfaction surveys. They are concerned about what employees are thinking and how they can make sure they are committed to corporate goals and will be productive.  

Just like my New Year's Resolutions, we start with great intentions. A lot of planning goes into selecting a vendor, customizing questions, determining how we will roll the survey out and who will get it and who won't. 

So lots of people work hard and get the survey out. The initial response may...

Are you experiencing Moral Fatigue?

What is moral fatigue?  

Moral fatigue is a cognitive dissonance.  It’s when a person’s decisions conflict with their beliefs, ethos, or moral expectations. With intense challenges presented during a global health pandemic, simple decisions are weighed on a different scale. Families are deciding to stay distant and safe for the holidays, conflicting with traditions and expectations of holiday celebrations. At work, leadership is balancing the safety of all personnel with the reality of economic stressors. Some conflicts may even seem small and easy to overcome, however, a...

Defining the New Normal Survey Results, Part 3 of 3

Today is our final post regarding our anonymous survey, Defining the New Normal. In our previous two posts, we’ve:

• covered the significant trend of burnout

• how companies are responding to COVID-19 and remote work

This post will cover what’s next and recommendations on how to get there.

Rethinking Normal

Everyone is taking stock. Many people expressed realizations about working too many hours, working too late, and working over weekends. We’re more aware of and limiting in-person meetings and business travel unless it’s necessary.  

This moment appears to be a good...

Defining the New Normal Survey Results, Part 2 of 3

Last week, we announced part of our anonymous survey results to our colleagues to understand more about the impact of the events of 2020. For the previous post, click here.

This week, we’re unpacking the answers regarding company COVID-19 responses and the change to remote work.

Response to COVID-19

What’s on everyone’s mind is how to deal with the current moment. Here’s a summary of how those that answered our survey are responding.

• Change to remote work

• Emphasis on employee wellness offerings including mandatory time blocking, daycare provided, increased wellness and...

Defining the New Normal Survey Results, Part 1 of 3

Throughout June and July, David Couper Consulting conducted an anonymous survey to our colleagues to understand more about the impact of the events of 2020, themes, and how organizations are responding to said events. Here are our findings. 

Key Findings

I think most of us are most curious about how COVID-19 will impact revenues. 2020 showed a projected decrease for 59% of those that responded, an increase for 31%, and no change for the remaining 9%.

Then there’s the human element. Top concerns for organizations include individual/organizational stress (62%) and burnout (42%)...

Burnout - the Elephant in the Room

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room- burnout. Whether or not you’re addressing it, that elephant is there, large and in charge.

Blind (a workplace app for the tech industry) reported in 2018 that 57.16% of tech employees are burning out. That number went down in 2019. But that number isn’t just back up in 2020, it’s climbing. Of those surveyed in February, 61% said they’re burned out. In May, that number grew to 73%. Burnout has risen by 12% due to COVID-19 in four weeks. Why?

Causes

1. Fear of job security causes people to work harder and longer hours to prove they are an...

Leading Teams Remotely During COVID-19

We're currently conducting a poll we call "Defining the New Normal." Its purpose is to uncover how teams are affected by and responding to…well, all of 2020. A recurring theme in the responses indicates that people are struggling to lead their remote teams. Never fear, we're here to offer suggestions around just that!

Many companies incorrectly assume that when they go remote, their teams will turn on Netflix, play loads of Candy Crush, and productivity will tank. That's simply not true. People don't have the stress of commuting.  They tend to be far more productive and take...

A Growth Mindset Will Get You Through

2020 has been a year full of swift change, which can put a lot of stress on businesses and the people that make them run. It's important to stay flexible during times of significant change.  

That's easy to say. It's much harder to do when your to-do list is mounting, and uncertainty in the collective consciousness.

• When dealing with rapid change, do you feel optimistic or pessimistic?  
• When confronted with feedback, do you beat yourself up, or do you take it as an opportunity to grow?  
• Do you feel stuck, or do you feel like you're always growing?

Growth mindset -- a...

June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month

"I use these for notes." She explained.  I was at home in England, and my mother was carefully cutting the white borders from magazine photos and then placing them in an envelope.  She explained the whole process to me, why she needed these tiny pieces of paper, and why it was necessary.  I listened carefully, and for a while, I agreed with her thinking.  It seemed like a good idea. Using these small strips to write little reminders on was not bad.  Then I stopped.  It was nuts.  If you need to make a note, find a notepad.  My mother was in her 70s, retired, being looked after...

Feeling Burnt Out? Try This

Gratitude is difficult to categorize. Is it an emotion, a virtue, or a personality trait? Can it be learned and become habitual? Happily, the answer to that is yes in most cases.  Some of us naturally exude gratitude. But if it’s not our natural state, then how do we cultivate an attitude of gratitude and why is it important?  Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, two leading experts in gratitude, state that, “gratitude stems from the perception of a positive personal outcome, not necessarily deserved or earned, that is due to the actions of another person.”

Psychological...

Leading Through Change

Leadership is most tested during times of great change.  If COVID-19 isn’t a time of great change, I don’t know what is!  For some, there have been one or all of these stressors on their business:

• Financial 

• System & Logistical - shift to remote, pivot to new systems

• Workload - influx or decrease, burnout 

• People & Culture - conflict, remote communication, changes in focus, layoffs

The pivots businesses are forced to make to deal with the pandemic are highlighting what we’re doing right and where we can continue to grow.  These are uncharted territories, and all of us...

Trust and Teamwork: Needed Now More Than Ever

When we think of the core values that matter in a workplace trust isn’t always top of the list, but teamwork often appears as one of the most significant for an organization to foster. The two are intrinsically linked however, teamwork can’t thrive without trust and a company without a solid team of employees can’t thrive at all. As an offset from COVID-19, there have been huge changes in every industry including a shift to working from home, strapped resources, either increased or decreased volume, and sometimes massive layoffs.  We’re in a period of time that trust and...

