Healthy Wealthy & Wise Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD
The Healthy Wealthy and Wise Podcast, with Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD is a monthly podcast that focuses on personal growth and development by exploring a range of topics related to mental and physical health, personal wealth, leadership, and interpersonal relationships. Dr. Choctaw draws on his 75yrs experience and 50 plus years of surgical practice since graduating from Yale University School of Medicine.
Each month, we strive to provide our listeners with mental, physical, and spiritual strength by giving actionable advice, tips, guidance, and information to help them achieve their own personal, professional, and spiritual goals. We consider the health of the mind, body, and spirit paramount as a single unit that provides a cumulative strength greater than the individual parts, to strengthen the whole person.
We appreciate the natural differences in need between men, women, adults, and children. We recognize that the power to be happy is within each of us and under our control. We embrace technology and identify how it is applicable to our daily success. We address the entire human experiences from generation z to the baby boomers.
We’re passionate about the total person, and helping our listeners build and lead a full, well-rounded and happy life. So, tune in every month for an inspiring, encouraging, and informative podcast!
Healthy Wealthy & Wise Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD
Navigating COVID-19 with Wellness Leadership: Steps from Dr. Choctaw
Are you prepared to be a wellness leader amidst the ongoing COVID-19 crisis? I, Dr. William T. Choctaw, invite you on a journey of understanding the nuances of leading with facts and dispelling fear. Let's untangle the web of rumors and stand strong in the face of adversity. I'll share my own experiences, strategies, and insights into using reliable sources and proven methods to navigate through these challenging times. You'll learn how to steer clear of the blame game and anchor your actions in human connections.
In this challenging era, it's crucial to recognize the importance of self-care, kindness, resilience, and goal setting for recovery. Join me as I shed light on the significance of setting achievable goals for yourself and making efficient use of your time and effort. Discover the myriad benefits of holistic wellness that spill over into improved physical health, reduced stress, enhanced mental health, and nourished relationships. I'll also share the five guiding principles that have shaped my approach - acknowledging that God is in charge, embracing the notion of no bad days, not sweating the small stuff, viewing forgiveness as therapy, and recognizing that everything boils down to relationships. Let's get inspired and empowered to champion wellness in our circles. Through our discussion, you'll be armed with the wisdom, knowledge, and experience to lead with confidence and compassion.
Healthcare Quality Leadership Education Group
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The Host, Dr. William Choctaw; MD, JD, is a healthcare leadership expert, possessing a Medical Doctorate from the Yale University School of Medicine, and a Jurist Doctorate from Western University. Over a span of 50 years practicing medicine, he has served as Chief of Staff, Chief of Surgery, and as a member of the medical executive committee at Citrus Valley Medical Center over a 10 year period. Also, while practicing at Citrus Valley Medical Center, he served as Chief Transformation Officer, (developed a Robust Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma program). Dr. Choctaw lectures nationally and internationally on medical leadership issues for hospital staffs, executives, and managers. He served as a Physician Surveyor on the Joint Commission. He's the author of 2 books, "Medical Malpractice: A Physician's Guide to the Law" and "Transforming the Patient Experience: A New Paradigm for Hospital and Physician Leadership, published by the Springer Publishing Co. He’s the President of Choctaw Medical Group, Inc., a clinical practice and medical legal consulting firm for medical staff executives, physician leaders, and hospitals.
Coming up on this episode of the HWWP.
Speaker 2:We have this thing in healthcare, in medicine, called the Koch Postulates, that someone needs to be able to take my process that I say I created that will make it rain, and they need to be able to produce my process independent of me and get the same result. That's just one part of that approach. My point is very simple. It's more than just me giving an opinion, more than just me being a nice person that you got to prove it.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William T Choctaw, mdjd, where the doctor helps you unlock your full potential by equipping you with tools and knowledge in the areas of health, wealth and wisdom Anchored in his experience as a business executive, a physician and surveyor for the Joint Commission, a former mayor and over 50 years of experience as a general surgeon. You've got questions, he's got answers, so let's get started. Here's Dr William T Choctaw, mdjd.
