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all at once— like gears on a bike that only allow acceleration if they’ re turning together. But gears cannot turn unless people are pedaling. As a leader, that often means the team members below your role are the ones facilitating your growth. If you don’ t listen to those around you, your gears will kink, and no progress will be made.
4. Know your blind spots and volunteer your strengths
When given a leadership position, it’ s easy to feel like you have to do everything yourself. But while you may be able to do it all, the quality likely won’ t be as high— and it’ ll take much longer. Try writing a sentence five times with your non-dominant hand. You can do it, but the penmanship will suffer, and it’ ll take five times as long. Now ask someone whose dominant hand is your non-dominant hand to write the sentence instead— the outcome is a game-changer. This illustrates the importance of delegation and understanding your strengths and weaknesses. When your team disagrees, ask,“ What am I missing?” They may offer a perspective you can’ t.
At the same time, give yourself permission to claim your strengths. At RISE, during one leadership development exercise, we separated ourselves into groups based upon self-identified behavioral strengths:“ planners,”“ builders,”“ relators” and“ adventurers.” As a planner, I found myself surrounded by people who thought just like me: we were organized, insisting on competency and well-ordered success. We described ourselves as exact, consistent and using time and resources wisely. On the other side of the room, the builders described themselves as constantly striving for achievement, honor and responsibility. They wanted rules and outcomes. The relators admitted they were intimidated by the builders, as they defined themselves as peacemakers, being catalysts for consensus. They wanted the best for people, not necessarily themselves. Lastly, the adventurers got things started. Adventurers take risks and thrive in stressful situations. All these behavioral strengths have something to bring to the table in a team. I left that meeting knowing that using time wisely was one of my biggest strengths as a planner, but I need builders, relators and adventurers on my team if I want projects to have flexibility, direction, adventure and charity. We need each other.
5. Add“ yet” to your vocabulary
When we are uncomfortable completing a task, we often say“ I can’ t do that.” With comparison being high in medicine, we can’ t let this mindset dominate us, or we will be miserable all the time. Don’ t take the word“ can’ t” out of your vocabulary, because that is realistic self-assessment. Say,“ I can’ t … yet.” Dr. Elorm Avakame, attending physician at Children’ s Hospital of Philadelphia, described how simply adding“ yet” to our insecurities either out loud to others or internally in our own consciousness can do wonders for our confidence and career. Are you bad at suturing? You just can’ t suture yet. You can, though. You will. There is power and strength in believing in yourself. Manifest it in the way you think, act and talk around others.
6. Time is your most valuable asset
If you are in medical school, a resident physician or attending physician, this is no shock to you. I have learned that there are always ways to facilitate your time more efficiently. Dr. Bill Cutrer, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, described to us that the“ priority matrix” can aid us in personal productivity. First originating from the work of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34 th U. S. president, and later popularized by Stephen Covey in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the priority matrix can help us prioritize in a novel way. The priority matrix suggests placing tasks in one of four categories,“ important and urgent,”“ important but not urgent,”“ not important but urgent” and“ not important and not urgent,” so you automatically have a framework by which you understand which tasks carry more emotional baggage for you. Complete tasks that are important and urgent first, so you are not letting large deadlines loom over your shoulder while you hurriedly fold the laundry.
This can take practice, of course; it may be hard to give up answering emails for a day to get a grant deadline in, but if you leave an automatic reply message for 24 hours, life will go on. Get rid of the things in your life that are unimportant and not urgent when times come to a crunch. When your important and urgent tasks are completed, move on to the important and non-urgent tasks. Delegate the non-important and not urgent tasks. Then, sit back, relax and have fun watching your favorite show on television.
7. Embody the fact that you are the light to others
Dr. Tom Hurtado, Senior Director of Student Affairs and Professional Development at the University of Utah School of Medicine, closed our meeting with an impactful quote from Edith Wharton, and I would like to do the same:“ There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.”
In medicine, we are both. As a physician, medical student or any other healthcare team member, we must remember that our job is not merely a job. We walk the halls of clinic every day as a walking symbol of one’ s last chance at life, hope, courage and often, faith in the future. Don’ t abuse the privilege you have as a symbol of humanity by being passive. Ignite your passions, fuel the fire of innovation in medicine and use your innate leadership position as a physician to advance others and yourself. Don’ t just be present— be powerful. Be the light or the reason someone still sees it.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Tom Hurtado at University of Utah School of Medicine, Dr. Elorm Avakame at Children’ s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Bill Cutrer at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Tracey Pickard at AAMC and Dr. Tyler McGehee at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital for their facilitation of AAMC’ s RISE: Developing Future Leaders in Academic Medicine and Science conference and their presentations that guided these takeaways in this article. Lastly, I would like to thank Dr. Shorye Durrett, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at University of Louisville School of Medicine( ULSOM) for the nomination and support from ULSOM’ s Undergraduate Medical Education office to attend this meeting.
Caroline Ploeger is a second-year medical student at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
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