Program Modules

Leading with Emotional Intelligence

Instructor: Craig Mathews
Facilitator: Dr. Kara Laing
In-Class time: 7 hours

Gain an understanding of emotional intelligence as an essential component of physician leadership effectiveness.  Learn how to manage your emotional behaviors and influence those of others to promote healthy collaborations, reduce conflict, and be more resilient in difficult situations.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is defined as “a set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way.”

Leadership research over the last three decades demonstrates that up to 75% of the competencies required for effective leadership are in the ‘soft skills’ or ‘emotional intelligence’ domain. Emotional Intelligence is not about ‘being emotional’. It is about being aware of how our emotions influence our problem-solving and decision-making skills and how we manage our emotions more effectively for the best possible outcomes, especially when the stakes are high. The technical skills of leadership required to manage projects, change, performance, and people are amplified and optimized when they are supported by a highly developed emotional intelligence.

In this module, you will complete the EQi2.0 online assessment and learn how to become more fluent in emotional intelligence (EQ) skills and competencies. By gaining an awareness of your own emotional intelligent skills, you will grow as a physician leader and optimize the leadership skills that will ultimately influence the ability of others to achieve desired outcomes and results.

Key Takeaways:

  • Identify the 15 EQ competencies that impact leadership effectiveness using a scientifically validated EQ assessment, the EQi2.0
  • Receive a detailed report on your own EQ competencies
  • Provide a greater understanding of how your current EQ leadership approach impacts the performance, engagement, and productivity of direct reports and other colleagues
  • Learn how to communicate with others especially in challenging times
  • Recognize and influence behaviours in others so that they can lead projects, change, and people performance more effectively to achieved desired goals and outcomes
  • Discover new strategies that can improve your individual leadership effectiveness.
  • Consider which EQ competencies place you most at risk for derailing your leadership effectiveness and
  • Gain the tools you need to formulate your own leadership developmental plan.

Coaching & Mentoring for Performance Development

Instructor: Lynn Ansara
Facilitator: Dr. Lesley Johnston
In-Class Time: 3.5 hours

Coaching is a powerful effective skill to use during performance development with staff.  In this module, physicians will learn a step-by-step approach to coaching others and motivate them to achieve peak performance. This module will outline a “coach approach” to performance development including:

Key Takeaways:

  • Learn how to coach and be coached. 
  • Learn how coaching supports the performance development process
  • Understand the differences and similarities between coaching and mentoring and create a personal vision for each. 
  • Develop a coaching language and process that leverages strengths and encourages achievement
  • Learn how to clearly define performance outcomes
  • Collaboratively design strategies that will meet performance goals
  • Hold accountability in others for results
  • Increase employee engagement

Providing Effective Feedback

Instructor: Lynn Ansara
Facilitator: Dr. Andrew Hunt
In-Class Time: 3.5 hours

Learn skills for effective feedback: Laying the groundwork, setting the stage and delivery

Feedback is one of the most important contributors to the improvement of individuals, teams and systems. Yet, physician leaders find themselves challenged by having to provide feedback, sometimes to an unreceptive employee or colleague, and may feel reluctant to be direct and truthful. This module will emphasize the need for preparation and rapport building, and provide strategies for effective feedback delivery.

Key Takeaways:

  • Recognize the need for preparation in order to provide feedback effectively
  • Outline a set of tips for the delivery of feedback
  • Stress the importance of self-assessment in the feedback process

Conflict Management & Resolution

Instructor:  Gail Huang
Facilitator: Dr. Danielle O’Keefe
In-Class Time:  7 hours

Transition to a culture of co-operation and positive communication by mastering conflict resolution approaches.

By using effective communication skills and applying conflict resolution strategies, it is possible to reach a successful resolution during conflict. This interactive module will broaden physicians’ understanding of conflict and teach the application of conflict resolution techniques to diffuse workplace disputes and disagreements. Through direct practice, group discussion and case scenarios, participants will master assertive communication techniques and effective strategies to defuse and resolve workplace conflict.

Key Takeaways:

  • Define types of conflict and how conflict can form
  • Examine the four conflict management styles to realize which one you adopt when faced with conflict
  • Identify the stages of conflict and practice five conflict resolution skills for each
  • Recognize how the four styles of interactive communication can influence conflict
  • Practice assertive communication methods to maintain your position and resolution goals during conflict
  • Develop awareness of how non-verbal communication can escalate conflict

Managing Difficult Conversations

Instructor:  Lynn Ansara
Facilitator: Dr. Taryn Hearn
In-Class Time:  7 hours

Learn how to prepare for and handle difficult conversations in a way that produces positive outcomes for everyone.

Difficult conversations are sometimes easier to avoid due to uncertainty of how to confidently lead the conversation. This however is not a solution to the problem at hand.  Whether you are telling a stakeholder the project is late and over budget or presiding over an unsatisfactory performance review — difficult conversations are inevitable and necessary. During this interactive workshop physician leaders will learn strategies to confidently prepare for and have difficult conversations with colleagues and patients and will be provided with the opportunity to practice these skills by working through simulated difficult conversations. Knowing how to manage a difficult conversation in a positive manner will help maintain and build relationships and attain goals.

