Dr. William E. Hardy recently spoke to nearly 500 students enrolled in Dr. Michael Wieting and Dr. Brandy Fuesting's Foundations of Modern Healthcare course, using Abraham Lincoln's leadership style as a prototypical example for medical students to be optimally effective in their professional role, as members of their profession and its various organizations, and in their community.
Dr. Hardy focused his remarks on key features of Lincoln's leadership, with specific examples that related to Lincoln's demonstrated value of an open door, collaborative and team-focused approach. Lincoln's example of leadership is one in which he proved: his willingness to negotiate what is negotiable; his use of personal and organizational values as filters for decision-making; his demonstrated value of diverse opinions and perspectives; being familiar with all aspects of issues; thinking through matters carefully in order to drill down to the root cause(s) of an issue; his use of teamwork to leverage talent where it was found; an emphasis upon making the best long-term (rather than most expedient) decision possible upon clear, frequent, and calm communication in simple, easily-understood terms; and, finally, his ability to be humble, empathetic, and learn from his own mistakes.