Bouncing Back From Stress

A small amount of stress can be useful to us. Minimal manageable stress can boost our brain function and immune system. But when stress becomes chronic or extreme, it impacts most areas of our lives negatively. A lot of us are experiencing a great deal more pressure than usual, and it’s important to acknowledge the impact of this.

In 1967, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe created the Holmes and Rahe stress scale measuring 43 stressful life events ranging from death and divorce to going on vacation and how they contribute to illness. The higher your score on the...

We are all #HashtagtheCowboy

I was scrolling social media this morning, through terrifying statistics and harrowing personal stories. Then I paused at an article about the social media account for the National Cowboy Museum. Because of the current crisis, all staff but a lone security guard and his team have been sent home with no one to fend for their social media account. Necessity is the mother of invention, so their marketing team handed off the reigns to Tim.

Tim has little to no experience with social media, so he’s making it up as he goes along. And the results are simply delightful. Here are a few...

Transitions: Ride the Wave

Try getting a large group of people to move together in an orderly fashion. What will likely happen? It may be frustrating, uncomfortable, awkward, then suddenly, it all gets sorted. Dealing with change is different than transitions. Change is something that is thrust upon people, whether they want it or not. Transitions are what happens internally to those experiencing change. Change is easy. Transitioning can be uncomfortable.  

I've worked with change management in both large corporations and employees. The biggest issue around change? Dashed expectations.

There are...

The Necessity of Accountability

Whether you're thinking about personal or professional accountability, it all boils down to the same thing— someone who is answerable to and responsible for their actions, both positive and negative.

Accountability is a quality that many people aspire to, but how exactly do we achieve it?

We set goals with the best of intentions, but often they fall by the wayside. No one is any the wiser that we secretly planned to lose 10 lbs, quit smoking, or try for a promotion this year. So it comes as no surprise to learn that accountability that isn't shared publicly is much more...

Time Versus Task

We all start our day with the best of intentions. Well, I know I do. But all too often, you wind up at the end of the day with little or nothing to show for your efforts, an ever-expanding to-do list, the feeling that you've been busy all day but haven't achieved anything significant. It can be frustrating and disheartening to feel like your journey is static and not traveling in a linear motion toward the things that matter to you.

Start Your Day With Intention, Not Shot Out of a Cannon

According to procrastination experts (yes, it's a real job,) "people tend to overestimate...

Your Son Goes to the Hospital. You’re at Work.  Now What?

I am a single father with a 13-year old son who is also running my leadership development and coaching company in California, with an average of 20 people working on projects at any one time. My son has some emotional issues and is at a boarding school in New Hampshire. So when I got this call this morning despite all my years of self-development and coaching of senior leaders, I had no idea what to do. He got angry with another kid who was inside a building teasing him through a window. Instead of thinking and withdrawing, he punched him. Young fists and glass don't match; he...

Expectations Versus Agreements

We sat in the driveway, my business partner and I, each peering out our opposite windows, each wrapped in the disappointing sense that we had failed one another while the uncaring car simply idled in the background.  “We agreed on this,” my partner said, without turning her face toward me.  “No, you told me how we were going to do this, and I said nothing” was my response as I also turned toward my own window.  Somehow, she thought my silence meant I agreed.  Somehow, I thought my silence would indicate I did not agree.  Just as the view was different for each of us through our...

Show That Clock Who’s Boss: Kick Time Management into High Gear!

We're all here today because we need help with time management. Welcome! You're not alone. Research shows that part-time community college students have a harder time with time-management than full-time students. If you're doing many different things in your life or job, time management could be your burden or your savior.

First of all, carrying around what you should do tires you out and affects focus. Because of this, get whatever you can off your desk now! List 5-10 issues you're having around time management. Now, wait, let's put it another way — list issues you're having...

Slay the Overwhelm Dragon.  Prioritize!

It seems everyone is constantly inundated with a list of tasks so long they can’t keep up.  I know I can sympathize with this.  Modern life and our connectivity make it difficult to suss out what is truly important and what is just noise.  We can’t make your to-do lists disappear, but we can help you understand which tasks need your attention, which you can ignore, and what order you should address them.  

Brain Dump Weekly

At the start of every week, begin it by doing a brain dump.  You can do this process weekly or on a project-by-project basis.  The key is regaining...

How to Be a Mentor or Mentee

Ah, the mentor/mentee relationship.  Everyone wants to help or be helped at work, but once a mentorship begins, neither party knows what to do with the other.  What really constitutes a successful mentor and mentee relationship?   

The biggest challenge with this relationship is to define it.  With clarity for both parties comes the learning opportunity both mentors and mentees have been waiting for.  Yes, mentors, you’re about to get a ton out of this too (in addition to good karma!)

Be the Model Mentee

• Your mentor is giving you their time.  Respect it.  Don’t show up...

Goal Setting for Everyone

We’ve all heard the corporate acronym that good goals should be SMARTER:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Realistic

Timely

Evaluate-able

Revaluate-able

This is a great starter.  But new research can show us how to think of goal setting even smarter!  At its heart, effective goal setting isn’t about daydreaming. It’s about changing habits.  Ray Williams writes in Psychology Today that: “Recent neuroscience research shows the brain works in a protective way, resistant to change. Therefore, any goals that require substantial behavioral change or thinking-pattern change will...

Take Back Your Joy

Happy Holidays to all our friends and colleagues! We hope you're having a delightful season.

Let's check in.

Yes, the holidays are supposed to full of joy. But where is your joy level today? Did an aunt say something offensive at dinner? Are you looking at your bank account or actively ignoring it until after January 1st? Is the overwhelm of family, friends, celebration, and expense making you feel out of control?

You're not alone. The holidays tend to be a stressful time of year for many. It seems like every year all one can do is grin, bear it, and try to make the best of...

Season of Joy? Three Ways of Making Sure You Enjoy the Holidays!

At this time of the year, I find myself and many of my clients swamped with holiday parties, end-of-year tasks, and the focus on getting things completed before a period where many organizations slow down or go on vacation. I find myself swept up in an almost irrational fear that I won't get it all done. I am not sure what the "all" is, but that idea hangs out in the back of my mind. It taps me on the shoulder continuously, like a bored kid on a road trip when their iPad runs out of battery.

