Leading the Charge

As another semester winds to a close, another year of the Resident Assistant (RA) hiring process begins. As a current RA, our hall staff was asked to go around and suggest qualities that we thought made up good student leaders. Afterwards, we were asked to pick what quality we thought was most important and what residents we thought possessed these qualities. What struck me was how varied all of our answers were. We clearly all have different priorities when it comes to leadership. This sentiment is not unique to our staff. I feel like I am always seeing books or speeches on what makes a good leader. All of these various forms of publication often have different messages and focuses. At some points, it can feel overwhelming. There are so many good ideas out there, but what to focus on? Luckily, I stumbled upon an article by the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst Insights Council that helped bring some focus to my research. This article, “Five Changes Great Leaders Make to Develop an Improvement Culture” presents five behavioral dimensions that a leader must have to create a culture of constant improvement. The healthcare industry is rapidly changing and focusing on these five areas can lead to improved health system performance. The five focus areas are willingness, humility, curiosity, perseverance, and self-discipline. These qualities are not something attained overnight. It is about changing oneself and continuously improving to set the tone for continuous improvement in rest of the organization. I liked how the researchers described that many of the CEO’s they worked with needed to practice and “act their way into thinking.” This reassured me that I will not have to be perfect right away. If these experienced healthcare executives still need to role-play situations and adjust their thinking, then I have plenty of room to do the same. One important takeaway I got from reading this article, besides the qualities to try to develop in myself, is that there is no glass ceiling when it comes to personal improvement. Even when you reach the top of the chain of command, there are always new ways to approach situations and more learning to be done. No one has all the answers and asking fellow colleagues is a great way to figure out innovative solutions. I’ll end this reflection with a common theme the researchers found in their group of CEO’s that inspires what I hope to do in my future, “Above all, they continuously build on their learning and dare to experiment.”

A link to the article:

https://catalyst.nejm.org/five-changes-great-leaders-improvement-culture/