November 4, 2019 | (68) Comments

Maxim No. 2: Leadership applies to everyone.

I started my role at Texas Children’s Hospital in November 2018 and quickly realized that even though I, a Decentralized Quality Improvement Specialist, am not a formal leader our culture here at Texas Children’s allows everyone to lead. We all are leaders in our own way, some more visibly than others.  Some people are leaders and they do not even realize that they are leading, but we are all watching and learning from their actions.

My current role was vacant before I was blessed to join my team in the Mark Wallace Tower Outpatient Pediatrics areas.  As excited as I was, and still am, I quickly understood I was diving into the world of being an informal leader.  Many of my colleagues will call with quality and safety questions knowing I will have the answer.  In that moment, it is my job to lead them. It is my job to help them with their concerns and move them in the right direction. I must be willing to question, I must be willing to ask for help if I don’t know and I must be willing to do the work with them to solve the problem.

Being a leader is not always about knowing everything or having the right answer the second you are asked.  Leading is knowing when to ask for help or knowing when to say, “I’m not sure, let me get back to you.”

Often times, leaders are expected to know everything. What makes someone a good leader is their ability to help their team or their peers find the right way and their willingness to work alongside them to get to the goal. Leadership is knowing when to step up and take control or when to step back and watch and learn from those you are leading. A true leader yearns for new knowledge every day and seeks out opportunities to be taught. When you look at leadership in this way, we are ALL leaders.  Leadership is something we can ALL do. Leadership applies to everyone.

Although, I have only been here a short time, I have grown and learned so much by watching my formal leaders and my peers, soaking in all of the knowledge they can give me. What I do with that knowledge is up to me.  I have chosen to use it to guide the decisions I make and the advice I give as an informal leader to those around me.  If we all keep the mentality that WE ARE ALWAYS leading, we cannot fail.  Leadership is not a class and it is not a title.  Leadership is what you do when no one is watching.  Leadership is a choice.  What will you choose?

I’d like to hear from you … how do you embrace your power to lead and make a difference every day?


Take the leadership challenge, and score a spot at a Houston Texans event!

Over the next few weeks, Mark Wallace’s blog will feature guest bloggers who share how Mr. Wallace’s Leadership Maxims apply to them and their roles at Texas Children’s. Each blog post will pose a leadership question that you may respond to in the comments section.

Throughout November, the Corporate Communications team will randomly select 100 people from the comments to attend a private event with the Houston Texans, including a behind-the-scenes tour of NRG Stadium, an autograph session with two Houston Texans football players and photos with Texans cheerleaders. The event will be held on Tuesday, December 3.

October 29, 2019 | (42) Comments

Back in April, I asked you to share how my Leadership Maxims apply to you and your roles at Texas Children’s. I received so many thoughtful responses, all of which confirm that employees at Texas Children’s take Maxim No. 2 – Leadership Applies to Everyone – to heart.

I recently had the opportunity to visit with all respondents and thank them for sharing their leadership stories.

Since then, I have chosen five responses to highlight on my blog over the next few weeks. This is the first time I’ve featured guest bloggers and I’m really excited! Each blog will focus on one of the first five of my 10 Leadership Maxims:

  1. Leadership always influences or determines outcomes – not some of the time, but all of the time.
  2. Leadership applies to everyone.
  3. We lead in our professional lives and in our personal lives.
  4. We all should have our own definition of leadership.
  5. The key characteristics to look for when selecting people are a winning attitude and strong work ethic.

The first guest blogger – Daniel Osmand, a paralegal with our Legal Department – writes about Maxim No. 1: Leadership always influences or determines outcomes. I hope you enjoy learning his intimate thoughts on leadership and stay tuned for the guest blogs to come.

Maxim 1: Leadership always influences or determines outcomes – not some of the time, but all of the time

Leadership always influences or determines outcomes – not some of the time, but all of the time – and thank goodness it does! Today, I work for the top children’s hospital in America because of leadership choices my parents made years ago in war-torn former Yugoslavia.

The Yugoslav Wars were the backdrop of my childhood. Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, I was too young to understand that I was living through what would come to be known as Europe’s most devastating conflict since World War II.  I was also too young to put into words what leadership meant, but I was not too young to watch true leadership happen.  The leaders I’m speaking of are my parents. I watched them as they watched the news, talked to members of the community, and strategically planned the best time to flee our home.

I was too young to realize that as I fled with my mother, who showed leadership by taking her children toward an unknown future and saying goodbye to my father – who showed leadership in a different way by staying behind – that their actions determined the outcome of my future, and eventually the future of others at Texas Children’s.  I was too young to realize that I would never go back home. I am old enough now to realize that I am home, both in the United States of America and at Texas Children’s Hospital.

As a refugee, I lived in Serbia and then in Dusseldorf, Germany, where my dad’s oldest brother lived.  My mother wanted the best for us, so she enrolled us in the German school system where we had to learn the language before learning any other subject.  My father was eventually reunited with us, and after the signing of the Peace Agreement that brought an end to the war, my parents were forced to make yet another decision that would determine my outcome. They had to decide to whether to go back to a destroyed community and trust that the very short-lived, fragile peace would continue under the same leadership and tensions that brought war, or to put their children’s safety first. The latter prevailed.

My mom applied to immigrate to the United States through the government’s Refugee Program. I remember arriving in Dallas where my family was taken to a rundown apartment complex infested with rodents.  My dad led again as he made the decision to call a taxi to bring us to Houston where we lived in a one bedroom apartment with another family.

