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Bill Klaproth: (Host) A transformation can happen when you positively change employee engagement. So how do you do that? Let's find out with Vicki Hess, she's been teaching healthcare leaders and staff how to improve and sustain employee engagement for more than 25 years. This is Today in Nursing Leadership, a podcast from the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. I'm Bill Klaproth, Vicki, it is so great to talk with you. Thank you for your time. So first off, what are the three elements to create shared responsibility for engagement?

Vicki Hess: (Guest) I'm really glad you asked. What's funny is when we talk about employee engagement in healthcare, usually, most people think of two elements. They think of the organization and the frontline leaders. And so certainly those are two elements that are important. And when I talk about the organization, the leaders, the organization committing to employee engagement at a strategic level and leaders committing at a tactical level. What's missing usually is the third element and that's the individual's commitment at a personal level. So the three elements for creating shared responsibility are the organization to commit strategically, leaders to commit tactically and individuals to commit personally.

Host: So, Vicky, that's very interesting. You said oftentimes it's the individual that's missing. Why is that?

Vicki: I think in the past, we've created cultures, certainly in the olden days, if you will, whatever that means to you. Organizations were, caretakers, we're gonna make sure that we're doing what we need to do for your employees so that you can do your job. And as organizations have evolved and people are looking for more autonomy and autonomy is a big driver of engagement, then all of a sudden it became important for individuals to have a personal responsibility. But leaders are often afraid to have that conversation. So for example, an employee engagement survey comes back and we look at the action items. A lot of surveys are focused more on external motivators. When we look at what really drives engagement, it's a combination of both internal and external. So unless the individual is personally engaged, unless they're taking responsibility for their own engagement, it's pretty impossible to have a culture of engagement. Does that make sense?

Host: Yes, but I'm wondering why are leaders afraid to have this conversation. You would think that they want everybody to buy in and share the responsibility?

Vicki: Right, but that means that you've got to have tough conversations. So let's say there's an employee who's less engaged than a leader might like, and the leader knows, I've got to get this person personally more committed to their own engagement. And maybe that is demonstrated through, showing up to work late or not participating in shared governance or whatever the behavior is, not doing their work the way they're supposed to do it. When the leader has to have the conversation with that person, that's perceived as conflict or I'm bossing you around or I'm uncomfortable even talking to you about something that isn't going well. So one of the things that I talk about a lot with the healthcare audiences that I work with the leaders is, is that the person who benefits the most from being engaged at work is the individual themselves. And so you're doing someone a disservice if you're not having that conversation. So if you are letting air quotes, letting an employee come to work and be disengaged on a regular basis. You're negatively impacted as a leader, or the team members are negatively impacted, patients are negatively impacted, but the person who's most negatively impacted is the person themselves. The one who's complaining or reticent, or not productive. And so if a leader can change their mindset and say, I'm going to have this conversation about personal accountability with this person because I care about them. They're coming at it from a different viewpoint. It's not parental like you're in trouble because you haven't been doing things. It's me saying, Hey, Bill, I noticed that you haven't been at the last couple of shared governance meetings, everything okay, what's up? I'm going in more out of a, I want to know because I know that we value having you there and you seem to like it before. So what's missing, you know, why is that connection not being made. So I think that's why the leaders are afraid to have those conversations is because it's perceived as a potential conflict or difficult conversation.

Host: So it sounds like what you're saying, it's vital to give an employee engaged unless the employee or the individual is personally engaged. It's impossible to have a culture of engagement. It's like a table with three legs. You've got the organization, the frontline leaders, and the individual. And unless all three are there, including the employee, it's just going to tap all over. You can't have proper engagement. Is that a weird way of looking at it or is that right?

Vicki: That's exactly right. I show it in my diagram, as three intersecting circles and if you picture two circles that are intertwined on a bottom and then a third circle sitting on top, so it looks like a triangle of circles if that makes sense. That the two on the bottom of the organization and the leaders, because this is a work relationship, the organization leaders are in a supportive role. It's part of the job of the employer to provide the strategic elements and the tactical elements. Then you gotta add the third element, which is that individual on top. And so you have that sweet spot when all three of those come together, that's when you have that culture of engagement.

Host: And for that leader, that's reticent or afraid to engage with an employee any quick tips on how to do that?

Vicki: Yes, definitely. So first of all, stop and think about why you're doing it. And if you can go from a position of caring, so you gotta look at your own beliefs about the conversation. That's usually where we get stuck. So changing the way you think about it from a, you're in trouble conversation to, I want to coach you, I'm here to help your conversation doing it because you care about the person. And then, the model that I use that's from my book, the nurse manager's guide to hiring, firing, and inspiring is called the data-driven discussion model. And just real quick, you described the situation. So that's what I did with you, like, hey, we noticed you hadn't been to the last couple of shared governance meetings. That's just describing the situation, very objective. And then the aim is to ask a question and listen. So my question to you is just what's up, just give people a chance to talk. And so then you listen because you might come back and say, oh my gosh, yes, I've so wanted to come. I've had some childcare issues and I'm really working on it, it's very important to me, thanks for noticing. Well, that's a whole different conversation than somebody who's like, it was a waste of my time and I didn't know I think it was important. You know, so until you asked the question and listen, then the T is to talk about, next steps or solutions and that's the shared responsibility piece. And then, the aim is to agree upon what's going to happen moving forward. So just those quick four things, the most important part being just how you start the conversation. Describe the situation, ask a question that's really open-ended. And if we all went into it with that mindset, like I said, it makes it more of a coaching conversation, then a conflict conversation.

