Leading Through Change With Relational Leadership:
Why Change Doesn't Break Teams — Disconnection Does

Transforming Healthcare Coaching Podcast — Episode 96: Navigating Change in Healthcare: The Power of Relational Leadership. Host: Lillian Liang Emlet, MD MS CHSE CPC ELI-MP, with Transforming Healthcare Coaching® coach Gillian Faith, MS ACC SHRM-SCP CPQC. Published February 16, 2026.

Gillian Faith: Resistance is there because somebody actually has something very relevant to say and it hasn't been heard.

Lillian Emlet: What I'm hearing is creating the space and I think the other thing I would also emphasize is prioritizing dialogue over directives.

Gillian Faith: Doing whatever we can to help people understand. We might not know all the answers, but give them what you can so that it helps with that uncertainty and helps pull people along.

Lillian Emlet: We always have this philosophy that is — everyone is our student and our teacher.

Lillian Emlet: Every change in healthcare creates ripple effects — emotionally, relationally, culturally. Leaders who understand that navigate change very differently, and change doesn't break teams. Disconnection does. And the leadership that you provide in healthcare determines which one happens whether you fracture the team or you create more connection. Change isn't something that is nice to have or destructive. Change could be an opportunity to have better relationships and stronger teams. Leadership during change means it's all about the leaders — how they relate to the team under pressure. Today, Gillian and I are going to get into some of the hardest things that leaders have to do in healthcare, and that is "navigating complexity with care, human-centered connection, and clarity." So, Gillian, we're so excited to chat today about navigating change with a relational leadership lens. I'm curious, how has navigating change shaped the way you think about leadership and relationships?

Gillian Faith: Well, I think one thing that we all know for sure is that change is everywhere and it's pretty much constant. so I think we have to accept if we're going to be part of a progressive, impactful organization that we're going to have to deal with change. as leaders, we can lead our teams to make really impactful change initiatives or we can also Lead so that they're not as effective as we would like them to be. And I think it's fairly widely known that about 70% of change initiatives in organizations don't work as well as they would like. so why is that? And we're talking about a relational or a relationship lens in managing change here, so what does that look like? So if we can accept that change is constant as a leader, we're managing people and we're managing change on a fairly constant basis, what can we do to build the relationships and build the change readiness so that our teams are ready to actually follow behind whatever the change initiative is and hopefully see it through to the end and actually have change that sticks because we can make changes and sometimes they stick and sometimes they don't.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah, I can hear every change management specialist right now cheering from their car. because I think that is the greatest first assessment that most leaders of very large systems and also even divisions; smaller chiefs and smaller managers of groups often don't really think about, "is my team even ready for change?" And that in any particular group, there are probably a couple, maybe a third even that we really don't want to rock the boat at all. We dislike change. and not everybody loves change. I probably would argue this, post-pandemic especially, we're only finally able to think about innovation now at this point. change has been so rapid — even with ai — that you hear all the fear out there in addition to the excitement.

Gillian Faith: And change for some people is very energizing. And for other people it's very draining, or it can be a combination of both.

Lillian Emlet: Right.

Gillian Faith: Sometimes it's imposed on us and we're not ready for it. Other times, we as leaders, we're actually in control or partially in control of what that change looks like and how we're going to roll out.

Lillian Emlet: I think the reality is nobody's ever really ready for change. And so I think the question is, 'readiness.' And so, we often hear people make comments like, "things are always changing around here." Or "more changes are coming our way." So when people are okay with it and some people aren't, can you talk about the different reactions we come across as leaders, like not more from the perspective of: : What can leaders do to hold both of those in the same room? You're in the same meeting. Half the room is unhappy and half the room is happy.