Watching my parents lead us through the immigration process with grace and perseverance sparked my interested in U.S. immigration law.  Today, I coordinate all immigration-related matters in my role as a paralegal for Texas Children’s Legal Department.  I have lived the process, faced war, and found hope in the United States because of my parents’ leadership.  I now get to help others find that hope. I now get to lead.

I’d like to hear from you … how has good leadership influenced the way you work?

Take the leadership challenge, and score a spot at a Houston Texans event!

Over the next few weeks, Mark Wallace’s blog will feature guest bloggers who share how Mr. Wallace’s Leadership Maxims apply to them and their roles at Texas Children’s. Each blog post will pose a leadership question that you may respond to in the comments section.

Throughout November, the Corporate Communications team will randomly select 100 people from the comments to attend a private event with the Houston Texans, including a behind-the-scenes tour of NRG Stadium, an autograph session with two Houston Texans football players and photos with Texans cheerleaders. The event will be held on Tuesday, December 3.

September 30, 2019 | (1) Comments

When Texas Children’s opened its doors in 1954, an infectious disease was the most common reason for an infant or child to require a stay at the hospital. Intensive study of contagious diseases like measles, mumps and chicken pox in children was just emerging, and it had only been eight years since the influenza vaccine had been approved for widespread use.

When we celebrated Texas Children’s 50th anniversary in 2004, infectious diseases were still the most common reason for our patients and their families to require a hospital stay – but by then, it was because we had developed a global reputation for pioneering research and expertise in the field. Visionaries like Dr. Ralph Feigin, Dr. Martha Dukes Yow, Dr. Sheldon L. Kaplan and others laid a foundation of innovation that made the hospital a beacon of hope for communities once ravaged by influenza, rubella and other infections.

That spirit lives on at Texas Children’s today as we strive to advance pediatric and women’s health care. We seek out opportunities to take the lead in both big and small ways – from conducting cutting-edge research, to simply being at the head of the line for the flu shot each year and encouraging our colleagues to do the same.

As One Amazing Team, we share a responsibility to our patients, their families and each other to prevent the transmission of vaccine-preventable diseases like the flu. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and our own infectious disease experts agree that children under 5 years old, and especially those under 2, are particularly at risk to develop potentially serious and even life-threatening complications.

By stepping up to get your flu shot – and getting it early – you’re helping to reduce flu illnesses, doctor’s visits, missed workdays and those flu-related hospitalizations that were all-too-common at Texas Children’s only decades ago. It’s a proven fact: the flu vaccine is safe, effective and the single most important tool we have to protect these most vulnerable children and all of our patients and families, team members and our entire community against the virus.

Start planning now to attend an Employee Health flu event, receive your vaccination at no cost, affix that 2019/20 flu sticker to your badge and lead tirelessly as you make a positive impact that will touch everyone you encounter.

I’ll be there too, and I hope you’ll save me a spot next to you at the front of the line!

April 30, 2018 | (7) Comments

When I became President and CEO of Texas Children’s Hospital almost 30 years ago, the Department of Surgery was a small, tight-knit group of highly skilled surgeons who operated on children with a variety of health issues.

Today, things look much the same but on a significantly larger scale. Over time, Texas Children’s Department of Surgery has become one of the largest pediatric surgery programs in the nation, spanning nine surgical divisions: Congenital Heart Surgery, Dental, Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Otolaryngology, Pediatric Surgery, Plastic Surgery and Urology. These divisions work in conjunction with our partners in Anesthesiology, Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, and Transplant Services.

One of the main reasons for our Department of Surgery’s long-standing success is strong leadership. Beginning with our first Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Luke W. Able, who trained under the father of pediatric surgery Dr. William E. Ladd, to Dr. Charles D. Fraser, whose focus on outstanding outcomes solidified our already stellar reputation, leadership has always been the glue that holds the department together and the force that drives it to greater heights.

I am confident we will continue this legacy and advance it even further under the leadership of the hospital’s newest Surgeon-in-Chief Dr. Larry Hollier. Dr. Hollier is an extraordinarily talented plastic surgeon who joined Texas Children’s Hospital 20 years ago after earning his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine and training in general and plastic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and New York University Medical Center.

During his tenure at Texas Children’s, Dr. Hollier has led the hospital’s Plastic Surgery Division, championed patient experience organization wide, participated in a variety of global efforts and performed countless life-changing plastic and reconstructive surgeries. He is undeniably dedicated to our mission and has a burning passion for making our organization the best it can be in an ever-changing health care climate.

What sets Dr. Hollier apart even more is his focused yet humble leadership style. Rather than a top-down approach, Dr. Hollier believes in empowering sharp, nimble people in the organization to blaze their own paths. He sees his role as surgeon-in-chief not as being in charge, but as taking care of the people in his charge. Yet, he can also make the thoughtful and sometimes difficult decisions needed to help move the department and the organization forward.

I appreciate that he is such a bold and decisive leader with a keen and natural ability to consider the entire Texas Children’s system. Dr. Hollier perceives Texas Children’s as a team of teams, and I like that. His thinking and his approach is vital to the continued growth of our organization and to our long-term efforts to improve patient access and coordinated care.

I am excited to see what great things Dr. Hollier does at Texas Children’s in the years to come. He already has contributed so much. Please join me in congratulating him on his new post.