Great leaders are able to turn their ideas into action and output, according to Ronald Navarro, MD, regional coordinating chief of orthopedic surgery of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group.
He spoke on the "Becker's Spine and Orthopedic Podcast" about what aspiring leaders should know.
This is an excerpt. Listen to the full podcast here.
Question: What are your three pieces of advice for emerging leaders today?
Dr. Ronald Navarro: I think we have to all be honest about what we can do at the level we're at. When you're a medical student, I think that you can do certain things and you also probably cannot attempt to change the world. I never say never; I never say always in my business, and I think we should take that approach. I think that the exceptionally rare person can change things at any level, but I think we have to work within the constraints of the level we're at.
The second thing is to make a mark with your output. I believe that if you do that great work, that's eventually what gets you to the podium or the soapbox or the podcast. If you try to lead with some fundamental difference that you have, and haven't done the work to prove that you're a good clinician, or that you work within a team atmosphere well, that may not always get you there. I think that we all have to start by our work and really proving that we can really do the key, the basic work well. Then later on you get the other attention.
Lastly, I think opinions are great and actions are actions and long term operationalizing ideas are what people are remembered by. So often we always have these great ideas, but it's not always that we make them put them into operation and then measure them down the line to prove that they are delivering on the idealized hope that they can deliver on. It's kind of hard work and basic work, and some people believe it to be boring and mundane, but in the end, you're remembered because of the hard work you put in to make something actionable.