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Sample Reports/Articles

On the following pages are a collection of reports. Emulate these for your own use. Please do not copy anything from these reports as they are copyrighted. Use them to inspire your own reports

The 7 Mistakes Leaders Make That Keep Them From Getting

The Results They Want

By Al Ritter

Every leader wants to produce breakthrough bottom-line results. What many leaders don’t realize is that if they improve their relationships with their peers, subordinates and superiors, their results will improve dramatically. Results and relationships are truly intertwined. Do any of these relationship mistakes sound familiar?

1 – Talk first, listen last

You tend to emphasize speaking over listening. After all, you have a lot of wisdom to impart! But poor listening is either not listening at all, or listening through a set of filters, which are typically automatic judgments about the other person or situation. You often don’t give people much of a chance. This undermines your relationship with others, and damages your ability to create the results you want.

Our western culture emphasizes speaking over listening, but it should be the other way around. Give others a great gift—the chance to be heard. When leaders make a conscious choice to listen fully and openly, they provide people and teams the opportunity to have true collaboration, creativity and trust. In our 22 years of consulting experience, we have found time and time again that the most effective

Copyright © 2012 – Robert Middleton – Action Plan Marketing

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leaders are also good listeners—they ask good questions, then listen and learn from people at all levels of their organization.

2 – Be transparent, but only on a need-to-know basis

Many leaders make the mistake of not being open and honest about both their strengths and weaknesses. They demonstrate either no transparency at all, or limit it to “safe” situations such as when they are with people who already know them well. Many leaders want to sound good and look good, especially to the “troops”. But here’s the truth—your people already know you’re not perfect! When there is no or limited transparency on your part, others wonder what else you’re hiding, and start to question your key decisions and actions too. Support and alignment by people in the firm can be seriously compromised.

Although it’s counter-intuitive, transparency and vulnerability really work. Others respond favorably to that vulnerability. It increases their admiration and respect. People truly identify with leaders who are real and truthful about everything, including their own imperfections and struggles. In a recent engagement with a mid-size manufacturing company, we helped the CEO realize he had been micro-managing his subordinates. He readily admitted it to them, and shifted his behavior to helping them be successful--rather than looking for flaws in their work. This led to a new level of trust, mutual support and productivity among members of the senior leadership team, which in turn led to record results in sales and earnings.

3 – Break Promises

Many people, including leaders, operate from the principle “results can mean no results plus a good excuse”. In other words, they intend to do what they say they’ll do, but allow


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rationalizations to get in the way. This behavior undermines trust, damages relationships, and creates roadblocks to getting things done.

When leaders and coworkers keep their promises---they get clear, coordinated actions, stronger relationships and visible results. In all domains of life, the ability to be accountable and hold others accountable is a key driver of both results and relationships. In an engagement with a large distribution company, we helped the CEO and his team completely transform their skills in this area. Their meetings had always been lots of talking and little action, and often lasted well beyond the agreed end time. With our help, they realized a good meeting is about clear, coordinated actions, where people make promises on actions they will take, then keep those promises. The CEO and senior team quickly began to hold themselves and others accountable. Idle talking and broken promises became a thing of the past. The company’s earnings went from breakeven three years running to a 20% return on sales within one year.

4 – Forget to acknowledge others

Expressing appreciation to others is often missing in organizations, especially from leaders. Workers at all levels rarely if ever hear or receive “pats on the back” or a simple “job well done”. Since few employees experience this, they therefore become resentful and withholding at their jobs, making it difficult to get engagement and alignment.

Results and relationships are greatly enhanced when employees, especially leaders, become consciously aware of the contributions and accomplishments of others, and give themselves permission to express appreciation. We have found that high performing organizations are filled with people who authentically express appreciation for one another. We helped a mid-size insurance company adopt this behavior. Virtually everyone in the organization began to look for and express


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authentic appreciation to their co-workers. After a while, it became a habit. Those employees said that new habit was the single most important thing they ever did—both for the results they produced and the relationships they created with each other. They literally and permanently changed their organization’s culture, which in turn generated breakthrough results.

5 – Allow breakdowns to defeat you

All too often, breakdowns, setbacks and problems are met with upset, blame, or resignation. Teamwork, trust, creativity and action typically slow down or stop altogether.

The best leaders, however, realize that life itself causes problems. Good leaders and good people are not immune. A problem or breakdown, when handled well, is a principle means of accomplishing the extraordinary. We worked with one sales team that was committed to a 20% increase in sales, but fell way behind. They could have used those results to find fault with one another, their managers, their company, or even the economy. Instead, they acknowledged the reality of their results, determined the cause was excessive administrative tasks, fixed the problem, and produced a 26% sales increase—a real breakthrough.

