70% of Engagement Comes Down to One Thing. Your Boss.

Featuring Burl Stamp, FACHE, President, Stamp and Chase | Author, Becoming a Better Boss

Before we get started, sit with this number: 70%. That is how much of employee engagement is determined not by your comp structure, your benefits package, or your culture initiative. It comes down to one thing. The person they report to.

Bo sits down with Burl Stamp, former hospital CEO, fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and author of the most timely leadership book in healthcare this year. Burl has spent more than two decades studying what separates the leaders people want to follow from the ones they simply tolerate.

🧠 The Middle Manager Crisis Has a Second 70% Nobody Quotes
Gallup's landmark research showed that 70% of employee engagement is determined by the manager. The second stat from that same study almost never gets cited: 70% of middle managers said they felt ill-prepared for the challenges they face. That was before the pandemic, in 2018. Today, with span of control reaching 60, 80, and even 100 direct reports in some nursing roles, the white flag is going up.

📋 The TEAM Framework: Four Levers That Actually Work
Burl's framework built from the research: Teach, Empower, Align, Mentor. His top three practical tactics for any middle manager starting today: listen more than you speak in every team interaction, give small doses of immediate feedback consistently rather than saving it for annual reviews, and take care of yourself, because staff can tell when their manager is running on empty and when they are genuinely present.

🔍 Where Leadership Development Fails
Organizations spend enormous energy on learning objectives and workshop design. Then the workshop ends. Burl's direct assessment: worry more about what happens after the workshop than before it. If behaviors are not changing and turnover is not moving, the workshop score does not matter.

📖 Resources

Becoming a Better Boss by Burl Stamp: https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Better-Boss-leader-tolerate/dp/1971718149/

Connect with Burl: https://www.linkedin.com/in/burlstamp | stampandchase.com

Great leaders are, first and foremost, self-reflective. They are always asking how they lead and how they can lead better.

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AP3 Sponsor Read

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

Take2 Sponsor Read

This episode is brought to you by Take2 — a proud AP3 partner and the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare.

Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that.

Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role.

Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform.

Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started.

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Why Healthcare HR Tech Fails: It's Never the Software

Featuring Stephanie Wright, Founder, Wright Talent Advisory

Only 43% of HR professionals say their HR technology is effective. Fewer than half. These are organizations that ran vendor selection, sat through demos, built a business case, got budget approved, signed a contract, and went live. Then more than half of them looked at what they bought and said it was not working.

Luke sits down with Stephanie Wright, a healthcare TA implementation specialist who has worked across Workday, Phenom, and other major platforms at health systems including Carilion Clinic. She launched Wright Talent Advisory in Dallas to do full-time what most HR leaders only do once in a career.

🗺️ Process Before Config. But You Can't Fully Avoid the Overlap.
Stephanie's honest answer: organizations that do requirements work ahead of time still end up in design conversations where the configurator is explaining the system in technical jargon while the client tries to map it to their current workflow in real time. The process work helps. It does not eliminate the messy middle. Plan for both.

🔥 The Real Reason Implementations Underdeliver
It is not technical blockers. It is change management treated as a checklist item rather than a work stream. A 30-minute Teams call and a PDF is not change management. Your project team members are your champions, if you actually organize and amplify them. Most organizations do not.

🧪 UAT Gets Compressed. That Is Where Things Break.
User acceptance testing is almost always squeezed because design ran long and executives want to hit the go-live date. Stephanie's fix: get hiring managers into the sandbox early, run them through edge cases, and treat testing as a change management moment, not a technical exercise.

📋 Before You Sign Anything
Know your internal resource gaps before a vendor ever walks in. Assume the projected timeline is optimistic by at least 25%. Ask the vendor what they will need from your team and where they see gaps. That conversation rarely happens, and it costs organizations every time.

Connect with Stephanie: wrighttalentadvisory.com or LinkedIn.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

AP3 Sponsor Read

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

Take2 Sponsor Read

This episode is brought to you by Take2 — a proud AP3 partner and the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare.

Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that.

Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role.

Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform.

Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started.

Support the show