Resilience in Healthcare Leadership

The COVID-19 Pandemic has been an ultimate challenge for leadership resiliency. Resilient leaders are thoughtful and deliberate. They balance logic and emotion, ego and humility. They lead through compassionate empathy by focusing on the 'how', not only the 'what'. They use their influence to drive positive change, diversity and inclusion, and create an equitable community. Most books on resilient leadership appear to focus on spirituality and tools to grow an "unshakable core of calm, strength, and happiness" or "bounce back without getting stuck in the toxic emotions of guilt, false guilt, anger, and bitterness". These books are very similar to handbooks focusing on mental toughness and providing guides for overcoming adversity and managing negative emotions. This book, however, defines resilience as a critical competency of high-performing leaders. Leaders must cultivate resilience in themselves and foster it throughout their organizations and multidisciplinary teams in order to adapt and succeed. Resilience in Healthcare Leadership is differentiated by offering practical strategies and self-assessment instruments for identifying strengths and weaknesses and for developing and sustaining the performance of resilient leaders. The book will also focus on best practices to help build a talent pipeline and develop resilient care team leaders to effectively manage the challenges of disruptive environments. Whether senior or mid-level manager the reader will learn to apply knowledge and skills to initiate cultural change, assess strengths and weaknesses, align leadership roles with organizational goals, and position themselves to become a resilient leader. The reader will also learn how to identify message strategies consistent with stakeholders' needs, resolve conflicts, lead multidisciplinary teams, and realize the impact of resilient leadership in influencing outcomes. Takeaways and tools are included to guide progressive learning and leadership development and build a strong succession pipeline, to help organizations become more prepared to respond to challenges facing healthcare leaders in the future.

Alan T. Belasen, Ph.D., has over 25 years of experience in professional, management, and leadership development. He led the design and implementation of the MBA programs in management, global leadership, and healthcare leadership at SUNY Empire State College. Dr. Belasen has published on topics such as executive education, hospital leadership, quality of care, crisis leadership, healthcare communication, and women's leadership. Dr. Belasen has written numerous books including Dyad Leadership and Clinical Integration: Driving Change, Aligning Strategies (HAP, 2019), and Women in Management: A Framework for Sustainable Work-life Integration (Routledge, 2017). He is the recipient of the International Accreditation Council for Business Education's 2017 John L. Green Award for Excellence in Business Education, and the 2014-2015 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities.

Preface Chapter 1: Introduction - Disruptive Innovation in Healthcare and the Role of Resilient Leadership Chapter 2: Qualities of Resilient Leadership Chapter 3: Learning from Resilient Women Leaders - The Role of Trust Chapter 4: Enhancing Resilience through Inclusive Leadership Chapter 5: Resilience from the Middle-Out: The Role of Middle Managers Chapter 6: Building a Culture of Resilient Care Teams Chapter 7: Leveraging Strengths to Maximize Resilience in Leadership Chapter 8: Conclusion - Sustaining Resilience in Healthcare Organizations