From The Middle Up

In an interview, Wendy Combs, Director of Organizational Development at Dignity Health, talked about healthy culture creation and the development of employees who embody skills that make them better leaders and create more caring and sustainable organization. Sometimes managers lack the knowledge of how to prioritize vast amounts of information through competing demands. There's also the issue of dealing with constant change at all levels of the job and organization. Most basic skills needed today are based on their ability to nurture relationships. Another common gap is learning the internal management process -- the how and when -- and to what level of quality. She is a big fan of group learning in the form of mentoring circles where a confidential valuable environment can be created to delve into these challenges. It provides a form of leadership training, reflection, self-directed learning and accountability. Building a safe environment with confidentiality and positivity helps set the stage for self-awareness, learning, increased confidence and the practice of new skills.