6 – View life and business as drudgery

If leaders don’t enjoy what they are doing, it will be difficult if not impossible to truly connect with employees. Leaders have an exponential impact on their people, and without becoming paranoid, must be aware of their impact on the people around them. Do you want people to be engaged at work? You go first—have fun, be upbeat, be engaged! We have observed many examples of a leader’s upbeat attitude contributing significantly to the engagement and productivity of their people. Several of our recent clients have suffered


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extreme difficulty from the economic recession. The CEOs of these clients have refused to allow their attitude to fail themselves and their workers. They have remained upbeat, rallied the troops, and almost certainly their firms will not only survive but truly thrive in the months and years to come.

7 – Settle for peaceful coexistence

An insidious corporate culture takes hold when leaders practice peace at all costs, or peaceful coexistence. Everyone in the organization is well mannered and courteous and kind to each other. They don’t call each other on their stuff. Peace reigns, and everything appears to be good. However, just under the surface, something important is missing—we call it “active mutual support”, where people are encouraged to step out, take initiative, and mutually support each other’s success. This requires straight talk about what works and what doesn’t, and the willingness to disagree without being disagreeable. Active mutual support, or straight talk, is a hallmark of the most effective people, teams and organizations.

If you have experienced any of these problems and would like to know more or get some help, give me a call or send me an email to set up a complimentary Strategy Session. The session can take place in person or over the phone. We’ll explore the challenges you and other leaders face, the kind of results you’d instead like to see, and whether we can help you or not.

Al Ritter

President, Ritter Consulting Group

[email protected]

630-673-4254

www.ritterconsultinggroup.com


http://www.ritterconsultinggroup.com/

mailto:[email protected]

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Servant Leadership. Breakthrough Results.


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Are you a change chump or champ? By Liz Guthridge

10 key differences in how chumps and champs lead change

Do you act like a change chump or champ when leading a change initiative? Change champs achieve their goals without the drama, delays and distress so often associated with change.

Here are 10 key differences in how chumps and champs lead employees during change:

Change Chumps: Change Champs:1. Vision

Stay silent about the vision. They assume others can read their minds.

Drive for clarity. They clearly articulate the change they envision.

2. Orientation

Are afflicted with “SOS” (Shiny Object Syndrome) once they recognize that others can’t read their minds. Realizing employees are craving information, change chumps start telling, using any and all tactics that

First listen and then ask employees to take action. Based on what they learn through surveys, focus groups and simply listening, change champs acknowledge employees’ concerns, work to remove barriers, and fine-tune


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Change Chumps: Change Champs:they think might work. their conversations.

3. Focus

Believe they can convert employees by presenting enough charts, graphs and data.

Focus on facts and emotions to reach employees on a gut level to inspire them to change.

4. Leadership style

Lead and expect others to follow because of their position. They practice “do as I say, not as I do” leadership.

Lead by example. They model the changes they expect their direct reports, other employees, peers and leaders to implement.

5. Physical space

Bunker down in the “war room” that’s reserved for their inner circle and project team. Together, they rehash the reasons why they’re making the change, review project schedules, and wring their hands about the roadblocks they’ve begun to encounter.

Go to where employees are working. Change champs are flexible, meeting formally and informally, asking how things are going, answering questions, reinforcing what everyone needs to do differently, acting as coaches and clearing the path to change.

6. Attitude toward employees

View employees as an audience, a group of spectators who are passively observing. Change chumps also lump everyone together, not taking into consideration individual situations (winners versus losers), level of involvement in the change process, or different communication preferences.

Treat employees as stakeholders, active participants in the change. Furthermore, change champs analyze individual stakeholders carefully, and create customized plans to communicate with them, involve them, and as much as possible, eliminate barriers for them.

7. Resistance

Ignore resistance, assuming that employees will have to turn around at

Realize that change comes with three flavors of resistance: rational,


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Change Chumps: Change Champs:some point. Change chumps are more comfortable concentrating on technology and process fixes.

emotional and political. Change champs deal with all three. And in doing so, they come across as relaxed, optimistic, and supportive. They don’t sugar coat bad news, but they don’t go to the dark side either.

8. Measurement

Know progress when they see it so they don’t have any need for metrics.

Set goals and meaningful metrics that tightly link to the organization’s overall goals.

9. Ambiguity

Cope with ambiguity. They know it’s a given, but that doesn’t mean they like it.

Embrace ambiguity. They know they can’t hide the instability, so they highlight it. For example, they call out course corrections. They also send signs that reinforce the progress (the good, the bad and the ugly) on the path to change.

10.End state

Declare victory as soon as they see a glimmer of change. Then they move on to the next big thing.

Know that real change is a work in progress. They acknowledge employees for big and small steps, overlook minor setbacks and provide support to make sure behavior changes stick. Change champs continue to measure and are prepared to step in if they sense any relapses.

So, which are you: change champ or chump? It’s not easy to be a change champ 100% of the time. However, when you act more like a


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champ, you improve your chances of succeeding with your change initiative and being a winning change leader.

What Now?

Want to become more capable, credible and confident with leading change? An authentic change champ?

If so, contact Liz Guthridge of Connect for a complimentary change check-in session. We’ll explore your current situation, challenges and opportunities.

