Leading is a Verb. Learn It, Then Teach It

I tracked down an incredible thought leader on systems and practices. I thought we would be exploring how to execute. Instead, I found a set of ideas that can be put into action. This is important. A set of ideas is not a task list or a set of commands.

If they become that, you are in danger of not finding out what works and what doesn’t. Because you have given them the recipe but not the authority to let them cook.

Dr. Thom Mayer is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BestPractices, Inc., Executive Vice President of EmCare, the Medical Director for the NFL Players Association and Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University and a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University.

He is one of the most widely-sought speakers on healthcare customer service, trauma and emergency care, pediatric emergency care, medical leadership, and sports medicine. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles, 75 book chapters, and has edited or written 12 textbooks on emergency medicine, including Leadership for Great Customer Service: Satisfied Patients, Satisfied Employees, Leadership for Smooth Patient Flow, Hardwiring Flow, and Strauss and Mayer’s Emergency Department Leadership: Principles and Applications. Tom Peters, the internationally acclaimed leadership guru, has referred to his work as “gaspworthy.” Dr. Mayer was named the ACEP Outstanding Speaker of the Year in the second year the award was given and has twice been named ACEP’s “Over-the-Top” award winner.

On September 11, 2001 Dr. Mayer served as one of the Command Physicians at the Pentagon Rescue Operation, coordinating medical assets at the site. The BestPractices physicians at Inova Fairfax Hospital were the first to successfully diagnose and treat inhalational anthrax victims during the fall 2001 anthrax crises, and Dr. Mayer has served on the Department of Defense on Defense Science Board Task Forces on Bioterrorism, Homeland Security and Consequences of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Dr. Mayer also serves as a Medical Director for the Studer Group.

What I learned:

1. Leadership is worthless but leading is priceless. Leadership is a noun. Leading is a verb delivered with an active voice. You are already a leader.

2. Every team member is a leader.

3. Every team member is a performance athlete. Invest in yourself and your team.

4. The work begins within.

If I take these and hardwire them into my life. I would practice the following:

• I would wake up every morning and say “I am a leader”

• Invest in myself. Spend time getting better at leading.

• Review every day what is working and what is not.

• Find a way to help others leveraging what I have learned.

• Celebrate with “3 Good Things” that are happening. Connect it to an action; that is, what did I do that helped make those 3 good things happen?

Enjoy the conversation.