The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus

The following is a book report about: The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus, and was written by, (Cottrell, et al., 2003). This is an eighty-page leadership skill-building book, published by the Performance Systems Corporation in 2003. There are eight main points (Santa Secrets) discussed by the authors in this book and I agree with them all. However, I will attempt to reveal why I agree that to "Build A Wonderful Workshop" is important, discuss one secret ("Listen To The Elves") I see being practiced in my unit, and express how I will spearhead effecting to "Share The Milk And Cookies".

I agree with the authors' idea of "Building a wonderful workshop". This chapter speaks on making our mission our main idea while remembering our core values to help us stay focused on our teammates and purpose. Our mission, values, and team are the foundation, cornerstone, and core of what we do, how well we do it, why we do it, and how we see each other in our given roles. If we as a team earnestly keep this statement and all it incorporates as our focus, then I believe the other eight "secrets" cannot be far off.

One of the "secrets" I see being practiced in my unit is: "Listen to the Elves".

In this chapter the author discusses the importance of inviting participation from the team. The author also encourages the reader to notice how others perceive them and to spend some time walking in their teammates shoes. I believe this motto involves the entire team, is a constant work in progress, and when utilized well; gives us integral working knowledge of what we must do. It is exemplified when our dietician, who is also our Anemia Manager, asks the clinicians what might have caused a patients Hematocrit to drop; when our facility administrator asks us how we want to split our patient caseload and then helps us when we are short staffed; and when our nurses ask the Patient Care Technicians how their day is going and willingly lend a hand with patient care. Another example is when our social worker, dietician, and I developed a survey based on staff issues and complaints. We had a team meeting to inform the staff of the survey and that the goal was resolution and solution, not further complaints. It was made anonymous, with a deadline, and space enough for the staff to place their suggestions. All of the teammates participated, including the originators. Once we received the completed surveys the data was compiled, and we met with our facility administrator to discuss the results, and how we could effect positive change as a team. These are just some of the examples of how we listen to each other as a team.

To "Share The Milk And Cookies" is one of the "secrets" I will take responsibility for enforcing in my unit. This particular idea speaks to recognition of our teammates through