Focused Leadership Newsletters

July 2017 Edition

“Focused Leadership" is a monthly e-mail sponsored by the Women Scholars Initiative. This e-mail is sent to all faculty members and features leadership-related articles and resources. We deliver brief, thought provoking, and most importantly, useful e-mails once a month.

Leaders on Leading

We asked Dr. Jeffrey Borckardt, Professor; Department of Psychiatry, Anesthesia, and Stomatology: What is the most important advice you would give someone interested in moving into a leadership position?"

His response
“Trust in the excellence of the people around you, give them freedom to be creative, provide just enough structure and direction for them to stay on task, and afford them the autonomy they need to grow their own sense of pride and professional identity. Also, in a highly complex institution like MUSC, it is very important to develop strategies for observing and learning how each decision you and your team make can both positively and negatively impact different facets of the organization. You have to learn to see potential ripple effects and the far-reaching downstream impact that your decisions can have. So, encourage your team to use as much data as possible, from as many sources as possible, when making strategic decisions.”

Leadership Resources

How to develop the 3 most neglected leadership qualities
“The three most neglected leadership qualities are kind candor, courageous transparency, and forward-facing curiosity. You might be good at one, but very few excel at all three.”

Dan Rockwell, Leadership Freak

The Art of Possibility, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

The Book in Three Sentences:

  • Everything in life is an invention.
  • If you choose to look at your life in a new way, then suddenly your problems fade away.
  • One of the best ways to do this is to focus on the possibilities surrounding you in any situation rather than slipping into the default mode of measuring and comparing your life to others.

Choosing Your Spot
It's difficult to find the leverage to make a difference. At your job, there are probably people with more experience than you, more domain knowledge than you, even more skills than you. The same is true about your competition. But there's one place where you can make your mark: Your attitude.

You can bring more generosity of spirit, more enthusiasm, more kindness, more resilience, more positive energy, more bravery, and more magic to the room than anyone else, at least right now. Because you choose to.

That can be what you stand for.

These aren't soft skills.. They're real.

Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog

Stanley McChrystal is a retired four-star general who led JSOC -- the group that oversees special operations units like Navy SEALs and Army Rangers.
He's had to give a lot of motivational talks and he had to give them to people doing stuff a lot more intimidating than anything you and I will ever do. How does he do it?

  • All his talks follow a simple five-step formula. He says:
  • Here’s what I’m asking you to do.
  • Here’s why it’s important.
  • Here’s why I know you can do it.
  • Think about what you’ve done together before.
  • Now let’s go and do it.

Be More Successful: New Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Do It

  • Success doesn’t bring happiness. Happiness brings success.
  • See problems as challenges, not threats.
  • More work means you need more social support. And giving support is better than receiving.
  • Send a 2-minute “thank you” email every morning.
  • Use the 20-second rule to build the habit (explained here)

The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor as cited in Eric Barker’s blog, “Barking Up the Wrong Tree”

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain

Upcoming Events

July 11 – Faculty Senate Meeting – you’re invited. 7:45 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. Gazes Auditorium, Room 125

July 11 – August 8 – Apple Tree Six-Part Series: Habits of Highly Effective Teachers

July 12 – Next Research Administration Updates 11:00 to 12:00 P.M. Institute of Psychiatry First Floor Auditorium

July 14 – South Carolina Conference on Innovations in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

July 18 – MUSC Science Café Topic: Immunology Speaker: Zihai Li, Ph.D., Chair and Professor, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology 5:30 P.M., Charleston Beer Works (Upstairs, 480 King Street)

July 18 - Office of Research Development PCORI Workshop 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. Bioengineering Auditorium 110

August 22 - Inaugural James W. Colbert Lectureship Series and Faculty Convocation

The Office of the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost is hosting the inaugural James W. Colbert Lectureship as part of Faculty Convocation.

The Colbert Lectureship Series was established through the generosity of the family of the late Dr. James W. Colbert, to honor his tenure as Provost at MUSC. Distinguished guests include the family of Dr. Colbert, and inaugural Colbert Lecture speaker, Brian Miller, M.D., a pre-eminent speaker on patient-centered care, palliative and end-of-life care, and assistant clinical professor of medicine at UC San Francisco.

TIME: 4:00 p.m. - Convocation and Lecture; 5:45 p.m. - Reception

“Focused Leadership” is an email series sponsored by the ARROW Initiative.