Table 3 Facilitators to Effective Healthcare Leadership: Categories, Subcategories, and Exemplars

 Communication skills

“Our job is to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate with all the folks trying to provide care out in the clinics. So, if you don’t have that ability to communicate, you’re gonna be very ineffective in this position” (P03).

 Responding positively to adversity and stress

“I think that adaptability and organization are probably the two most critical [skills] in the VA, because things change all of the time. So, you have to be able to adapt at a moment’s notice to a change of practice, a change of procedure” (P01).

 Conflict management skills

“It’s conflict management, conflict resolution when you have PACT--, parts of PACT teams that may not function the way they need to. You know, there’s, whether it’s a personality conflict or something else” (P14).

 Listening skills

“There’s a lot of emails that fly back and forth, there’s a lot of phone calls, so being willing to listen constantly, you will probably be able to pick up on things you need” (P16).

Face-to-face interaction

“We have a what we call a hallway meeting every Tuesday at 11:00. It would be extremely inefficient if we didn’t actually meet to communicate with all the people that need to know the information or need to contribute to make decisions” (P11).

 Builds PACT cohesion

“I’m like: ‘You know, since we’re not quite the cohesive group that we maybe once were, we need to build relationships,’ and now we have very frequent [face-to-face] meetings” (P08).

 Provides networking and mentoring opportunities

“We do have [in-person] meetings that happen twice a year. I think that that’s been helpful to kind of network with those leaders, talk with them, be around them, pick up on what they’re doing” (P15).

Informal mentorship

“Most of my leadership skills have been acquired through mentorship through people who I have worked with who really are good and smart and dedicated” (P15).