Leadership Resilience and Change Leadership traditionally are terms that invoke the need to respond or react. As the healthcare journey evolves, so must we continue to evolve. As we navigate the twist and turns, it is important to take a proactive approach, over a reactive and often emotional approach. Furthermore, too much time and energy is wasted on poor planning, and blind navigation.
The journey to resilience in change bequest a continuous navigation mindset rather than a reactive mindset. A reactive mindset reminds me of a continuous barrage of distractions and a minefield of risk. Imagine your immersed in a video game, with the bombs dropping, and you strategically avoid being hit, annihilated or removed from the game altogether; this is what colleagues have described in their daily leadership. The experience often leads to team despair, burnout and inefficiency. Hence, the constant churn in leadership positions.
We all can agree that a strategic thoughtful and proactive approach is preferred over a reactive response. The key is in understanding and embracing the sheer nature of the journey. When we carefully navigate this journey, we harness our reactive response, and strengthen our resilience. Once practiced, leaders can intuitively navigate changes in healthcare successfully, with a feeling of calm, confidence and enthusiasm to take on the next initiative.
We can strengthen our resilience by strategically mapping out the journey; focusing on what is the desired destination, starting point, time allocation, resources needed, and barriers. This thoughtful process is similar to constructing a collaborative project plan, tracking, trending and adjusting our proactive approach to meet the desired outcome. Enjoy the journey, reflect upon what is working right, build on it, have some fun and celebrate success. Make the necessary adjustments along the way, and refocus your strategies on the goal in sight.
Immediate decision making and risk taking is sometimes important for growth or immediate safety. However, when we can map out the process and collaborate with key stakeholders to fully understand the journey, we are more equipped, inspired and empowered to successfully reach the right destination, with more resiliency when the next twist or turn comes along.
Let's face it, in healthcare and competitive business marketplaces, we do not have time for band aid approaches, and to sit in meetings discussing how we could have done it better. I call this "Kitchen Table Talk" and in my next blog we can discuss how to avoid it.
It is important for leaders to prioritize resiliency and change leadership strategies as a constant and proactive approach, rather than a reactive approach. This process takes time but when applied, results are clearly more sustainable and participants become owners, not renters. Healthcare Executives, we are relying on your to support and facilitate this type of journey.
Let's thrive in change leadership and embrace resiliency together!
Dr. Elizabeth Adams
CEO Match Healthcare Design & Innovation
Elizabeth@matchhealthcare.com
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