My personal vision

I have a personal vision I created when I became a member of the School of Nursing (SON) faculty a few years back...that I was going focus my energies and abilities on making Clemson SON graduates the most sought after new hires in the Upstate. I share this after reading Ed’s blog about measuring output.

We, the SON, produce graduates. We get involved with a lot of other stuff, but in the end our main product is graduates. Most are at the BS level, others are at the MS or PhD level. I am therefore measuring my success as a faculty member directly to the reputation our graduates garner in the workplace. NCLEX pass rates are one measure (our pass rate is the highest it’s been in years :). Hire rates after graduation is another. But there are the less easily measured outcomes...for instance, how do hospital staff perceive the preparation of our grads over that of other schools? Are they as well prepared? What are the 5 and 10 year career trajectories of our grads compared to those of neighboring schools (I see an interesting longitudinal study in that)? These are findings I would like to unearth. They are all possible measures of my vision.

variables of leadership

As I reflect on leaders and what variables I would measure as to their effectiveness I have to look at good and bad examples in my own experience.

1. Leaders are decision makers. The "WILL" portion of HUMILITY + WILL = LEVEL 5. This is first and foremost in my mind. I enjoyed the part in the book about the window and mirror with regard to decision making. Leaders must be able to take the heat for decisions that don't go as planned, and then on the flip side they must share the success ones with others. This his hard to do, since most of us have been trained since childhood to hide mistakes and take the bow when things go well. There really is no place for fragile egos in leadership, but it seems that many in leadership positions suffer from exactly that.
2. Leaders must know themselves...their assets and liabilities. This is key to developing teams that are a well rounded whole. Again, this is hard to do because we often don't see ourselves as others see us. I think one of the interesting assessments suggested this semester is the one that compares our self perceptions to the perceptions of our peers.
3. Leaders must have a vision that is translatable to a team shared vision. I was struck by the theme of "shared vision" running through last weeks readings as well as this weeks. I believe the term vision has been abused in recent years. Visions statements have morphed into politically correct PR statements. The trick is to identify the real vision. This is difficult, because often there are hidden adgendas that create unknown variables into a problem or plan.

More later...

Off to a meeting about going to Ecuador on a medical mission trip during Spring Break (I'm really excited about this)...I'll post more later.

Now onto relections regarding leadership.

I was struck by the HUMILITY + WILL = LEVEL 5 discussion on the humility aspect of the equation. For example…the author states that Level 5 leaders often attribute their success to “luck”, versus taking credit for successful decisions made. I propose that luck DOES play a significant role. Just being in the right place, at the right time, and making the right decision.

Take for example, Cork Walgreens. I actually remember going to Walgreens as a kid and sitting at the counter getting a Coke or a malted milk. I really enjoyed those outings with my friends...and it was affordable for school girls like us. As a leader, Cork could have easily made the decision to focus the Walgreens brand on the restaurant aspect of the business and it is possible the name would have faded into oblivion. On the other hand, he might have been equally as successful with the restaurants as he was with the pharmacies. Perhaps, the success was in his focusing the company in one direction, and not necessarly restaurant over pharmacy operations. Since hindsight only allows us to look at the one course of action, we can only speculate about other outcomes. There was in fact an element of luck in the success of his company.

I am so thrilled...I finally got into my blog again! I couldn't remember the login, then I couldn't seem to remember the right password (tried every combination I could think of)...had to finally reset it...but now I'm in.
Just need to vent a little...