At TLD Group, we believe that we've arrived at a pivotal moment in time, one that we hope will inspire America to engage in a conversation around how we as individuals and organizations and as a nation can and must do better. Centuries of inequality and racism have culminated into acutely horrific consequences for Black Americans in 2020.
TLD Group hosts the first session in their Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion series led by Dr. Dale Caldwell, an expert on Influence Leadership and his father, Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell, a “Foot Soldier” in the Civil Rights Movement, who knew and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Their presentation connects the Civil Rights Movement to current realities and provides a framework that will help listeners understand the connection between personal influences and diversity, inclusion and equity.
While physicians in some parts of the country are now facing the pandemic head-on, many have started to process what has probably been the most challenging period of their professional careers. Most are still scared, and some are just starting to grieve and feel the emotions of the past months. These emotions can include the struggle with professional identity. Some of us struggled with feeling incompetence; “What did I do? or “How come I couldn’t help more?”. Some of us couldn’t work due to our age or a medical condition that we were forced to disclose.
During this period of disillusionment, we’re trying to figure out how to right the ship with ongoing worries about many things, including the economy, educational needs, and, what the fall and winter are going to look like1. Understanding typical physician characteristics can help guide your teams through the storm.
During unprecedented and tumultuous times there is no such thing as ‘simple'. Crisis Management is complex and difficult. Now more than ever before strong leadership is an essential factor in mobilizing and motivating teams while working remotely, still aiming to achieve the business objectives front line leaders are still ultimately responsible for delivering.
Whether working within a team or leading employees, employees are experiencing disorganization, difficulty concentrating, feelings of overwhelm, increased requests for sick time, and increased absenteeism—all of which are normal responses in a crisis. The relevant management and leadership skills take on a different look and feel under these circumstances. I’ve captured a few leadership actions that I’ve coached others on and have seen used effectively and are proven best practices by many organizations:
Over the past several months communities around the world have seen their healthcare systems pushed to their limits. As the initial shock to our global physical health begins to wane an important second wave of need is becoming more tangible. As physical distancing continues, many are experiencing isolation, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and other mental health impacts that will result in a potentially overwhelming curve of its own.
Today's workplaces are responding to never before seen challenges and scenarios, all while adjusting to a virtual work-from-home environment. It's clear that solving these new challenges will require individuals and teams to think differently than they have in the past, which begs the question..How can leaders and teams establish a culture of virtual innovation?
Helping Medical Professionals During COVID-19
The level of risk in patient care today is higher than most providers ever considered when choosing medicine as a profession. The war metaphors being used in the Covid-19 fight aptly fit the threat doctors are experiencing. To emotionally bolster staff and lessen residual trauma, medical leaders and front line providers can benefit from applying well refined military crisis leadership strategies.
Routine to remarkable----overnight. That’s what has happened to frontline medical triage with the rapid, unprecedented and unrelenting onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. EMT, ER and ICU staff are well-trained to handle emergency crises of all types, just not of this magnitude, intensity and duration. Medical team leaders face life threatening issues on a regular basis, but not to their own lives at the very same time. Their training and experience prepare them to rapidly assess, execute and adjust medical protocols to fit the needs of a medical crisis, and then usually the crisis ends. Reports from the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic have medical professionals describing themselves as “soldiers in the fog of war” physically exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed.
A Letter to Frontline Responders
Holly Hughson is an OD consultant and change strategist, who has spent almost two decades working in high-stakes crisis response, humanitarian action and civil-military coordination. Holly's current work focuses on the human cost incurred by practitioners working on the frontlines of human suffering and vulnerability, and she serves as project advisor for “Ethics Education for Crisis Medicine” at the Centre for Military Ethics at King’s College London. In a moving tribute she shares her insights and admiration with the frontline responders of COVID-19.
