See One, Do One, TEACH One: Getting the Best out of People and Being an Effective Teacher/Leader

I think we are lucky to have so many leaders in education in our department. Even if you plan to move to rural Montana to practice after residency you will most likely have to educate nurses, physician assistants as well as other physicians. Everyone has there own style in helping you get to clinical monster status. We are in a unique business as resident physicians where our teachers become our bosses and leaders. Long hours at work, being away from friends and family and not seeing the sun can take its toll on motivation especially in the upcoming winter months.

This is a subject that has been on my mind as the pre-attending role continues at County. I have had great encounters with my junior residents and some not so great encounters. But I always find it good to reflect and improve upon the new situations that are intrinsic to this role.

A few weeks ago in the twitterverse I came across an article that was posted. The subject of the article entitled “Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results” was a tough music teacher that received good results (http://on.wsj.com/15LjU5F). I immediately agreed because the focus was on an orchestra director and I could relate. But this made me think about the types of educators/leaders that I feel I perform at my best. I think its best for a great educators to know when to wear a different hat in order to get the best results from individuals.

In his article “4 Things Leaders Must Do to Bring the Best Out Of People” (http://bit.ly/nBnWv5) speaker James Guess outlines 4 qualities of a good leader. He states that being able to apply these four leadership qualities in the optimal situation will yield good results. Now as a person of science you may ask has any of this been studied to be factual? Some of it has been studied some of it is anecdotal. This article is a very quick read and afterwards take a quick quiz to see what types of individuals motivate others!

link to quiz

This is great food for thought especially if you feel a certain senior resident or attending is giving you a hard time! Sure it may be personality but it is their way of motivating you to learn more about the practice of emergency medicine. This is in no way met to be all inclusive merely the surface of effective leadership and how to effectively motivate people.