So how to deal with this?

You Don't Have to Do it All.

Make healthy decisions about...

Life or Death

Sometimes people ask me why they should get a coach. There is no should. You shouldn't do anything in this world unless you want to, apart from flossing, helping old ladies cross the street, and doing the right thing.  

The easiest way to explain why you might want to get a coach is to share my experience. For the last twenty years, I have worked with many coaches. I believe that any successful coach should invest in their growth and experience what it feels like to receive coaching.

Let's get back to the question at hand.  The reason to get a coach is if your life depends on...

How to Find Gratitude When You Just Don’t Feel It

Gratitude. It's the word of the season, and it's a frequent buzzword among the self-help community. But it sounds like a lot of hooey when you're not feeling great.  

Sometimes you can almost double down on feeling bad with the wrong terminology around this idea. I used to hate hearing, "gratitude is the attitude" or "fake it till you make it." While good points, they're meant for either a cross-stitch or like you're being told to "put up or shut up." The way this idea is displayed matters.

I think of the physicians and administrators we support. Try telling someone who just...

How to Celebrate the Holidays at Work Well

Ah, the holidays. It’s a time for coming together, drinking festive beverages, eating festive food, juggling crazy schedules, and spending too much on holiday gifts. Or if you don’t celebrate the holidays, you’re just made to feel everyone is forcing their cheer upon you.  

Let’s face it. November through December is a sensitive time of year for many, due to stress (financial or emotional), feeling left out (for religious or social reasons), or an allergy to mistletoe. Employers want to acknowledge their employees for a job well done. But then, we worry about taking too much...

Navigating Change’s Choppy Waters

I've been meditating on change lately. Organizations we work with are always undergoing a lot of shifts. From people leaving organizations, new bosses coming in and disrupting the status quo, to senior members of staff passing away suddenly, we are always navigating unknown waters.

Change is inevitable. So how do we cope?

Change is Constant AND Healthy 

When we expect things to happen, we can often be disappointed. Expect the unexpected, not the event usually expected. 

We often don't like change. We especially don't like change when we feel like we are not in control of the...

Jump Start Employee Engagement, Even Around the Holidays

As we near the close of 2019 and the start of 2020, it's natural for the end of the year to be a scheduling nightmare. Wrapping up projects before the end of Q4, family, and friends in town for the holidays, it's hard to stay focused and keep your team on track. Losing focus is easy this time of year, but it's also the most crucial time to stay on task. 

Engagement Activate!

There's a lot of chatter around the concepts of leadership and employee engagement. But these items can seem so elusive. How do you get people to care about their work?  

The answer? It starts with you....

Stuck in the Middle - the Woes of Middle Management

I travel fairly often, and I'm lucky that I’m regularly able to pick an aisle seat.  But at 6'2", the few times that I got the middle seat, I thought I might not get through the flight.  Many middle managers feel the same way at work.

So how are they stuck in the middle seat?  Being a middle manager, you are not senior, or executive leadership, nor are you a frontline employee.

The senior leader has overall responsibility and has the pressure of keeping the Board happy and many external and internal stakeholders, but they also make the big bucks.  We have all seen how CEO's...

Cultivating Inexplicable Healthcare Miracles

"He'd been dead for 20 minutes. We got him back inexplicably. He calls me every year."

- Esther Choo, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Public Health, Researcher, OHSU

I saw this fantastic quote on Twitter. I'm not a physician, although my company works on culture, resiliency, and leadership, with healthcare organizations, physicians, and other caregivers. I don't know Dr. Choo and I don't know her story apart from its testament to her skills! 

To me, the above quote is at the heart of healthcare. Physicians and other caregivers are bringing people back to life,...

3 Tips to Finding an Executive Coach

Are you stuck? Feel like your team is not engaged? Missed that promotion, and you don’t understand why? So now you want to hire an executive coach. Everyone’s doing it, even your brother-in-law, who never does anything apart from watching Netflix. It’s a great way to grow your career, but how do you start? Here's 3 tips to successfully hiring an executive coach.

1. Ask for referrals from people you trust.

But be clear on what you want in a coach before you ask and what they can offer you. I’ve had coaches who helped me with grieving, managing my team, dating (OK, not really,...

Communication and the Patient Experience

"Just Say No" is the slogan for the old drug prevention campaign during the 80s and 90s.   Perhaps it should be the new slogan for insurance companies as they decide who receives what drugs.

There is a conflict currently within the healthcare industry - insurance companies make money by providing less, and providers make money by providing more. Often the patient finds themselves stuck in the middle, fighting for what they, or their doctors, think is the right treatment for them. Recently my son returned to California from being at boarding school in Colorado. He has some...

How To Fight Procrastination

Procrastination can be risky and precarious, yet it remains one of the most alluring enemies of productivity.  This is unsurprising considering that often times, what we put off are things that we don’t really want to do.  But, like Benjamin Franklin once said, “You may delay, but time will not.”

In honor of National Fight Procrastination Day, which took place on September 6, we’ve put together a few tips to help you fight that urge to put that dreaded task off until another time.  

1. Write It Down

Keeping a future task in your consciousness takes up a lot of space in our...

Learn to Appreciate Yourself and Take Pride in You

Psychologists have been studying the topics of self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth for centuries.  Sigmund Freud believed that the adult personality is formed based on childhood experiences and our interpretation of those experiences.  Carl Jung believed that the collective unconscious plays a role in our personalities and behavior.  However our self-esteems are formed, and through whatever external sources, the bottom line is that our own selves play the largest role in what our self-esteem looks like.  We are the ones who give ourselves value and worth through what we...

The Amazing Benefits of Self-Reflection

At Harvard Graduate School of Education, students in the Language and Literacy class, led by Lecturer Pam Mason, are videotaped in the classroom while they are teaching.  Grades from the class, however, are not determined from Mason’s evaluation of the tapes, but rather her evaluation of the students’ own responses from watching the tapes.  The students are evaluated based on their ability to self-reflect on their own teaching methods and behaviors in the classroom and, from there, learn and make changes from their own self-review.

