Author: Yun Rose Li
Having been a part of JYI since I was an undergraduate, I have found that many of my colleagues and now, mentees, have chosen to participate in JYI because they are looking for a leadership opportunity. We all want to be better leaders. While this is frequently noted as the goal of many of the activities we participate in, I have noticed that it has been more of a lip service than it is carried out in practice. We do not teach our students how to be leaders.
What is leadership? And more importantly, what is good leadership?
1. Build a team. Sometimes when we interview or screen for candidates we spend too long on the “academic” qualities of the individual. We want xx years of educations or xx number of prior experiences. What we forget is 1) Is this person committed to our cause 2) Does he or she share our passions and 3) Is he or she interested and able to work cooperatively as a team. If the answer to the latter is no or unclear, no amount of academic qualifications would suffice. On the other hand, someone with the right motivations and passions can become an excellent candidate and it would be possibly worthwhile to invest in that individual.
2. Don’t micromanage. When you are the leader for the first time, sometimes it can be easy to want to micromanage everything. It might be that you don’t trust your employee or that you simply are obsessive about wanting to do things your way. Try to relinquish responsibilities a little at a time but you must do so to move up. If the President of the United States worried daily about whether or not his secretary of state was responding to his foreign diplomats’ letters or if his secretary of education is visiting a public school in the Bronx, he would never get through his day. Build your trust a small step at a time. For individuals you have not worked with you may have to test the waters for a bit until you can trust them with bigger tasks but remember that the right employee and mentee will value your trust and they will work especially hard to achieve these goals. They won’t reach them if you don’t provide them with the opportunity however. If it turns out that they cannot keep up with their task or need more reminders, it is not too late to provide them in the future. But give them a chance to show motivation and commitment. And most importantly, pick those individuals to work for you who you won’t need to micromanage.
3. Think nano-scale. It seems like an oxymoron, after the last statement. However, as a leader it is also your job to remember the small stuff. Small stuff could be a small thank you note to an employee or flowers for someone who recently lost their loved one. Maybe it is to after someone’s health or a recent difficult experience. Doing small things for your employees or mentees can go a long way. Even if they are there to work for you, your relationship is beyond purely work. If you can demonstrate compassion and humanism, you create an incentive for them to think positively of you and their experience. Finally, find something in common with them. Maybe it’s a favorite sports team or movie or maybe it is something academic or completely unrelated to work. It does NOT hurt to become friends with your employees and mentees. Positivity drives productivity.
4. Take responsibility. As a leader, it is your responsibility to evaluate the action and find ways to improve the individual and the process, focusing on process-oriented approaches to solving problems and not on mistakes an individual made. You should never blame someone who works for you – whether publicly or directly.
5. Develop a process-oriented, not blame-oriented process for problem solving. We are not always successful in what we set out to do, whether it is as individuals or as a team. It is important that as leaders, we do not ask others to shoulder the blame, even if it indeed was due to an individual’s lack of action or inappropriate action.
6. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. When it is time to give criticism or time to evaluate someone else’s performance, for a moment, however brief, think about what it might be like to be in their position. If this individual has less training or less experience than you, try to recall what it was like for you to be in their shoes. When I am giving feedback to medical students or undergrads working with me in the lab, I remember fondly (and sometimes quite sheepishly) how many mistakes I have once made. Yes, maybe the mistake seems callous or perhaps even outrageous but I probably have done worse.
7. Build up, don’t break down. When someone working for you makes a mistake, it can be easy to jump out to criticize. But remember for one moment that mistakes happen. If you made the mistake, how would you have wanted to be treated? To help others succeed, we must make constructive criticisms when they are ready for it. Sometimes when mistakes happen it is important to give reassurance first, reminding them of their successes in the past. Then when you help them work through their mistakes they will see your efforts as being ones that are constructive, not critical.
8. Think the best of people but don’t expect that. It can be easy to hold grudges when you are in a leadership position. Maybe it is someone who works directly above you or maybe it is your colleague. What I realized over the years is that actively thinking that others are out to do malice will only drive paranoia and discontent in yourself. I focus on the good traits in others and in the case of bad outcomes, I try to distinguish those who had good intent. You cannot expect that good intent leads to good outcomes because this will ultimately lead to disappointment, but you can save yourself some heartache and paranoia by trying to remember that sometimes even the best of people with the best of intents make mistakes.
9. Know when to ask for help. As a leader it can be especially hard to ask people who are working for you for help. But when you show someone that they can be of help to you and that you are willing to learn, you show humility and humble yourself to them. No one wants a leader who thinks he or she is all-knowing. We want bosses and mentors who also listen to us. By being human in their eyes, you become approachable.
10. Keep an open-door, but shut-the-mouth policy. Your door should always be open to feedback and to concern. Your mentees and employees should always have the opportunity to approach you for a heart-to-heart. There should be no retribution for complaints or criticisms. On the flip side, whatever is said inside your door to you in confidence should never be repeated outside of it. Feedback, concerns and complaints should be raised and given in confidence.