By E.W. Tibbs

Mindset addresses the beliefs and attitudes in which we experience the world -- expected and unexpected.

All too often, the media are focused on poor behavior, often aggressive and mean behavior, name calling and other things that if our mothers were watching, things they would not be proud of if we were the ones displaying that behavior.

The Civility Mirror means when I am preparing for an interaction and thinking about the words I choose, I think carefully, especially when it comes to how it might make another person feel.

By E.W. Tibbs

Sometimes it is hard to appreciate the beauty of the journey. Reflection and memories often bring the most impactful and enduring lessons. Role models play such a critical role in our lives. Two of my role models were my grandmothers.

Rally the troops. The CEO is the person that can bring significant energy and horsepower to ensure that the task at hand is accomplished.

By E.W. Tibbs

Whether you are navigating a boat, or serving as the CEO of the organization, it's very different to be in that role during rough waters than during calm waters or lesser troubled times.

By E.W. Tibbs

We are taking a deep dive on Resiliency using four phases to achieve and maintain resiliency.

By E.W. Tibbs

Each phase, much like the stages of grief, take a different amount of time for each person. The most important thing to remember as you work through the five phases of a career crisis is to allow yourself to be human.

By E.W. Tibbs

The best way to provide exemplary patient access is to go to where the patients are. It seems like a simple approach, but healthcare tends to invest in communities by population density usually defined by home address. My team at Centra Health, a four-hospital, not-for-profit integrated healthcare delivery system in Virginia, took a different approach, and it paid off in ways we could not imagine.

By E.W. Tibbs

As a longtime healthcare Chief Executive Officer who began my career as a registered nurse, my passion has always been to take great care of people, both patients and caregivers. In doing so, I lead with my heart and care deeply about not hurting people.

How we accomplished this in the organizations where I have served is through disciplined process improvement and by investing in our people.  We applied methodologies such as LEAN and focused on eliminating variation and waste.

By EW Tibbs

EW Tibbs offers up personal strategies he uses to guide himself as a human being and also as a leader.

By EW Tibbs

The question of why some communities and companies grow and prosper, while others shrink or even cease to exist, has intrigued me for decades. Theories exist with no single one applicable to every situation. Two variables stand out to me as “must-haves” to ensure community vitality.

1. Access to high-quality healthcare, and

2. Access to high-quality K-12 education

As a registered nurse I have focused on the delivery of and access to high quality healthcare for the last 28 years.  Having cared for patients at critical times in their lives, I have consistently seen how reliable access to affordable, preventive and restorative healthcare services is critical to community health, especially for vulnerable or indigent populations.

My focus on quality and access in healthcare for all populations broadened during my tenure working with large geographies and populations as an experienced healthcare CEO and as a member of numerous boards of directors.

The ability to recruit, develop and retain human talent is essential to the success of any company, and healthcare is no exception. My experience suggests that since 2011, it has become harder to recruit and retain human talent based on each region’s overall access and quality of K-12 education.

In my rural area of Virginia, from a healthcare perspective, recruiting nationally and internationally was challenging for all types of careers, from entry-level professionals, through senior leadership positions. I attributed the recruiting issues to fierce competition over a finite talent pool, but exit interviews and feedback from existing employees and prospective employees indicated that a significant concern was the quality of K-12 education in my area.

By EW Tibbs

Since the 1990s, I used the nursing process (assessing, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating) plus a healthy dose of human resiliency in healthcare leadership and my personal life.  Little did I know that this training would benefit me when I least expected it.  In September 2018, Hurricane Florence made landfall on the coast of North Carolina and with it permanently changed the residents’ lives. Homes were swept away and people feared how they would provide something as simple as the next meal for their families. My family was fortunate because our home only sustained minor structural damage; the only major damage was losing our dock. With hard work, determination and a disciplined process, the dock was transformed into something even better than it was in its previous state.