In your leadership role, communication is the most important skill.

To be impeccable with your word to your people.

And when you think about a leader's vocabulary, two words rise to the very top of the stack.

Head and shoulders above all the rest.

With these two words, you can be a top notch leader with engaged teams, high performance and everybody having a good time.

Without these two words, you will surely fail.

Let me show you what the two words are, how and when to say them.

To be a maximally effective physician leader.

Check it out.

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Stop Physician Burnout podcast, a physician leadership podcast where you will learn the skills so that we can join together and lead the charge to physician well being skills to earn the respect of your colleagues in the front line, skills to exercise true influence in the.

C suite and take back job, your practice, your career and your life.

All of these tools have been proven effective in my 40,000 doctor physician coaching and training practice.

And if I know one thing, I know you're super busy.

So let's get started.

Communication is the most important skill set for all physician leaders.

It's important to be impeccable with your word whenever you're in front of your teams.

And in the vocabulary of leadership, there are two words that rise to the top of the stack.

These are the kingpin words of an effective leader.

Now, you might know what they are.

Let's just say that without these words, you can't be a good leader.

And with these words, it can be magic.

How you can get your teams engaged, on point, participating and having fun.

Those two words are, of course, thank you.

Thank you.

And what I found is that the words thank you in a healthcare workplace are peak experiences for everybody who sees patients for a living.

Let's just go not to a team experience, but let's go to a patient care experience.

Whenever I talk to physicians or nurses and I say, hey, when was your last ideal patient encounter?

You know the one where you went home afterwards and said, honey, honey, honey, you got to sit down and let me tell you what happened at work today.

It was amazing.

Or after you were done with the patient, you pumped your fist and said, yes.

Those peak experiences, just think about it for yourself.

They don't happen very often.

But I found that 99% of the time, the thing that happened that was so satisfying is that the patient or a family member said thank you doesn't happen near enough.

When it does, it's pure magic.

Well, when you're leading your team and your team are working together on a project, you can dispense the same kind of a thank you.

Your thank yous to your team members are hugely impactful.

They'll go home and tell their spouse about the fact that you said thank you to them today.

Now, let's just break this down just a little bit.

There's two ways that you can thank somebody.

If you're the team leader, you can thank them for their skill.

Hey, Cheryl.

Thanks.

You're really good at that.

Or you can thank them for their effort.

Hey, Chuck, thanks so much for your hard work.

We really appreciate it.

Which one is more effective?

And research shows this is true.

Which one's more effective?

Thanking for skill or effort?

It is effort, because if you thank me for my skill, you're really good at that.

All you're doing is telling me that I'm better than you at this particular thing.

But you know what?

I had to put effort into my contribution, even if I am better at it than you.

So effort is the thing to thank people for.

Thanks for your hard work.

We really appreciate it.

Let's say that together.

Ready?

Repeat after me.

Thanks for your hard work.

We really appreciate it.

Now, that's not quite enough, because that's a generic and one of the things that I see a lot of people thinking.

I actually have heard doctors say this out loud.

I can't be saying thank you all the time.

That'll just make them soft.

Thank yous don't make them soft.

But thank yous don't have a lot of meaning in the generic.

Thanks for your hard work.

If you start saying that as a routine, it loses its meaning without specifics.

So let me just show you how that might sound.

It starts the same way.

Hey, Chuck, thanks for your hard work.

We really appreciate it.

Now, I got to get specific.

What you did yesterday with that patient in the waiting room was magic.

They were teeing off on the receptionist, and you just diffused the whole thing.

Got him out of there in a hurry.

Maybe at our next staff meeting, you can show us what you did.

Cause that was really artfully done.

Thank you so much.

So whatever you're thanking them for, make sure that you're specific.

And do not be afraid to thank team members in public where other people can hear you, which is different than the way you hold your conversations when you're reaching out to someone who may be in distress or you're reaching out to give somebody feedback their performance, what you want to do in private.

Now, notice for just a second, we're talking about thank you.

If I was to observe you in your leadership role.

How often do you say thank you?

Is this a piece of your leadership skill set, a leadership habit of yours?

If it's not, I encourage you to pick it up and put it to use, just like we've talked about here today.

Thanks for your hard work.

Be specific and make it be something you do early and often.

And don't worry about making people soft because everybody appreciates being appreciated.

And doctors who use thank you as a piece of their leadership skill set are not all that common because it is different than the give orders and expect obedience of our clinical role.

So pick it up and run with it.

I dare you.

Real quick though, if this is not your habit, you may get some unusual looks from your team.

The first couple times you say thank you like you're talking to me.

They may be shocked, they may be in disbelief.

All you want to do is make sure that you continue that habit so that people get used to being thanked, used to being appreciated on your teams.

And what you'll see is they'll engage more quickly, they'll perform at a higher level, and everybody's going to have a lot more fun, too.

So make thank you early, often specific, a core piece of your leadership skill set, and watch the way things change for you and your team.

That's it for today.

Until we meet again in the next podcast.

Keep breathing and have a great rest of your day.