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.