The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health and hospice care. To see this year’s future leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
Adrian Killebrew, vice president of business development at Axxess, has been named a 2021 Future Leader by Home Health Care News.
To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40-years-old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors, and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.
Killebrew sat down with HHCN to talk about technology’s role in the future of home health care, the keys to being a great leader and more.
HHCN: What drew you to this industry?
Killebrew: It was actually all about the people. I mean that in two ways.
First of all, I had an opportunity to meet our founder and CEO, John Olajide, several years ago. Before I started with Axxess, I was actually working for Dallas Regional Chamber. I attended a meeting in which we were talking about the relationship between Axxess and Dallas Regional Chamber, and I heard his vision for the future of care in the home. I felt excited.
There was a period of time where I was actually able to see the rapid growth at Axxess and watch what they were doing from a business perspective from the outside. I, again, was increasingly impressed.
Fast forward to once I started with Axxess: I had an opportunity to start to learn about the industry. I was really impressed with the people that I met. It didn’t matter what state I was in, what association I was dealing with, if it was home care, hospice or home health. I met amazing people who were willing to oftentimes take me under their wing to help me get to know the in-home care space. I also felt that it was an industry in which I could grow. I felt that I would receive benefits from investing both my time and energy to support the overall mission that exists within the industry.
What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?
I would say the biggest lesson is to honestly embrace change. I think that, depending on who you talk to within the industry and how long they’ve been in the industry, their ability to embrace change can be at various degrees. I’ve learned a lot from being actively involved from an advocacy perspective, but then also from watching what happens from a regulatory perspective. Here at Axxess, we’re also always thinking about how, you know, we can build technology solutions to support in-home care stakeholders.
I think it has been important to really understand that we’re in an industry that’s ever-evolving. I think we’ll continue to do so. The more that we’re able to embrace that idea, and prepare for those things that maybe we don’t see today, the better off we all will be overall.
If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of home-based care, what would it be?
I’m focused often on this within my day-to-day role, but I would say that access to care is what I think is important. I’ve had the opportunity to partner with some great people both inside and outside of Axxess, to really start thinking about how we increase the access to care universally. That likely includes leveraging technology.
I think it’s important because, as we’ve seen in other industries over the last several years, technology has transformed industries by making it easier for people to get access to the things that they need. And so for me, I would love to see that same transition happening with health care. I know that it will, and I’m excited about some of the things that I know that we’re working on to make that happen.
What do you foresee as being different about the home-based care industry looking ahead to 2022?
Frankly, because of what we’ve seen with COVID and the attention it has drawn to our industry’s ability to both be flexible and respond to the needs of our world, I would say there’s huge opportunity. Maybe more than ever before. We’re approaching a pivotal moment where we have an opportunity to really expand access to care, circling back to that point.
I know there’s legislation out there like the Choose Home Care Act, for example, that many organizations are getting behind, trying to push forward. That’s an example of something that can really enable greater access to care.
I think also what we will see in 2022 is all of us will be increasing our efforts around bringing talent to our industry. I think there’s a huge opportunity for us to highlight the opportunities to grow in the home health care industry. Start as a home health aide, if that’s what you want to do. Honestly, you can develop and navigate a career that can take you to multiple places, including one day working for a technology organization.
I’m excited about what I think all of us will do to get the message out about the quality care we’re providing. I’m excited about the opportunities that we’re creating for people from a career perspective.
In a single word, how would you describe the future of home-based care?
Bright.
What quality must all future leaders possess?
A single one is tough, so I really want to cheat and give you a couple. I’ll lead with one and say “compassion.” I think that as we move forward from a leadership perspective, as we’re supporting organizations, it is only going to become increasingly important for all of us to really be open to the diverse needs of the folks that we support and the diverse needs of our organizations. I think leading with compassion and being able to show empathy is critical.
A couple other ones I can give you would be “creativity.” And I think “optimism” is a good one as well.
If you could give advice to yourself looking back to your first day in the industry, what would it be and why?
I think the advice I would give would be to focus on being transparent and authentic. And that’s not to say that I have not been. In the role I’m in, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of people. Sometimes there’s not as much of an opportunity to go deep with those relationships. I think if I were talking to my younger self, I would say, “Be intentional about creating that time to be more transparent and authentic. Give yourself room to create deeper relationships.”
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