LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP AND LIFE
Being a leader is great fun, right?
Who doesn’t want to be the boss? You get to do what you want — you can decide when, why, and even how you want to do your job. Fancy titles accompany most leadership positions, too, like chief executive officer, or maybe executive director, even president or chief of staff. The titles sound so impressive, it’s as if they are a validation of the job and their responsibilities.
The benefits of being the top dog are great too! Once you are named a leader, it gives you the freedom to do things that you think will further your company or business. Your employees or even former colleagues will soon begin to vie for best-friend status with you. And everyone — strangely enough — becomes nice around you; they even laugh at your not-so-funny jokes. You’re the boss, after all — the keeper and communicator of ideas, the implementor of plans and the scion of success! You’ve become the main headliner for all things good, bad, and eventually gossip-worthy!
But is this really what you signed up for?
Everyone, amazingly, seems to know everything about you and if they don’t, they make things up and most of the time those things can be unpleasant.
Everything you say and do is opined and scrutinized under the microscope. Your work life suddenly belongs to others. You lose your privacy. It isn’t the glorious job you thought it was. You now get a paycheck to accept responsibilities for anything that goes wrong but, ironically, you give praise to others when things go right.
SO, WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?
What do leaders do and how do they do it? Leaders typically abound in wisdom and experience. They are visionaries and have an abundance of resources to accomplish their goals, objectives, and mission. They innately or intuitively know where to go and how to get there. Most see the forest instead of individual trees.
To their followers, leaders become the solitary beacon of light illuminating a pathway across a dark ocean landscape. They become guides for people, businesses, projects, etc. Their focus is navigating through a wide array of environmental, social, and legal gauntlets and leading the group to a successful outcome.
Algorithms usually aren’t required; rather, good leaders keep in their minds a general framework of how things are done then make decisions based on gut and experiential instincts with a little analytical data thrown in.
Sounds simple enough, but it’s one of those “easier said than done” professions. So many things can and will go wrong; few leadership scenarios will be perfectly executed and completed. Frustration, disappointments, and stress usually abound. Leaders then feel like losers. But that is a vital part of being a leader: recognizing failures and accepting them.
ARE DOCTORS LEADERS?
Yes, of course! We are also guides. We help people navigate through the world of prevention, diseases, and injuries. We guide them to health and well-being. Thus, our natural position in society is one of leadership.
Although we are referred to as doctors — an honorable title — it doesn’t make us experts on leadership principles. Just like leaders in any other discipline, sometimes physician leaders succeed but sometimes they do not.
As a group, we tend to be high achievers, have type A personalities, and often are so head-strong about things that we are determined to get our way — always. We don’t like to lose! This may be a good or bad characteristic for leaders. Thus, we often find ourselves frequently Failing, stepping into Adverse situations, making tons of Mistakes, and maybe even accumulating Enemies. This acronym, FAME, is the most valuable tool in our arsenal as we attain stellar leadership skills.
Once we become aware, accept, and embrace FAME, our learning curve shifts exponentially, and we eventually become better leaders.
THE DON’T LECTURE SERIES
Early in my career as a physician executive, I failed. I knew that I could only handle so many failures without thinking that I needed to resign from my leadership post. It became a situation where I could laugh, give up or learn from all my blunders. After getting over my embarrassments and feeling like a real dummy, I accepted FAME. (Almost sounds like a religious experience, right?)
One day, I was asked to teach leadership concepts to graduate and medical students at the local medical school. I had no idea what I would talk about. After all, I was no expert at leadership, having an extensive history of blunders to my credit. So, I began telling stories about the failures, adversities, mistakes, and enemies I experienced as a CEO of my medical organization.
Although the descriptions were self-deprecating yet entertaining, most topics and stories were nothing profound to my audience. Just about everyone had similar experiences. But the important thing was getting them out into the open and telling others it was OK to make mistakes — not to be embarrassed but to embrace and learn!
Sharing these stories fostered awareness and sometimes enlightenment of the lessons and impact failures had on us. It prompted discussions and advice on what different people would do in different situations encountered. My lectures became known as “Don’t Do That!” — essentially a compendium on what not to do in leadership.
