In My Quest for Health Equity, Dr. Satcher notes that leaders must also learn from their successes. It is important to stop and ask,“ what did we do right that we should preserve as we approach other problems?
What Are You Reading?( continued)
as interim dean and CEO. In order to start the MEP, he notes that a relationship with UCLA was critical since that institution already had established full training capacity with faculty, classrooms, and available laboratories for the two-year basic science aspect of the curriculum.
Dr. Satcher notes that both CDU and UCLA had some discomfort about working together and he had several discussions with Sherman Mellinkoff, his Westwood counterpart. At the time, Dean Melinkoff was the longest serving medical school dean in the country. Though Dr. Mellinkoff was unable to fully get to know the south Los Angeles community served by CDU, his decision to support project was aided by his willingness to develop a comfortable personal working relationship with Dean Satcher.
Dr. Satcher goes on to say that the relationship was initially fraught because of the perception that many on both sides had about the other team’ s willingness and ability to make the relationship work. He was challenged to an on-air radio debate by a prominent CDU faculty member, which he welcomed because it afforded the opportunity to air the issue in a broad community forum. As a result of the outcome, the physician became a supporter of the agreement and helped cement the CDU- UCLA MEP relationship, which as we know, persists even today as a keystone basis for the planned CDU Medical Degree Program.
Because of his work training leaders both in medicine and in the greater community through the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, the various permutations of leadership loom large as driving element of his message. He speaks both fondly – and cautiously – regarding leadership as a team sport. Belief in the concept implies that the effective leader must take every opportunity to build a team to accomplish the work. Through this type of discernment, Dr. Satcher has been able to assemble and work with outstanding leadership teams and owes his personal leadership success in part to the quality of his teams.
In assuming the presidency at Meharry Medical College, a post he served in for eleven years, success came by his ability to create hybrid leadership matrix: a blend of existing leadership having the attendant institutional knowledge, with new team members brought aboard that reflected his own unique vision. He cited his choice to keep aboard the existing vice president CW Johnson, who had been at the university for over forty years.
The institution was facing a serious, widely publicized financial and academic crisis. President Satcher was fully aware that the VP knew the school much better that he did. Combined with the new vision, a solid relationship was formed. CW Johnson became the nucleus of the team that salvaged Meharry’ s future.
Many persons in significant leadership positions have written volumes about the beneficial lessons of failure. In today’ s world, such a reckoning is all-important and in My Quest for Health Equity, Dr. Satcher handles the potentially queasy subject of his failures with great aplomb.
He addresses the challenges of an institution succeeding despite having a dysfunctional board of trustees. When external bodies, such as accrediting agencies, feel that a trustee board is in disarray, they target the institution and its viability. Such was the case during his Meharry experience regarding the failure of the first iteration of a proposed hospital merger that would have greatly benefitted the Nashville community.
Ultimately the proposal was allowed to wend its way to a final successful outcome as the trustee board came to fully understand his strategic approach and supported his team’ s efforts. Dr. Satcher allows that failure can be devastating; it is painful and penetrating. Most leaders experience failure along the way. How it is handled is critical to the outcome of the initiative, he asserts.
Conversely, leaders must also learn from their successes. It is important to stop and ask,“ what did we do right that we should preserve as we approach other problems? What did we learn about each other that could be useful and even vital for future successes?”
We should take inspiration from our own achievements. It is essential that we stop and assess our successes in terms of lessons learned and implications for the future.
In My Quest for Health Equity, Dr. Satcher notes that leaders must also learn from their successes. It is important to stop and ask,“ what did we do right that we should preserve as we approach other problems?
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 23