Rocket Science For Leaders with Erie Chapman

Would you follow yourself or another leader who lead exactly like you? If you were a different leader, what would change in your work life? Stories & images evoke the best from others. The culture of affirmation helps polish the diamonds in others. In this podcast, Erie shares the wisdom of veteran HR expert Mark Evans on why meetings interfere with success.

Persistence is always crucial – especially when obstacles appear. In addition to The Golden Rule, this episode addresses The Silver Rule – not what I want for myself but what others need from me. How leaders solve issues through partnership & engaging the team members ideas to gain buy-in is the leadership of invitation, not instruction, of teaching each other, not simply issuing orders. Always remember ask: What is the kind of care I want for my mother? And always take your work seriously but not yourself.

How do leaders inspire others to leave the safety of the status quo for the uncertainty of the new? What language lifts energy? This podcast addresses the power of solving problems by considering the mindset and point of view of the people before us. Competence & compassion are always the mindsets RLC leaders seek. They achieve this by hiring for a Servants Heart.

How are high-control leaders like Neanderthals? And why is Loving Leadership both effective & difficult? In this podcast, Mr. Chapman engages the classic short-staffing training exercise as a way to describe to leaders how to empower caregivers more effectively & durably. He outlines a three-step process to improve late responses: the accountable apology, genuine compassion & competent action. High control leaders operate from the most primitive part of their brains. Loving leadership engages the highest capabilities of the mind. The biggest impact on team member energy comes from leaders. Through the pattern of idea, action & reflection, leaders understand how orders to act become invitations to collaborate.

It takes as much human energy to break old patterns and create new ones as it does for a rocket to break earth’s gravity to enter a new orbit. Rocket science enabled the use of things like satellite technology. The loving leadership of Jesus enabled the growth of a religion that claims two billion followers. Why do we need to learn new ways? In this podcast, Erie discusses why new leadership requires breaking some old patterns to make way for new practices and why hard work is needed to make that happen.

This podcast addresses one of the most crucial skill sets a leader must have – how to hire well & how to train to bring out the best. Hire well & you will have solved many issues that would have arisen if you hired poorly. To do this, hire for Servants Heart. Both patients & leaders want team members who have a Servants Heart. Everyone seems to know what that means. People with a Servants Heart have two key characteristics: Competence & Compassion. After hiring, be careful to nurture that heart rather than to crush it. Erie also offers an example of how to bring out the Servant Heart in team members who may feel burned out by routines.  

Using John F. Kennedy’s inspirational vision to land on the moon, Mr. Chapman addresses the power of leaders to change culture & trigger energy that takes us to other orbits. What happened when a CEO had a whiskey-laden drink cart rolled through the hospital cafeteria each month to service hospital board members? This podcast expands on Mr. Chapman’s contention that culture determines behavior & leaders determine culture. Why is culture crucial? How do leaders generate change? What is the role of story-telling in culture change? Hiring, promoting, rewarding & training for a Servants Heart. Listen to neuro-intensive nurse Deadre Hall, R.N. talk about how her work is a calling, not a job, & how her compassion enables her to give better care. How does the process of Idea, Action & Reflection help learning?

What happened when two employees were murdered at Riverside Methodist Hospital? In this podcast, Mr. Chapman addresses actual situations in a hospital he was leading & how love helped heal all involved. Why is Beauty important in Radical Loving Leadership? Flowers matter because patients are immersed in blood & suffering. Loving leaders appreciate that hospital environments need softening. Leaders that marry Beauty’s power with Scientific practices are more effective than those who rely purely on “fixing” things.

This episode addresses some of the tools leaders use to bring change. Surgeons use scalpels, nurses administer shots, housekeepers use brooms. What are the leader’s tools? Mr. Chapman discusses how vision is a tool. He addresses the difference between medical training and leader training. Doctors round to diagnose & treat. Leaders need to use their rounding as a way to raise energy. This means leaders need to practice affirmation, use questions & offer presence. All of these are “tools.” Affirmation changes brain chemistry. Questions signal values and impact the physics of job performance. How should leaders engage caregivers in ways that transform culture?

In this episode, Mr. Chapman expands on the notion of leaders as energy managers. He describes examples of leaders who use fear and how this impacts individual energy and team performance. In contrast, he discusses how everyone becomes more creative & caring when loving leadership is the guide. He explains how loving care is not just “touchy-feely” work but in fact is only effective when competence and toughness are matched with kindness & compassion. He also introduces the power of the Mother Test in evaluating staff performance. Loving leadership engages Martin Luther King’s “tough-minded - tenderhearted” approach.

In this episode, Mr. Chapman addresses how the leader’s presence, language & demeanor impacts team and organizational energy. It discusses leaders as “energy managers” as a way of explaining that leaders literally impact brain chemistry, and that this impact begins the moment the leader enters a room filled with staff. Does the “light” go up or down? When leaders engage positive language, then energy rises. Loving leadership is contagious. So is fear-based language. Culture change happens when leaders actively engage love’s power.