Vol. 20, Issue 9,  December 1, 2022

Sometimes words get over-used. In the meeting business, as we were all juggling from in-person to virtual events during the height of the pandemic, it was the term “pivoting” that got really worn-out.

In healthcare, our speaker Diane Sieg, RN, reports a similar trend, but the words resilience, self-care, and burnout are the ones taking a beating. She hears it from clients every day — that nurses are tired of hearing those words.

These days she’s taking a much more upbeat approach and zeroing in on a term that you can guess I’m very fond of — well-being. Read on to learn more.

 

Diane Sieg, RN 

Let’s Talk about Well-Being Instead

Before COVID, Diane’s presentations focused on resilience; resilience in nursing, building a resilient culture, and the resilience of self-leadership were her most popular topics. Then during and after COVID, she noted that everybody seemed to become a resilience expert.

“That’s all we talked about — that’s the word we in healthcare were hearing constantly,” she said when I recently interviewed her.

“And so it became so overused – like ‘self-care’ – that people are sick of hearing the word. They say, ‘Yeah, yeah, I know what that is.’ But knowing what to do and actually doing it are two separate things.”

So although Diane is still addressing resilience, self-care, and burnout, she just no longer focuses on those words.

“I don’t use those words, because I found that — especially for nurses — they think they know what resilience is — that it’s digging deep, or bucking up, or bouncing back, but it’s so much more.

“Resilience can feel like all the responsibility is on the individual nurse. We know that resilience, self-care, and well-being are the responsibility of the organization as well.

“I’m so happy to see this whole idea of ‘well-being’ coming to the forefront in studies and research. I’m hearing more and more about well-being, and that’s where I’ve taken my focus.”

 

Focus on Self-Leadership

Diane approaches resilience and burnout and self-care with the idea of self-leadership — how we make the best decisions for ourselves.

“If we make the best decisions for ourselves at work, at home, and everywhere in between, we show up to be our best and do our best – because we feel our best.”

Of course, that means taking care of ourselves, making ourselves a priority, which means improving the relationship we have with ourselves. That’s what self-leadership is, she said.

“I know this because I talk to nurses every day. I coach nurses; I train nurses; I speak to nurses; I have tons of friends who are nurses. And of course, I am a nurse — for over 40 years — and I’ll always be a nurse.

“The only thing we get to choose is how we show up. And that’s the whole idea of self-leadership. So what I do is empower nurses – and I’m saying nurses, but it could be all healthcare professionals – to make the best decisions to find the joy in their work again, and remember the meaning and purpose of what they do every day with their sacred calling.

“This idea of well-being and making yourself a priority, that’s my perspective. It’s not about what happens to us; it’s not to doubt whatever you are upset about; it’s about improving the relationship you have with yourself and how you deal with frustration, helplessness, and all the things you cannot change. We have families, and we have loss, and we have grief, and we have difficult people, and we have all these things we can’t control.”

 

How Do We Empower Ourselves?

And so, what’s the right way? How do we empower ourselves? Those are the skills she teaches.

She noted, as our interview continued, that these skills are not new. She said she advises her audiences not to worry about getting something new — do what you already know to do. Do what you already tell everybody else to do — like slowing down.

We’re all so busy, and we’re all in such a rush. We all have so much to do, especially this time of year. This is not new ground for her. In her first book, Stop Living Life Like an Emergency, she introduced the same idea: when we’re in a rush, we’re not present. We’re someplace else.

We don’t take the time to take a breath and be present. It is that simple skill — slowing down. And of course, she teaches different specific ways to remember to pause, to slow down, and then to honor the pause.

Diane is passionate about this, and she notes that, though it sounds like a simple fix, it requires a real commitment, both individually and organizationally.

“It’s not one and done. It’s not one thing; it’s a lot of things. This is a cultural commitment. That’s why I don’t tell people what to do. I don’t say drink your eight glasses of water a day and get your eight hours of sleep. I want to empower them so that they make themselves important enough to make the right choices.

“People don’t need more information. They need permission, inspiration, structure, and support. That’s what they need. That’s what I’m finding when I work with nurses. They need the structure and support. And that’s what I give.

“I know these practices and skills that I teach work because I have studies and data now for the last five years that show that if you work them, they work. If you don’t, they don’t, just like everything else.”

Diane’s fresh perspectives are enriching the lives of nurses wherever she speaks – and empowering them to thrive. To learn more about bringing Diane to improve the well-being of your organization, give me a call at 503-699-5031 or email me, barbara@speakwellbeing.com

Until next time, please take care of yourself for your well being — there’s that phrase again — and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

 

 

For Your Well Being is published with the intention of bringing you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

 

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on health and wellness for all types of organizations that want to foster health and well being for their employees, members, clients, and in their communities.

Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they connect with their audiences while bringing them life-changing information, smiles of recognition and ultimately a sense of well being and hope.

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me great joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.