Tag: career goals

Resilience

By Cathy Converse

“What’s comin’ will come and we’ll meet it when it does.” –Hagrid

Have you ever thought about the relationship between success and failure? Sure, they’re opposites, but they also go hand in hand more often than we think. Success is almost always built upon failed attempts. Almost every successful person we can think of has actually failed numerous times or has overcome significant hardships. J. K. Rowling and Stephen King were rejected by publishers many times before landing book deals that launched incredibly successful careers. Joe Biden overcame a severe stutter to become President of the United States. The Ford Motor Company was the third automobile company Henry Ford started—the first two went bankrupt. Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison were notoriously poor students.

And yet, these people, and many more like them, went on to incredible success. There may have been many reasons they were able to overcome tough times, but almost certainly one of these was that they were resilient. Continue reading “Resilience”

Trustworthiness

By Cathy Converse

If you’ve ever worked in an environment where trust is in short supply, you know how debilitating it can be. Work goes undone as people scramble to protect themselves and try to distinguish fact from fiction. Gossip increases and morale declines. Creativity and innovation come to a screeching halt. Trustworthiness is driven by an organization’s leaders, and it is one of the ten characteristics of courageous leadership, our research has determined. Continue reading “Trustworthiness”

Honesty

By Susan Sportsman, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN

 We often hear colleagues say, “To be honest…” Although this phrase is typically only used for emphasis, I always think to myself, “If you are being honest now, WHEN were you NOT honest?” My immediate reaction illustrates how important the perception of honesty is in human interaction. Nowhere is honesty more critical than in the leadership arena. For this reason, honesty is one of the ten characteristics of Courageous Leadership. Continue reading “Honesty”

Decisiveness

By Cathy Converse

Have you ever been in a meeting where the only decision that was made was to have another meeting? Chances are you have been—I certainly have. And if you’re particularly unlucky, you’ve been in a string of such meetings, where over the course of weeks or months no definitive decisions are made, and consequently no action is taken, and no progress is made.

Whether you are the leader or a participant in such a meeting, a lack of decisiveness can be frustrating at best, and yet leaders often struggle with Continue reading “Decisiveness”

The Case for Courageous Leadership

by Susan Sportsman, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN and Cathy Converse

“Courage is the first of human qualities because it’s the quality that guarantees the others.” –Aristotle

 Introduction

Leadership is on the hearts and minds of most of us as we navigate the complexities of our personal and professional lives. Although volumes have been written about effective leadership using a variety of perspectives, the need for courage in times of conflict and discord, particularly in situations of perceived high risk, seems particularly relevant. Few environments represent higher risk than health care. Continue reading “The Case for Courageous Leadership”

How to Market Yourself…And Why

By Cathy Converse (Bailey)

I spent over 20 years working in marketing for a major corporation. So you’d think I’d make marketing myself a priority, and that I’d be good at it.

However, when I needed to make a major career transition a few years ago, I realized that I was not at all prepared. I’d been so busy marketing other things—products, services, even people—that I hadn’t thought much about marketing myself. When I most needed it, I was unprepared to put my professional skills to work on my own behalf. Continue reading “How to Market Yourself…And Why”