71. Self-Leadership and the Requirement of Self-Discipline in Academic Medicine

Many of us, academic physicians are eager to lead. But can we lead the most important person, which is ourselves?

In this episode of the Academic Revolution Podcast, we discuss the importance of self-leadership and cultivating a lifestyle of self-discipline, as academic physicians. 

Leadership is influence, regardless of formal titles. Dr. Hofmann highlights that it's crucial to lead oneself effectively before leading others, and this requires a lifestyle commitment based on daily choices and sacrifices that align with personal goals and vision. She suggests establishing and consistently following daily routines that support long-term accomplishments and success and shares a practical tip to get started right away. 

Take a listen!

00:00 Introduction to Self-Leadership

01:47 The Importance of Self-Leadership in Academic Medicine

03:45 The Concept of Leadership and Influence

04:31 The Role of Self-Discipline in Leadership

06:33 Cultivating a Lifestyle of Self-Discipline

07:22 Practical Examples of Self-Discipline in Daily Life

08:14 Developing Daily Routines for Long-Term Success

12:39 Conclusion: The Power of Self-Discipline in Self-Leadership


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Transcript

0:00

Many of us, academic physicians are eager to lead. But can we actually lead the most important person, which is ourselves stay tuned for after the music and we will be right back. Well, Bob, come back to another episode of the academic revolution podcast. And today I want to talk about this topic off. Leading a lifestyle of self discipline. This is straight from pillar. Number two, leadership identity of my physician success, DNA method. And we'll build on a whole series of leadership that I thought we should talk about it a little bit. And I believe this is really going to help. Many of you who are thinking about leadership, or just want to have more success in their academic careers. So let's dive right in. You know, as I was thinking about this. Topic and preparing for it. I found that many academic physicians like to lead in some capacity. Perhaps we want to take charge or perhaps we have some ideas for improvement within our programs. And sometimes, honestly, We are the type of people in academic medicine that like to take a bit of control and that's not necessarily bad. That's just kind of how we are wired, how we are trained. Right. We want to control the clinical scenarios and situations for the best of our patients. So we kind of assess all the parameters around it. And one to be really. Take charge to some degree to make sure that everything goes smoothly. And that is in general, a really good thing. That's a whole another topic we can talk about another time. But for today. We do want to focus this conversation and this discussion on. This idea off. Leadership. And self-leadership building a little bit on last time's episode, but beanie taking a step back up the bigger picture. And. One of the things I've found that many of us. Aspire to lead. But not really taking until consideration. Pausing for a moment and thinking, wow. The hardest person really to lead here is ourselves. And by the way, if you feel like, you know, in God, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't really aspire to be a leader of a program. I am not interested in titles or positions. I'm just trying to keep my head down. To get my lab research going or. Stay on track for promotion, et cetera. It's all a good you're still in the right place. And there was no right or wrong answer here to aspire to be a leader. what I want to point out though, is that we are all leaders in our own spear of influence. So why B might not have official titles attached to our name? And not everybody. The desires that, and that is perfectly fine. We are all leaders because leadership is influence nothing more, nothing less. That's a quote directly from my mentor, John Maxwell. And I just want to point that out because everybody. I have found that in medicine, a lot of people think, oh, well I want to be a leader. And they're thinking about titles and positions. And if you go back to my earlier episodes in the beginning of this podcast, You will quickly find that is not necessarily to, and sort of my position on that. So, but let's go back to this concept of living a lifestyle of self-discipline because the hardest person to lead in our lives is ourself. And if we can not lead ourselves well, well guess what. We will not be able to lead others. Well, And we'll expand on that a bit in another episode, but it is where we clear. If you don't know where you're going, if you cannot even control your own motions, your own actions. If you are struggling to get it together, so to speak. How do we expect to lead somebody else? It requires a lot of self discipline as a leader. Too. Accomplish that. So it is very important. I think, as a leader to remember, no matter what stage of career you're at. That the first and foremost person that you need to learn, how to lead is yourself. And self-discipline is a key part of that. Being disciplined in our own actions and our own thoughts and our own goals and behaviors, et cetera. In communication. Self-discipline is a key part to that and something, honestly, that doesn't come overnight. You just don't wake up one day and have the perfect self-discipline. It is something you'll have to cultivate. Day after