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| What PAs and NPs are looking for: Leadership and Courage |
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by Bob Blumm, MA, PA-C, DFAAPA - May 11, 2011
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Here are the basics---- at the United States Army Officer Training School at Fort Benning, Georgia; you will find a statue of a soldier raising his arm and hand, encouraging his fellow soldiers to “Follow Me.” You cannot be an effective leader without followers, and you cannot have followers unless you have proven yourself to be a leader.
To say “courage and leadership” is to say courage twice, and leadership, with the proper motivation, is often courage in action. Courage is to face the unexpected, the unknown and the ability to face fear head-on, and can only be experienced in unscripted times of danger or events and circumstances where you and others are on the line. Courage is a vigorous word as we have seen this week by President Obama as well as the Navy Seal Team. Courage denotes a battle ready mind; one that is prepared to act. Examine, for a moment, the profile of a hero. Heroes never plan their acts of courage, but rather, when facing an urgent decision in the face of danger, they become people of action. The courageous leader faces the circumstances, faces the fear and the danger and goes forward regardless of the adverse situations. To be paralyzed in the face of an urgent decision, to count one’s own cost or career, is to be fatally ineffective.
But leaders face danger from two sides: that of the immediate situation and that of knowing that their decisions and actions make them vulnerable to the very people and fellow leaders who serve with them. No one but a true leader can know the deep meaning of loneliness as they experience this emotion as the surrounding commentators second guess their actions without the responsibility of the outcomes. An effective leader has the ability to place their personal feelings aside and make decisions that will make a difference. This is true of the president of the United States as well as a leader in a profession that ultimately makes a decision that could be unpopular yet morally needs to be done.
To explore leadership, we must consider what it really is and why we desire to be in a leadership role, a role of vulnerability. Are we masochists, are we crazy, are we ego driven, why? Ego is a part of leadership and it is necessary to get the job done, to others it is prestige and popularity and photo opportunities and to yet others, it’s an opportunity to serve our colleagues. Some motivations are pure and others are self serving. Real leaders will not, however, become self absorbed. Real leaders will be searching their hearts and those for whom they are responsible and seek to find solutions that will bring us forward for generations to come. When faced with difficult decisions, when boards and committees are deadlocked, true leaders go beyond self interest or popularity and move forward into analysis and action. It is the awesome burden of leaders to make decisions and to take the responsibility for those decisions. Experienced leaders have learned to take advice from all of their peers, not only from those with the same philosophy. This takes honesty, humility, patience, experience and intelligence: five qualities that need to be cultivated early if the group is to prosper and survive.
Leadership also requires the “leadership team” to pay a price, and ignorance of this fact will cause a disaster for both the leaders and the organizations or professions. Every leadership team enjoys what we call mountain top experiences, but we also face deep lonely valleys as well. I was once reminded by a senior leader that it is not on the mountain where the vegetation grows but rather in the valley. Leadership is like a concerto and it implies movement and achievement. One cannot lead or achieve without good intelligence, energy, faithfulness and a little risk. Without risk, it would be easy to make decisions, ask the president. A great leader and a great leadership team are people that take risks to become achievers; they are not merely advocates of achievement. They are the risk takers and the road makers, People cannot be served merely by ideas as they must be successfully translated into actions coupled with courage to risk all so that ideas can be realized.
Successful leaders must have the courage to acknowledge that risk, cooperation and involvement are the ingredients that produce achievement. Plans require other humans, our colleagues, our fellow professionals, and our membership and will fail unless that membership is kept informed and involved. Involvement is not a solitary act but one that requires every NP or PA that wishes their profession to continue to move forward regardless of the adversity. In closing; leadership is much more than holding an office or a position. It is in its essence, having the courage to focus on and pursue ideas; especially in times of adversity. It is winning the battle to involve others: to inspire their hearts and minds to join and fulfill a cause that is strongly believed in. It is making the commitment to take the risks to act, accomplish and achieve. How about it PAs and NPs? Are you up to the task?
 Robert M. Blumm has received national recognition as a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA). He is the past president of the Association of Plastic Surgery Physician Assistants, and was past-president of the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants, past president of the American College of Clinicians and NYSSPA, as well as Chairman of the Surgical Congress of the AAPA. In addition, Bob received the John Kirklin MD Award for Professional Excellence from the American Association of Surgical Physician Assistants. Along with his associate, Dr. Acker, Bob was the first recipient of the AAPA PAragon Physician-PA Partnership Award. He has been a contributing author of three textbooks, written 150 plus articles and is a sought out conference speaker throughout the United States.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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