Public Health Intersection

Recently I made a rather cavalier statement at the end of a difficult session with my management team.

Let me just say, before I go any further, that I'm thrilled to have a management team.

In my previous position, I was pretty much a one person show.

I can't tell you how much it helps to share the successes and challenges with a team that is committed to achieving the same vision.

But let’s get back to what I said.

What I said was, "Anyone can lead in good times".

And that's actually what I meant.

I've had a long and varied life and career and have survived many twists and turns in both.

I think, however, that sometimes as leaders we expect everyone to just "suck it up and go on".

Particularly in difficult times when, as a leader, you are pretty confident that things are eventually going to turn out okay.

I think we have to stop ourselves, and, wait for it… wait for it…take a big step back, (If you’ve read this blog, or its introduction, before you had to know that was coming).

We need to step back and take into account that not everyone has had our experience, that not everyone has our resources, that not everyone has our perspective.

We need to step back and take everyone's concerns seriously.

There are times when we think people are just whining, in difficult times it can often be much more than that.

An often quoted line from former President Clinton was, "I feel your pain".

Whether sincere or not it gave the impression that he had stopped and actually thought about you and your situation.

Recently, there have been too many stories about leaders who in spite of difficult times, refused to feel the pain, refused to share the hard times, refused to believe that they had a responsibility to find ways to help make the hard times easier on everyone.

As leaders, we have to be more than just hopeful, we have to do more than just tell people it's gonna be all right.

We have to dig in and find real solutions, we have to get out of our comfort zone and get serious about making things better for everyone.