Speaker 2:So let's look at specifically now the application of wellness or wellness strategies, a well-being leadership, to responding to COVID. So one of the important things of responding to COVID and let's say you're in the workplace, let's make it specific, let's say you're in the work, and this is regardless of what your job is. Obviously, there are some job titles that have the title of leadership with it, or the understanding is leadership as a responsibility. I'm going to suggest to you that every inner reaction involves leaders and followers. Every inner reaction with other human beings involves leaders and followers. So I'm not talking about just people in the C-suite or the president or the boss, I'm talking about everybody. So, regardless of what your job is and regardless of what area of work you are involved with, I think, in terms of it, that you need to have a leadership strategy and in dealing with COVID, and so number one in that leadership strategy is lead with facts and not fear. And another way of saying this is clearly define the problem, clearly define what it is you want to do, or clearly define what the issue is. I think it was Albert Einstein who once said if I had 60 minutes to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes defining that problem. And what's his point? His point is that if you don't clearly define the problem, you won't be able to solve the problem, because you won't know what the problem is, because you haven't defined it Makes sense.
Speaker 2:So the first part of COVID wellness leadership strategy is to lead with facts. Get the facts, not fear. Fear tends to move and speak without thinking, and you can tell people who are afraid because they're sort of bouncing off the wall and they're saying a lot of things that may not make sense and they're communicating in a way that certainly does not make you feel comfortable or may not make you feel comfortable. So you want to be different. You want to be different. You want to get the facts before you speak and make sure you use good data and reliable sources and reliable sources of information. Make sure you use good data and reliable sources of information. So where would that be with things like COVID? It would be healthcare scientists. It would be organizations like the Center for Disease Control, whose sole job is to protect us from viruses and various infections, and that sort of thing. It would be universities that train in medical schools that train us daily in terms of how to do that. Individuals who are qualified to deal with this particular problem.
Speaker 2:The second strategy is to follow tried and true methods. Now, this is one of the things that distinguishes healthcare from a lot of other fields. But we were taught in medical school that if I come up with a way to make it rain and I write a paper about how I'm able to make it rain and I go to places like Palm Spring or Phoenix in the summertime and I said, don't worry, because I can make it rain, people are not going to necessarily believe me unless I can demonstrate it. More importantly, we have this thing in healthcare, in medicine, called the coke postulates that someone needs to be able to take my process that I say I created that will make it rain, and they need to be able to produce my process independent of me and get the same result. That's just one part of that approach. My point, very simple, is it's more than just me giving an opinion, or more than just me being a nice person, that you got to prove it, and so we call that testing, and particularly what it has to do with an infection or with some type of medicine, it has to be tested, and it has to be tested in different stages and it may start with testing in animals a certain way and then it may move to another type of stage and then the final stage would be testing, maybe with humans a certain way. But my point is it has to pass every single stage of testing before it can be accepted as strategy or appropriate for human use. So we need to follow basic methods that are true and tried.
Speaker 2:Third process strategy for dealing with COVID as a leader and as a wellness leader is to work to dispel rumors and you can sort of tell when people will sort of say stuff that probably either doesn't make sense or, certainly, if they can't back it up, do not be a part of that. And as a part of that you get into things like what we call healthcare disparities or where you you make snap judgments about people without knowing them, and this is many times where racism and xenophobia follow. About the virus, about the COVID virus, that there was no one group of people that made everybody else sick. You know viruses occur, they've been around for hundreds of years and they will continue to be around, and so we need to move beyond what we call the fault and blame level and all communicate and work collectively to solve the problem. So don't waste your time and energy trying to point fingers at different people. Number one you would never find out anyway if that were the case. And even if you did, it probably is not relevant, quite honestly.
Speaker 2:Number four remember the importance of human connection. God knows if the COVID pandemic did not teach us anything. It taught us the importance of human connection. And I say that as someone who has always considered myself, I've always considered myself as someone who was fine just being by myself. I'm an introvert. I really don't need to interact with other people on a regular basis, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But to be honest with you, everybody needs to be an extrovert on occasion because it is therapy. It is therapy. It helps to get us out of our stuff, it helps to broaden our perspective, it educates us, it makes us feel better, it gets our dopamine levels going up to make our amygdala and we talked about this some podcasts ago so that our brain feels better. It makes us feel good. And if you doubt that, remember when everybody was on lockdown and most people were sort of severely restricted, and then when you came back to your workplace or socializing the way you normally do your church, your club, you're going to the gym. Remember how good you felt when that occurred. And the reason is, I believe now, as humans, we are designed for human connection, we are designed for socializing and, quite honestly, I didn't necessarily believe that 23 years ago, but I have become convinced that that is important in that body-mind connection. It is important in that wellness connection, if you will, and it may very well be more on the mental and the spiritual part as compared to the physical, but it is vital. So remember the importance of human connections, and not just when we're not together, but to the extent of maximizing that connection when we are together, where we think positive and not negative, where we don't let the little things bother us so it ends up being a distraction or ends up causing us to waste 30-minute lunch or dinner with friends or colleagues and ends up being a serious distraction. So remember the importance, as number four, of human connection.
