Resilience is the ability to confidently face challenges, embrace change, recover from setbacks, and bounce back from adversities. This can be extremely difficult for leaders in today's healthcare environment.  Increasing your resilience is easier said than done, especially post-COVID.  This article provides insight to managers on how to succeed in a competitive, challenging industry.

Leadership, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, states that leadership is "the action of leading a group of people or an organization."

The terms leadership and management tend to be used interchangeably, and while healthcare leaders must have strong management skills, the terms are not the same. Both leaders and managers must seek accomplishment with resources at their disposal, but true leadership requires more. Leadership requires traits that extend beyond management duties, such as creative problem-solving (CPS) and "thinking outside the box," which is a metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. The phrase also often refers to novel or creative thinking.

Becoming a resilient leader is about taking risks and challenging the status quo.  It means you can motivate others to achieve something new and better and reinvent pathways for those you are leading to succeed, even during these challenging times.  This can lead to increased trust and respect in the top-down approach (filtering down from the top of the organizational structure).

It is necessary to address near-misses, incidents, audit failures, and other reportable situations.  But sometimes focusing only on the negative only attracts more negative.

The human brain has a natural tendency to give weight and to remember negative experiences or interactions more than positive ones. Why? They stand out more. 

Psychologists refer to this as negativity bias. "Our brains are wired to scout for the bad stuff" and fixate on the threat, says psychologist and author Rick Hanson.  As a leader, we need to find a way to break the negative bias "cycle" and maintain a more positive attitude, especially during trying times.

From my personal experience, keeping a positive attitude (although extremely difficult at times) is best achieved by leading with strength, wisdom, and kindness.  These are traits we want to see in our healthcare providers, nursing staff, and other direct care workforce members.  But how can we expect these traits if the work environment lacks encouragement and doesn't reward behavior required to provide compassionate care and support a culture of compliance?

Begin by acknowledging success at all levels.  Each success builds better relationships and promotes a culture of compliance in the organization.  The management of a small project can be delegated and used as a teaching or mentoring moment to encourage that person to be more, do more, and contribute more.

Traits demonstrating resilience will be recognized by your workforce, and by C-suite executives.  People believe what they see, and a true leader is seen as an optimist-even during the most stressful of times. Winston Churchill said it best: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

If your tendency is to be a perfectionist and likely a pessimist, the first step is to recognize this trait and work to see the good that can come out of a difficult situation. You first need to transform yourself before transforming your workforce. 

If you are uncomfortable in leading people, try the mentoring approach first.

When I first transitioned from nursing to coding and reimbursement, I had to develop a different skillset when working with our clinic's providers.  I started night classes at a local college, taking business communication and leadership courses, which helped.  But excelling is credited to my mentors.  My most influential mentor was Vice President (VP) of the healthcare organization where I worked for 10 years.  He took me under his wing as he coached and encouraged me after a promotion into management. 

I learned so much just by watching how he was never late for a meeting out of respect for another's time (which gained respect back), and how he listened carefully to what others had to say.  He taught me how to not jump to conclusions, to be more observant during high-power meetings, and to believe in myself. Another mentor, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), took the time to teach me how to navigate the Medicare & Medicaid rules and regulations which I, in turn, used to win huge appeals for my organization.  He was my tactical mentor and also guided me through the politics of a large healthcare organization.

Staying competent is only part of what is needed to be resilient in any profession.  I needed confidence, which is huge when working with physicians.  How can providers have confidence in you if you don't have confidence in yourself? Without confidence, competence, and strength, the providers would resist change, and my workforce would fail.  I asked for direction and guidance from my primary mentor and learned about strengthening my leadership skills so I could become more effective with my interactions with the physicians. I must have achieved this, because it was noticed, and additional advancement came. 

When you are mentored, it makes it easier to realize what it takes to mentor others. Mentoring others helped increase my resilience, even during a major takeover of our clinic by a large hospital system. 

An important aspect of mentoring others is to foster psychological safety, which is the belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking. It leads to authentic conversations, which promote problem solving, innovation, connection, and growth. This practice is built into the culture over time and requires leaders to respond to staff challenges by modeling authenticity, accountability, and compassion, and by creating space for sharing and listening. 

If you can't change the organizational culture, at least improve the culture within your own department.  Other leaders in your organization will notice and you might become a trendsetter! 

Build meaningful connections with your remote workforce.  A study conducted by the O.C. Tanner Institute in the 2022 Global Culture Report states that 45% of employees say the number of individuals they regularly interact with at work has decreased significantly over the past year, and one in three employees feel disconnected from their supervisor. They also report that an organization is 12 times more likely to thrive when employees feel connected.  

Find creative ways to connect, such as through more frequent information sharing or education sessions, etc.  Encourage your staff to share their thoughts.  Consider creating a policy that if someone brings a problem to the table (or virtual table), only bring it if they can suggest at least one solution.  This type of policy stops complaining and creates a more constructive conversation, whether it is in a virtual group session or one-on-one.

Another policy that is recommended: Don't have meaningless and time-consuming meetings—remote or in person.  Be prepared, expect everyone to be on time, and have an agenda published in advance.  It is easy to check off topics and create worklists, but first, have discussion and listen to ideas to gain insight on perhaps doing things not only different but better than before. 

Apply the Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule) correctly; avoid 80% of the time used in a meeting to cover 20% of the "meat" in your remote or in-person meetings!

Consistent practices, such as frequent check-ins; supporting peer mentorship; normalizing discussions around change; and finding shared purposes all build meaningful connections, even in our virtual and hybrid settings.

Join other organizational leaders, managers, and human service experts to explore concepts and strategies that are foundational to building a workforce that can stay well and healthy, even amid constantly changing environments. 

As a leader, encourage a positive organizational culture, which is critical for supporting staff as they partner authentically with patients, families, and communities, who often experience complex challenges, systemic inequities, and personal trauma. 

This means avoiding toxic stress, mitigating its impact, and building healthy and realistic expectations.  It is tempting to hire a consultant to "reinvent" the organizational structure.  From my experience, it typically ends by solving some problems but creating more in another area, resulting in a negative gain overall.  Resist trends which cost a bundle, upend the organization, and can result in distrust with your workforce.  Be transparent, be a compassionate and good listener, and display traits that you want to see in your own workforce.

Investing in your workforce can improve productivity, encourage confidence, and maintain a high-performance culture, which is more likely to engage employees.  In healthcare, the return on this investment can be measured in reduced turnover, in a heightened ability to deliver improved quality care, and in drawing higher-quality people to apply for open positions-because your organization has become the place to work.

Joanne Byron, BS, LPN, CCA, CHA, CHCO, CHBS, CHCM, CIFHA, CMDP, COCAS, CORCM, OHCC, ICDCT-CM/PCS. As CEO and Board Chair of the American Institute of Healthcare Compliance (AIHC), Joanne brings over 35 years of clinical and executive healthcare experience in areas of compliance, coding, documentation improvement, auditing, privacy, security, consulting, and administration. www.aihc-assn.org