Episodes
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This week I’m sharing Stephen Covey’s Circle of Concern, Influence, and Control, focusing on practical ways to shift from worry to action. I’ll share some personal insights and simple, actionable ideas—like practising self-compassion, staying present, setting meaningful goals, and adopting a growth mindset—to help us feel more focused, empowered, and ready to make progress.
Links and Resources
Determine your circles of control, influence and concern.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Instagram Inspiration 1
Instagram Inspiration 2
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
Perform Under Pressure
Self Compassion
Got a topic you want the lounge to explore let me know here.
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In this episode, I’m looking at the challenges and strengths of working across generations in healthcare today. From the experienced perspectives of Gen X leaders to the fresh approaches of younger healthcare professionals, the workplace has never been more diverse—or more dynamic. So yes, frustrations and learning moments arise from different attitudes towards work-life boundaries, commitment, and adaptability.
Sharing some of my early career experiences and the shifts in workplace culture, I’m suggesting that leaders can build a collaborative environment by embracing curiosity, growth, and open conversations.
I think the answer to having a sustainable workforce in healthcare can be found when we listen to the younger generations and support their growth with the wisdom and perspective of those of us who have been around a little longer.
Intergenerational teamwork is here, and together we have the answers to what will make healthcare work.
Links and Resources
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
Which generation are you?
The generational mix and the magic it brings
Tell me your podcast ideas.
Let’s connect on Linkedin or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub
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Links and Resources
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
Help me I’m overwhelmed
The Healthy Mind Platter
Wheel of Life from Tuhi Stationary as part of thier planning tools collection
Register for the Spark and Support Webinar
Let’s connect on Linkedin or if Facebook is more your thing, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub
Interested in coaching with me - find out more here
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This week, we unpack the concept of "Sharpening the Saw" from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, applying it to leadership renewal. Explore Stephen Covey’s four pillars—mental, physical, spiritual, and social—and how they play a critical role in sustaining leadership performance. From organizing your mental space to discovering what inspires you, this episode is packed with ideas to keep your leadership sharp. We end with the Learn-Commit-Do model to help you take action!
Links and Resources:
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Te Whare Tapa Wha
Manage your energy not your time
Join the Healthy Mind Platter intro session
Let’s connect on Linkedin or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub
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When someone comes to you with a problem, it’s easy to dive in and fix it. But what if, instead, you coached them through the solution? In this episode, we’ll talk about how to shift from solving to developing.
Consider how to shift your mindset from being the problem solver to the coach. The episode discusses techniques to assess the urgency of tasks and make informed decisions about when to delegate, always with an eye toward developing future leaders.
Links and Resources
The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps by Jennifer Garvey Berger
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Let’s connect on Linkedin or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub
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Change is constant and we all know that, yet leading and change in healthcare is still a big challenge. Honest talking, ideas and perspective on change in this week's episode of the Leadership Lounge.
Links and Resources
5 tips for managing change in the workforce
Change management models
Tim Ferris and Fear Setting
Storytelling for Change from Acumen
The Long Time Academy
Register for the Spark and Support Webinar or the introduction mini webinar on The Healthy Mind Platter Webinar
Tell me your podcast ideas.
Sign up for the No Jedi email here
Let’s connect on Linkedin or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub
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Build trust and empower your team
Support your mind, body and spirit
Boost your creativity and let your mind wander into something new and amazing
Rest. You don’t have to earn it or prove you deserve it. You are entitled to rest because you are a human being (not a human doing).
Links and Resources
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
How taking a vacation improves your wellbeing
Making the most of your holiday
Did I let it go?
Register for the Spark and Support Webinar or the introduction mini webinar on The Healthy Mind Platter Webinar
Tell me your podcast ideas.
Sign up for the No Jedi email here
Let’s connect on Linkedin or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub -
“The quality of our reading stands as an index to the quality of our thought” Maryanne Wolf, cognitive scientist.
The evidence is out for why reading fiction supports you as a leader, developing capacities and capabilities that will support you with the challenges and context of healthcare right now.
Increasing understanding and building empathy
Build your emotional capacity
Enhance your decision-making
Improve your writing
It’s a restorative activity and can reduce your stress
Links and Resources
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
Why leaders should read fiction
Want to be a leader? Read more fiction.
The case for reading fiction
How reading makes you a better leader
Find Katie on Goodreads and the new fiction for healthcare leaders bookcase
Want more to support you and your team - register for the Spark and Support Webinar or the introduction mini webinar on The Healthy Mind Platter Webinar
Tell me your podcast ideas.
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Let’s connect on Linkedin
or if Facebook is more you, join me in the
Healthcare Leadership Hub
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You want to be credible, confident, and clear, yet you also need to be honest and open. If your job is on the line, or you are not sure what will happen next it’s hard to hold both of those. Your fears and worries will show through your words, your tone and how you hold yourself. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can hide it. Equally don’t think that your teams don’t know what’s going on. Show them how you walk through uncertainty holding onto hope and in alignment with your values.
