Contributor: Linda Roszak Burton, ACC, BBC, BS
To learn more about Linda, click here.
The use of aviation analogies is nothing new in healthcare, from standardization of procedures to checklists for improving safety, operating as a high-reliability industry, to the classic "put your own oxygen mask on first."
But few aviation analogies have moved from the bedside and operating rooms to the C-suite. Many would agree that innovation and inspiration from outside our industry help broaden our resources and expand our thought leadership.
We've settled on an aviation term: CAVU - Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited. Pilots know the ease of CAVU skies, where obstacles are visible, turbulence is minimal, and forward movement feels assured. It represents the conditions every leader wishes for - clarity, stability, freedom to act decisively, and confidence in the path ahead.
AND YET, today's healthcare leaders face constant disruptions - talent shortages, financial pressures, demand for innovation, and the emotional toll of leading through change. Visibility narrows, ceilings drop, and uncertainty becomes the norm. Even seasoned leaders can feel the strain of navigating in low-clarity conditions.
If any of these "disruptions" resonate with you, here are several coaching techniques to maintain your perspective during challenging times, with insights from the value of gratitude as an underlying strength of your leadership.
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Strive for clarity. Leaders can hit a wall when they're working at a relentless pace, they struggle with thinking clearly and are spread too thin. As a leader, you need to regain perspective. Rise above the turbulence by slowing your pace, yes, you read that right, using clarity-driven inquiry. We suggest a balanced inquiry/advocacy framework for complex and possibly controversial decision-making. Inquire (feedback) from your executive team and advocate for decisions combining your knowledge and expertise, bringing clarity and proper focus.
A CEO of a community hospital within a large healthcare system used this framework when a corporate directive came down. Using clarity-driven inquiry with the executive team, this approach improved the implementation of the directive by those responsible for it and provided important autonomy.
Regain perspective to minimize your reaction to volatility.
Insight: Practicing gratitude can help leaders cultivate clarity and confidence, especially during turbulent times. Acknowledging and appreciating your executive team's feedback will reinforce a sense of stability and mutual respect.
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Treat the turbulence, not just the symptoms. Multiple surveys have found that burnout continues to rise in the C-Suite, executives are overworked and go without sufficient rest. With internal and external pressures, all dimensions of your well-being, and that of your executive team, must come into focus to effectively address decision fatigue, emotional exhaustion, stress response, and recovery. We suggest revisiting your purpose, values, and strengths to anchor your identity, make decisions aligned with your values, and support emotional regulation under the pressure to perform well.
"The problem isn't the stress itself; it's the lack of recovery." Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar
Insight: Regularly reflecting and expressing gratitude helps to buffer against stress, boost morale, reduce burnout and improve overall well-being.
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Build repeatable healthy leadership behaviors. Start by redefining performance as reliability, not intensity. Strategize on building small repeatable behaviors to reinforce clarity and steadiness. Build these into your daily routines to prepare for the day and reflect on the most consequential outcomes. Strive for 1% improvement in daily routines. A clinical leader made it a point to walk through a different area of the hospital every day on the way to their office to strengthen relationships. In his book Atomic Habits, author James Clear recommends striving for 1% improvement daily to achieve >37% improvement in 1 year. Ensure behaviors are simple enough to withstand stress.
Performance becomes dependable, not fragile.
Insight: Practicing gratitude daily can be a transformative experience for leaders. The more you cultivate and sustain gratitude as a leadership trait, the greater the clarity about what's really important and the greater the confidence in how you show up as a leader.
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Translate clarity and steadiness into a visible leadership presence. Ground your communication in the tenets of psychological safety, choose language that models clarity and confidence, and demonstrate reliability rather than reactivity. A CEO made a small but significant shift by asking how and what questions rather than why - to remove judgment and offer inquiry.
Teams, especially those experiencing burnout, disengagement or cultural drift, will start to feel safer, more focused, and more confident in your leadership.
Insight: Expressing gratitude for team contributions and fostering a culture where appreciation is regularly shared helps build psychological safety and visibly strengthen your leadership presence.
With the ever-changing landscape of healthcare, leveraging best practices from outside the industry offers adaptability and the ability to pivot or maintain the best elevation.
What are you doing to build needed clarity, enhance your well-being, and sustain your peak performance? Email me at lburton@drwcoaching and let me know.
Contact Linda at: lburton@drwcoaching