Gillian Faith: Yeah. Absolutely. So obviously, the happy part of the room are the easier people to work with when it comes to change, because maybe they're more on board and they're more behind whatever the change is. maybe you have some other people that are showing some resistance and resistance to change can be really quite difficult to deal with. but, when I work with teams and we come across resistance, I like to think about, "Why is the resistance there and let's dig down a bit deeper?" Because maybe resistance is there because somebody actually has something very relevant to say and it hasn't been heard. And we should listen to them because it might really help the result or the outcome of our change initiative. People sometimes get drained and change takes energy and it takes effort and sometimes we just don't have much left in the tank after working our normal jobs. And now we have this change to deal with as well.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah, so true that oftentimes change is seen as requiring more energy and even just acknowledging that I think, and noticing the emotions you have in the room with it means that you are a balanced leader in terms of, you can see both perspectives and that you'll get through it together. And so I think a lot of times people talk with polarity perspective that you can hold both and say, "both of you are right, right now." It might have some problems, it might fail, and also it's exciting, and it might be worth considering. And so just naming what's happening in the room.

Gillian Faith: Right. And by having those conversations, maybe there's a third option or a middle ground that we haven't actually thought of yet that can work and satisfy both polarities.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. And so I think that the sentences you just said really be a great thing for leaders who are listening right now: to always look for the third way and after just naming and acknowledging both perspectives is to offer, "does someone actually have a different idea completely?" " Because that often might be the solution that you need. And I'll tell you, it probably happens from someone who wasn't in the initial decision making room. Sometimes solutions are found in the process of presentation and before you go to market or before you go to deployment of a particular process or protocol in the hospital. It's so great that someone who wasn't involved in any planning, that's usually is probably the lowest person on the totem pole. they suggested during this, and even though it may seem like friction. As a leader, you have to be grateful for the friction, and I know we often do not think that way. We often just want these meetings to go smoothly with no hiccups. but finding that third way is really important.

Gillian Faith: Yeah, and along with that is any kind of change initiative needs very good communication to all the people that's involved in the change. And I think sometimes what I've seen is that leaders think they have communicated everything to the right people, but there's probably some others that also would really benefit them if they could be involved. And listening to those voices that are closest to the problem or closest to the patient, whatever it is can be really valuable.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah, I was going to ask you like what techniques or approaches you have for effective change management, but I guess, I think that's probably what you're thinking of is that "Don't forget to interview the naysayers." Or "Interview the people who are maybe different from everybody else. Either the minority groups within your team, the people who only work part-time, the people who only work night shift." getting all of the perspectives at different points in time are really necessary to make sure that processes don't fail whenever it's not nine to five.

Gillian Faith: Right. I know that can be really hard because sometimes we're under a timeline and there has to be a deliverable on a certain day. So, we're juggling patient loads and everything else that goes along with that. So absolutely it can be difficult to juggle. but, change initiatives can be small incremental daily things that make systems and processes better. And then we can have the bigger changes, more organizational changes. And usually with these bigger changes using something like the Kotter's eight step framework — and actually going through those stages, it's been shown. There's research on it. It's been shown that if organizations and leaders use this framework that the results are actually better at the end of the day. And then there's also the unfreeze. So unfreeze the behaviors that you don't want or the actions that you don't want, then make the changes and then refreeze to help, make the new habits and the new changes stick.

Lillian Emlet: That's a really great point. So what I'm hearing you say is either be really systematic. And in that planning team, really think through the steps in a logical manner,which is always helpful because even in the planning team, having a structure is great.

Lillian Emlet: And then at the same time, maybe just do small pilots where you just change one tiny thing and so it's not so overwhelming so that over time things are adhered to. First you just lean on one micro skill that needs to be different and then a second micro skill. You don't just say, "We're suddenly going to change everything on the way everything is run."

Gillian Faith: Right. Yeah. that's easier for people to get onboard if we do more incremental changes, and celebrating the wins along the way, whether it's just a high five or a thank you or something like that can be really helpful for helping make the change stick.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. and so I think the reality is there's a lot of resistance oftentimes, even if you're building in public and the entire work unit gets a weekly unit meetings on. "We wanna change culture." "We wanna change something big and amorphous." And we're going to do this little by little and we give your suggestions and we try little things A lot of times. there's a lot of resistance. And so how do relationships become the lever for change?