We also can review Connect’s Change Playbook. It’s designed to help wannabe Change Champs learn and master change skills on the job. Connect’s Change Playbook serves as a change immersion program with personalized support, expert guidance, and other tested devices to keep you moving forward on the path to change. We can

discuss if it’s the right fit for you.

Liz, who’s successfully led change initiatives ever since she changed her name from “Beth” to “Liz” after reading Little Women in grammar school, also has a solid long

track in empowering others to become change leaders in their companies while achieving meaningful results.

To find out more and set up your session, call Liz at 510-527-1213 or e-mail her at [email protected].



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10 Financial Mistakes that can decapitate your retirement income By Ed Fidler

Whether it is taxes, failing to keep your emotions in check, understanding the risks of different savings options, there are ample opportunities to make financial mistakes that will haunt you for the rest of your life. As a result, many retirees struggle with deciding how to get a higher income from their savings. They talk with other retirees and commiserate and complain about how the low interest rates are affecting them. Finally, they may have to cut their holidays, visit less often their children, go out less frequently, have less money to leave for their children and have less to give to their favorite charities. What can you do, especially if you are concerned with the safety of your savings and want guarantees associated with the return of your capital and the income? In this situation it is easy to get overwhelmed and to give up looking for alternatives. If you want to avoid that your income will be decapitated, here are 10 mistakes to avoid:

1. Failing to have a tax plan (Paying too much in income taxes)

Most retirees don’t understand income taxes well enough to develop a plan that allows them to accumulate money faster, have a higher income during retirement and larger estate for their family. Income taxes are your biggest retirement expense and determine how much fun you will have with your life savings. Our tax system penalizes savers who have their savings in bank accounts and bonds. To change that you need to create and execute a different plan. If you don’t create your plan, you get the


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government plan. That’s how the government gets their money, from people doing nothing and staying with the government plan. If you have a tax plan based on your specific situation and goals, you will have less stress, worry, headache, fear, confusion, financial uncertainty and insecurity, and pay LESS TAXES. Lower your taxes NOW and forever. Less taxes is MORE income in your pocket. 2 Having your money in the wrong places

Retirement savings plans are a great incentive for saving and work great for people in their 20s, 30s and 40s because they have many years available for tax-deferred growth. They also are great if you are sure that your tax rate will be lower in retirement. However, if you are less than 10 years from retirement or already have a large RRSP, that assures that you will be in the top tax bracket, then consider putting away savings in regular open investment accounts. Then by choosing the right investments you will have more flexibility and pay less taxes. Unfortunately, many people do the opposite. They continue saving in RRSPs and pay huge amounts in taxes when in retirement—much more than they ever did during their working years.

A couple I recently worked with thought they did everything right with their savings until they had to take minimum withdrawals from their retirement plans. When they filed their tax return after starting to take mandatory withdrawals, they were stunned that they were pushed into the 49.6% tax bracket and that most of their Old Age Security Pension was clawed back. They saved too much in their retirement savings plans and should have build up more savings outside their retirement plans. They learned too late that “too much of a good thing can come back to haunt you”.


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3. Overreacting emotionally to short-term news events.

Most stock market and bond market investors overreact to short-term events by buying and selling their investments at the wrong time. They buy high and sell low. This results in the investment performance of individual investors to be much worse than the market overall. Dalbar Inc., a respected independent U.S. market research firm, found in their 2009 report the following results. The S&P 500 returned 8.35 percent over a 20-year period ending in 2008. In contrast, the average stock market investor earned only 1.87 percent—less than a quarter of the rate they could have earned by simply buying and holding a market index. Individual bond investors fared even worse. They earned returns of 0.77 percent compared to 7.43 percent for the index over the last 20 years.The report suggests that investors do not achieve the returns of the indices because of psychological factors that translate into poor timing of investments by buying high and selling low as a result of the classic market emotions of greed and fear. They are driven by greed when buying investments after they already have risen a lot and by fear when selling investments after prices have already dropped a lot.

A recent client thought that he earned about 8% on his investments during the last decade. When we analyzed his investments and calculated the return, we found that his actual returns were only 2.5%—less than a third of what he thought the returns were. He could have done much better financially and with no stress if he had done things differently. When we showed him ways to save taxes and guarantee a 7% annual income on his savings for as long as he lives, he gladly gave up managing his money on a day to day basis and is now playing much more golf without worrying about his savings.


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4. Inconsistent goals and actions

Given the dismal return of the typical individual investor over the last 20 years, is it any surprise that people are extra cautious with their savings and avoid the bond and stock markets? However, the problem is that the safe investments that retirees are choosing are short-term bank deposits that pay about ½% annual interest.If you understand your personal behavior and know from history that you tend to overreact to the gyrations of the stock and bond markets, then investing in these markets is not for you. Instead, you need a strategy that protects you from making a costly and irreversible mistake and still helps you meet your income and legacy objectives.