Host: Right, that's very helpful. And I'm sure you'll talk about this more in-depth than during your session at the virtual AONL conference. So let's switch to the pandemic now, which of course is changing everything around us. What's most important for the organization to do at a strategic level?

Vicki: Right now, the most important thing organizations can do is to ensure a safe environment. If you think from Maslow's hierarchy of need, um, elements, you know, that's what people need is that safe environment, which includes the PPE, policies, procedures, support, et cetera. So starting at that basic level of ensuring a safe environment is key. The second thing that I think is really important right now is communicating openly and honestly, and I've been so impressed with the stories I've heard and the things I've seen on social media and articles I've read how organizations have changed their level of communication and, you know, CEO's are daily doing podcasts or making videos. And there's been tremendous amount of communication that's happening. And those are two key elements during the pandemic, is the safe environment and communicating openly. And honestly, even if that is, we don't know we want to let you know that we're trying to find out.

Host: Right, so make sure you're providing a safe environment and pay attention to communicating open and honestly. So then let's talk about what to do at a tactical level. What is most important for leaders to do?

Vicki: So the one thing that I've heard leaders are struggling with right now is the creating connections piece. And, I'm sure you've heard the expression. People leave their managers; they don't leave their organizations. There's been lots of studies that talk about how important the relationship is. And I know a lot of leaders have been put in a position where not only are they doing their normal job of managing or leading, but they're having to do other jobs as well, and their bandwidth is very narrow in terms of being able to spend time with staff and or they have staff that are virtual now. I was talking with someone the other day, who's part of her team is now a virtual and she said, it's really awkward to do, like, try to have a one-on-one meeting on a zoom call or FaceTime, and that mindsets got to change. We've got to work on figuring out a way to acknowledge the awkwardness and move past it because if you're not creating those connections and team members don't feel connected to their leaders, there's a real risk that they're not going to feel supported, that they're not going to feel heard and, and they're not going to feel like they're getting the help they need. So, of the six shortcuts that I talk about in my book, six shortcuts to employee engagement, creating connections would be one of the most important right now.

Host: And yeah, that goes back to engaging that individual again, how important that is. And then let's turn to the individual. What's something that individuals can do during stormy and uncertain times to be more engaged.

Vicki: Well, Well, one of the things that I'm talking a lot about, that people are finding helpful. It's underneath the different elements that would go into the individual accountability would be managing your own mindset. And what I mean by that is that so much of the stormy and uncertain times has to do with what we don't know, the uncertainty or the change. And, there's something I called WC squared that I wrote about in my newest book, shift to professional paradise in storming on certain times. And in that book, I talk about WC squared stands for what can we control, the WCWC, and I liken it to, think of a superhero decoder ring. In most, any situation, no matter how horrible it is, if you can stop and take a breath and think, what can we control right now, it puts you back in a position where you can manage your stress more effectively. And when we're talking about engagement, these days, we're not always able to talk about engagement, like at a self-actualization level. So if you can manage your mindset and when you start to feel that stress rise, say okay, time out, what can we control here? I can control my response to this, I can control, that. I'm going to make sure I stay well hydrated. I can control, who I asked for help and how I ask them. I can control my response. So that's one of the biggest things that you can do now is to look at your own mindset. And the other important part about managing your mindset is to watch what you're consuming. So I have some friends that want to talk about like bad things all the time, or the potential for the horrible, whatever. And I'm like, Oh, that's so not helpful for me right now. You know, I don't really want to worry about the potential pow, pow is just another name for a challenge, but you know, something that hasn't even happened yet, and we're all sitting around talking about it, let's stop that. Let's manage our mindset and say, we can control what we talk about that hasn't even happened yet.

Host: Yeah, that's so good. Managing your own mindset and it's like your own personal, super decoder ring. That's so good. Vicky, WC squared, what can we control? So tell us about your session.

Vicki: Yeah, I'm super excited. I'm co-presenting with Claire Zangerle and, Claire is a former board member at AONL and she is the chief nursing executive at Allegheny Health Network. And Claire's nursing leadership team and I have been working together for the last several years on that employee engagement transformation, and Claire and I are going to be sharing those specific tactics for what AHN did to sustain the change and actually showing the way that they have improved their engagement and kept those engagement levels high. And one of the things that was super interesting and not surprising at all is when Claire and I talked recently in our preparation for the virtual conference, she said, all those behaviors that we've been working on are hard-wired. And so, a pandemic hasn't gotten in the way of the engagement, tactics, and strategies that they've been using and the conversations they've been having. And isn't that true about most anything? If you, if you have muscle memory and you have things ingrained in your systems and processes, then when you get hit with something, that's a big challenge, you're able to stay on track. And so we're going to be sharing those tactics for how they've done that and how we work together to make that happen.

Host: Well, Well, it sounds like it's going to be a dynamite session. Vicki, thank you so much for your time and talking with us today about this. We appreciate it, thanks again.

Vicki: You're welcome, and I wanted to let folks know that if they want to download a report that I have, there's a free report that I have called three secrets to engaging your health care team in stormy in uncertain times, they can just send a text. They can text the number three secrets to (415) 528-7403. So just text the number three and the word secrets, (415) 528-7403. And they can get that free report. So that will give them more great information and tools.

Host: So text the number three and the word secrets, to (415) 528-7403. This is going to be a great session. We're looking forward to it. Vicki, thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Host: That's Vicki Hess. And for more information, please visit AONL.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Today in Nursing Leadership. Thanks for listening.