More than Motivational: Finding Purpose through Inspiring Excellence
Discover brilliant, resilient leadership with ACOI 2025 speaker Simon T. Bailey
At ACOI 2025, one of the two inspiring keynote speakers who will present is Simon T. Bailey, MBA. The award-winning speaker, coach, and author is passionate about encouraging people to harness their strengths, find resilience from setbacks, and build meaningful lives. His career has taken him on quite a journey, from working with the Disney Institute, to consulting at Fortune 500 companies, to being featured alongside speakers like Brené Brown and Oprah Winfrey. He is driven to motivate professionals from all walks of life, so they can embrace their own brilliance and resilience. Bailey’s keynote, “Resilience@Work: Leading Yourself and Your Team into a Thriving Future,” will highlight this forward-thinking, people-first, collaborative ethos.
In a recent conversation, Bailey expanded upon his approach to leadership, and how its purpose is to guide others toward authentic fulfillment. He began with a few highlights from his whitepaper, “State of Working America: Thriving in Resilience and Brilliance.” This research delves into the American workforce, surveying over 1,000 participants to understand the role of resilience and brilliance within the workplace.
Of the report, he said, “One of the stats that really shocked us is that 55% of working Americans would take a lower-paying job to work for an inspiring leader[1]. What that really says is that the job of leadership is not just about motivating or driving people to work harder. It’s about inviting people on a journey to discover the best of themselves, while following you.” That includes, he noted, leading by example and having self-awareness – knowing that people notice your beliefs, behaviors, and actions, and responding accordingly. Or, as Bailey phrased it, knowing that “leadership is both caught and taught.”
“When a person knows that they're working for an inspired leader, an intellectually humble leader, and a leader that instills confidence, positivity, and accountability, that person will step up and go above and beyond,” he said. It’s a dynamic that makes all the difference, and one Bailey is well-positioned to share with others after having lived it himself.
Turning Insight into Meaningful Action
One formative experience showed Bailey how these principles work in healthcare settings. In an experiment not unlike “Undercover Boss” before that show even existed, one of his first major consulting projects involved working among a hospital’s nonclinical staff over the course of a weekend. At the request of the hospital's president, Bailey would quietly observe its culture as a fellow staff member and find ways to reverse its declining scores.
Bailey actually noticed several different cultures at the hospital. “It was leadership by best seller of the month,” he described. “That’s not sustainable.” He presented his feedback to the hospital’s president, and they collaborated with the leadership team to start making changes. But, Bailey added, what truly gave him credibility was teaming up with the doctor who served as Chief Medical Officer. “We partnered together,” he said, “and I began to share my findings and how they could set a different tone.” Over three years, they successfully implemented those insights, and by the time the hospital was acquired by a larger healthcare system, the president left thanking Bailey for his guidance.
“I recognize that doctors are under tremendous pressure. Anytime we can make it easy for them to take ownership [of changes] – not just tell them [what to do] – they tend to buy in more. They realize that they ultimately impact not just the patient’s experience, but also the nurses who have strong relationships with the patients, and patients’ families. [It’s about] truly building a culture where everyone is connected.” He eventually joined the foundation board of that hospital, which gave him additional perspective on the business side of healthcare, and how to create a caring culture: “Not just a great place to come and be taken care of, but also a great place to work.”
This experience also highlighted how detached leadership can stymie these kinds of changes. When people stay in siloes, he said, “They know what they know and don’t collaborate much. That creates burnout – it’s a waste of time, and a waste of money. The research[2] says that when teams collaborate, they are five times more productive. So it’s important to highlight the power of collaboration, and why it’s so important in reducing conflict and getting to solutions faster. We’re honoring subject matter expertise – but also inviting others to share what’s working and what’s not.”
To Bailey, all of this lends itself to a focus on purpose over profit alone, and on process rather than working for work’s sake. This willingness to see both the big picture and individuals’ unique strengths builds trust and creates cultures where everyone matters.
“I have spent a considerable amount of time with C-suite leaders over the last 20 years, and particularly the last year. And leaders are realizing the days of having the silver bullet are gone. How do they slow down to the speed of the moment and understand purpose, process, and payoff?” It starts, he said, with getting back to the basics of why they do what they do in the first place. “When we talk about processes, [for example, it’s about] removing all the inhibitors that block brilliance – being intentional to ensure roadblocks that impact patient care are removed, so that people are patient-centric in the experience they create.” Putting purpose before profit may seem counterintuitive, he said, but it always pays off in the long run.
Living a Life of Impact, from the Inside Out
What is perhaps most compelling about Bailey’s approach is how widely practicable it is. He has plenty of advice to share with those seeking to lead by example and inspire those around them.
“I would start with, number one, how you start the day determines the day,” he said. “Before you leave your residence to go to work, how are you doing? Ask yourself this question every day: ‘What’s the biggest difference I can make today?’ And be intentional about asking yourself that.”
Beyond this, he recommends always looking around at who is in your sphere, and asking how you can show up for them, too. And a final takeaway, he added, is what he calls the “Take 15 Minutes Challenge.”
“I invite people to think about taking 15 minutes a day, creating an appointment with themselves, and chunking that into three five-minute segments,” he said. “For the first five minutes, meditate. For the second five minutes, listen to something inspiring, something that energizes you. For the last five, stretch and get aligned with the day. This combination, he said, creates “an alignment of head, heart, and hands. And you're ensuring, daily, that there are 15 minutes where you recalibrate.”
Bailey also shared a preview of his keynote by touching upon a few ways to prevent burnout – which is, of course, another way to pursue resilience. “One of the things I will encourage...I want to invite [everyone] to take their ‘MEDS,’” he said, an acronym touching upon the touchstones of meditation, exercise, diet, and sleep. “I want to encourage [physicians] to make sure they care for themselves first, so they can care for others – and be intentional about that.”
Better Leadership Begins with Well-being
As the Annual Convention steadily approaches, Bailey is most looking forward to, he said, “The opportunity to meet some of the most amazing medical doctors – who are on the front lines of putting ‘care’ back into ‘healthcare’ – and being able not only to share with them tips, tools, and techniques, but also thank them and recognize them. Their job is not easy. They are truly dealing with life and death.” Having had his own experience overcoming prostate cancer, he has benefited from and greatly admires physicians’ drive to fulfill their calling through service.
At ACOI 2025, Bailey will also offer a leadership workshop, “Brilliant Well-Being is the Future of Leadership.” This deeper dive will explore what he calls the Eight Core Life Dimensions. Participants will get to self-assess and discover how they are doing in each of those areas. “They’ll have to come to the session to find out what they are,” Bailey said. But as a preview, he added, “We’re going to use the car as a metaphor and think about who is sitting behind the steering wheel of your life – what beliefs or behaviors bring you into park, start, or accelerate."
Discover Forward Motion that Fits You at ACOI 2025
Bailey’s genuine enthusiasm for this material is encouraging in its own right. For those who are interested in learning more, he has provided ACOI with several fantastic leadership resources – a great foundation of knowledge to prepare your mind for ACOI 2025.
The Annual Convention, of course, is the best way to engage with Bailey’s work and explore this different kind of leadership. If you haven’t registered yet, but plan to attend, don’t forget to sign up now! We look forward to having as many members as possible join us on Marco Island for this enriching, encouraging experience.