When pushing through a difficult time, it is crucial for leaders to ensure the rest of their team is moving forward with them, Jon Sendach, president of Manhasset, N.Y.-based North Shore University Hospital, told Becker's.
Mr. Sendach, deputy market president of Northwell Health's central region, is also a faculty member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He co-leads its COO Bootcamp program, in which he discusses how to lead away from a crisis.
As a leader, pausing to check in and regroup with one's team is necessary in such a scenario, but Mr. Sendach said he did not fully understand its importance until he experienced it himself.
Following the second wave of COVID-19 in 2021, New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health leaders took a step back to check on their colleagues, bringing in an outside facilitator to speak with a handful of team members.
"What we found out, much to our surprise, was even among highly engaged leaders, there was a disconnect between their direct reports and them," he said.
Northwell staff had varying levels of stress and readiness to continue moving forward after the second wave. Working with the outside facilitator exposed "pockets of unexpressed needs" among staff, Mr. Sendach said.
The organization then took time to tackle concerns brought up during the initiative. Now, Mr. Sendach prioritizes taking pauses as needed to check in with his team. He emphasized that the approach can be applied to any significant change, not just a pandemic.
Because hospital and health system operations are constant, it is important to create the pauses, because they do not naturally occur in the way they do in other industries, such as with summer breaks in education, he said.