This is just one methodology that acknowledges...

Keeping the Peace at Work

Learn How to Manage Work Conflict and Use Contention for Growth

Conflict. Simply seeing the word probably made you tense up a little. No one likes “conflict” and most people do everything they can in their power to avoid it. But, what if conflict wasn’t seen as a bad thing? What if we saw conflict as a tool for personal growth and a learning opportunity?

Conflict is a normal part of any relationship, work or otherwise. After all, there’s no way a group of people can agree on everything all the time. And why would we want to? Echo chambers can become quite boring and don’t...

The Importance of Asking Questions

“There is no such thing as a stupid question.”

You’ve probably heard this phrase before from a teacher, parent, or employer. In reality, while this saying is very true, there is still a stigma around asking questions that makes people fear if they ask a question, they’ll be seen as inadequate or a nuisance. Perhaps the fear stems from an early childhood experience, from our own self-doubt, or the perceived judgment that will come our way. The simple truth is, there is nothing wrong with asking questions. In fact, we should work toward encouraging and empowering our employees to...

What Are the Responsibilities of Physician Leaders?

Research shows that healthcare leadership roles have a turnover rate of almost 20% and newly hired executives often fail within 18 months. Because of these employee turnover rates rising throughout the industry, healthcare administers are increasingly recruiting and hiring leaders from within their current workforce. 

With the costs of replacing leadership so high, organizations can’t afford hiring failures to that extent, and many clinics and hospitals have found a lot of success in promoting their best physicians to executive roles. 

While it may seem like a perfect fit --...

True Communication:  Making or Breaking Your Healthcare

It’s not uncommon for a patient to return home from a doctor’s appointment only to have forgotten the entire conversation between themselves and the physician. They may be unsure of the medication amounts to take each morning, what foods to avoid for what periods of time, or what to do if they can’t afford the prescribed medicine. As a patient, even a routine annual physical or simple check-up can be overwhelming. An abundant amount of information is given in a short time frame. And, if effective communication is not executed between the healthcare professional and the patient,...

Resilience: The Ability To Rebound, Not Simply Endure

Many of the leaders and physicians in healthcare pursue their careers for the same reason - to help others. However, the increasing challenges and demands of the industry can interfere with their ability to continue to find passion in their calling. Challenges such as economic pressures, fast-changing technology, and a shift in demands can all contribute to a higher likelihood of stress and burnout across the board.  This is why the resilience of the physician is so necessary.

Resiliency can be defined as:

1. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. "the often...

Why Taking Better Care of Yourself Allows You to Take Better Care of Others

For healthcare professionals, taking care of others is second nature. It’s why most physicians go into their line of work in the first place. However, when we spend so much time putting the health and care of others first, we often neglect caring for ourselves. Putting ourselves on the back burner might be sustainable for some time. But it is a medical culture flaw that is leading to increasingly alarming rates of burnout across the board for physicians, nurses, and medical students alike.

What leads to burnout?

It is no secret that going through medical school is a stressful...

Why Your Company Needs A Collective Voice

The most forward-thinking companies are increasingly focused on building better employee satisfaction and, in turn, retaining their best talent. These progressive companies are also embracing the notion of having a collective voice. This gives the entire organizational chain influence over business decisions so more people on the ground floor are heard, and leadership gains a better understanding of daily operations.

What Exactly is a Collective Voice?

The idea of a collective voice may at first glance seem cumbersome -- just how do you handle getting people from varying...

Why Failure is Necessary to Succeed

Experiencing failure can too often seem tragic. Failures can catch you living in the moment, rousing up your emotions and seem diminishing to the point of breaking. However, to be accurate, failure and tragedy are completely two different entities. By definition one is less severe and the contrasts should be noted:

Tragedy: an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime or natural catastrophe.

Failure: lack of success.

There is no question, failures are tough. Yet it’s important to recognize that there are different kinds of...

The Importance of Being Transparent at Work

Transparency is the new black. Being transparent at work is a company culture goal on the rise for many because it’s been shown to ultimately lead to more success within an organization. It also fosters a better work environment overall for managers and their employees. Transparency increases trust, encourages communication, empowers individuals, and creates opportunities for team bonding. This can lead to running operations more collaboratively and smoothly as it ensures your team members are on the same page.

What does it mean to be transparent?

Being transparent in the...

Surprise!  Being Lazy Can Be Healthy For You

August 10 is National Lazy Day. Why? Whoever began the tradition was too lazy to document its history. Nevertheless, the National Holiday does exist and it’s a wonderful opportunity for all of us to take a step back from the busyness of our lives and just be in the moment.

To get ahead in today’s society, it may seem that one has to be constantly moving or doing. And while there may be some truth to that, it is also true that enjoying the fruits of our labor is best felt with a healthy body, mind, and soul. Like everything, there is a balance, so apart from being lazy to the...

How Being a Team Player Makes You Stand Out

Imagine that you are on a basketball team. Who would you want as your captain? Who would you look up to and trust to make you a better player yourself? Would you want the player who is consistently trying to be the one to make the big plays and rarely passes the ball? Or would you want someone who is constantly looking at the full court to see who’s open and to whom they can pass to make a play?

The latter example is by far the person a coach and their team would choose to be captain. This is because being a team player makes you stand out. It’s team players who make leadership...

How A Positive Attitude Creates Positive Results

The Law of Attraction has been around in some form for centuries. It is based on the idea that whatever area, belief or idea we give our energy to, will be met with more energy of the same ilk. It has been a cornerstone in many religions and philosophies throughout time. Even the bible refers to the Law of Attraction. Proverbs 23:7 reads, ‘As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.’

While it may be difficult to quantify exactly how positive attitudes create positive results, there are many instances of its truth around us. For example, you might learn about a movie or band that...

How To Battle Boredom

July 1 is the official beginning of National Anti-Boredom Month here in the United States.  In 1984, after watching what he felt was the same Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Alan Caruba, had had enough.  Joking that the television company was really just replaying a videotape of a previous parade, he declared it boring and founded the Boring Institute.     