5. Not knowing that the rules of investing change the minute you are retired.

As long as you don’t withdraw any income from your savings, the order of positive and negative returns doesn’t matter—the average return is always the same. However once you withdraw income from your savings, the game the investment changes irrevocably. Now the sequence in which you receive your returns becomes very important. If you are unfortunate and have large negative returns at the beginning of your retirement, it becomes very difficult to recover.

Retirees who were drawing their retirement income from stocks were hit hardest by the market downturns over the last decade because their asset values dropped for two reasons: 1) the fall in the market and 2) the income they were withdrawing. For example, if you have $100,000 in stocks and the market drops by 30% and you


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withdraw annually $6,000 (or 6%) from your savings, then your savings have dropped by 36% to $64,000.

To generate the same 6,000 annual income from $64,000, you need an annual investment return of 9.375%. To make up the 30% drop in the market and get back to your original $100,000 capital over a ten year period as well as get an annual income of $6,000 you need an annual investment growth of more than 12.5% over 10 years. How confident are you that this will happen?

6. You don’t know how much money you can safely withdraw as retirement income from your savings.

John retired in 2000 after an incredible decade long run of the stock market. He decides to invest his $1,000,000 retirement savings in an S&P 500 index portfolio. To be conservative, he decides to take out 4% annually. How much of his $1,000,000 savings do you think John will have left by the end of 2010?

Mary retired three years later in 2003 with $1,000,000 in retirement savings and invests her money in S&P 500 index portfolio and withdraws 4% annually. How much of her $1,000,000 savings do you think Mary will have left by the end of 2010?

The graph to the left shows Mary’s remaining capital over time as the red line and John’s capital in green.

Both started out with $1,000,000 and were

withdrawing 4% annually. How come Mary’s investments have


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gained about 20% and John’s investments have lost 50% of their value?

What accounts for the difference between the results of John and Mary is that John is that John faced a market drop of about 50% in the first 3 years of retirement while Mary had a 50% rise in the market during her first 5 years of retirement.

This graph shows that if you lose money early in retirement, it will devastate the value of your savings. Losses after the first 5 years in retirement will have much less of an impact on your savings. So the first 5 years in retirement are the most critical time for you to make sure you don’t make a mistake with your investments. A mistake made during that time frame will make your retirement much more stressful and painful.

7. Failing to understand the impact of Social Funds on you and your community.

Social Funds are that portion of your income or your capital that does not belong to you and that you are obliged to give back to society. You can’t use Social Funds for yourself or give them to family members. The laws of the land oblige you to return to society a portion of your income and your capital growth in the form of Social Funds for the benefit of society.

Whether you know it or not, you are already contributing Social Funds to society in the form of income taxes—we call these involuntary Social Funds. When you make a gift to a non-profit organization such as a charity or a foundation, we call this a contribution of Voluntary Social Funds.


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Do you prefer that politicians decide based on their priorities how your Social Funds are being spent, or would you rather direct those dollars to organizations in your community that make a large difference. Think of the good that could be accomplished by keeping those dollars in your local community.

By smartly arranging your savings, making gifts to charity can preserve your current income and give you the satisfaction of knowing that your Social Funds contribute to the well-being of your community.

8. Failing to have a long-term income plan dealing with the effects of both lower and higher interest rates.

Many retirees vividly remember decades of high interest rates in the 1970’s 1980’s and early 1990’s with short-term rates peaking at 19%. They don’t remember that in the 1930’s, 1940,s and 1950’s interest rates were about as low as now for a very long time period.

As a result, retirees are more inclined to believe that interest rates will go back up and fail to plan for continued low interest rates. I have seen many retirees who have a large amount of their savings in short-term savings or short-term bonds and who have seen their income go from 5% in 2000 to ½% in 2011. This is a 90% drop in income.

The adjacent graph shows long-term bond rates in Canada since 1919. We see that long stretches of low interest rates are not that uncommon. During most of the 1930’s, 1940’s und


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1950’s the long term bond rates fluctuated between 2% and 4%. The average interest rate (shown as the blue line in the graph) during the last 93 years was 4.8%.

If you are not prepared for the possibility of an extended period of low interest rates, sit down and calculate the impact of low interest rates for the rest of life on your retirement income and the assets available in your estate for your family. Determine at which interest rate your savings would provide you with sufficient income. Then look for investment and savings options that can give you that income. 9. Underestimating how long you and your spouse will live

Life expectancies for males, females and couples at age 65.

Currently the life expectancy of a 65-year old male is 18 years. This means that half of all current 65-year olds will live less than 18 years and the other half will live beyond age 83. The big question is: in which group will you be? If you are in the second group you will have to be much more careful with your money because it will have to last much longer. Life expectancy tells us how long people on average are living, but not how long we will live.

You need to plan for the possibility that you may live much longer than your life expectancy—possibly to age 100. How can you get started with such a plan?


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First you want to find out what portion of your living expenses is currently covered with guaranteed income from pensions, annuities or other income for life? Then you look at your savings to see whether all your income is more than sufficient to cover your expenditures.

