By Laura Gwynn, PT Regional Director, Northern Virginia

Leadership can be defined as seeing the potential in others and creating an environment to help develop that personal and/or professional potential. As clinicians, we do this all the time by living true to FOX's mission and vision as we provide clinically excellent care for our patients. But, the impact of our mission and vision is propelled when we as clinicians recognize who we are as leaders, understand and embrace our mission and vision, and create a belief system or purpose for ourselves, our colleagues, and our patients.

How Clinicians Can Demonstrate Leadership

So, how do we begin? We first must see ourselves as leaders. Too many of us believe that we are not a leader unless we come with a traditional title of director, manager, VP, etc. But people can have a title behind their name and not be a leader just as easily as not having a title and being a great leader. Take a look at what a leader is again — someone who sees the potential in others and is able to help them reach their desired potential. There is no title needed in this description. We can take the time to listen to what the patients value, need, and want from a plan of care and communicate those values back to the patient. We can show up for appointments when we say we are going to and follow through on the dosed plan of care in order to give our patients the best chance to functionally improve. Clinicians are able to inspire and motivate an 85-year-old musician to play the piano again. We can think outside the box to create and innovate for adaptations for our patients in order to facilitate the most independence. We can commit completely to our patients, the referral sources, the patients' families, and ourselves to keep our mission and vision at the forefront during the entire plan of care. We can influence and persuade a patient who is fearful of walking with a cane to trust us and him or herself enough to risk for more independence. We can take the time to develop a logical and methodical plan of care, home exercise or activity program, and delegate the eventual follow through to the patient or caregiver to facilitate ownership and responsibility for the functional changes. We can have a clear vision of what is working well with our plans of care and what is not and how to adapt. We must believe in ourselves and our potential as a clinician and take risks by trying different treatment techniques, working with different patient populations we are challenged by, and rewriting our story of who we are.

Why Clinicians Need to Be Leaders

We must know our mission and vision. Our mission at FOX is to Rehabilitate lives by BELIEVING in the STRENGTH of people; to BELIEVE in our people allowing them the autonomy to facilitate and provide clinically excellent care to our community with compassion and respect; and to BELIEVE in our patients and their ability to ACHIEVE what they once thought IMPOSSIBLE, optimal function to rehabilitate their lives. Our vision is to abolish ageism. If we reexamine all of the actions we take each time we walk into a home of a new patient, reach out to a referral source, discuss concerns with a family member or introduce ourselves to the executives at a senior living community with our Mission and Vision in mind, our how will be one of leadership and commitment to our purpose. If we go about our day with deliberate thought or action knowing we have the potential to change peoples' lives for the good, we are true to ourselves and others as leaders. Having and implementing the therapeutic skills and decision-making as a clinician is only one part of demonstrating leadership to our patients. How we show up as a leader to our patients also involves:

• Our human skills
• Skills involving emotional awareness and understanding
• Our values
• Understanding the values of our patients
• Creating trust and boundaries
• Creating relationships with our patients so they know we believe in their potential

Clinicians and patients are one team. We challenge their belief systems about themselves and we will help them achieve what they once thought was impossible. Seeing the potential in others and creating avenues together to support and propel that potential. That is true leadership. And, we as clinicians, do this every day with our patients! So, what is your "why?" What is your purpose as a clinician? How can you be a better leader for your patients, your colleagues, and for yourself? Once we define ourselves as leaders, understand our mission and vision at FOX, and develop a few of those human skills, we will be the true leaders our patients need and deserve. And in that evolution and development, we will see our vision of abolishing ageism come to fruition.