Leadership Lessons From History

Part 1

Title: "She Outranks Me"

During the American Civil War, the Union Army officers in charge of a particular military field hospital wanted a troublesome volunteer nurse removed from camp. In her zeal and enthusiasm to take care of the wounded soldiers, this female front-line health care worker routinely ignored standard military protocols. At times, she even was openly insubordinate to her superiors whenever they were not sufficiently supportive of her charges' care. Eventually, the officers appealed to their commander, General Sherman (of burning down Atlanta fame), for permission to get rid of her. Sherman put the officers back in place by telling them, "She outranks me!"

One of the most valuable, but difficult, lesson the best leaders learn is when to restrain their own power. Just because a person is officially in charge, that does not make it automatically right for he or she to exercise that power, especially over professionals who have more knowledge and experience on the subject. Prime Minister Winston Churchill would argue his particular viewpoint for hours with his cabinet members, but if any stood their ground and proposed a different course of action, he would support them.

And there is another lesson that health care professionals can learn from the above examples. Anything that benefits our patients' care only serves to strengthen us in the end. Anything that detracts from that position, only ends up hurting us. That is to say, when we participate in, or acquiesce, to policies or procedures that are not in our patients' best interests, we make ourselves and our associates more vulnerable to the intrusion and interference by others. As medical professionals, the first question we should ask ourselves is, "Does this help or hinder the care of our patients?" To the extent that such action does or does not, this should help guide our actions.

Leadership Lessons From History

Part 2

Title: "That Sinking Feeling"

The first article showed how effective leaders know the limits of their own authority and how healthcare providers can benefit from the goodwill that they have generated, via the care of their patients, in their dialogues with other non-medically-trained stakeholders in the healthcare industry. This example will focus on what happens when leaders ignore or overrule the opinions, greater experience, and knowledge of those directly responsible and in charge of the health, safety and well-being of others.

Much has been written about the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912. The great ship was the very embodiment of the arrogant attitudes of the great captains of industry that had sprung up at the turn of the century. But besides the multiple design and construction flaws that contributed to the disaster, there were two other events that are relevant to our topic.

Anxious to establish a new transatlantic speed record for a passenger vessel right at the start of her maiden voyage, the president of the White Star Line company ordered Captain E. J. Smith to sail full speed ahead. Captain Smith reluctantly followed his boss's order, even though he had received radio messages earlier from other ships in the area warning all vessels that they had spotted icebergs. What neither one knew was that, when they sailed from the English port of Southampton, a middle manager had pulled strings to get on board and had replaced one of the regular ship's officers. This officer vacated the ship so quickly that he failed to hand over the keys to the locked cabinet that held all the binoculars.

In summary, on that ill-fated night, the Titanic hit an iceberg because its perched lookouts did not have a single binocular among them to see the danger in time due to the fact the ship was sailing too fast...