In Search of Great Leadership
Written by: Dr. Michael Weiss
I’m on a mission.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been in search of great leadership. My goal is to find it, recognize it, understand it and, ultimately, learn to apply it. I’ve been reading books on leadership, watching other leaders in action to figure out what they do well and how and why, and thinking about it almost every day.
I even took a few days off work recently to attend a leadership seminar conducted by the American Management Association. As the only physician in the roomful of 30 business people, I sensed that I was the main curiosity. Early in the conference, one of the other participants bluntly asked me, "Don’t you have better things to do?"
The question made me stop and think. "No," I said. "I don’t." That’s when I realized that learning more about leadership is the best thing I can do for my practice right now.
The answer surprised my co-attendee — who, like just about everyone else I met at the seminar, couldn’t conceive that a doctor would be interested in a subject as non-clinical as this one. It even kind of surprised me, since I never thought I’d be interested in it, either.There was a time when I didn’t give much thought to leadership, mainly because I didn’t have to. The environment was less complex. Reimbursement was better. Our practice was smaller. Great employees were easier to find and keep. Most of the change we encountered in health care occurred in how we performed surgery or treated conditions, not necessarily in how we ran the office or billed insurers. I could handle that.
As for ambition, I figured that, if I stuck around long enough, someone somewhere would put me in charge of something because that’s usually the way it worked.
Over the past few years, I’ve come to realize that leading an organization effectively is not about being the oldest person in the practice, or the loudest or the smartest, or the one with the strongest personality or the biggest salary or the fanciest title, or even the one who has stuck around the longest.
It’s not about wielding power or pulling rank. It’s also not synonymous with managing, though good leaders are also often good managers.
Leadership is about having a vision and living it in a way that makes other people want to live it with you. It’s about aligning and steering and motivating and guiding. It’s about being perceptive and passionate and authentic and true. It’s about having wisdom and foresight and patience and focus, especially in times of profound change — which is exactly where we are in medicine.
Most of all, it’s about inspiring other people to follow. Many of you already knew that. The people who wrote those books on leadership seemed to know that. The people who attended the conference with me also seemed to know that. I think I’m finally getting it. But I have to admit that, in getting it, I’m still trying to "get it" more completely so I can lead more effectively. Hence, my mission continues.
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