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Decision: Accepting a Leadership Role During a Department Restructure

Over the past year, I made a challenging decision to accept a leadership promotion during a major restructuring in my department. As Team Leader of the Managed Print Service Department at Inova Health System, I was offered the role just as several senior staff were being reassigned and budgets were being tightened. While it was a career advancement, it came with significant uncertaintyexpanded responsibilities, higher expectations, and potential fallout from low morale. I was torn between maintaining stability in my current role and stepping into a position that might stretch me thin during a critical transition period.

To reach a decision, I took a methodical approach. First, I had several conversations with upper management and peers to understand the expectations and long-term vision. I also created a pros and cons list, considering factors such as work-life balance, impact on my team, and potential for growth. I weighed both emotional (heart) and logical (head) inputsmy passion for mentoring others versus the stress it could introduce. Ultimately, I also sought feedback from mentors outside of work. Their input helped clarify the long-term benefits. I accepted the role, and although it required immediate adjustments, it's helped me grow significantly as a professional.

Problem: Reducing Downtime for Critical Print Devices in Emergency Departments

A complex problem I tackled involved frequent downtime of critical printers in emergency departments (EDs), impacting patient check-in and discharge processes. The printers were unreliable due to a combination of network instability, outdated firmware, and lack of real-time monitoring. These interruptions caused bottlenecks, frustrated staff, and delayed patient documentation, which posed serious risks in high-stakes clinical environments.

I started by collecting datareviewing incident tickets, shadowing clinical staff, and analyzing logs from our print server. I worked closely with network engineers, infrastructure analysts, and desktop support to implement short-term fixes such as device swaps and port reconfigurations. From there, I developed a longer-term strategy: upgrade firmware on all devices, standardize print queues, and enable proactive monitoring through our various systems. We piloted the solution at one hospital before expanding it system-wide. This experience reinforced the importance of balancing technical troubleshooting with cross-functional collaboration. While the approach was effective, I do wish I had engaged clinical staff earlier. Their early input could've accelerated the rollout and strengthened end-user adoption.

Conclusion

Reflecting on both situations, the decision and problem-solving processes involved a blend of logic, emotion, data, and collaboration. These align with the dual-system theory of decision-making, which suggests we use both intuitive (System 1) and analytical (System 2) thinking (Kahneman, 2011). In both cases, being aware of constraints and actively seeking input improved the outcome. While no process is perfect, using structured steps made both the decision and the solution more effective