Gillian Faith: Yeah. So as, leaders, I think we all know that trust is huge. Trust and respect in relationships. So if we have those trusting, respectful relationships with our direct reports or other people that we work with, to me that's number one. Because then they'll be more likely to follow in whatever the vision or the outcome is that we're looking for. And we talked about communication: extremely important, and trying to help people come on board and understand the reasons behind why we're doing what we're doing. If people don't understand it. They're way less likely to get behind it. So they may not be able to join the dots without their leaders coming in and explaining, "Well, we're doing this because our patient satisfaction survey showed us that, this and this. Therefore, we have to change." So if you can help employees and team members connect the dots, I think that's really helpful. And like you were saying, including as many people who are going to be affected by the change in the discussions as possible. Sometimes that's hard to do, like you say, with different shifts and all different things going on, but involving as many people as possible in some part of the decision making is more likely to lead to more ownership of the process and the change.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. And I think also really being transparent about the fact that we're going to co-create this and not say, "I have a problem," or "big brother, someone above me has a problem." And then this is what the issue is, just to name this is a situation and we need to figure it out together. Because I think the reality is, I think I'm hopeful that you don't need to name it so explicitly, but if we can't figure out how to solve it for ourselves, someone else is probably going to tell us how to do things. And I don't think any work group ever wants to be told how to do things.

Gillian Faith: Yeah. And I think it's a natural human behavior to think about, "well, what's in it for me?" "how's this going to affect me?" And so hopefully everybody can join in the discussions and join in the vision behind the change. And hopefully it's always going to lead to a better work environment, a more efficient team, better patient care. That's the hope.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. so sometimes the relationships get strained through this change process.

Gillian Faith: Right.

Lillian Emlet: I think most leaders, this is their first test. I think most people are like, "I was friends with them" or "they were my colleague and then they got promoted and now suddenly, there's KPIs and there's things like timelines..." and somewhere along the way, leaders struggle with figuring out deliverables and trust and relationships. I'm curious what advice or what conversation you've had with your clients about how they navigate this quagmire of "I was their colleague..." or "I was their friend..." or "I still am those things and also, I'm also their boss or their direct supervisor..." and how do we navigate that process for the relationship?

Gillian Faith: Yeah, so what's coming up for me is, you talked about being as open and transparent as possible and I think that's always number one. But, the reality is in reporting relationships, we can't always share all the information. We might want to, but we're not able to because of different confidentiality or privileges to information. So, what can you share? what can't you share? I think a lot of people struggle with that. again, back to having conversations that help with some of the issues and keeping people in the loop as much as possible. And sometimes there are going to be conflicts or differences of opinions or polarities as we talked about. And, if there's always the option to, somebody else, an HR person or somebody else in the, an organizational development or a coach or whatever, to help through some of these issues that may not seem apparent at first.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. so when we think about what relational leadership is, there are five core principles about relational leadership, The first one is inclusivity, meaning not just having people's voices heard, but it's actually valued in the decision making process. Empowerment, meaning not just delegation, but also sharing authority, where together we're going to make this decision. Shared purpose. which is part of the reason why we love to do systemic team coaching, here at Transforming Healthcare Coaching because we like to have teams that have a shared purpose together. It makes everything else much more clear. and then also, emotional intelligence in terms of everyone being willing and able to sort of know when they're not feeling the right way and able to express and have boundaries about expressing what is not working for how we're working together as a team. and so if those are the core fundamental principles related to a relational leadership style, how can people leverage that in the start of a change initiative that the whole institution's undergoing, for example?

Gillian Faith: Yeah. So obviously having the awareness, having understanding all of these and what does that look like for your actual team or division or organization? and sometimes it's very complex and we talk about psychological safety as well. And you mentioned emotional intelligence and obviously you want people to be able to speak up when they have a good idea or they think something's not right. And so creating that space for that to happen is very important.

Lillian Emlet: What I'm hearing is creating the space, and I think the other thing I probably would also emphasize is prioritizing dialogue over directives. And so I think the hard thing I think as a leader is that you often are being judged from above for accomplishing a goal, turning in a project, or getting revenue up or some kind of numerical quantitative. But for your team, what you need to prioritize is ensuring that it's the dialogue, it's the process. So process measures or process outcomes versus, quantitative outcomes like, fiscal dollars, more patients, things like that. and so making sure that we are sharing the process and they're happy with the process, I think is one way to think about it as a leader.