Speaker 2:The fifth strategy of COVID wellness leadership is to be candid about stress and remember adaptability. I call it having a conversation with the person in the mirror. When you are going through stuff, feel free to have that conversation with the person in the mirror. Now, word of caution. Make sure you're by yourself, because if people see you talking to the person in the mirror, they may start thinking that you have other problems. But seriously, have that conversation with the person in the mirror and remember the importance of adaptability. And my point is it requires a certain degree of honesty. It requires a certain degree of honesty and the reason why I use that exercise is that when I look at myself, I say to myself okay, tell me the truth, what really is your problem with X, y and Z? And many times that can allow you to give yourself permission, to give yourself permission to save us really going on and to tell the truth. Once you can identify the problem, then you can work on ways to mitigate that problem and to make things better.
Speaker 2:Next, number six it's to focus on self-care. Many of you of what I call givers and I suspect that this particularly applies to mothers and or parents, mothers and fathers I might have you're givers and what I mean by that is that you wanna make sure that everybody else is okay. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, god bless you and thank goodness that they're givers like you in the world. But my point is, you also wanna take care of yourself. And so you wanna give yourself permission to take care of yourself. And I phrase it that way because, as a giver you don't wanna think of most of the time. You know individuals like yourselves you don't think of. You say no, no, no, I gotta get this done, I gotta take source over there and I gotta go see my sister and I gotta take care of my mom, and the people at work want me to pick this up and bring it the next month, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And the reason why you wanna focus on sub care, because you want longevity, longevity. We want you to continue to give, because that's important and it's an important role that you have. But for you to do that, you must also do self care. Give yourself permission to say I am worthy to stay healthy, wealthy and wise, to use a praise okay, so give yourself permission to take care of yourself, to take a break, to say, well, no, I'm sorry. And let me also parenthetically add, and I used to say this to my patients all the time, particularly when they came into the office and they would be very stressed and they would just wanna talk.
Speaker 2:Many times stress or self stress that we have is caused by difficulty saying no. Think about that Difficulty saying no Because say you have what you need to do and you already know what you need to do and you're doing those things. But oftentimes the stress comes when people are asking you to do things for them, and these people may not necessarily be your boss. Just because everybody knows that you're one of those good people and you will help in a way you can, you have to get out of the habit of saying yes to everybody and it's okay to say no, and if you say no, it does not mean you're a bad person. You can say no with a smile, you can say no with a handshake or a hug, but no means no, right? No means no, and so what it does is it allows you to empower yourself to set limits, to set limits and guidelines. Why? Because, as I mentioned before, that is requisite for survival. And not only is it requisite for survival, it allows you to operate on a higher, more excellent level that if you're trying to do everything all the time, because everybody wants you to do stuff, because they know that you're just one of those people who helps everybody else out. So just try practicing that, and I would suggest that you feel good once you do that. It may be a little difficult initially because it's something that you don't do often, but practice saying no. Somebody wants you to go to a meeting with them, or they want you to give a speech, or they want you to come over and do XYZ. Just say no. Give yourself permission to have a mental health break, give yourself permission to just take care of you, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that, because we need people like you. So it's important for you to provide, to focus on self-care.
Speaker 2:The next COVID wellness leadership strategy is to look out for others. Now, we just previously talked about focus on yourself, but not only do you look out for others, but you look out for those who are less fortunate than you and, trust me, they're all around you. They're all around you. They're around us every day, but, amazingly, most times, we don't see them because we're very, very busy. We're rushing here and there and we're doing this and we're doing that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:But these individuals, many times who may be in our inner circle, they may be in our family, but they are hurting no-transcript. They may be people that you know personally. They may be people you do not know personally, but you come in contact with them. So what I'm saying is ask yourself and ask others who else can I help? Who else can I help? Particularly concentrate on individuals who are elderly. My definition of elderly is 60 years of age and older Individuals who are children.
Speaker 2:And one of the things about children is that children, regardless of how large they are or how old they are or how old they appear to be, are still children and their mental capacity is that of children, because they're not adults. They've not gone through the things that we've gone through. So a lot of things they just don't know. So my point is that they need special care and attention. And also, please think about the ones who are less fortunate, who you probably see every single day that ladies who sits at the front desk, or that gentleman who sits at the front desk. When you come through the doors of work, say good morning to them, say how are you? Ask them how they're doing, give them a smile. You'll be amazed at how therapeutic that is, because most times you do not know what they're going through. You don't know what their day was like. You don't know what they had to do to get to work on that particular day, and I learned this many years ago and I would make it a habit.