If your living expenses are 100% covered by various income sources, then you probably don’t have to worry about running out of income.

However, if your living expenses are not covered by all your income sources or you use capital to supplement your living expenses, you better sit down and create a plan that will give you sufficient income and financial security for the rest of your life.

Finally, make sure that most of your income comes from sources that give you an income for life to guarantee that you won’t run out of money. You need guaranteed income that is independent of the fluctuations of the stock market and interest rates.

10. Not getting the right advice to help you avoid mistakes you can’t recover from.

In this section we will illustrate the kind of work we do and the income results that are possible for retirees to obtain on a guaranteed basis during the current low interest environment. This example shows that by arranging your retirement income, your family inheritance and your charitable gifts in one package, you can generally obtain much better results than by looking at each decision separately. So, let’s look at the results Jane, a recent client achieved by working with us.

Jane is a widow who lives off her pension income and the income from her savings. Among other investments, she has


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$500,000 in GICs with her bank and just received a note that her 5-year GIC is coming up for renewal. The old interest rate on her GIC is 3.5% and the bank offered her a new interest rate of 1.8%. The old rate provided her with a $7,000 annual income in her pocket and allowed her to give $5,000 annually to her favorite charities.

When Jane got to know the new rate, she started to worry about what she could do to maintain her current net income and the annual gifts to her charities. She was confused about what to do. Should she buy a 2.5% government bond for 10 years of should she buy a 3-month term deposit and hope that interest rates will go higher soon? She also looked at mutual funds but found mutual funds too unpredictable and risky.

When we talked about her situation and her goals, we expanded the discussion to also include planning the inheritance for her family and making gifts to charities. After considering the benefits of other options, Jane chose what was for her a “New Option”. This option gave her a higher income, reduced her income taxes and left more money in her pockets.

The “New Option” provides the following benefits for Jane:

1) It significantly reduces her income taxes and provides her with more than double the money in her pocket.

2) The capital invested in the Legacy Bond goes directly and fully to her children without requiring probate. This means no probate fees, executor fees, legal fees or accounting fees have to be paid when the funds are paid to her family members. These fees often reach 6% or more.

3) The income is guaranteed not to decrease for as long as she lives.


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4) There is no investment management required because the monthly paycheck is deposited into her bank account for the rest of her life.

Figure 1 Figure 2

When Jane saw that the annual income from the “New Option” was more than double the income from her current 3.5% GIC without having to reduce her charitable donations, her income worries disappeared.

Jane was especially happy that she didn’t have to cut back her standard of living and the support for her charities. Figure 1 shows the after-tax income and annual gifts while Figure 2 shows the family inheritance and estate settlement fees resulting from a $500,000 investment in the “New Option”, the old 3.5% GIC and the new 1.8% GIC offered by her bank.

Jane’s family also benefits from the New Option because no estate settlement fees are levied when the assets eventually pass to family members. In the case of the example of Jane, the expected savings of estate settlement fees are 6% of the value of the assets. This results in savings of $30,000 for her heirs.


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As a result of going with the “New Option”, Jane and her family had the peace of mind that Jane’s income was completely secure and that the family inheritance was safe and secure and was not diminished by any taxes or fees.

Is there one BEST Income OPTION?

There is no single savings vehicle that is best for everyone. The best solution for you is specific to your individual situation and depends on many factors such as: age, health status, marital status, tax situation, risk attitude, income goals and inheritance goals. Only after carefully considering your entire financial situation is it possible to decide which approach is best for you.

Where do we go from here?

In this report, we outlined 10 Financial Mistakes that commonly undermine the financial security of retirees. There are many more mistakes you could make, but by avoiding these ten you will be able to dramatically improve your retirement income and live a more fulfilled life.

If you are suffering from the low interest rates and the high taxes on your interest income and you are ready to explore additional options of guaranteed income, I invite you to contact me and schedule a complimentary Retirement Income Strategy Session.

During that session we’ll explore your retirement income challenges, goals and concerns, the kind of results you’d like to achieve for you, your family and Social Funds and determine whether this program is right for you. Whatever the outcome, you’ll leave the conversation clear about the issues you’re facing and excited about what’s possible.


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The conversation will take about 90 minutes and is usually done in person. Call me at 604-263-4630 or e-mail me ([email protected]) to book a Retirement Income Strategy Session, I’d love to speak with you.

Warmest Regards,

Ed

Eduard [email protected](604) 263-4630




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About Dr. Eduard Fidler

Dr. Eduard Fidler has been assisting retirees for over 20 years to safely increase their retirement income to protect their family’s inheritance, and to meet their philanthropic goals. In fact, he has assisted over 500 retirees with their estate and retirement income planning. He has

given countless presentations to audiences across Canada and is a nationally recognized expert in helping retirees make smart choices with their savings.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Ed Fidler came to Vancouver as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Commerce at UBC after completing his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. At UBC he taught courses in Strategic Management, Business Policy, Financial Analysis, Statistics and Managerial Decision-Making at the Graduate and Undergraduate Level. In 1991, he established his own financial advisory practice, Effective Financial Solutions.

