73. Do You Have What Does It Take to Become a Successful Academic Leader?

Join us for an eye-opening exploration of leadership in the academic medical field. In this compelling episode, we challenge aspiring leaders to delve deep into their motivations and the essence of true leadership. Beyond titles and positions, leadership is about influence and service.

Inga sheds light on the complexities and requirements of leadership, urging listeners to question their motives for seeking leadership roles. Whether it's for career advancement, financial gain, or genuine impact, this discussion will make you reassess your path.

Discover the vital role of self-leadership and the importance of investing in your personal growth. From confronting discomfort to embracing loneliness, effective leadership demands sacrifice. Are you ready to embark on a journey of self-reflection and personal development? Tune in and prepare to embrace the challenges of leadership with courage and conviction. This episode will help you to take inventory of yourself and prepare you for your leadership journey.

00:00 Introduction: The Quest for Leadership in Academic Medicine

02:05 Welcome to the Academic Revolution Podcast

02:26 Unpacking Leadership Identity

05:12 The True Essence of Leadership

07:54 Exploring Motivations for Leadership

11:44 The Journey of Self-Leadership

13:46 The Sacrifices of Leadership

21:26 Reflective Questions for Aspiring Leaders

Want to work with me directly and have me personally help you through mentoring and coaching to achieve more success in your career and more fulfillment and balance in your life?

Book a call here and let's chat 👉 https://calendly.com/ingahofmann/coaching-discovery-call

Free Productivity Tool: 5-Steps to increase your productivity and decrease distractions.

Academic Physician and Scientist Leadership Mentoring FB Community

Follow me on Facebook

Follow me on LinkedIn

Follow me on Instagram

https://www.ingahofmann.com/ – My Website where you can learn more about me, get free resources, and find out how you can work with me directly to accelerate your academic career and enjoy life.