Speaker 2:And again, being from the South, this is something that we normally do. We speak to people. I remember when I was in New England and even when I came to California, people said but do you know him? I said no, but you spoke to him like you know him, and I said well, I just speak to everybody. If you look at me, I'm gonna speak to you. But that was a habit. Again, I grew up from Nashville, tennessee, but I'm gonna suggest that everybody adopt that habit, because when you smile or speak or say hello, it's a gift. It's a gift and you don't have to know the person to do it. Give that gift freely Because, again, on that particular day, that may have been the worst day of their life and you may very well be able to help them or just make it a little easier for them to deal with what they need to deal with.
Speaker 2:Another COVID wellness leadership strategy is to make plans for recovery. You wanna look at when things are gonna get better, and that's one of the reasons to sort of keep us moving forward, that this too shall pass, as they say, however dark and however bad it is, this too shall pass. Others have said things like weeping indoors for a night. Excuse me, I remember there was a song, actually, that used to sing in my church back down south Weeping indoors for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Joy comes in the morning. And always think about that. I pass that on to you, that whatever you're going through in your life and whatever difficulty you're having to deal with yes, it is tough, yes it is hard, yes it is painful, but it will pass. It will pass. And the final COVID leadership strategy is stay resilient, stay resilient. What do I mean by stay resilient? Tough stuff may happen again, and that's okay. Develop the attitude of bring it on, I'm ready, bring it on, I got through this, I can get through that. And this is one of the ways to utilize those hard times, especially when you come out on the other side, is to look back and remember the fact that you came out on the other side and you say, well, I climbed over that mountain and if I get another mountain in front of me, I can climb over that one also.
Speaker 2:Inclusive leaders or leaders have an inclusive style of leadership, and that is that they empower others. One of the best gifts in the world is to be able to give something to someone else, and we touched on this a bit earlier. Listen to your team. Again, you want excellence now, and so you want to empower others. You want to listen to others. You want to be authentic. Let me say this I honestly believe that people can tell when you're faking. I really do believe this. Now I may be wrong, but I always felt that I can tell when people were faking, when they were not authentic, when they were not being true or honest with me, and that is one of the biggest turnoffs in the world and it will cause the very opposite effect of what you're trying to develop with your group or your team. But you have to be a giver. It means that you have to be able to give beyond yourself, and I'll share a bit more with some of my personal approaches in terms of my basic principles and things that I've learned and those things that helped me with inclusiveness and leadership.
Speaker 2:Another very, very important principle our diversity is our strength. You've heard a lot about diversity and you've heard about a lot of organizations I think honorably have developed a chief diversity officers in their workplace. But diversity is a fact of life. I believe this is the way God made us, that was a reason for it and I think it's something that we should embrace, as compared to fearing. And diversity can be in many different ways. There's obviously racial diversity, there's sexual diversity, there's generational diversity. I'm a baby boomer. I like to say I'm a proud baby boomer. You know, I was born in the late 1940s. That'll change something. But there are other generations, like the millennials and the gen X's and the gen Z's. You know my kids and grandkids are in those other generations, and so there's diversity all around us.
Speaker 2:But it's important to recognize that and don't fear it, don't run from it. Don't always look at the negative but look at the positive, because I guarantee you that positive is there as we talk about mind, body and spirit. Again, wellness, look at the health in your body, not as something that you have to worry about, but look at it as an investment. Yes, look at it like your 401k. It is an investment and you want that investment to grow, you want it to be strong, you want it to be sustainable over time. That your health is an investment in the future for you and those around you.
Speaker 2:You hear a lot when people talk about leaders and they talk about different leadership styles. You know there's the controller and the analyst and the supporter and the promoter. I'm gonna suggest and I've taken a number of those courses and gone to those conferences that there's no one style that's better than another style. You do, you Do what works for you. But what I am gonna recommend that you be fungible, and what I mean about that, or that your style be fungible that you be able to change those styles on a moment notice, depending on what your group needs. Sometimes your group may need a controller, with somebody who says I'll make that decision, follow me, let's go. Sometimes your group may need an analyst where you say, no, let me take a look at that data again and let's go back over those charts and graphs. Sometimes your leadership may need a supporter, where someone else may come up with an excellent idea and you say, mary or John, that's a brilliant idea, let's do that. And sometimes your leadership style may have to be the fourth style, the promoter, where you're the one with the flag out front saying come, join us, because we're gonna change the world. Be flexible, be able to do whatever you need to do.