Gillian Faith: Right. And sometimes it's hard to be in that space because you're having to meet

Gillian Faith: those KPIs or directives from above, and you also have your team on the floor, making everything happen. So do you make both work?

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. So how does a shared purpose for a particular group, especially when they may or may not align with the organization's goal? Because I see that too sometimes where there's a perception of "well, this is where the organization wants to go in the next five years..." but there's a lot of people in a particular team that really enjoys the safety and the comfort of stability. And so normally in any really good group, there's a lot of diversity. So everything balances out. There's no strong forces. but that does become a tension point when the organization is very innovation moving, but the team is actually very stability focused. how does a shared purpose help this type of dynamic stay grounded when the outcomes are actually unclear. I mean, those innovation focused people, you don't know if it's going to succeed,

Gillian Faith: Yeah. having a shared purpose, obviously a great thing to get to. It can be a little bit difficult getting there because you've got different perspectives, different priorities, different values, but if you can get to the point where you have a shared purpose, then, to me that feels like a more well-oiled machine. And then if there are people with different opinions, but they understand the shared vision, hopefully we can get past the disagreements or the different perspectives, and all be on the road to achieving the shared vision.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. I also do think it's really important as leaders to point towards the opportunity even when you want stability and you wish it to be the old way, that purpose in the midst of new things, I'm just even thinking of some teams I've been on or are currently experiencing. you want things to be the old and how can you honor the old? And yet also, lean on that wisdom to say we're as great as we are because of our stability. Therefore, we know we're going to be able to accomplish what's needed in this time of change too. I think, people don't recognize that really anchoring to that strength. can they change it to: "it's not something to be afraid of, it's actually something to be proud of" and know that because of your track record, you're going to be able to do this too. So I think leaders who just name that I think, and point it out, helps inspire those who are like, "please, let's not change anything about our workflow, team dynamics, shift schedules." There's so many things that can change sometimes. Yeah.

Gillian Faith: And I think what you're talking about is 'uncertainty'. And uncertainty doesn't feel good, when you don't really know how something's going to turn out. So doing whatever we can to help people understand We might not know all the answers, but just sometimes saying "I don't know exactly how this is, going to play out, but here's what I do know." And give them what you can so that it helps with that uncertainty and helps pull people along.

Lillian Emlet: I love that. That's really great. Which, leads into my next question, which is, how can leaders communicate tough decisions AKA pay cuts, job cuts, service line reorganizations without eroding relationships?

Gillian Faith: That can be tough. I mean, let's just put that out there, that can be tough. So, Being as honest as possible, and this is where having good relationships with people really helps, if people can trust the leaders and have respect, it helps when these things come along.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah, I think honesty and transparency and not delaying the news because I think that's the other hard thing. Whenever things are clearly going to transpire and then delaying or trying to figure out some way around it. Isn't going to make it any better.

Gillian Faith: people know that there's something going on. there's a grapevine and people pick things up. So Being as honest and as you say, as timely as possible.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah, I mean it was really hard. because I mean, having watched certain layoffs where it's like hundreds of people get laid off, like within the week,

Gillian Faith: Oh yeah.

Lillian Emlet: is really challenging. And you wish, "is there any way?" because I think people just need preparation time, right? So I think if you gave people, in other industries, you're like, "oh, I have a severance package of six months. Where I'm warning you now that you are going to be let go by next fiscal quarter." "Okay. So I have three months to take care of that." that's actually something that you can prepare for. So I think also, Finding ways as high up as possible to think of what it's like to be the end user. Sure, tough decisions have to be made, but can you deliver some warning so that the people are going to be affected, won't change operations, but at least self-select to some degree. Or, find a different way so that it doesn't have to be quite as, painful. Because I've also watched the opposite happen. Sure, there's a cut right now, but three years later. They are rehired because we need more, because the pendulum has swung with volume and things have been restructured. And so it is so interesting to me that every single industry, whether it's pharma or healthcare or it is a pendulum, just because there's a layoff right now doesn't always mean that the doors have closed forever. And so keeping the relationship healthy is important because you never know when you're going to need somebody in that networking.