Though it was originally a way for Caruba to fight his own boredom through the creation of the satirical medium, it soon became apparent that others were experiencing the same.  In the late 1980s, it grew so big that July was...

Tips For a Healthy Work-Life Balance

The term ‘Work-Life Balance' is somewhat recent in origin.  Though it’s only been an official term since roughly 1980 in the U.S, the idea of it has existed since we first started punching the clock.  Work-life balance is essentially a ratio between how much of your time you spend focused on work and work-related topics versus how much time you aren’t focused on work and work-related topics.  It’s a delicate relationship that has a bigger effect on our happiness than we often realize.  When the scale tips too far in one direction, the balance is off and no longer healthy.

With...

How To Find Joy In Your Work

It’s no secret that happy employees work harder and are more productive and motivated than unhappy employees. In February of 2012, Harvard Business Review reported that “happy employees have 31% higher productivity, their sales are 37% higher; their creativity is three times higher.”

The question is though, how do we become happy employees?  With any job, there is stress.  And it’s not always easy to stay connected to our joy all of the time, especially when an important deadline is looming, when dealing with an unreasonable and upset client, or even when we’re just tired. ...

10 Habits That Will Advance Your Career

Striving to get a promotion? Searching for opportunities to improve your career status? Long-term goals are definitely the way to go. There are certain things you can do to help elevate your career, but it won’t happen overnight if you don’t pay attention to your daily routine. It is the little things in life that eventually build our path of success.

Advancing your career starts with responsible daily habits. Unfortunately, not everyone just stumbles into a pile of gold. Hard work comes with routine and calculated planning. If you want to get ahead in your industry and elevate...

5 Ways to Advance Your Career Every Day

With so much professional competition in the job market, getting ahead can sometimes seem frustrating.  Trying to advance your career can be downright maddening if you don’t get results. The most important thing when you are trying to elevate your career is to remain positive and avoid becoming bitter when you face obstacles.  Showing anger or becoming short-tempered out of aggravation could develop into a shortcoming that could derail any unforeseen opportunities that might come your way in your industry.  

Pep talks can seem cheesy or feel watered down.  Speeches or...

The Whys and Hows of Setting Career Goals

American entrepreneur Jim Rohn once said, “If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.”

Setting personal and career goals is important for all of us to continue to grow and develop.  Long term career goals help us make the most of today while keeping our focus on tomorrow.  There are many ways in which setting career goals can have a long-term benefit, including:

1. Giving Us Direction

Perhaps the most important way setting goals-assists us...

Can Healthcare Workers Focus on Patient Experience and Care?

While job security and good pay certainly help attract people to the healthcare industry, many people become doctors, nurses, X-ray technicians and the like because they want to be part of a team that helps heal people. In fact, a recent survey shows that healthcare workers have above-average job satisfaction compared to other industries precisely because of the difference they play in people’s lives.

But as organizations work to streamline costs, healthcare workers are increasingly being stretched thin, which often leads to dissatisfaction and burnout. Compounding the issue is...

The Power of Smiling

While what we experience today may have derived from an initially aggressive behavior of bearing our teeth to a potential enemy, smiling in humans has evolved into a much more socially-encouraging behavior.  Sure, we may still have the sneer and the smug smile, but the majority of smiles serve to boost our positivity.

The act of smiling itself takes little to no effort on our facial muscles, and significantly less effort than frowning.  With that small effort can come an exponential amount of joy.  Smiling is magical in so many ways, and has surprising benefits to our mental,...

7 Reasons to Embrace Technology in Your Job

A revenue-forecasting application has changed the game for the hospitality industry. This app populates information using multiple algorithms from trends, research, online booking sites, demand, time of year, and travel tendencies, all to predict the market demand an individual hotel has on a daily basis.  This forecasting program automatically sets the best profitable rate to sell to travelers and guests based on the market’s competition.

Hilton Worldwide has developed a cost management and performance measurement program called LightStay which tracks energy usage while...

How to Think Strategically About Your Career Development

People spend a lot of time at work. In fact, if you think about it, you probably spend half of your waking life doing your job, and that’s if you’re “only” doing the bare minimum of a 40-hour work week. 

Of course, there are plenty of people who spend closer to 60-70 hours doing work-related tasks every week. And yet, so much of the world is unhappy with the whole idea of it.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, approximately 85% of people worldwide hate their jobs.

In China and Japan, a whopping 94% of people expressed dissatisfaction with their work. And if you think China’s...

How To Be A Credible Leader

It's all too common to disagree with people in higher positions when they make choices for our organizations, especially if we don’t know the reasons or facts involved in the decision-making process.  These feeling can be especially exacerbated in big companies with complex management teams and organizational charts which can make people feel even more separated from that strong leadership.  Because of this, as a leader, it can often seem like an uphill battle.  But becoming a strong and credible leader is available to any individual, though it does take time and effort.

Most of...

8 Ways to Mitigate Burnout

Telling someone who’s feeling burnt out to relax feels like cheap advice. It’s robotic. We’ve all had those on-the-job greetings - “Good morning, how are you?" - but if you actually take the time to really answer the question, most likely the person greeting you has already walked halfway down the hallway.  So if you are feeling burnt out, relax, and "Good morning."

Alternatively, telling someone to take a vacation because they are stressed or feeling burnt out can also be the worst advice ever.  Most people feeling burnout are so embedded within their calendar and work that, if...

How Showing Appreciation Can Increase Retention

Voltaire said, “Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”

The act of expressing gratitude and appreciation is a rare and beautiful thing in that it seems to only contribute to the overall positivity level of the world.  It’s one of the few things that magically multiplies the moment it is presented.   We all know how it feels to feel seen and appreciated.  Just as we all know how it feels to feel unseen and unappreciated.  One of those is significantly better than the other.

That being said, it should be a no-brainer for...

