You’re Not Wrong to Hesitate—But Here’s What It’s Costing You
Episode Overview
You know the changes your health center needs to make. You’ve heard the data, felt the pressure, maybe even said out loud that things can’t keep going the way they’re going. And yet—you haven’t moved. In this episode, Jill Steeley names what’s actually happening when good leaders stay stuck: three specific resistance patterns that feel like caution but function like a ceiling. More importantly, she gives you a way through them—practical, honest, and without the pressure to pretend the fear isn’t real.
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In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- Why hesitation is a sign of good leadership—not a lack of courage
- The three resistance patterns that stop even the most capable leaders: cost anxiety, change fatigue, and the “we’re different” belief
- How survival mode quietly becomes a leadership identity—and why that’s dangerous
- Why the cost calculation most leaders are doing is incomplete
- The difference between change that creates more chaos and change that ends it
- Why “we’re different” is almost always true—and almost never a reason not to change
- Five steps to move through resistance when you’re stuck
- Why grant dependency keeps your planning horizon short—and what to build instead
- Jill’s personal story: taking a health center from nearly $1M in the red to financial stability
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Key Takeaways
“You’re not wrong to hesitate. But your hesitation is costing you. And at some point, the cost of staying stuck exceeds the cost of moving.”
“Survival mode is seductive because it feels like leadership. You’re responding, you’re moving. But motion doesn’t equal progress.”
“Change fatigue isn’t caused by change. It’s caused by change that doesn’t lead anywhere.”
“You’re right—your health center is different. The question is whether ‘different’ is a description or an excuse.”
“Stability doesn’t arrive when funding settles down. It arrives when leadership decides to build it.”
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The Three Resistance Patterns
- The Cost Problem
The cost calculation most leaders are doing is incomplete—it only counts the cost of changing, not the cost of not changing. What does turnover cost you? Revenue left on the table? Continued grant dependency? Those costs are real. They just don’t show up on a single line item.
The question isn’t “Can we afford to do this?” It’s “Can we afford not to—and for how much longer?”
- Change Fatigue
After pandemic, staffing crises, leadership transitions, and funding uncertainty, asking your team to go through another change feels almost cruel. But change fatigue isn’t caused by change itself—it’s caused by change that creates more work without a clear payoff, or change that’s imposed rather than explained. The kind of change that builds operational infrastructure and reduces grant dependency? Done well, that’s the thing that ends the chaos, not adds to it.
You can have compassion for where your team is right now and the courage to lead them somewhere better. Both. At the same time.
- “We’re Different”
This one is almost always partially true. Your population is unique. Your community has specific challenges. Your region, your board, your history—all different. But “we’re different” becomes a trap when it’s the reason every proven solution gets dismissed and every hard conversation gets deferred. The principles of financial stability don’t change based on patient mix. What changes is the implementation.
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Five Steps to Move Through the Resistance
- Name what’s actually driving the hesitation. Cost anxiety, change fatigue, and the “we’re different” belief each require a different response. Don’t skip this step.
- Distinguish between discomfort and danger. Not all resistance is a warning sign. Ask: is this uncomfortable because it’s wrong, or because it’s new?
- Make the decision that would embarrass you to explain in five years. If you’re sitting across from a consultant five years from now, explaining why you didn’t act when you had the window—would you be comfortable saying it?
- Start with the decision that builds the most foundation. You don’t have to change everything at once. Find the one decision that does more than anything else to create financial stability that doesn’t depend on unpredictable funding. Execute it well. Let the results build confidence for the next one.
- Communicate the why—early and often. When people don’t understand why a change is happening, they fill the gap with the worst-case story. Explain it to your board, your management team, and your frontline staff—in different ways, more than once.
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Mentioned in This Episode
- Episode #15: Waiting for Stability Is the Real Risk
- Change Management Masterclass — available at jillsteeley.com/leadership
- Live Webinar with Steve Weinman: “Why Dwindling Grant Money and Government Dysfunction Might Be the Best Thing That’s Ever Happened to Your Health Center” — Friday, 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET | REGISTER HERE
- Free Revenue Assessment — available to live webinar attendees
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Have feedback or a topic request? Jill would love to hear from you! [email protected]
