Cultivating Wise Leaders
Dr. Carol R. has spent much of her life in leadership roles in the healthcare field. With many “lessons learned” under her belt—and a sincere interest in befriending young adults—she was a great fit as a mentor for Amari F., a Hope College 2021 graduate in social work.
“One thing Amari is interested in is what a leadership role in healthcare looks like,” says Carol. “She’s in the beginning part of her career. We’ve talked about what she’s experiencing now and how to get to other places in your profession. That’s been a large part of our conversations.”
The healthcare field is demanding, with many stresses and long hours. Many medical professionals “burn the candle at both ends,” Carols reports. Amari has felt this reality. Her job at a Michigan nonprofit advocacy organization is both rewarding and demanding. Simultaneously, she’s putting in many clinical hours at the local hospital as part of her graduate degree in medical social work. Carol says Amari wants to do both things very well. “Amari admits she’s a perfectionist,” she adds. “A lot of people in healthcare are.” Carol is grateful for how she has seen Amari become more aware of “being too hard on herself.”
“[My mentee] is in the beginning part of her career. We’ve talked about what she’s experiencing now and how to get to other places in your profession. That’s been a large part of our conversations.”
Leadership formation is a key part of the inVocation Fellows program. Wise leaders can identify their limits and discern when to say yes and no. Carol says she’s seen this kind of growth in Amari. Recalling how Amari decided not to take on a new project with her church, Carol says, “I think it was good for her to take a step back and re-evaluate where she was at.”
As a mentor, Carol says she’s been intentional about “just mostly listening” and “not telling [Amari] what to do.” She’s asked questions and shared insights from her own career. “Amari was wondering whether she should cut back her clinical hours in light of the demands of her work at the nonprofit,” Carol explains. “And the question I posed to her was, “What’s your priority in the next five years versus what’s your long-haul goal in the next 10-15 years?’ You have to pick your priorities. “ She reminded Amari that once she was licensed in medical social work, she’d have even more to offer as she pursued her future dream of being a leader in a nonprofit focused on healthcare.
The inVocation Fellows emphasizes that good leadership requires navigating conflict in a Christlike way. This spring, Amari was facing some conflicts at her job and Carol was able to share some insights from her own work life:
Whenever you’ve got conflict, you’ve got to try to hang your assumptions on a coat rack outside the door; you know, not [coming] in with any assumptions. And the first thing you have to do is define your terms. What are we really talking about here? You can’t respond emotionally, you have to sit and listen and try to hear what the actual issue is, because a lot of times, it isn’t what you think it is… I like to go into [a conflict] with the belief that it’s [rooted in] a knowledge deficit, until I’ve been proved wrong. We can figure out some common definitions and understandings and then work from there.
She adds that self-examination is also required. “You’ve got to reflect on your own words and behaviors, the signals you may or may not have been giving. That’s part of practicing humble leadership.”
“Whenever you’ve got conflict, you’ve got to try to hang your assumptions on a coat rack outside the door. And the first thing you have to do is define your terms…. You have to sit and listen and try to hear what the actual issue is, because a lot of times, it isn’t what you think it is.”
Carol was gratified by the way Amari carefully considered her reflections. “It was nice to see somebody of a different generation respectfully listening. She didn’t just brush off [my comments]. She had her little notebook, you know, taking notes. And when we’d get together the next time, it was obvious that she’d thought about what we had talked about.”
In her application to the Fellows program, Amari wrote that she wanted to become a better leader. In Dr. Robinson, God provided her a mentor who has modeled the way forward.
