To be an effective leader, you need agility. Every year, the post-acute care industry faces another round of transformation, modernization, readjustment, alignment, evolution and change. As a leader, the way you maneuver through difficult and confusing transitions will determine the overall agility and success of your organization, from personnel to business operations.
Maintaining your leadership agility, through all of these healthcare changes and new regulations, requires strategic thinking and emotional intelligence.
It isn’t easy as a leader to always feel — or even appear to be — confident. But criticism, doubt, anxiety, and fear are contagious. A negative mentality (from the top) will cause your entire team to underperform, just when you need their resilience the most. Instead, an agile leader will:
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Rely on problem solving skills.
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Keep a sharp eye out for anticipated hazards.
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Ask for additional insights from industry experts, like Pathway Health.
Mute negativity. Promote positivity.
As leaders in the complex post-acute care industry, we have so many external forces pressing in on us. It is our role to zone out all harmful distractions, and even suppress our own personal instincts, to focus on and deliver a positive reaction to challenges.
“When you unhook yourself from your difficult thoughts and emotions, you expand your choices. You can decide to act in a way that aligns with your values,” states Susan David and Christina Congleton in the Harvard Business Review article titled Emotional Agility.
Remember, positivity is not just an attitude; it’s an action. As leaders, our positive actions should be creative, decisive, and productive. And, to remain positive, we must recognize the talent and expertise of our staff, and build upon that talent for a successful, agile future.
I know post-acute care leaders will rise to the challenge of creating agile organizations and businesses, because we are problem solvers, who embrace continued learning, to achieve a great purpose.
Lisa Thomson is the Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Pathway Health.
