Leadership and Transition
The theme of the Opening Ceremony for our recently completed and successful Annual Meeting & OTO EXPOSM was “Transforming, Thriving, Together.”I want to emphasize the importance of this theme, as it is not just alliterative platitude, but an accurate description of our transition during this time of uncertainty related to healthcare reform. While admittedly this is partly aspirational, as a specialty we have achieved admirable success in rapidly developing a strong focus on new quality and knowledge products, health services and patient safety research, and successful advocacy for the specialty. Leadership is required at every level, from every member, and from each element of our governance and structure in order for our specialty to thrive as we transition to the change around us. As businessman, writer, and founder of The Center for Leadership, Max Depree stated in his book Leadership is an Art: “In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” As hard as it feels to manage the transitions and transformations that are being asked of physicians, we can take heart in knowing that as physicians we are trained and expert in being flexible. Every patient is different, every clinical challenge is nuanced. It is in our nature to strive, to search, to learn, and to improve. In other words, to thrive while we transform to a better version of ourselves. Another of the most storied contemporary leadership experts, Peter Drucker has written, “Leadership is not magnetic personality—that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people—that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”As we advocate for what should not change—excellence in healthcare; a focus on our patients and their needs; our integrity; our dedication—we must be both leaders and followers devoted to the principles of that higher standard and lifting our vision to higher sights. We have been richly blessed with exceptional leaders at all levels in the Academy boards, committees, work groups, and task forces. We must be wise enough to choose the best leaders who inspire us to follow their collective plan for improving our care of and defending our commitment to our patients and their health. This requires integrity. As Dwight Eisenhower stated, “In order to be a leader a [person] must have followers. And to have followers, a [person] must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a [person’s] associates find him [her] guilty of being phony, if they find that he [she] lacks forthright integrity, he [she] will fail.” No matter what else we do, we must continue to develop and be effective leaders. As we continue to transform and thrive together, let’s not forget that.

The theme of the Opening Ceremony for our recently completed and successful Annual Meeting & OTO EXPOSM was “Transforming, Thriving, Together.”I want to emphasize the importance of this theme, as it is not just alliterative platitude, but an accurate description of our transition during this time of uncertainty related to healthcare reform. While admittedly this is partly aspirational, as a specialty we have achieved admirable success in rapidly developing a strong focus on new quality and knowledge products, health services and patient safety research, and successful advocacy for the specialty.
Leadership is required at every level, from every member, and from each element of our governance and structure in order for our specialty to thrive as we transition to the change around us. As businessman, writer, and founder of The Center for Leadership, Max Depree stated in his book Leadership is an Art: “In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”
As hard as it feels to manage the transitions and transformations that are being asked of physicians, we can take heart in knowing that as physicians we are trained and expert in being flexible. Every patient is different, every clinical challenge is nuanced. It is in our nature to strive, to search, to learn, and to improve. In other words, to thrive while we transform to a better version of ourselves.
Another of the most storied contemporary leadership experts, Peter Drucker has written, “Leadership is not magnetic personality—that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people—that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”As we advocate for what should not change—excellence in healthcare; a focus on our patients and their needs; our integrity; our dedication—we must be both leaders and followers devoted to the principles of that higher standard and lifting our vision to higher sights.
We have been richly blessed with exceptional leaders at all levels in the Academy boards, committees, work groups, and task forces. We must be wise enough to choose the best leaders who inspire us to follow their collective plan for improving our care of and defending our commitment to our patients and their health. This requires integrity.
As Dwight Eisenhower stated, “In order to be a leader a [person] must have followers. And to have followers, a [person] must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a [person’s] associates find him [her] guilty of being phony, if they find that he [she] lacks forthright integrity, he [she] will fail.”
No matter what else we do, we must continue to develop and be effective leaders. As we continue to transform and thrive together, let’s not forget that.