Going forward, this column will focus on what not to do based on the FAME concept. I want to explore leadership characteristics, principles, and the lessons learned from our errors and the wisdom we accumulate by screwing up. In this and future columns, I will share stories and relate them to leadership characteristics we ought to develop in ourselves. So, let’s get started…
DON’T LIVE IN A FISHBOWL!
I read a story many years ago about a man who took up a new hobby as an aquarist. One day he went to clean his aquarium. Not having a second tank or bowl, he filled his bathtub and carefully transferred the fish to one end of the tub. Later, while retrieving them, he saw that the fish never strayed from the same spatial area — the size of the rectangular aquarium.
Fascinated, he watched for a while and even sprinkled fish food on the other side of the tub to entice them to leave the small spot. They never did, happy just swimming around in the confined space.
The fish effectively created a life of self-imposition, never knowing what was on the other end of the tub. They never appeared curious but were content and comfortable.
Likewise, people exhibit tendencies toward self-imposed captivity. We gravitate to build walls between our dreams and reality. Notice that as we grow older, our imagination becomes more limited. Society places limits on us through social etiquette, social accountability, rules, and expectations often imposed by stereotypes.
Schools teach us what is and is not; should and should not. Job descriptions tell us what we should do every day at work. Even chronological age tends to focus on limitations rather than possibilities. Eventually we become comfortable and dependent with sameness — we feel safe in our own little corner of the tub as routines become a way of life and we sail toward our death in comfort.
Thus, the habits that let your mind go and break through the barriers of everyday life’s self-imposed limitations are vital for your success as a leader. How many times a day do you hear, “We always do it this way!” or “That’s not the way we’re supposed to do it!” A true leader breaks new ground and finds different and better ways to accomplish tasks. They swim to the other side of the tub!
Confinement can make one a prisoner of their mind and spirit and leads to nowhere. Unlimiting yourself requires courage, risks, and belief in yourself to succeed. That’s what leaders do!
Recall the quote by William G.T. Shedd about ships: “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”
Great leaders are always inspired and curious, always ready to explore the unknown, to follow their dreams and have visions of how things can be. We need to leave the harbor and do what we are made to do: to think, do, and accomplish.
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
During World War II, military officers investigated how they could better protect airplanes and their crews. After studying and analyzing the bullet holes suffered after missions, they discovered specific patterns of areas the planes seemed to be hit the most.
Looking for opportunities for efficiency and hoping to reduce mortalities, their interest focused on moving airplane armor from areas where there was a lower probability of getting shot to more vulnerable parts of a plane. They reasoned that you could get the same protection with less armor if you concentrate the armor on the areas where the planes were getting hit the most.
They presented this data to Abraham Wald, a professor of mathematics at Columbia University and a member of the Statistical Research Group (SRG) and posed the question of exactly how much more armor should belong on those vulnerable parts of the plane.
Wald’s terse reply: “Gentlemen, you need to put more armor plates where the holes aren’t because that’s where the holes were on the airplanes that didn’t return!”
DREAMS, IMAGINATION, FANTASIES
Dreams can become reality when we act on our deepest inspirations; imaginations are visions into the future and fantasies make impossibilities happen. Dreams are the true essence of life and living. Applying them to the real world is what makes life greater; they help create a more fulfilling future. Performing seemingly impossible tasks is part of what makes leadership fun. We are delighted when something works.
Imagination is one of the most powerful tools a human being can possess. Imagination allowed us to go to the moon, Mars, and beyond. It permits us to look deep into space and see past limitations.
Often, leaders must use these whimsical tools (fantasies, imagination and dreams) to solve problems, plan new projects, and improve their organizations. It is expected that a good and effective leader will and should always think outside the box. Look for opportunities to be imaginative. We are visionaries and if you never leave your comfort zone, then how will you grow and expand your horizons or your business?
So, DON’T live in a fishbowl! You’ll get old and sappy and never make possibilities out of impossibilities! It’s OK to make blunders and to dream, imagine, and fantasize about the impossible! You will truly become an inspired leader by doing so.