Gillian Faith: yeah. Very important.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. so I'm curious about the voices that are in the room. how do you bring diverse voices to the table? Because oftentimes, a lot of people feel that there's an echo chamber of the same five, six people talking to themselves, and then they implement all the different policies and there's a lot of unhappiness and all that. Unhappiness often subverts and makes many change. initiatives fail. I guess how do we actually bring those voices in and to let them be heard?

Gillian Faith: a team coaching perspective, there's a few different ways to do that. And one of the ways we can do that is if we know that there's other voices that should be in the room, we can. simply invite them in and let them be part of the discussion. one of the other techniques I think is really helpful is the empty chair. So you put an empty chair and you say, "well, if this is and so, what would this person say about the discussion that we are having right now?" So if the person can't be there, have the empty chair and the group then, simulates what they think that person would bring to the discussion.

Lillian Emlet: I love that. The empty chair, we often don't do that enough. I would say that we often forget there's other stakeholders outside the planning room, that we often don't think about, and then we're retroactively trying to, Trying to fix. And it's funny because someone was actually, commenting, on how different AI models think and reason and some to some degree this, some models will think ahead of time and pre-plan, strategize, like what you're describing, using the empty chair and other AI models will fix it on the back end. And which one do you think takes longer?

Gillian Faith: Oh yeah.

Lillian Emlet: backend, right? And so it's really important what you just, said. the empty chair really helps if you pre-plan and pre-strategize in general. and so I guess to sort of come to a close, if the process of change is always there, how can we make our relationships sustain through that? I dunno if you have any tips or perspectives relating that.

Gillian Faith: what I'm thinking about is culture. If we have a healthy culture and healthy relationships, as leaders, it's always going to make that easier.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. So what, so I'm hearing you say like different ways of how we communicate, how often we communicate our tone of voice accessibility, active listening, non-judgmental listening, emotional awareness. if you're healthy, that it's okay to disagree and we're not going to be upset with each other. The disagreement is actually a healthy conflict

Gillian Faith: Yeah. Healthy discussions can be really good.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. Even.

Gillian Faith: if two people don't completely agree.

Lillian Emlet: Intellectually stimulating and not judgmental.

Lillian Emlet: Right. And so the question is, the judgment I think, is when we start to attack people and think lesser of them and begin, it begins to show in the tone of voice and sort of the disparaging remarks, and things like that. And so we can stay away from those and try to keep an open mind.

Gillian Faith: Right.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. You know, something in our coaching school, we always have this philosophy that is — everyone is our student and our teacher. And so anyone you meet, they can be 18 or they can be 60, And they are both your teacher and your student simultaneously. And so I think this might be a nice way to conclude. I don't know if you have any concluding thoughts on this topic before we come to a close.

Gillian Faith: Yeah, just that, we're always going to encounter change in how we approach it. The lens that we see it through is going to directly affect how well we participate in it and how well we can accept it and make it part of our daily work.

Lillian Emlet: Yeah. And I know that for many leaders, they have all the many other philosophies and theories for types of leadership, right? but think about relational leadership. The reality is the relationships are going to be what makes your team succeed. And if you think first about how you might run your meeting to preserve the relationships and strengthen that. You'll all be able to weather things together. I just think, again, of the pandemic about how we all faced an uncertain virus and we didn't know much at the time, and it was our relationships of watching each other's back and cleaning each other's PPE and not being afraid to speak up, whenever someone missed something or pitching in to clean up something. so we think about our relationships that might get you through something as even as serious as a pandemic. So thanks everybody for listening to the Transforming Healthcare Coaching Podcast. We will love it if you would share with a friend and a colleague and like subscribe. And more importantly, if you're on Apple. This looks like on Apple podcast. We are have the most listeners. If you could please leave us a five star review, we would really appreciate that so much. So until next time, feel free to email us for topics that you want us to cover on podcast@transforminghealthcarecoaching.com. Thanks everybody.