Dr. Fidler is a Certified Financial Planner and a Certified Senior Advisor. He is the Past Chair of the Vancouver Roundtable of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners and a member of the Estate Planning Council of Vancouver. He is also a volunteer with several non-profit organizations and is a member of the Stewardship Committee of the Diocese of New Westminster and the Elder’s Council of the David Suzuki Foundation.

Dr. Fidler has written many articles in the areas of retirement income planning and charitable gift planning and has given lectures and workshops on these topics to charities (churches, universities, hospitals / health organizations, etc.), professional


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associations, business associations, and community groups. He has also presented at the Advanced Planned Giving Course at the Banff Centre for Management and at National Conferences of the Canadian Association of Gift Planners.

Dr. Fidler acts as an advisor to individuals, churches, universities, and other charities. He specializes in helping donors to reach their philanthropic goals while preserving their lifestyle and protecting the inheritance of their family. He regularly gives presentations to charities, community and professional groups on Gift Planning and retirement income planning.


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Physician OnBoarding: Reducing Costs, Increasing

RetentionBy Iris Grimm

ost hospitals understand the need to invest significant time and money in identifying and attracting top-notch physicians. And

many retain physician recruitment firms for this purpose. Far fewer healthcare organizations address this follow-up question: Once a new physician is on board, what will the organization do to ensure his or her success, especially during the critical first three to six to 12 months?

M

According to a recent study by the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) and Cejka Search, the average turnover rate of physicians employed by hospitals and private practices is currently at nine percent with 29% leaving within the first two years of employment and 25% leaving three to five years after being hired.

For healthcare organizations, this reality coupled with rising costs and a national physician shortage can contribute significantly not only to the loss of highly qualified doctors, but also to the financial well-being of the entire organization. When a physician chooses to leave an organization for whatever reason, the expense of recruiting and training another physician of equal qualifications easily surpasses 150% of the annual salary of the leaving physician, not to mention the loss created by undelivered services and changes in referral patterns due to shifts in patient loyalty.


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As a hospital administrator, what can you do to retain your physicians and decrease your physician recruitment expenses?

Surprisingly, the answer can be found in the rethinking of your organization’s onboarding process.

Traditionally, onboarding has been considered a basic HR function to familiarize new employees with the organization’s processes and procedures. Lasting anywhere from one day to one week, onboarding at the very basic level is simply a new hire orientation.

The trouble with this process is that it generally lacks in depth, on-going support, and skills necessary to successfully transition a physician and to produce the desired job satisfaction for long-term employment. In fact, the standard hospital orientation does nothing to reduce doctor turnover.

By maintaining this outmoded view of onboarding, hospital administrators unknowingly miss a prime opportunity to truly impact physician retention and reduce turnover.

Given the fact that the AMGA study further cites a physician’s decision to leave an organization is made as early as the first three to five months after being hired, the onboarding process, support, and content surprisingly sets the tone and duration of employment. Considering that most healthcare organizations end their “onboarding support” with the last day of orientation, they leave it up to chance whether a physician will decide to stay or leave within that three to five month window.

Joseph Scopelliti, M.D., executive vice president of clinical affairs at the Guthrie Clinic in Sayre, PA also agrees. He notes that ” …the most fragile time for physician retention is in the early stages of


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employment when physicians are learning about a medical group's culture and are looking for their own fit."

During this time period, doctors are experiencing common issues faced by new hires in any industry. Along with a high level of professional responsibility and relocation transition that is common for physicians, circumstances can challenge expectations for all parties involved. It can also create concerns that if unaddressed, they can become the ones that contribute to a physician opting to leave an organization sooner rather than later.

With this new understanding, more hospitals are implementing more in-depth onboarding protocols with the intention of dramatically reducing physician turnover and its related costs.

A NEW APPROACH TO ONBOARDING

Recognizing the potential value of onboarding is creating a fundamental shift in the medical community as more and more hospitals and private practices are taking a proactive approach to retaining physicians. These organizations understand that the quality of their organization’s physician onboarding program can make a substantial difference in decreasing turnover rates and realizing cost savings.

Working with newly hired doctors to address their initial concerns and provide them with additional support resources requires an expansion of the typical onboarding process to a comprehensive physician onboarding program.

Comprehensive onboarding is a ‘must-have’ insurance policy for every single physician search engagement. Data shows that the risks and the costs are too high simply to assume that every new physician is going to effectively transition into their new work environment.


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Comprehensive onboarding helps them by easing the transition process and it also recognizes the interdependency of the organization’s goals and the doctor’s professional and personal goals. The process facilitates providing doctors with the necessary tools and skills that guarantee a long-term work relationship within the hospital.