Transcript

0:00

I hear so many academic physicians that want to be leaders, and that is wonderful. It will be need, better leaders in academic medicine. For sure. However, what I often see is that many wanted to become a leader or have a leadership title. But few actually have what is required as a leader. So, if you ever thought. About. Acquiring a leadership title. Or if you desire it leadership as an academic physician? Well, I think this episode is exactly for you. So take a listen, take inventory, take notes. We'll we'll be right back with unfolding this whole thing after the music. Well, welcome back to another episode of the academic revolution podcast. I'm your host Inca Hoffman, and I'm so excited to be with you today. And to continue our conversation on academic leadership, we're doing a whole, a series is focused on leadership, which is pillar number two of my academics, physician success path. Pillar number two is leadership identity where we talk about leadership in general, what leadership really is how we can lead ourselves well and how we can lead others and really embrace. A sense of a leadership identity. No matter what our position or title actually is, and this is really what we're going to dive into today. So stay tuned. And I also encourage you as you listen to this episode. Go back, take some notes, reflect on some of the questions I'm throwing a you. And it just takes some inventory. Especially if you're driving or on the go, you know, go back and journal on some of the questions I'm raising here. In this episode later. As you listen to this episode, you might be like, oh, this is a little bit challenging to think about because I'm going to ask you some questions and myself, some questions to, we got at the heart of leadership. And am I ready for this? And I think sometimes we have to take a hard look at ourselves and it might feel a little bit. intense as a strong word, but it might feel a little triggering to you and you're like, I just want that title. But hear me out when I say this, I'm really posing these questions to challenge all of us, to stretch us in our thinking. But it'd be also bit boa to step forward and say, are we really having what is required of us? To become a good leader. And the whole purpose of this is to BD take good self inventory so we can lead and serve others better and not go down some rabbit hole and actually have a complete wrong perception. My heart and this is that it will serve you well and prevent you from going through heartaches hardships and challenges later. Because in all truth, I see this a lot. A lot of people in academic medicine, they want to be leaders. They acquire. Titles. They really strive for getting that next leadership title and they get disappointed when they don't get the position. We're going to talk about that in another episode. And sometimes I think that could have been prevented. If we would have taken good preparation and inventory of ourselves to really position ourselves well, to become strong. powerful yet to serve in leaders. So that is my heart behind this. So let's dive right in. Now, one of the things that I want to clear up before we talk any further is something that I mentioned quite a bit. And have mentioned on other episodes, but you might be new to me. So I'm going to mention it again. What is leadership actually? What does that mean? A lot of times people think about leadership as a title or as a position. And that is a natural default thinking and our hierarchical structure of academic organizations. But leadership in fact has nothing to do with a position or title. But what leadership really is. Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. And I'm quoting my good mentor, John Maxwell here that I have enjoyed mentorship from over the years. And he is really a thought leader in this sphere. I think it is important to keep that in mind so that we understand that leadership isn't just a position or a title that they is a whole lot more to it. And that also has to show that leadership. If it's influence, we all are leaders in our own sphere of influence on some level. Self your mom or dad listened. And guess what? You're a leader of your own household. Because you have been entrusted children to look after and raise them well, and that makes you and leader. You might be a leader in your community, perhaps in your local church or in community activities you're involved in with your children. Or of course you might be a leader in your organization in some sphere of influence. If you are on service and you're supervising residents, medical students, and fellows, et cetera, you are a leader at that time. Not because you are the attending and the boss, but you're leading these people having influence and positive impact, hopefully on their lives. And this is really what it's all about. Again, leadership is not a position or title. A position, what title can get you into? The room, meaning you walk through the door, but it does not keep you in the room. It does not. Sustain your authority just because you have a title. Or lettuce behind your name or something? Has nothing to do with that. And again, I think that's where a lot of academic physicians. Inadvertently, not out of ill intent, but I think out of default, fall a bit into a ditch. And thinking that that is what leadership is again, because our system is structured and set up in this way. But we all know the system is broken. That's why we have the academic revolution to fix the system one physician at the time. So that's just a little intro and detour, so having said that Now you are let's say a person that is interested in leadership positions. You're interested in becoming a leader. And I think the first question. We always have to ask ourself when we say I want to be a leader. Well, I want to be. Having that position or title or the leader of, let's say a clinic or E academic promotion or a specific title, leadership title in your division or department. On maybe the medical director of your inpatient unit, whatever it might be. The program director for your residency or fellowship, all of these titles, but. A lot of times, the most important question to ask fundamentally and the first place before