Surprising Benefits of Staying Organized

If you were to look at the majority of job descriptions on the leading recruitment websites, almost 100% of them mention the importance of having one skill:  organization.  Because of this, it’s become a bit of a filler word, something that candidates say whether or not they truly do feel like they are organized, because, without it, it's a red flag.  

Being unorganized shouldn’t just be a red flag for us throughout the interview process, because being organized isn’t just a word, it’s a lifestyle.  And maintaining that lifestyle holds surprising benefits, not just in our...

Executive Coaching Can Help Your Airport’s Revenue Soar

Airports are unique in the fact that they are highly regulated by the government, but also just as service-based and consumer-driven as any other company in any other industry.

Plus, the aviation industry is highly scrutinized by the media, so any decision made by airport management or any negative action by an employee is bound to be covered widely and talked about everywhere.

Because of these factors, airport leadership has the difficult challenge of keeping its workforce educated about constantly evolving state and federal regulations as well as keeping them engaged enough to...

Why Government Agencies Should Budget for Executive Coaching

While big ticket issues such as immigration, social security and healthcare dominate political conversations everywhere, money, and the tug-of-war that surrounds budgeting it, is often where politicians spend most of their time.

As a result, typical federal, state and local government agencies are constantly poring through the numbers and weighing which programs and services to either cut funding for or cut altogether.

Naturally, as is the case when any budget needs to be trimmed, the least important stuff goes first, and if your agency has either been working with an executive...

Should Physicians Drive Your Healthcare Initiatives?

Considering that a physician’s expertise can make or break a hospital’s reputation and renown, it’s no surprise that doctors exist at the top of the food chain in the healthcare industry. But do they have a place outside the exam rooms and inside the boardrooms of healthcare facilities?

The conversation surrounding whether hospitals should be run by those trained in management or those trained in medicine has been gaining traction recently, and hospital administrators are in a tricky position to decide how to drive their facilities forward.

On one hand, physicians are highly...

Focus On These 4 Areas To Make The Biggest Impact In Healthcare

Now more than ever, workers in the healthcare industry are experiencing major burnout. With the ever-increasing demands they face, it’s no wonder! Healthcare professionals are expected to always be “on,” often sacrificing quality personal time needed to rest and recharge after a long day of being “on call,” making it nearly impossible to unwind after a stressful day of work.

Healthcare professionals are often intrinsically unselfish, focusing on the needs of others and their well-beings before their own. And while they focus on helping others, their own health and well-being can...

How to Leverage Tech to Future-Proof Your Staff’s Skillset

In today’s business environment, digital technology keeps everyone on their toes. While it may be easy to think that the speed of innovation is relegated to Silicon Valley or even large cities, the reality is that if you let them, robots will take over your workforce in only a matter of time.

Of course, R2D2 isn’t going to simply walk into HR with a resume in hand. But automation and machines have already begun to take over the menial tasks in your office that humans once did, meaning companies have already taken the first steps toward relegating staff to obsolescence.

The thing...

Growth Strategies That Produce Success

With all the changes that are constantly occurring with technology, social media, and politics, not only is it harder than ever to stay relevant, it’s more important than ever.  What does it mean to stay relevant?  For companies, it means things like staying on top of business trends, maintaining a consistent marketing plan, and embracing new technologies.  But what does it mean for the individual?

It’s just as important for us as individuals to stay relevant in our fields.  But how? How do we need to show up and what do we need to focus on to make sure that we as employees are...

How Coaching Can Increase Your Bottom Line

2019 introduces a number of challenges for the Healthcare Industry that threaten the bottom line, including rising pharmacy costs, increasing cybersecurity, and private equity acquisitions to name a few.  But the area that requires the most attention hasn’t changed over the years.  That is the patient experience.  No matter what external or internal changes that shift the focus in the new year, patient experience will always determine the success of a healthcare institution. 

In 2014, approximately $1.1 billion was redistributed through Value-Based Purchasing for Medicare and...

Get More Sleep! How a Lack of ZZZ’s is Affecting Your Life.

Just about everyone has heard that 8 is the magic number to hit when it comes to getting enough sleep each night. But nearly 7 out of 10 Americans experience sleep problems and many don’t get enough sleep on a consistent basis. In fact, a 2008 poll by the National Sleep Foundation estimated that almost one in three U.S. employees report that daytime sleepiness interferes with their work at least a few times per week. And while you may hear people brag about only getting 4 hours of sleep last night, consistent lack of sleep can dramatically affect your quality of life, which...

Ask & Listen—You Can’t And Won’t Know Everything

Knowing everything is impossible. Considering yourself an expert on all things can get you in trouble. Pretending to know everything is seriously dangerous. Imagine being an airline pilot who pretends to know how to land. That wouldn’t end well. Or what if you told everyone that you knew how to handle wild tigers? And then you were put on the spot? Even Google Assistant doesn’t know everything, and she admits it. Teenagers act like they know it all, but they just want to learn on their own without being told by adults.  Of course, they won’t admit it.

“The only true wisdom is...

The Power of Laughter

“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.” — Dr. Seuss

Laughter is easily one of the most contagious sounds on the planet. The sound is unique to everyone, but the feelings that come during and after are the same. We’re left feeling lighter, more uplifted, happier, healthier and more! People always say “laughter is the best medicine,” and there is real truth in that. Laughing can reduce stress, burn calories, boost your immune system, and relax your muscles all at the same time. But if you’re someone who works in a high-stress environment, laughter...

The Importance of Real Listening

In today’s society, it can be far too easy to get distracted by the world around us even when we want to be listening.  How many times have you stopped someone mid-sentence to check your phone after hearing the ding of your text message notification, probably without even realizing it?  Since we were children, sitting in a classroom, staring at the window or watching the clock, listening has been shown to be a challenge.

The good news is that taking the extra time to focus on actively listening is actually worth the effort.  Real listening is not only in service to the person...

The Benefits Of Random Acts Of Kindness

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” —Aesop

In honor of Random Acts of Kindness Day, we’ve come up with even more reasons for you to join us in celebrating this National Awareness day on February 17, both in your personal and professional life. When kindness is at the core of your business, your company embodies trust, inclusion and commitment. This fosters a culture that is conducive to both employees and clients.

