Central Line: Leadership in Healthcare – Details, episodes & analysis

Leah sits down with Kat Newport, a passionate Conflict Educator and Coach renowned for her expertise in guiding leaders and teams through tough situations. Kat shares her unique approach to conflict, viewing it not as a hurdle, but as a catalyst for positive growth and creativity in the workplace.

Kat delves into her philosophy of "Smart Conflict," emphasizing the importance of self-awareness in how we handle disputes. She provides practical tools and strategies for navigating workplace conflicts, offering insights on effective communication, providing feedback, and managing relationships to ensure psychological safety.

While most people tend to shy away from conflict, Kat sees it as a breeding ground for creativity. She argues that without differing perspectives (aka conflict), we limit our ability to think outside the box. By engaging with conflict constructively, we can foster innovation and growth within our teams and organizations.

The conversation touches on the unique challenges faced in the healthcare sector, where conflict can be particularly intense due to the high stakes involved. Kat and Leah discuss the emotional burden on healthcare providers and the critical need for effective conflict management to ensure patient wellbeing and professional resilience.

Kat emphasizes the power of intentionality in shaping our workplace environment and relationships, encouraging listeners to engage in conversations about conflict proactively.

Join Leah and Kat for an inspiring discussion on turning workplace conflict into an opportunity for positive change and innovation.

Discover the secrets of SMART Conflict discussed in the podcast: https://share.hsforms.com/1OhnWOJZ5QPq6Up4toMtHdgnwn0r

Kat’s website: www.SmartConflictBook.com

Ila Edgar is the founder of Big Change Inc, a consulting organization that supports organizations, leaders, and teams in building stronger trust in pursuit of achieving amazing things together, and co-host of a podcast dedicated to helping people intentionally design trust in their relationships, Trust on Purpose. 

Listen as Ila talks about her personal journey of trust, navigating a landscape devoid of frameworks and reference points that often led to painful lessons, to her discovery of a trust framework that provides structure to the nebulous concept of trust. With it came the power to recognize trust as a choice and lessons in intentionally designing, cultivating, evaluating, and discerning trust - using the domains of competency, sincerity, reliability, and care - considerations sorely lacking in many organizations today.

Ila shares her firsthand experiences within the healthcare system, highlighting the impact of trust - and its absence - on both individuals and institutions. She discusses the significance of trust extending beyond personal relationships, permeating into professional spheres like healthcare, and how a lack of trust can breed skepticism and hinder progress, yet intentional trust-building can transform organizational dynamics. 

Join Ila and Leah as they offer insights into the complexity of humanity and trust, its construction, erosion, and potential for renewal. This conversation invites listeners to reflect on their own relationships—with themselves, their colleagues, and the systems they inhabit—prompting a deeper exploration of trust in all its complexity.

If you would like to connect with Ila directly or request the “Do Over” cards she talks about, find her here.

Have you ever wondered what innovation means for nursing and healthcare? The good news is that it doesn't have to be as complicated as you may have thought. In today's episode, Leah sits down with Dr. Dan Weberg, an expert in nursing, healthcare innovation, and human-centred patient design. Learn how your daily actions can significantly change the healthcare system for the better.

In healthcare, clinicians are often promoted into leadership roles due to their excellent clinical skills. However, there is often a gap in the proper knowledge, skills, and tools to be confident in being a leader. Dr. Rachel Miller unpacks her own experiences with this, how she learned what she needed to succeed in her leadership approach and the critical importance of building trust in herself and others.

In addition to being a board-certified Obstetrician & Gynecologist, Dr. Rachel Miller is a Certified Executive Coach, an author of “How to Succeed as a Healthcare Leader,” and a Dr. John Maxwell Leadership Coach, Speaker, and Trainer. Through her company, Pocket Bridges, LLC, she helps healthcare leaders and executives to lead their systems feeling confident and empowered to decrease physician burnout, improve provider engagement, and enhance leadership skills.

In this episode, we talk with Danielle Dorschner. Danielle shared about the moment in time when she knew she wanted to be a nurse, how she moved into leadership roles, and how engaging in volunteering supported her own learning and growth in leadership.

Danielle is a bilingual healthcare leader with over 30 years of healthcare experience, from local service delivery to the international front.  She has recently retired as the Executive Director of OHSNI, a community-based organization coordinating and managing care for Nunavummiut medical travellers and their families coming to Ottawa for health care services. After working in a hospital setting for a few years, she then worked in public health and then moved to Accreditation Canada where she worked for 16 years in various positions, progressing to the Executive Director of the Canadian Accreditation program. 

On this episode, Leah is joined by Cory Jenks, an ambulatory care clinical pharmacy specialist and formerly a retail pharmacist, outpatient clinical pharmacist and inpatient clinical pharmacist. Corey is also an accomplished improv comedian and travels around the country, speaking to other healthcare professionals and teaching them how to apply the skills of improve comedy to create a more adaptable, empathetic and humanising healthcare experience.

Every day we make choices on how much time and energy we invest into our work. Often, those choices are rooted in the belief that if we "just" work harder things will get better. Host Leah talks with Kathy Howe, Executive Director for the Alberta Association of Nurses, on how this belief is baked into the healthcare culture, how things are changing, and what you need to do as a leader to change this for yourself and others.

Whether we mean to or not, we sometimes behave in ways that create walls between ourselves and our teams. However, as leaders, it's important to remember that your people usually know when things are going off the rails or when you are not being vulnerable. They want to see whether you have the courage to tell them and to show your authentic self.

In this episode we hear from Todd Buchanan, Business & Operations Manager, Peer Support South East Ontario, unpacks the idea of being vulnerable in a leadership role and how that inspires people to do their best work. 

Many healthcare organizations, already beleaguered by staffing shortages among many other challenges, sailed into a storm of all storms, the COVID-19 pandemic. Tresha Moreland, a 30-year experienced HR leader in healthcare who specializes in strategic planning, workforce planning, and employee engagement, shares that it’s never too late to start again and build a resilient organization and 10 steps on how to get there.

On today's episode we hear about the lived experience of Kristine Russell and how she used this experience as a catalyst for her involvement and career in healthcare. After the birth of her third child, a daughter named Ellie, Ellie and Kristine developed septic shock from Group A Streptococcus. This severe illness required life saving measures for both her and Ellie. With little to no research around long term implication from sepsis or severe infection at birth, Kristine dove head first into the world of health research, patient quality improvement and patient engagement not only in a healthcare setting but beyond. As a result, Kristine offers a unique perspective on how healthcare leaders can partner with patients and clients in care, specifically in research. Additionally, Kristine offers practical ideas on how healthcare professionals can value the lived experience of their patients and clients.