we acquire these positions, whether we acquire them because we. Want to have them or by default, because somebody else may be ask us to. We'd have to ask ourself, what is the motivation for me? To becoming a leader. Or aquiring certain titles. It could be where we simplistically. That you just want the title because it looks good on your CV and there was nothing inherently wrong with that. We own you to be able to our CVS. For academic promotion. So that's fine, but that is probably not a very strong or good motivation if that's the only motivation that probably leaves you and the people that you lead pretty unhappy. The next part is people might just enjoy the impact they are going to make. Especially when we talk about a particular spear or maybe an area maybe that the clinic director. And you love the impact you get to make on clinical operations. In your outpatient clinic, that's wonderful. For other people, it might be very simplistic. You want to have a leadership title while you're striving for a position because. It might come with a paycheck race. And again, there was nothing inherently wrong with that. Because financial support is needed to support our lives and the time an, an effort we are putting into things that takes away time from family and other resources. So that's all fine. It's just important that we reflect on this. And the other motivation could be potentially. And I'm going to throw that out there is that. Often as academic physicians, because we like to take charge. Many of us do. That it might be a little bit of an issue of control that you like to be the person in charge, maybe insert some control over a situation or a group of people. And again it might sound a bit negative and I'm actually not meaning that in a negative way. It's just sometimes how we arrive in that is okay. The important part, why erase these questions? That you ask yourself that question, what is my motivation? So that you have that level of awareness of what is really the reasoning behind my desire to become a leader. And that is incredible important because it will inform number one, why you want to do this in the first place? How you show up as a leader and also how you influence others and perhaps also, where you might have some blind spots and need some training. So it also will help you then. Chart your territory charge your path forward. If you say, well, my. Desire, my motivation behind this title or this position is sweetie. I want to make an impact in this area. So then that will inform your goals and your priorities around this. We can say, I just want to raise, well, then you might have other priorities and that is okay. Just be clear on your motivation. That is incredible enlightening and informative for you and your journey. And that's what we're going to work on here today. I think the next question we have to ask ourselves is. Can. You lead, can I lead? Myself. Well, we talked about this in the last episode I would. Can you and I lead ourselves well, You know, it's very easy to say. I want to lead others. I'm going to kind of take charge of this. I want to move things forward. I want to make an impact here. But it is March harder work to lead ourselves. Well, and we talked a lot about this in the last couple episode. Where we talked about self-discipline personal self leadership. Because a lot of times we're all willing to lead our others. But we are not often as willing or aware. To put the hard work in with ourselves. Because working on ourself and leading ourselves, it's the hardest thing you ever going to do, but that is an absolute hundred per cent requirement to be a good leader. There is no way around it. And if we are not willing to really lead ourselves well and continue to work on that pretty much our entire lives. To grow to strive and our personal development and our personal maturity. And And our management of our thinking. Emotions, how we handle conversations. Emotional setbacks and shifts all those things. If we cannot do that, guess what? Our impact as a leader, will markedly be diminished. And perhaps even have negative results. And none of us want that, but it's important to ask. Am I willing. To lead myself well, and am I willing to put the effort that is required and the pain. That is required to learn some hard lessons myself. And that brings me really to the third question. You and I should ask ourselves. Are we willing to sacrifice what is required as a leader? You know, leadership, titles and all that sounds all flashy and good. Right? It's all sounds so peachy on. Wonderful. And. You might get that impression when you look at some people from the outside. But on the inside. Is a debris really all that glamorous and honestly might not. Number one, there might be a lot of time and money. You have to invest in yourself. And to sacrificed in order to become a better leader. That goes back to the second point I made. Can you lead yourself? Well, that was a lot of personal development required. That requires probably investment in your time. Meaning learning leadership skills, maybe taking some courses. That will cost you some money and financial investment that chances are, will come out of your own pocket. And I actually would encourage you. They need to come out of your own pocket and not just rely on your institution. Why is that? It's just a site note because people put. Their effort in where they put their money and their time. And, and if we are not ready to invest in ourselves financially and with our time and always relying on the institution to do that for us. We are really putting our weakest foot forward. Because of, we are not ready to invest in ourselves. Why should other people invest in trust in us? And I have done this for decades. Invested in myself. Yes. It costs a lot of money in time, but. It's worth it and nobody can ever, ever take that in a way for me. And nobody can also ever say, well, that was only made possible because we paid for it. I wanted to never, ever be in that position. That's why I paid for my own coaching for my own training. And that costs me probably 10th and thousands and thousands of dollars. But it worth a worth it because I see the value in it. So I put that out there. For you, that