Often we think of acts of kindness as something we inherently do throughout the day, but it’s not often that simple. Do you always go to help...

6 Ways To Weather Change And Still Feel Sane

Everyone has one friend or family member who tells the same jokes and stories over and over again. It’s the same episode we've seen just in different rooms and multiple dinner parties. Regardless of if they are entertaining or mildly bearable, it speaks to the palate about the life experiences this person has obtained. At some point, the same story gets old and it would seem this person stopped observing, packaged up what they knew about the world and turned it in. Now they never really change their opinion or ideals about anything and stick to what they know.

Yet, with the way...

3 Creative Ideas for a Better Recruitment Strategy

Filling an open position is not only about finding the right person to do the job, it’s also about finding someone who’s going to gel with your company’s work culture.

Unfortunately, finding people is actually the easy part.

Keeping them is much more difficult, and realistically, it’s much more important considering the cost of resources it takes — time, money and gray hairs — to constantly replace employees.

In fact, one study found that to replace people who make between $30,000 and $50,000 annually, it costs up to 20% of their annual salaries. To replace executives? It costs...

Is Going to a Leaderless Structure the Right Solution?

Convention says that quality of leadership usually makes or breaks projects, businesses and other collaborative-based ventures. Yet, there is a growing list of companies that have either explored or employ a holacratic, or leaderless, organizational structure.

At first glance, it might seem easy to outright dismiss the idea that going leaderless could be a viable foundation to build a business upon, but the debate surrounding the concept is much more complex.

Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of a leaderless structure, as well as whether or not it’s the right...

Gratitude:  Negativity’s Natural Enemy

Gratitude.  Is there any greater gift that we can give ourselves and others than gratitude?  Gratitude costs us nothing and gives us so much back in return.  Every action in life takes energy.  And usually, when we spend our energy, we feel it.  We feel a bit expended after certain activities, tired and less willing to spend more of our energy on other things.  Isn’t it amazing how when we spend our energy focusing on our gratitude, that not only do we not feel expended, we feel energized and more powerful?  

Gratitude is real-life magic.  It instantly changes our mindsets and...

Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

Sure you make a resolution each year, but do you know why? The traditional New Year’s resolution originated in Mesopotamia. Babylonians would make promises to gods in the coming New Year to pay debts and be good, hoping to keep favor with their deities.

Jump ahead to now where our children try their best to behave so they can make Santa’s good-kid list and adults set resolutions based on where they would like to see change in their lives.  Often in January, health club memberships spike while people hit the ground running. Taking a step back, the basic idea behind the ancient...

4 Reasons Why You Need a Mentor

Merriam Websters defines mentorship as, “the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor."  They define mentor as, “a trusted counselor or guide.” So, the goal and intention in having a mentor is having a trusted person in your life who can help guide your life, ideally in a very positive and meaningful way.

Here are just some of the ways in which mentors support the goals and lives of their proteges.

1. Mentors Offer a Different Perspective

Mentors are often successful leaders in their field.  They have years of experience in dealing with particular situations or...

12 Ways to Relieve Holiday Stress Right Now

12 Days of Self-Care and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

The holidays can be a wonderful time to take a break from your every day, connect with family and celebrate the good times that have passed over the year.  Unfortunately, the holidays can also be a cause of stress with things like hosting a guest in your house, organizing party plans, making sure to get the perfect gift, and so much more.

The good news is that you don’t have to wait for Santa to receive the gift of holiday stress management.  Here are twelve things that you can do right now to help yourself with holiday stress...

12 Ways to Keep Your Employees Motivated When You Are on a Budget

Retaining your best and brightest employees is always key to a successful business. But what if your best and brightest are wanting something more than your company is not prepared to offer? If your company has a tight budget, there are still ways to make them feel like they want to stick around. Studies show that employees with the highest job satisfaction are more productive, engaged and loyal to their companies.

Good, hard-working employees are hard to come by, and retaining employees is much more cost-effective than hiring new ones. Plus, if your top employees are not...

5 Signs You Are Resisting Change

The truth about change? Our lives are driven by change. Some of it is planned. A lot of it just happens. We experience change in many of the same ways, but our individual experiences are also uniquely different and deeply personal. It’s those experiences - both the similar and dissimilar - that provide the foundation for effective and lasting change.

But what often happens is change is met with resistance. Because it’s unfamiliar, out of our comfort zone and just plain trying, a common response to change is that “change is scary.” We may know deep down that because change is...

When Culture is All Talk

I once participated in a retreat full of leaders of a major healthcare organization.  The CEO was talking about how excited he was to look at the future healthcare culture; how things were going to be on the rise from now on and how he was committed to growth.

Interestingly, this same CEO had worked with three of our top coaches and had quit all of them prior to this retreat.  One, he was just done with. Another, he didn’t feel connected to. And the third just stopped showing up for his meetings.  It seemed as if he was committed to other people’s growth, but not his own.

You...

Celebrating World Heart Day

Each September, we at David Couper Consulting are excited to celebrate World Heart Day.  We will be sharing our gratitude for each beat we have been given, and for each beat yet to come.

Founded in 2000 by the World Heart Federation, World Heart Day was created in an effort to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease and educate us all about what we can do to keep our hearts healthy.  Today, more than 90 countries participate in World Heart Day each year.

We at DCC let this day serve as a reminder for all of us to take a step back, examine our lives, and ask ourselves, “Are we...

3 Tips to Improving Patient Satisfaction Through Your Staff

In recent years, legislation such as the Affordable Care Act, among others, has changed the focus of healthcare from bottom-line outcomes to overall quality of care. As a result, decision-makers now seem to constantly obsess over how to improve patient satisfaction scores, which, aside from percentage of positive outcomes, are one of the determining factors in who gets or loses money -- not to mention how much.

In fact, according to HealthLeaders Media’s 2013 Industry Survey, over half (54%) of healthcare executives say patient satisfaction is one of their top three priorities.