Key Takeaways

  • Why some conversations are so difficult
  • The 3 conversations model
  • How to prepare for a difficult conversation
  • The 7 step process for successfully engaging in a courageous conversation
  • The importance of communication and coaching tools such as inquiry, listening, paraphrasing, reframing, and  acknowledging
  • Sending the right message - assertive versus minimizing language
  • The role of emotions and how to manage them
  • How to build a culture of accountability
  • Using the conversation for follow-up development

Building Professional Negotiation Skills

Instructor: Travor Brown
Facilitator: Dr. David Carroll
In-Class time: 3.5 hours

Learn techniques to strengthen your negotiation position, acquire better agreements, and enhance working relationships.

Building Professional Negotiating Skills develops critical management skills for physicians in a hospital environment. This seminar will increase confidence as a negotiator by teaching how to arrive at ‘win-win’ solutions while achieving mutual gain. Physicians will learn practical skills, strategies and tactics to plan for negotiation, set outcome objectives, overcome roadblocks, while building lasting positive working relationships. This seminar will make extensive use of negotiation exercises, requiring pre-reading of materials prior to the session.

Key Takeaways:

  • Strategies and tactics for planning negotiations
  • Learn the pros and cons of commonly used negotiation techniques
  • Developing targets, openings, alternatives, and resistance points
  • How to frame and present offers, and how to respond
  • Common pitfalls in negotiations and how to respond to them
  • Build your comfort level in negotiation situations

Principles of Project Management

Instructor: Jordan Wright
Facilitator: TBD
In-Class time: 7 hours

“Projects” in a health care setting could be anything from a seemingly simple change to an existing administrative process or procedure, to new technology innovations to be implemented within a hospital, to setting up an entirely new care program. Principles of Project Management will teach physicians how to better plan, manage and execute all forms of projects. The module teaches the essential processes and components of project management and reviews the concepts of deliverables, scope, resource planning and estimating, scheduling, stakeholder analysis, risk assessment and communications planning among others. Physicians will also learn how to initiate and close projects and the importance of project integration and documentation.

Key Takeaways:

  • Project definition and success criteria
  • Common project challenges
  • How to think like a project manager
  • Linking your project to a sound business case
  • Assessing the nature of a project and its environment
  • Analyzing and using data to inform and support project decisions and implementation
  • Developing a project plan which can be managed and executed
  • Managing stakeholder expectations
  • Managing a team
  • Project initiation and closure

Leading Change

Instructor: Kelly Patey
Facilitator: Dr. Dolores McKeen
In-Class time: 7 hours

Learn strategies to lead others through the change transition process and create understanding, acceptance and buy-in.

Leading Organizational Change teaches strategies to successfully implement change without sacrificing morale, major losses in productivity and performance. Physician leaders will learn the tools they need to optimize communication efforts, guide employees through the emotional reactions to change, and deal effectively with high levels of uncertainty. The module teaches the fundamentals of organizational change, common pitfalls, and effective communication strategies. Physicians will learn how to interpret employee reactions to change and how to take control, communicate, and manage the transition.

Key Takeaways:

  • Change management best practices
  • Common causes of poor transition management, and how to counter them
  • Responding effectively to individuals’ reactions to change transition
  • Guidelines for effective communication and management of change transition
  • Creating a detailed assessment of a specific transition in the physician leaders’ environment, including how workloads are affected, personal reactions to the change, and pros and cons of responsibility for communicating transition details to employees
  • Creating (and practice delivering) an individual communication plan for an organizational transition

Lean Management in Healthcare

Instructor: Justin Swain
Facilitator: TBD
In-Class time: 7 hours

Apply the basic principles of lean management to increase efficiency and quality in healthcare organizations.

Lean management is a set of operating principles and methods designed to help maximize value for patients by improving efficiency and reducing waste. It emphasizes the consideration of the customer’s needs, employee involvement and a process of continuous improvement. The importance of using data analytics to improve processes will be discussed.

Key Takeaways:

  • Define lean management
  • Summarize the key lean principles and philosophies
  • Outline the key principles of lean management
  • Describe lean tools and processes
  • Discuss problem solving using the lean approach
  • Recognize the importance and use of proper data analysis to inform and evaluate efficiency and quality improvements

Crisis Management

Instructor: Paula Dyke
Facilitator: Dr. Susan MacDonald
In-Class time: 3.5 hours

Apply the basic principles of crisis communication planning to enable health professionals to communicate more effectively in an emergency.

Key Takeaways:

  • Describe how people perceive a crisis.
  • Explain how to tailor messages to different audiences.
  • Outline the crisis communication planning process.
  • Explain the roles of the media and spokespeople in crisis communications.
  • Describe the benefits of social media and mobile media devices.
  • Discuss ways to develop relationships with stakeholders and partners.

Executive Coaching

4 x 30 minute coaching session per participant
Coaches: Lynn Ansara, Gail Huang

To help support the application of leadership skills learned in the program to the workplace, participants will be assigned an internationally certified executive coach who will work with individuals in one-on-one leadership coaching sessions (up to 2 hours in total) based on their individual goals and needs. The coaching will focus on improving performance by helping physicians develop and sustain new perspectives, attitudes, skills and behaviors. Coaching sessions are confidential conversations during which physicians can discuss any issue relating to their work and their roles as leaders, with the goal of helping physicians effectively implement the concepts learned during the program in their personalized work environments.

Executive Coaching involves:

  • Gathering and giving feedback;
  • Identifying development opportunities;
  • Building awareness;
  • Facilitating solutions by asking powerful questions;
  • Setting goals and creating action plans;
  • Facilitating learning;
  • Supporting and encouraging over the long term;
  • Monitoring progress and holding others accountable.