might mean that take some courses, get a coach. Get a professional coach that as well-trained, whether it's me or somebody else, it doesn't matter. But get a coach in the area where you need training. Go to courses and conferences outside of your medical network and establishment. And learn from other people. That will cost you time and money. The next thing that will be required of us is. Being stretched out of our conflict zone. Growing as a leader is incredible uncomfortable. There will be a lot of stretching and growing pains going on within you. That probably wants to make you quit. And I think that's, another stumbling block people think, oh, I'm just going to get the title and then I'm done. And I will learn along the way. No, no, no, no, you won't be ready for that position if you don't prepare for it. And you cannot kind of learn in hindsight. Sure. Are you going to learn along the way and on the job, it's definitely component of that, but you should also prepare well in advance for you personally, to do. That stretch and to do that growing. It will be uncomfortable to grow as a leader. And most people are not willing to take that discomfort. To go the extra mile to be emotionally uncomfortable. To be stretched in our mindset, especially when it comes to our perfectionism, to our procrastination. Or to the famous fluff word of imposter syndrome seems like everybody has imposter syndrome these days. But because everybody has, we are not perfect. So that's just a side note, but. It will be critical for you to be able to stretch yourself outside the comfort zone and to be able to endure those growing pains. If you want to grow as a leader. And that's just the plain reality. There is no way to sugar coat it. And I think that's where a lot of people kind of get a little bit blindsided as well. Because they don't realize how much pain is involved to grow as a leader. There was going to be tears and in some real discomfort involved in that is what it takes to be on this journey. Other things that might cross your path. And I've certainly seen that in my personal journey. All of these things, again, I'm mentioning. I've experienced you might be disliked., At least will not be liked by everyone. You will make some unpopular decisions and you have to be okay with being unpopular. And you'll also have to be okay. And making some difficult decisions that are painful, that don't sit right with you in a sense. Not that you feel like it's the wrong decision. But rather in a sense of. Making hard decisions. That you know, half, at least in the short term. In negative impact. Maybe emotional toil on other people. Very practically speaking. If you run a lab or a research group, and you have people that are underperforming. Calling them out. Holding them accountable. And then sometimes if people are not able to be corrected, Not able to grow with the capacity. Unwilling to learn perhaps. Or it's not a good fit for the position. Based on skills or. Personnel interactions. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made about who's on the team and who is not such a good fit. And that can be incredible painful. But it also is something that needs to happen in order for a team to grow. And in order for that person that maybe isn't a good fit based on skill or other factors. To find a better fit for them. These are very unpopular decisions. A lot of times we have a hard time making because we tend to be sometimes people pleasers. So that's something to reflect on. And then with all of that scent. Because of the time and money, investment of the discomfort of not being liked by anyone. Or by many people being very unpopular, making some unpopular decisions for the greater good, and perhaps even making some hard decisions for individual people. It can be a very lonely journey. And do you really need to be aware of that and surround yourself with other leaders that continue to hold you accountable? To walk side by side to encourage you have Mentos, have coaches and people that help you grow. And support you when the journey is pretty lonely. And a lot of people just won't understand. So, see, it's very easy to say, Hey, I want to be a leader or aspire to be in position X Z or have this title. But it's a whole different thing to actually be willing to take a hard look at yourself and honestly ask yourself. Do I have what it takes. What's my motivation here. And again, depending on the answer. You will have some great insights. In yourself and blind spots and what you might even have to work on. And am I willing to sacrifice? In order to go up and up level and become a better leader. Am I willing to sacrifice and do the hard work that is required within me. With people. But mostly wheelie on yourself. So I want to leave you with these reflective questions. I know this can be a little bit of a downer, but he is my, I want to cheer you up with on the other end. Once a really, walk through these questions and reflect on your answers, hopefully you have a better awareness. Where am I currently with my leadership awareness? To what understand what I'm actually asking for. And am I willing to make the sacrifices that are required to become a highly successful academic leader? That's transforming medicine. That's transforming research fields. That's transforming the area. You are expertise in. Leading the next trainees up to be powerful leaders, whatever it might be. It is all possible. But we have to take an honest inventory and then we're going to March forward. And then you can say, yes, this is not going to be easy, but I'm excited. He is my motivation. And I'm going to March ahead, because I know this is what I'm called to do. This is where or quality to serve and that's where I'm watching forward. So I hope this helped you even. It is a little bit more of a critical look at yourself, but I think in the long run it will be very helpful. Have a wonderful day. Talk to you next week. And next week upon immediate talk about this question off. Now I applied for a leadership position and I didn't get it now. What. Because that can be a real downer and I want to help you walk through that process. So have a great day, talk to you next week and stay tuned for the outro. Bye.