Northwell Health

Northwell Health is the largest health system in New York, with over 85,000 employees treating 2+ million patients annually. They have 21 hospitals and about 900 outpatient facilities with 12,000 credentialed physicians, over 19,000 nurses and more than 5,000 volunteers, providing a continuum of care which includes pre-hospital services, pediatrics to geriatrics, comprehensive cancer services, mental health and rehabilitation services, skilled nursing facilities, and comprehensive end of life capabilities.

Northwell’s mission is to improve the health of the communities they serve. They are committed to providing the highest quality clinical care; educating the current and future generations of healthcare professionals; searching for new advances in medicine through the conduct of biomedical research; promoting health education; and caring for the entire community regardless of the ability to pay.

The Challenge

At its core, Northwell Health is based on relationships — with the patients they serve, their communities and among their team members. The executive leadership team at Northwell knew that to stay relevant as a business and leading healthcare provider, they needed to expect more from their leadership. They recognized that it’s not just about being good clinically, it’s also about being socially aware and being able to really listen and understand their patients’ and community’s struggles. They also recognized that it’s difficult to develop strong, productive relationships without being self-aware of emotions and the triggers that may impact behavior.

“We want to provide the highest quality care to our patients, but we can’t if we are lacking these important skills,” stated Patti Adelman, Northwell’s Vice President for the Center for Learning and Innovation & the Physician Leadership Institute.

In addition to serving their patient population, they knew that the Emotional Intelligence skill set would help when focusing on their team members. New generations were entering the workforce with a different set of expectations, requiring new skills and tools to improve inter-professional relationships, create a more collaborative culture, and enhance Northwell’s environment to make it a great place to work.

“Emotional Intelligence addressed a lot of our needs from a foundational perspective. It provides our leaders and team members with the foundation to build their social awareness and relationship management to help us be more empathic to our patients’ psycho-social and medical challenges, increase organizational awareness, and build stronger relationships among our leaders and team members,” commented Patti.

The Solution

Patti wanted an emotional intelligence (EQ) solution that provided simple, yet effective strategies for improving EQ skills. She read Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and not only liked the personalized Emotional Intelligence Appraisal report, but also the straightforward, practical strategies provided, and reached out to TalentSmartEQ to help create an EQ solution to meet Northwell’s needs.

Patti and her team have implemented TalentSmartEQ’s Emotional Intelligence Appraisals, both the Self and Multi-rater Editions. The Emotional Intelligence Appraisal – Self Edition provides participants with personalized information about their current EQ level, including their natural strengths and considerations for opportunities for development. The Multi-rater Edition provides participants with feedback on how others perceive their behavior and helps to identify the gaps between their self-perception and the ratings from their manager, peers, direct reports, and others they interact with on a routine basis. These variances help them to recognize potential blind spots and helps to prioritize key areas for development.

Northwell Health offers EQ education, utilizing the Emotional Intelligence Appraisals, as part of their enrichment series (open to every Northwell employee) eight to ten times per year. Participants register and take the assessment and then debrief either 1 on 1, or in a group setting. Students gain a foundational baseline understanding of emotional intelligence by reviewing the 4 core skill areas – Self Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Relationship Management – their assessment results, as well as their EQ strengths and areas of opportunity. Participants then work to create a personalized development action plan to improve their individual EQ skills.

The EQ assessments are also recognized as a foundational component in building the skill of leading and knowing self, as part of all Northwell’s leadership development programs. Participants in the leadership development programs will also retake the assessment at the end of the program to see where improvements have been made and to focus further development.

“Emotional intelligence has become part of our common vernacular. Everyone understands what EQ is, its importance, and the correlation between high EQ skills and their success as a leader,” stated Patti.

Results

Northwell has seen positive change as a result of its ongoing EQ programs, combined with other leadership curriculum, citing an increase in leadership effectiveness, improved communication and relationships with patients, and increased collaboration among intact teams. The improved EQ skills have also translated into improvements in physician engagement and satisfaction scores, and a reduction in patient complaints.

In their discussions, participants recognized EQ as a life skill, helping them not only at work but also improving their relationships at home with their spouses and children.

At Northwell, high EQ skills have become the expectation and part of what they look for when hiring new employees, raising the bar on how individuals interact with patients and each other.

Patti Adelman summarizes the impact of their EQ program, “It has been an incredible journey over the last 13 years to see emotional intelligence grow across the organization from something very novel to something that is expected. It’s the rule now, not the exception.”

Northwell Health

The Solution

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