Who Is Ms. Wilson's Expanded VCH?

While celebrating these successes, Ms. Wilson recognizes that there is additional work to be done towards the vision for an expanded VCH (Kotter, 2007; P. Wilson, personal communication, June 5, 2015). In order to reinvigorate the process and strategize for continued and sustained growth, she has enlisted outside consultants to assist the organization with a strategic planning process that is more robust and comprehensive than any done previously. Key priorities for the organization going forward include increasing its market penetration in the surrounding community, ensuring that it provides high quality and comprehensive services so that patients are satisfied and want to return for future care, and recruiting and retaining qualified staff

Wilson also demonstrated various components of her emotional intelligence during the expansion process (Goleman, 1998; P. Wilson, personal communication, June 5, 2015). She demonstrated self-awareness in terms of her strengths and limitations, as indicated by her recognition of the need to educate herself and develop her understanding of how to lead change and by her willingness to seek assistance from outside consultants for tasks that were beyond her capabilities. Ms. Wilson’s thoughtful and deliberate decision making and her comfort with both the significant change VCH was experiencing and the uncertainty surrounding the ACA and its true impact were all indicative of self-regulation. Ms. Wilson also displayed empathy in considering and responding to the feelings and viewpoints of staff during the expansion. For example, in the process of reworking the organizational chart and creating new positions, some existing executive level staff saw former responsibilities carved out and taken away. This resulted in staff feeling upset and undervalued, and Ms. Wilson spent time working through those feelings with them while also educating them about why the new positions were needed and how their addition would benefit the organization. Ms. Wilson’s motivation was evident in her commitment to VCH and her drive to continually improve the organization and her leadership of it. Finally, Ms. Wilson’s social skills were demonstrated through her success at developing and

Wilson’s weakness as a leader in preparing VCH for the ACA and expanding its operations was her hesitance to take risks (Kotter, 2001; Kotter, 2007). Ms. Wilson admitted that she was too conservative and not aggressive enough in initiating the expansion process when the ACA was first on the horizon and that she should have risked more and started growing the organization sooner and more quickly (personal communication, June 5, 2015). Another potential weakness in Ms. Wilson’s leadership was inadequate motivation and empowerment of frontline staff to take initiative and contribute ideas to help advance the organization’s expansion (Kotter, 2007). Although motivating and empowering members of her executive leadership team was one of Ms. Wilson’s strengths, this does not appear to have extended as much to frontline staff. When leading change within an organization, it is important to involve as many people as possible in the process and to empower staff at all levels to generate new ideas and approaches that advance the vision (Kotter,