Institute for Health and Human Potential

Did most of you (our clients) not remember? August is supposed to be our slow time! Our rest, our relaxation. Your rest, your relaxation. Time to get prepared for a busy fall? Read more below

This is the first segment of "Bill's side of the bridge" and I thought I'd start by talking a little about what the "Bridges" strategy is all about and how it has impacted me and my leadership ability. Read more below

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

In today's issue you will find

Rest is definitely not for the wicked! Did most of you (our dear clients) not remember? August is supposed to be our slow time! Our rest, our relaxation. Your rest, your relaxation. Time to get prepared for a busy fall.

Not so this year! This has been one of IHHP's busiest July and August on record (we seem to get busier every summer). While we are very excited by the growth of the business at this time of year, it also means that there are people at IHHP going above the call of duty at a time when the weather is beckoning them outside. For this reason, I will start this edition with a special thank you to all the folks at our offices in Australia (even though it is winter), Canada, and United States as they have been working overtime to create and deliver powerful programs for our clients. And powerful they are!

Just last week, we received a call from someone who had recently been provided with training in Emotional Intelligence to their leadership team. Their words: "This was a great training program, in fact, it was one of the most impactful learning programs we have ever had". This is what drives us at IHHP: making a difference and doing what matters for our clients. Whether it is increasing leadership bench strength, developing high potentials, helping managers engage their people in a more powerful way, or helping their sales people connect more intimately with their clients, we get excited to come in and help organizations and individuals get to their next level of performance. So, in addition to thanking our staff, I also, want to send out a great big thank you to the many clients we have worked with this year. It is because of you that our expertise is growing and we are now more confident than ever in our ability to serve you and others at a higher, more impactful, level.

Here is what you will find in this newsletter. A white paper that we think you will like to read (need to read?) entitled: "What Is Happening at Your Hospital?" It looks at what is happening in our hospitals where well intentioned professionals are having unintended impacts. While ours and others data suggests this happens everywhere, it can have grave consequences, as you imagine, in our hospitals. As you read through it, see if you can see if any of these behaviors are sabotaging great performance in your workplace.

You will also find information about enhancements to our assessment tool, the EI360™ that we are excited about. Plus we will hear from the ‘other side of the bridge' with my partner Bill Benjamin in Chicago. We hope you have enjoyed your summer and are ready to come back to take charge of your life and business!

For those of you who have attended Day 2 of our two day EQ training and coaching programs, you will be familiar with the concept of the "bridges". It's a metaphor we use to help people understand the concept of empathy and getting into another person's frame of reference. In any interaction this is what is on our side of the bridge: our perspective, our intention and our needs. Then there is the other person's side of the bridge - their view of a situation, their intention, their needs.

In my early career - as with many young people - I was very focused on my side of the bridge. I thought I "connected" with other people as a leader, but I didn't really. Connecting to me meant trying to influence them to my way of thinking. Or trying to use my drive and determination to get them to the behaviors I needed from them. It also meant not really listening. Listening to me was about listening for ways to confirm my point of view, or thinking about what I was going to say next, or just plain not being present and not really listening at all!

I've learned that to really engage and inspire people, and to become a better leader, I need to be able to get to their side of the bridge. This starts with letting go of what is on my side of the bridge - my judgments, my need to get things done, my way of doing things - so that I can really listen for what is happening with them. I need to understand their view of any situation, what is driving them, and what their emotional needs are - security, respect, inclusion, acknowledgement, etc.

Once I have gotten to another person's side of the bridge and understood the emotions driving their behaviours, only then can I engage effectively in a conversation about solving a problem, dealing with a challenging situation, or coaching them to greater performance.

Do I do this all the time? Of course not, just ask our staff - or my wife! But I do know that I do it a lot more than I used to when my leadership style was all about my side of the bridge. And it does seem that people are more inspired and motivated by me now that I try to get to their side of the bridge more often,

Bill

Our new EI360™ was launched during our Emotional Intelligence for Personal Leadership May, 2007 program. If any of you have ever developed a software program of this magnitude you know of the trials and tribulations that occur with managing a project of this scope. Thanks to the feedback of people from across the world we were able to fine-tune the program to what it looks like today; an excellent assessment tool that provides a systematic method of collecting critical information from a range of sources in order to create a more complete, unbiased picture of an individual's performance and Emotional Intelligence abilities.

With our new EI360™comes many new features; our new report summarizes multi-rater assessment data from 8 to 16 raters (manager, direct reports, peers, key clients, family members and other) and provides an easy to understand report of the feedback provided by the important people in your work and personal life. View a Sample report.

Our model of Emotional Intelligence consists of three main areas for leadership development. These include Self-Awareness, Emotional Management and Emotional Connection. These three overriding competencies are considered the building blocks of personal leadership. Learn more about our new EI360™ program

As we promised in our last newsletter the IHHP is committed to its research and development part of our business. With an amazing amount of people interacting with our website and our programs combined with our ongoing online surveys we have the ability to research various topics and extend that research to you.

Hot off the presses! We have just finished writing a new white paper. It takes a look at what is happening in our hospitals where well-intentioned professionals are having unintended impacts. While ours and others data suggests this happens in every workplace, it can have grave consequences, as you can imagine, in our hospitals. As you read through it, see if you can pick out any of the behaviours sabotaging great performance in your workplace Click here to go to our free download page.

What's Going on at your hospital and explore with us how emotional intelligence affects our healthcare system today.

On Friday November 16th at 12noon CST, 1:00 pm EST, Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry and Bill Benjamin invite you to join them for a in-depth view of what is happening in our Healthcare system today and how Emotional Intelligence plays such a critical role in the future success of our system. Leveraging the research done for our latest White Paper, this session will look a significant problem in Hospitals today - that most business face as well - people are not giving performance feedback to others, and it's affecting the quality of health care.

JP and Bill will talk about why this is happening - both in hospitals and in all organizations - and what can be done to help people find the courage to step in and give critical feedback when it's needed.

Click here to register for this complimentary event

Please feel free to send us your feedback or just drop us a line to say hello. As mentioned in previous newsletters please tell us what you would like to see and we will do our best to serve you! You can e-mail us at inquiries@ihhp.com or go to Contact Us.

For now, enjoy the rest of the summer season, be courageous in decisions at home and at work.

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