Employee Empowerment

 

Employee empowerment is getting employees to do what needs to be done rather than just waiting and doing what they are told.  Empowerment is an act of building, developing and increasing other people's power through cooperation, sharing and working together to develop their COMPETENCY (knowledge, skills and attitudes).

It takes a level 5 leader to authentically empower their team to surpass you to reach their full potential.  It takes self-awareness, self-effacing and humility to genuinely empower one's employees.

Zig Ziglar Theory identified a list of seven steps associated with goal setting, identification, benefits, obstacles, skills, people, plan and timelines.

A stretch assignment is a project or task that challenges an employee to go beyond their current skills set and experience fostering growth and development by pushing them outside their comfort zone.

Situational Leadership

Situational Leadership is an approach where the leader matches and adapts behavior with the needs, commitment, capability and maturity level of his individual employee or team.

Leadership POWER

I was tasked to attend the Civil Service Commission Supervisory Development Course Track 2 and I share the nuggets of wisdom and learnings.

POWER is the prime mover of people and events, the ability to make things happen the way you want to.  The essence of power is influence over the behavior of others.

POWER is the ability to lead and inspire based on TRUST, respect and wholehearted commitment freely given and earned.

Impending Sense of Gloom

 

"There are days when your life clouds over and the world gets so dark, that all at once you can't tell night from day..."  this song from Miss Saigon seems to echo in my ears.

There are days when I do feel thankful for waking up to another day filled with hope and renewed opportunities but somehow I have difficulty finding the motivation to get up and do anything.  What's the use of giving it your best if tomorrow you will probably die anyway?

This is the problem with transitions - some transitions may be painful, because change is not easy.  Whether it's the transition from a child to an adolescent, from an adolescent to adulthood, from singlehood to married life, from nulligravid to primipara, from menstruating to menopause.  All through the life cycle there are changes which are affected by biological, emotional, psychological, social and mental factors.

I've been struggling with the effects of menopause like insomnia, musculoskeletal pains, vasomotor symptoms like hot flushes, headaches and even depression.   I am not one to take medications, as much as I can avoid it... So I take things one day at a time, accepting these transitional changes as part of life. 

While others talk about quiet quitting and giving only the minimum compliance to keep from getting fired, I have always used work as a clutch.  Work has become a coping mechanism for me to keep me pre-occupied and distracted from the silence that somehow has become so frightening that I am at risk of being enveloped in the darkness and swallowed whole by an overwhelming sense of gloom.  Are these thoughts suicidal ideations?  I cannot be sure.  I keep thinking and praying for death... "for in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause..."

In that terrible silence, I hear the small voice that whispers to Lola Sising that I just want to be a good girl.... but all the wounds and scars from battles both mental, psychological and social, add to that overwhelming oppression of need and longing and rejection. 

Quiet Quitting in Healthcare

Minimum compliance is not enough when you aim to provide quality healthcare because health is wealth and lives of patients are at stake.  So what happens when the healthcare professionals and managers face the phenomenon of "quiet quitting"?

Pyramid of Quiet Quitting

When an employee suddenly leaves our work chat groups for no reason, I asked if she was ok and she simply said "I'm ok, but there are just too many chat groups." then she laid low on work activities, not exerting much effort or engaging co-workers in improving the system.  

When I searched Google Generative AI about this, I discovered a new term called quiet quitting.

QUIET QUITTING refers to employees disengaging from their work by doing the bare minimum to maintain their jobs, without explicitly resigning, and often as a sign of dissatisfaction or burnout.  This can lead to decreased productivity, reduced innovation, and a decline in employee morale.  Signs of quiet quitting include not volunteering for extra projects or leadership roles, limited participation in meetings or team discussions, refusing to take on tasks outside of the job description, arriving late or leaving early, focusing on the minimum required to keep the job.  Quiet quitting can be addressed by improving employee engagement and morale, providing opportunities for growth and development, encouraging open communication and feedback, addressing burnout and stress.

Heather Whitney  writes in her blog Quiet Quitting: Meaning, Signs, and How to Prevent it that in a survey they conducted, the majority of quiet quitters said their manager affects their work ethic (57%), as does their mental health (55%) and compensation (51%). 

Gray Towers says that quiet quitting offers both opportunities and threats for talent acquisition teams.  "their loss is our gain" if quiet quitters are enticed to apply in your company.  However, if the reasons for quiet quitting still pervades in the work place, these quiet quitters can be the reason to need recruiting in the first place.  Bottom line is that employers should have a good employee engagement program.

T1.  How do you understand the concept of "quiet quitting" in healthcare workforce?

T2.  How do you think the concept of quiet quitting affects work-life balance and healthcare service delivery?

T3.  What factors do you think impact work ethics of healthcare professionals?

Transitions

I was searching Google about "transition clinics" considering that we have an adolescent health clinic that helps patients transition to the adult clinics...

Patients attending antenatal clinics are preparing for the transition from being single and available to experiencing motherhood.

I wish there were perimenopausal clinics as well to prepare women to transition to menopause, because now I am experiencing a lot of symptoms like aches and pains and difficulty sleeping.

According to Google AI, transition clinics provide specialized care and support to patients as they move from one stage of treatment of care to another such as from pediatric to adult care or from hospital to home, focusing on medical, practical and emotional needs.

T1.  What transitions in health have you experienced, and how has it affected your life so far?

T2. Do you think these health transitions are severe enough to warrant transition clinics?  Why or why not?

T3.  What practical health tips can you offer for patients undergoing health transitions?

 

Journaling

I started my "Dear Diary" habits way back in grade school when I did not have the courage to verbally express my feelings then.  I needed an outlet to vent out my thoughts, feelings and emotions without affecting anyone else.  The problem was that when my mother read my diary, she found out all my secrets and I had felt betrayed.

So now I would like to think that I've grown smarter, with the sage advice of Yoda "guard your thoughts lest they become words.  Guard your words lest they become action.

"Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.  I sense much fear in you."