While onboarding programs vary from organization to organization, the most successful onboarding that corresponds to physician retention have several necessary elements in common. These elements are:

Addressing the individual and personal challenges that every physician goes through in a job transition and provide individual and customized support for successful outcomes

Building trust with everyone up and down the chain

Learning 12 valuable skills that support physicians in their performance, emotional intelligence, and leadership

Soliciting feedback from peers, staff members and executives 6 months after job commencement

The above components go beyond simply orienting a physician to the organization’s culture and procedures. They involve long-term training and a more holistic approach to personal and professional development of doctors. Furthermore, the cost to implement such components is considerably lower in comparison to hiring and recruiting new staff. In fact, the return of investment for such state-of-the-art onboarding program can easily give a return of 10 to 1 or has high as 20 to 1.

As a result of this level of onboarding support, physicians will typically display behavior that you don’t see in those who just go through a regular orientation program. They include:


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strong work relationships and effective communication with staff, peers and administration

faster buildup of patient and referral base

less stress and more work-life balance not only during the job transition

greater initiative and solution-oriented collaboration with healthcare leadership

Case Study

A good example is a newly recruited ob / gyn at a rural mid-west hospital who participated in the Balanced Physician OnBoarding Coaching Program. A married mother of 3 teenage children, transitioning into a new community and practice while initially juggling two households, experienced a tremendous amount of stress and demands not only in the workplace but also at home.

In the onboarding coaching program she learned valuable self-management and interpersonal skills that helped her master all the personal and professional challenges during this crucial time. Within the first year she built a strong practice and she developed a collaborate relationship with the hospital administration. The CEO of the hospital commented that “she is a pleasure to with and she is a physician who comes to me with solutions and new ideas to make a difference.” There is little worry that this physician will leave the hospital because of stress or an inability to meet the demands of the hospital.

In closing, properly supporting doctors through a crucial transition time will contribute to creating a committed community of physicians. After all, physicians go where they are needed, stay where they are well


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treated and grow where they are cultivated. By giving doctors the necessary support early on to develop a strong foundation for professional and personal success will lead to a higher degree of satisfaction with their decision of selecting and staying with your organization. For you and for them, it can become one of the best decisions ever made.

About Iris Grimm

Iris Grimm is the creator of the Balanced Physician OnBoarding Program, an innovative program dedicated to improving the retention and performance of physicians by developing their personal and professional leadership skills. As a workshop facilitator, speaker and consultant, Iris has successfully worked with hundreds of physicians in the medical industry. She has taught on the topics of advanced stress control techniques, work-life balance and emotional intelligence.

Growing up in a family of doctors, along with degrees in business management, communication, corporate and personal coaching, has given Iris a unique perspective into the organizational and personal challenges that doctors and administrators face.

If physician onboarding and physician retention are a concern for you and you would like to discuss ways of supporting your physicians, contact me at (770) 428-2334 or [email protected] to set up a meeting.



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We can meet in person or over the phone and will explore the situation you face with your physicians and whether I can help them or not.


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8 Mistakes That Keep Change Agents from Making a Difference By Audrey Seymour

Whether you are an entrepreneur, leader, consultant or coach, the road to becoming an effective agent of change is littered with misunderstandings and mistakes that will stop you unless you learn how to avoid them.

To transmit your vision, you must become an effective vehicle of the change you envision. You'll need to open up a clear pathway reaching from your deepest inspiration to the finest details of implementation.

By understanding and anticipating the most common mistakes and misunderstandings, you will be able to deepen your capacity for having a transformative influence on clients and colleagues.

1 Not having a clear unifying purpose behind your objectives

It’s hard to set a big change in motion without knowing why you are doing it. When you lack a clear and unifying purpose for the actions you take, the results are predictably unpredictable.

U.S. President Obama expended a tremendous amount of effort to initiate a controversial health plan that may not endure. One of the problems he encountered was the lack of a coherent unifying purpose for all the parties involved. There was no agreement on whether the priority was to reduce costs or to guarantee coverage for all, so it is


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not surprising that the results were unsatisfactory for many of the key stakeholders.

In contrast, remember U.S. President Kennedy’s decision to get a man on the moon by the end of the decade. With such a clear and unifying purpose, multiple agencies were able to collaborate on the greatest technical challenge of their time, sacrifice lesser priorities, and meet their objective. The memorable result: one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

2 Losing touch with your true inspiration

Early in my private practice I had a client I'll call Ed who decided he could turn his coaching business around by finding the perfect niche. After industry research, he was sure that the best market would be nurses suffering from burnout. What a great population to serve! The problem was that Ed had no personal interest in nursing. He couldn't inspire clients to work with him because he wasn't inspired either!

Ever since that early lesson, I no longer let clients start a venture they're not totally passionate about.

When you really care about a cause, your energy is infectious in the best possible way. To quote Simon Sinek, “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

3 Thinking you’re immune from stress

Have you ever suffered burnout or injury rather than admit you needed to take time off?