- Noticing how you are showing up and the impact it has
- The contagious nature of how you show up
- Having a good handle on the facts
- The countdown of articles with ideas to think about
- Looking to the leaders that inspire you
- Choosing courage over comfort
- Care transparency
- Taking the long view
Links and Resources
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
9 Things Great Leaders Do in Difficult Times
7 ways to show great leadership in tough times
3 stratergies for Leading through Difficult Times
Perform under pressure by Dr Ceri Evans
Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
Spark and Support Webinar
The Healthy Mind Platter Webinar
What do you think of the podcast?
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Let’s connect on Linkedin
Or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub
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Spring is in the air and I got to wondering if leadership has seasons. And of course, we have seasons as leaders, time for high energy full on summer and times of more reflective and considerate winter. What does this mean for you, your team and the organisation you’re in? What season are you in right now?
I get into the gardening theme and think about how we create the environment for growth and nurture those developing their skills in their first leadership role.
We take that into the practical day-to-day setting and the natural flow of energy through the day means you are more suited to certain types of work at certain times of day. The leadership lounge challenge is to notice those different moments and make the most of them.
The leadership theme for each season
The cycle of growth, change and transition
What does looking after new leaders mean
Paying attention to your environment
Scanning the horizon
How your energy changes throughout the day
Creating more time by making your day work for you
Links and Resources
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
Movement and leaders have seasons
Wayfinding Leadership
The Darkness Manifesto
Moving between the dancefloor and the balcony
Let me know what you think of the podcast here - don’t forget to follow and rate wherever you listen
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Let’s connect on Linkedin
Or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub
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What are the factors you use to define success? This week we’ll look at what getting clear on success can give you and your team. It’s also a chance to look broader, wider and deeper at the factors that make up success. Plus a question that will reframe how you think about success.
Defining success as an organisation and a team.
Why your personal definition of success matters.
The clarity you get when you define success.
Success isn’t pie, there is enough for us all.
Celebrating and sharing the joy of the success of others.
Links and Resources
5 qualiies of high-impact healthcare leaders
Acumen Academy Course Catalogue
Jim Collins and Good to Great
Have you found your hedgehog? Video from Jim Collins
Let me know what you think of the podcast here - don’t forget to follow and rate wherever you listen
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Let’s connect on Linkedin
Or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub -
There is SO much going on. The demands are increasing, expectations keep growing and the prize of being busy can be appealing.
The thing is that isn’t sustainable, nor will it enable you to do your best work - and right now - your best is needed. At times of great change, and uncertainty there is potential and possibility and being at your best matters.
This week we explore why this matters and the difference it can make when you do. There are also a few practical and pragmatic ways to find that space to pause.
Links and Resources
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
Help me I’m overwhelmed
Hungry, angry, late or tired?
Are you in need of an opposite world?
The power of reflection
My mindfulness starting point
Let me know what you think of the podcast here - don’t forget to follow and rate wherever you listen
Let’s connect on Linkedin
Or if Facebook is more you, join me in the Healthcare Leadership Hub
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Tentatively contributing my ideas to the very public conversation about healthcare. What I think are two of the elephants that we need to talk about. Why the political nature of healthcare isn't helping us do what we need to do and why the strong voice of the medical profession needs to be part of the conversation.
We wrap up thinking about the cards you’ve been dealt and what the landscape looks like for you - what do you do and where can you focus to make a difference.
Equally conscious that this is winter in Aotearoa and all that comes with that, high demand, high occupancy, sickness and in an environment where you can’t spend and need to save money and deliver results!
So what’s one thing, to think about, to take a small step? It’s the small steps every day that are going to bring about the change we want.
Highlight Ideas
How are you moving between the balcony and the dance floor?
What are your relationship-building skills like?
Are you clear about what game you are playing?
Are you getting out of the way so people can do their job?
How do you know if you have a physiologically safe space?
Who is your first team?
How are you finding and sharing the bright spots?
Links and Resources
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
Simon Sinek’s The Infinite Game
Your 1st team
Showing up and finding the bright spots.
Let me know what you think of the podcast here - don’t forget to follow and rate on wherever you listen
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I got caught up in an incredible documentary this weekend, and while I loved it and learnt a lot and was super impressed one thing stood out. It was painful to watch when feedback and messaging being delivered were neither clear or direct.
They did care personally and this is one aspect of the Radical Candor model - the other part is to challenge directly. What was happening in the show reminded me of the feedback sandwich - a tool - that admittedly 30 years ago was being taught and used as a way to give feedback.
This episode leans heavily on the work of Kim Scott and the team at Radical Candor. Links to the places I’ve specifically quoted from and used to build this episode are all below.
So we cover:-
The 6 reasons why the feedback sandwich doesn’t work.
What to do instead and what this can look like in practice.
Share the value of sitting with the discomfort of critical feedback.
Why appreciative feedback is part of this equation.
Links and Resources
Radical Candor
The feedback sandwich
How to get and give feedback at work
When was the last time anyone said thank you to you?
