Strengthening communication skills, radical empathy, and the high-dollar outcome of a discrimination lawsuit captured readers' interest in 2021.
Human resources (HR) executives' top reading choices included building basic skills, embracing a new concept, and taking note of a lawsuit against a health system.
These are the top three most-read HR stories posted by HealthLeaders in 2021:
1. Simple Steps to Strengthen Your Communication Skills
Listening is one of the most important skills leaders need to develop to communicate well and maintain relationships throughout the hospital.
Listening is hard work and failing to listen leads to many of the misunderstandings that make cooperation so difficult.
In addition to active listening, use simple language. If physician leaders speak or write in a swirl of obscure terms and jargon, they will just confuse people. There is nothing wrong with using plain, direct language to convey a message.
Also, remember simple courtesies. "Thank you" are two words that are used less often than they should be in the hospital environment. Good manners and appreciation foster a congenial atmosphere and motivate staff to perform better.
Medical staff leaders and members deserve thanks for the hard work they do for their patients, colleagues, and the hospital.
Consider sending personal notes to physicians to let them know you appreciate the job they did on a particular quality improvement committee project, or to a new physician leaders’ family members thanking them for sharing their loved one’s time with the hospital.
2. What is Radical Empathy?
The idea that employers should empathize with their workers is relatively new.
Just ask Bob Cratchit how empathetic his employer, Mr. Scrooge, was in Victorian-era England. Of course, by the end of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, and thanks to some supernatural intervention, Scrooge came around and developed genuine sympathy for the plight of the Cratchit family.
But sympathy is not the same as empathy.
First, sympathy is defined as a "feeling," whereas empathy is defined as an "action." Second, sympathy is caring about or being sorry about someone else’s misfortune; empathy is deeper—understanding and vicariously experiencing another’s feelings.
Empathy is important in the employer-employee context because it better motivates concrete action and changes in policies. An employer that knows what it’s like to struggle to afford childcare is more likely to offer employer-sponsored, on-site day care than an employer that simply "feels sorry" for workers struggling to pay for childcare.
This is where the concept of “radical empathy” comes in. Radical empathy involves actively putting yourself in others’ shoes you’d like to empathize with—to the extent reasonably possible.
In an article for Fortune, Nicole Goodkind wrote how corporate leaders were put in the shoes of visually impaired employees by being blindfolded and led through a series of exercises where they were asked to talk with one another without revealing their official titles.
Radical empathy may sound, well, radical, but the trend illustrates both the importance and the challenge of creating genuine empathy toward employees to drive meaningful discussion and change.
3. Winner in $10M Novant Reverse Discrimination Lawsuit Advocates Diversity and Inclusion, Lawyer Says
The attorney for a former top executive of Novant Health who was awarded $10 million in October by a federal jury says the discrimination lawsuit was not a statement against diversity and inclusion initiatives.
David Duvall's 2019 lawsuit said he lost his job as senior vice president of marketing and communication the year before because of Novant's effort to diversify its top leadership—and he is a white male.
The firing came without warning or explanation shortly before his fifth anniversary with the North Carolina-based health system, and he was replaced by two women, one Black and one white, according to the lawsuit.
Duvall accused Novant of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race and gender discrimination in the workplace.
"The jury learned that Duvall was a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion at Novant; that was one irony in his termination," his attorney, S. Luke Largess, said in a statement.
Novant plans to appeal, according to a statement issued by the company.
"Novant Health is one of thousands of organizations to put in place robust diversity and inclusion programs, which we believe can co-exist alongside strong non-discriminatory policies that extend to all races and genders, including white men," the statement said. "It’s important for all current and future team members to know that this verdict will not change Novant Health’s steadfast commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity for all."
Carol Davis is the Nursing Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.