day after day. I know it doesn't sound really exciting, but that is what leadership is all about. You have to cultivate a lifestyle of leadership. Of lifestyle of self discipline in order to develop as a leader. That is just a foundational principle. And I think actually that's a lot of times where people get caught up, they want to have a position or a title yet half not to prepare it for the journey to actually. Being able to fulfill that role. So, how do you cultivate it? It's really a lifestyle commitment. It's a lifestyle change coming from a daily commitment of choices we make. To submit ourselves to our. Cos our vision, our goals. Which means we have to sacrifice perhaps in the moment. Some personal comfort. Meaning convenience. To the baker picture. So how to do that. Well, you do that through developing a lifestyle of self-discipline. And lifestyle is really something you live and breathe. Day after day after day, without giving it much thought it will BD become basically a habit. That you have developed over time. So what put some of these practical examples of living a lifestyle of discipline or self-discipline be? You should see you at, in your daily systems and your daily routines that support you in the longterm for your goals, your vision and your success. So you should develop some systems that Sue, if you, and some daily routines and habits that will help you accomplish your goal, it's. And that takes daily discipline that takes daily. Commitment on our end to make that happen. And if you think about, well, what would those daily routines and activities be typically, they're really just a handful of things that you do daily to lead to torwards your goal. And your success. So, what would that be for you? Chances are, it's a bit different for all of us to pending on what your goals are and also what your value system is. And they are really the key foundation and how you pick those daily routines and maybe develop systems in your life. To sustain you on a daily level. To get that self discipline focused on a few things. So for some of you in your academic careers, that might be a few alight. Really striving to have a successful academic career in a traditional sense, perhaps you are a physician scientist. Or a clinician scientist into your. Focused on that career advancement, climbing that academic ladder. Then you already know that you're getting funded and promoted a sort of key. So key activities to support you in this will be perhaps daily reading, writing, and perhaps a daily. review you have your goals. Day after day, did I do what I set out to do week after week and setting goals and milestones for yourself? Tow where it's that academic success path. Perhaps. Others of you. You are focus. In the. Long-term is to develop as a leader, perhaps to develop a team and your laboratory. That means you might want to focus on leadership development. Maybe you're going to read some leadership books or get some leadership training or coaching. Perhaps. You work on your communication and get some special training in that. Perhaps they are daily things you can do to improve those communication and those leadership skills as you go and evaluate your day. Through that lens. Well, how did my leadership interaction go today? Or how did I communicate with my team and really take time? Maybe just a few minutes, each day to reflect on how did my interaction with my lab members go today? How did my interactions with my team members on service go today? So these are just little examples of daily routines you can do as you focus on. Your career. Your leadership, you are. Role in your department, et cetera. For others of you, maybe a daily exercise routine will be key because you're focused on your health. So, whatever it might be, these are just some examples. So please don't feel like you need to take them literally. But I wanted to think about what are the three to five things that you should be doing daily. In order to develop. Systems and daily routines that support you in your longterm success and in your goals that establish self discipline in your walking torwards. Again, the self-discipline comes from. Executing. Following along and doing those daily routines, they in today out. To basically sharpen your ax and get you moving towards. Your long-term goals. And once you establish daily. Routines that is really then morphing into a lifestyle. Of daily self discipline. That you will basically follow no matter what, no matter if it's a rainy day or the Sunshine's outside, you're gonna do it no matter what. And that is a key fundamental principle of self-leadership that is that self discipline focused on key activities that get you moving towards your goal into your overall. Success goals. So he are mine every day. I do a daily review every day. I spent quiet time, my personal faith, SRB, my Bible. And I pray every day I go on a daily walk every day. I. Review my goals at the beginning of the day, and then assess at the end of the day, how did it go? These are daily acts of self-discipline. To help me. Stay in step with my overall goals and also work on my overall wellbeing. So hope this helped do what I want you to do is for you to ride out three to five daily activities. That you can start again, these should be short little things, but that you will commit to every day as an act of self discipline. To develop your own. Self leadership. Hope this served you. See you on the next episode and talk to you soon.