Stepping away from the mindset that demands constant productivity at all cost means taking responsibility for being a healthy and dynamic vehicle of change. Building in regular renewal time allows you to recharge your batteries so you can face the next set of challenges.


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I worked with the board president of a nonprofit who was constantly exhausted and overwhelmed. Once “Alyssa” learned how to set boundaries and structure her time to get eight hours of sleep each night, she gained the mental clarity needed for leading her organization out of the red through a more engaged membership. What a difference it was to see her dynamically alive and in charge again!

4 Pretending you're a superhero who can do it all

One of the hardest things for visionary leaders is to entrust the execution of their ideas to others. “No one cares about it as much as I do. They'll take longer to do it. They won’t do it as well. I don't have the patience to explain it so I’d rather just do it myself.” Then, of course, you're constantly distracted by daily operations and never get around to strategic thinking.

Turning this around was one of the key reasons that Alyssa, in the example above, was able to start getting eight hours of sleep and make room to think ahead. For example, she stopped attending every single committee meeting held during the week.

When Alyssa recognized that it would be better to entrust her committee leaders with taking charge of and reporting back on their team's results, they got much more engaged and began contributing new ideas — which were directly responsible for increased member contributions. The company was soon running in the black for the first time in two years.

5 Neglecting input from key stakeholders

The search for sustainable energy sources is just one example where multiple stakeholders need to be on board for any solution to gain traction. We've already seen conflicts arise when developed countries


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such as the U.S. want to impose emission controls on Third World countries that are understandably eager to enjoy the same kind of lifestyle that we do.

Back when I was a software development manager, one of my most challenging projects involved a team of engineers who were at odds with each other. I was hired because their project had been stalled for over a year. It combined several technologies, and the engineers couldn’t agree on how to integrate their individual components.

Those were the years when I learned how to perfect the art of collaborative leadership. By tolerating the discomfort of turning ordinary conflict into creative conflict, we combined the best of everyone's ideas and had a successful multimillion-dollar launch within the next year.

6 Setting unrealistic goals

In order to have a bigger impact than before, you’ll need to stretch out of your comfort zone. The trick is to not to confuse a good stretch with wishful thinking.

A goal is realistic when it’s compatible with your current commitments and foreseeable capacity. It’s flexible enough to allow for the unexpected.

A client once came to me wanting to gain a 6-figure contract during her first year in business in a new field. She had little patience for intermediate steps, and had to stop due to exhaustion and overwhelm within a few months. There are subtler ways this error can show up; don’t let it happen to you!

7 Avoiding an action plan


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The point of an action plan is to lead you step-by-step from the current state of affairs to what you desire. There are two ways of avoiding this helpful device: avoiding writing one and avoiding following one. Ultimately, operating without benefit of a plan means that you give top priority to the distractions of the moment.

The owner of a consulting firm specialized in the field of environmental impact for endangered species. However, her company’s expertise was not being used where it was needed due to a lack of marketing plan. She had built a website, she gave the occasional talk, but the word wasn’t getting out.

After applying a structured process, she was able to reorganize their offerings and develop a sustainable marketing plan for staying visible to their target audience. The last time I heard from her she was thrilled to be working with her team on several exciting new projects.

8 Pushing through your own fears and resistance to the plan

If you're out to make a bigger impact than you’ve made before, it’s likely that part of you will become alarmed. This is normal and healthy; it’s a primal survival mechanism for the human brain to prefer the status quo.

The common mistake people make is to push through this inertia, to “feel the fear and do it anyway.” However, there is often wisdom buried in there that is critical to your success. For example, examining the fears that arose for a client “Lisa” when she wanted to launch a new business led to several commitments which included:

I regain my current income within 2 years from any new venture. To ensure this, I have checkpoint assessments along the way and will change course if it looks as though this condition will not be met.


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I regularly get objective feedback from trustworthy mentors and colleagues that incorporate both positive and negative elements.

If Lisa had ignored her fears, she could have easily made bad business decisions and driven herself into exhaustion. I've seen the end result of this mistake too many times in my office. In contrast, deconstructing her fears allowed Lisa to enrich her strategic plan with self-correcting mechanisms that were necessary for sustainable success.

As you reflect on the above eight common mistakes, which ones are blocking you?

Once you know how to avoid these mistakes, you'll be more fully resourced to catalyze the difference you are called to make in the world. You will more effectively be the change you wish to see, at every level of execution.

If you'd like more support on your journey, you are welcome to call 415.488.4998 or email [email protected] for more information and to schedule a no-fee Change Agent Consultation. Appointments are available by phone or at our offices in Marin County, San Francisco Bay Area, California.

I founded Visions Into Form® Coaching in 2003, and since then I’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and leaders build purpose-based strategies to have the impact and influence they are meant to make.

All the best,

Audrey Seymour MA PCC



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Documents

Sample Reports/Articlesactionplan.com/mbb/04.doc · Web viewanalyze individual stakeholders carefully, and create customized plans to communicate with them, involve them, and as