Becoming an Authentic, Resilient Leader: An Interactive Workshop to Enhance Your Abilities to Lead

Abstract

From the advent of generative AI, to patients’ evolving expectations of enhanced longevity and quality of life, to the need for more equitable systems of care—our field is facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. The leaders of today and tomorrow will need to navigate these and many other unexpected challenges as the fields of medicine, and geriatric mental health specifically, continue to transform.Although mental health professionals train for many years to become competent experts in their fields, most receive minimal training in leadership. Explicitly naming, developing, and embracing one's leadership potential and skills can be a particularly gratifying part of one's professional journey. While much has been written about essential skills for leaders, we focus here on two of the most relevant, particularly in today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape: authenticity and resilience.Authentic leaders lead by reflecting their values outwardly—through their behavior and decision-making—and, while showing confidence, also demonstrate their own vulnerability. While some may view showing vulnerability as paradoxical to being a strong leader, authenticity has been demonstrated to be an extremely important quality in today's leaders.In addition to authenticity, resilience—the ability to bounce back when confronting adversity—is another crucial quality needed by today's leaders. Resilient leaders maintain their composure in the face of significant stress, without “activating” or agitating those around them. They also are able to tolerate uncertainty and to handle both their own and others’ mistakes with a mature combination of grace and forthright accountability.Leaders who combine authenticity and resilience tend to draw others toward them, foster resilience in their teams, serve as role models, and provide coaching that empowers their teams to develop professionally and enhance their own leadership skills.This session will provide an interactive framework to discuss these two key components of leadership. Given the broad topic of leadership, we have selected these two themes in order to focus the discussion on these two vital, yet arguably less frequently discussed, elements of leadership.The session will provide ample time for both small-group breakout discussions as well as large-group discussion. The session leaders will be four Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry (Laura Dunn, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; Helen Kales, University of California, Davis; Eric Lenze, Washington University; and Rajesh Tampi,; Creighton University), who served on last year's very well-received Plenary Session entitled, “Finding Joy in Your Career: A Conversation with Chairs of Psychiatry.” The audience's questions and feedback after that session indicated a desire for more in-depth discussion on many aspects of leadership and professional development. This year, we focus on two of those aspects. Two of the session leaders are women, who will also discuss aspects of leadership that may be specific to women. The session leaders will serve as facilitators of small-group discussions as well as providing their own perspectives on authenticity and resilience during the larger group discussion time.