America’s Sweethearts on Netflix
5 qualities of high-impact healthcare leaders
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If you’re tackling a big thing - make your plan.
It seems logical to work out the time things might take and then schedule them, but it can be a skipped step. When you’re overwhelmed with the sheer amount of things on the list it can help sort the wood for the trees and get an idea of when you might be able to complete the work.
Set yourself up well
If you are doing some focused work, or even just getting through the day - what is going to help you be successful and flow well? What information can you build on? What data or resources do you need to have to enable your work to flow? The environment you best work in, the snacks that will help, the coffee?
Who can you connect with
Co-working spaces have been a great place for accountability and support for me. Do you feel alone in your leadership role? What does the concept look like for you - a peer in a similar role, facing similar challenges? Where can you connect and chat, help and be helped? What can help hold you to account for projects and pieces of work you have decided are a priority?
Notice your energy, what are you feeling highly energised, when less so? Where can you adapt your flow of work to help match that energy?
Finally, speak to yourself like a good friend.
You’ve got this, look how much you have achieved, keep going, you’re making great progress. You’re exactly where you are meant to be
Links and Resources
Subscribe for weekly ideas and inspiration
Getting it done sheets
Help me I’m overwhelmed
Manage your energy not your time
Eat the frog
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Having a space and time for play is one of the things that supports a healthy mind. I enjoyed the play and had a great time building the Lego gift. I couldn’t help but notice 3 aspects that make it a joyful experience.
The instructions are broken down into small achievable chunks. Never overwhelming, though with a little challenge and stretch from time to time. Breaking things up and taking the first step - brilliant wisdom.
Practice making progress. Starting slowly with some of the more detailed pieces, I noticed I got quicker, then more confident, then almost efficient. Learning and evolving how we do things, is natural. And if you are new in a role or to leadership, it’s OK that things feel hard or slow. You’ve got this, you will get better, and you will feel more confident. Practice makes progress.
Lego always has enough pieces. I trust they will be there, and that there is even a little buffer in the system with some space pieces. This was harder. Right now it can feel like there isn’t enough in the system to do what you want or need to do. Time, money and people are all in demand. The processes and systems are clogged up, so it feels even harder. Listen I try to pull out what is in your control and what potential things you could even play with.
Links and Resources
Subscribe for weekly ideas and inspiration
The Healthy Mind Platter
Trust
Hope
Grit
What question or conundrum would you like me to explore in The Leadership Lounge?
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If the fires keep coming and it’s beginning to get you down, this episode is for you. Prompted by an actual statement from a regular listener, I took to learning how fires are prevented and some of the tactics of those who fight fires in the wild. I took that and coupled it with some ideas out there on how you can move slightly into the realm of preventing fires rather than fighting them.
As with all things, you are looking for a 1% shift. If your day is 90% fire fighting, don’t expect to jump to 0% immediately. Yes, make a goal (which might not be 0) but also what would 80% or 85% look like and what will it take to get it to that?
Prevention is always harder, slower and less sticky. There is less heroism and excitement. It’s more planning and organising. It’s investment rather than splurging. If they aren’t your strengths - who can help you, what can you leverage?
Links and Resources
Subscribe for weekly ideas and inspiration
4 Reasons You’re Always Putting Out Fires at Work | The Muse
Stop Fighting Fires
Preventing Burnout: How to Tackle Fire Fighting in the Workplace
Always Putting Out Fires at Work? Here’s a Checklist to Keep You Calm
7 Ways To "Put Out Fires" Like Firefighters - Calendar
Plus I take requests….what’s the thing that you want to hear about on the podcast?
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What do you do when faced with challenges, unexpected barriers and things just not working? This week we're discussing the tension of getting things done, asking for help and solving problems and how they are seemingly linked together with writing a roster.
Links and resources
Subscribe for the weekly inbox bright spot
Three myths that stop people asking for help
Help I need somebody
Daria Williamson - Working in your Zone of Genius
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Bonus in this episode – tops tips for handling mistakes or problems.
Links
Subscribe to the email to hear about Opposite World
What is your gap plan
The healthy mind platter
Help me I’m overwhelmed
Tuhi Stationary - my amazing planner with a daily energy check-in
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The first step to managing up is working out what it means for you. There are a lot of different perspectives when you start to look around.
This episode explores some key ideas for the leader in healthcare when they are looking at their relationship with their boss. From communication to listening, to how to get the best from each other along with what managing up isn’t - and why that is crucial in healthcare. Ending with the most magical advice I was given that shifts the perspective and makes the next steps you need to take obvious.
Links and Resources
Download the Qualities of High Impact Leaders and sign up for the weekly email.
Book a call with me to talk about what it’s like being a leader in healthcare right now.
HBR Managing up
Managing up without sucking up
Guide to managing up: What it means and why it’s important | Culture Amp
A Tactical Guide to Managing Up: 30 Tips from the Smartest People We Know
Managing Up: What is It and Why Do It? | Human Resources
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