Speaker 2:But I think that's an important part of leadership. Indeed, I think when you see those individuals who say, no, there's only one way, and that way is my way they usually are people who are very insecure and most of the times they will not achieve the goal that they want and they probably is not as happy as they should. Be Important to remember that when you look at as a leader at goal setting and we all know this is the SMART principles S-M-A-R-O-T. I used to say at my hospital, particularly when issues developed and they've been around for a long time, I used to say aren't you sick and tired of being sick and tired? So why don't we define this problem? Why don't we fix it and why don't we move on? And so one of the goal setting structures for SMART is S being specific. Again, you want to define what the issue is. What is it, where, when and why? M is you want to measure it. If you can't measure it, then you can improve it.
Speaker 2:A you want something that's achievable. You don't want to try to ball the ocean. You can't ball the ocean. You can also, but you can ball a cup of tea. So you want something that's achievable, because you don't want to waste your time. Your time and your team time and effort is very valuable. You want something to be relevant, you want something that makes a difference, that will help, and you want to set a timeframe for it. And this is very important.
Speaker 2:If you go to achieve something, you want to set a time for it. And what I do I set a time that pushes me or pushes the team. But you can't say, well, we'll do it one day or we'll do it soon. And one of the things I always remember is some is not a number, soon is not a time. If you ask somebody, you say you know why don't we go up a dinners? And they say, oh yeah, we can do that, and you say, well, when are you available? So it's soon, soon, I'll let you know. You will never go out to dinner with that person. Soon is not a time. S o o n Be specific. Set a time frame. We will do this in three months, we will do this in six months, we will do this in 30 days, etc. Etc. Etc. Because that then gives you an incentive to move forward and get it done. So Remember, happiness really is therapy, happiness really is therapy.
Speaker 2:And I always like to mention one of my favorite songs many years ago for Bobby McFerrin Don't worry, be happy. And most of us used to go around humming that tune and my suggestion is that we should, we need to hum it more. That that really is true, because your happiness really depends on you and depends on what you think. So that's so. The benefits of wellness and I'm beginning to conclude now is Really better physical health, decrease stress, improve mental health, our productivity and improved relationships. Let me say it again the benefits of wellness it's better physical health, decrease stress, improve mental health, our productivity whatever you're doing, you'll be able to do it better and faster and smarter and more efficiently and one of my favorites improved relationships. In summary, it is important that we engage in Wellness leadership. I believe the the American Medical Association is right on the boat, right on the money, by endorsing that as the premier form of leadership that we should exemplify, whether in the hospital, outside the hospital, whether with your family, your friends, your co-workers, whether a church, wherever you are, that you be the leader and and show how it's done.
Speaker 2:There are different types of wellness, but remember that when we talk about wellness. We're talking about my body, mind and spirit body, mind and spirit. As always, I like to end with my basic principles, and I do this every single podcast, because I think it's important to tell you what I think and what I believe and what I found that works for me. My first basic principle is God is in charge. I am a physician of faith and indeed it is my belief in God and my trust and faith in him that has sustained me these many years and has brought me the joy and happiness that I have been blessed to have received. My second basic principle is I don't have any bad days. I believe in no bad days. I discovered about 30 years ago that my days were good or bad if I said they were. So I decided that I did not want any more bad days. So my days are either great days or good days, but I don't have any bad days.
Speaker 2:Number three I learned not to sweat the small stuff. I noticed that whenever something happened that I perceived as being bad or negative, that most of times it was not that big a deal, it was not important. So I've learned not to sweat the small stuff. Number four Forgiveness is therapy. I have also learned that, whatever individuals say or do things to me that, again, I perceive as being negative, I have learned to forgive them immediately. That, indeed, it is not as as significant as I thought it was.
Speaker 2:And finally, more in my favorite, one of my favorites is everything is a relationship. Everything is a relationship leader, follower it doesn't matter. It is a relationship, and relationships are based on three things mutual respect, mutual trust, good communication. If you have those three things, you have an excellent relationship. If you do not have those three things, you've got work to do. Let me say, if you like these possible class, we would encourage you to subscribe and go to www bus routecom. Forward. Slash two, one zero, one, zero, zero, three. That's www bus sproutcom. Forward. Slash two, one zero, one, zero, zero, three and finally, be the change you want to see in the world. Thank you, have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1:Forget to leave a review, subscribe, share and support the podcast that's at thwwpcom. You've been listening to the healthy weather and wise podcast with dr William t chakta, md jd.