Dealing With the Boss From Hell

There’s no written formula or instruction manual on how to deal with a bad boss. Every situation has different variations.  However, there are some similarities. You’re not the only one having stressful work dreams. You’re not the only one waking up feeling uninspired and dreading to leave the shower because you know drying off and getting dressed means it’s time to go to work. A bad boss can even make a great job not so great. A bad boss that is controlling, intrusive, constantly on a power trip, has no desire to communicate, micro-manages or is a mean bully can be enough to...

The Power of Forgiveness in the Workplace

The power of forgiveness can often be an overlooked quality in a working environment but is incredibly important when building a strong team in your workplace. Have you ever carried a grudge or harbored resentment toward a fellow colleague or even your boss? Or perhaps you’ve fallen victim of someone else’s grudge or resentment?

Mahatma Gandhi said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” While it does require great strength to accept responsibility for your own mistakes and forgive others for making mistakes as well, it may take even more...

How Championing People Makes Companies More Profitable

When you’re in a position of leadership in an organization, it’s natural that people look up to you. After all, it’s leaders who handle the responsibility of making sure operations run effectively, efficiently and even peacefully, and those who do it well usually move up the ladder quickly and are well-compensated. 

Eventually, your style of leadership, insight and business acumen is going to strike a chord with some of your less experienced colleagues or employees and they’re going to put themselves in a position to learn from you.

And why not? It’s people like you they aspire...

To What Degree are Patients Customers?

Inherently the healthcare industry faces a sticky conundrum; doctor’s offices, hospitals and other types of facilities are not only charged with keeping people healthy and healing the sick, but also with being profitable.

While there may be a wide range of ethical opinions surrounding that notion, the fact remains that healthcare administrators have to strike a balance between the business and public service side, and there has been widespread debate in the industry about whether to treat patients more like customers. 

While there’s some truth behind the idea that patients are,...

The Biggest Reason to Bet on Your Own Horses

All eyes will be on this summer’s Belmont Stakes, as Justify looks to become just the second horse in 50 years to win the sport’s prestigious Triple Crown. While fans mull over where to place their bets on race day, organizations around the world are banking on a largely untapped resource to gain big profits and better savings -- their own workforces.

While there are endless reasons you should invest in your own people when strategizing how to propel your company forward, one reason stands out among all the others: engaged teams are more profitable.

In business, every debate...

Lessons Learned from the Airport Dash

Whether I’m heading to a conference, a client’s location or to visit friends and family, I’m traveling more than I ever have. The thing about being a frequent flyer is you’re always looking for ways to save time -- even short trips can take half a day, and long lines, delays and missing meals can really zap your energy.

Plus, like any good business person, I take a certain pride in my own efficiency (time is money still, you know), and what better place to test your skills than at the airport, a place where they seem to burn more time than fuel.

So, I set off to get from my home...

How to Manage Errors from the Top Down

As the snow melts and the birds began to chirp, the sounds of the ballpark echo across America. After four months of winter, there’s nothing like hearing the crack of the bat, the thump of a baseball hitting the catcher’s mitt and 30,000 people singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” out of key.

But one of the most underrated things about baseball is the way play-by-play announcers react to errors on routine plays -- you can almost hear them smack their palms against their foreheads.

It’s a little bit of unexpected comedy during a somewhat repetitive and sometimes sleepy game....

Better Business Results Start with You -  How Leaders Learn to Lead Better, Part 3

In this three-part series, we’ll examine senior leadership-types we’ve coached, who, while talented, passionate and experienced, weren’t getting the results they had hoped for. In part 3 of the series, we’ll look at how Joseph got his emotions under control and as a result, helped improve the culture of his team. Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.

Joseph, the Emotionally-Triggered Leader

Joseph was a talented, highly-respected CEO of a medium-sized hospital. Everyone knew Joseph as the “go-to” person. He was enthusiastic, extremely hardworking and good at fixing...

Better Business Results Start with You -  How Leaders Learn to Lead Better, Part 2

In this three-part series, we’ll examine senior leadership-types we’ve coached, who, while talented, passionate and experienced, weren’t getting the results they had hoped for. In part 2 of the series, we’ll look at the strategies Cindy used to gain confidence in her decision-making skills, as well as the ensuing results. Click here for part 1.

Cindy, the Too-Nice Leader

I worked with Cindy for a year. She was well-respected and often described as “super nice.”

Cindy excelled at empathy and was a great listener. She often solicited everyone’s input and took the time to hear...

Better Business Results Start with You - How Leaders Learn to Lead Better, Part 1

In this three-part series, we’ll examine senior leadership-types we’ve coached, who, while talented, passionate and experienced, weren’t getting the results they had hoped for. In part 1 of the series, we’ll look at the strategies Marcus used to find trust in his team, as well as the ensuing results.

Marcus, the Non-Delegating Leader

In my profession as a C-Level and CEO coach, I’m privileged to work with some amazing and talented senior leaders. They all possess a bevy of skills required to not only get the job done right, but to do it with the passion, experience and grit to...

Good Leaders Champion the Fundamentals

Good Leaders Champion the Fundamentals 

March is upon us, and with the NCAA college basketball tournament in full swing, it’s a good time to reflect on legendary Coach John Wooden’s enduring legacy, as well as his teachings about leadership.

The late Wooden, by all accounts a gentle soul in nature, has a mythic backstory; from a humble farm in Indiana, his UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team won 10 championships, with a stretch of dominance that included 88 wins in a row and seven straight titles.

After he retired as undeniably the greatest college basketball coach in history, he...

Thanksgiving

In the US 11/23 is the day that people say thanks and express gratitude.  We also eat a lot and spent a lot but that’s a different story.

Expressing gratitude for some can be hard.  They may have suffered a loss – a job, a home, or a loved one.  Being thankful is far from what they are feeling.  Other find it hard to be grateful because they feel that they are not doing enough, not achieving their goals, or being good enough.And others look at the world with its poverty, disease, and violence and wonder what we have to be grateful for.

I too feel like that.  My partner of 14...