Category: Initiatives

The Servant Leader

“ In this world, a man (or woman) must be either an anvil or a hammer”.

It is unlikely Henry Longfellow was referring to the anatomy of the middle ear in this analogy. The nineteenth century educator and poet most likely intended to draw on similarities between the nature of humanity and characteristics of manufacturing tools in common use during his lifetime. Nevertheless, the twenty-first century medical leader must embody features common to both the anvil, and the incus; to listen, to act with innovation, to be a visionary and to inspire others to improve the health of individuals and communities, while retaining integrity at all times. The twenty-first century medical leader is a servant leader.

October 19, 2008

Work-Life Balance

Everyone has many roles in life – from employee, colleague, and team mate to parent, partner, sibling, and carer; these roles change throughout the lifecycle. The demands of each of these roles vary between people, depending on lifestyle and priorities. They each require time and energy, and since clashes between such demands are not infrequent, they tend to cause stress. Resultant stress is inclined to cause work-life conflict; conversely, work-life balance tends to occur when these two sets of demands are flexible enough to allow time and energy for the other. [1, 2]

October 19, 2008

Advocacy

Advocacy is in essence an act of representation, where an advocate is someone who argues on behalf of other people in fighting for a particular cause or idea. As medical women, we will potentially need to act as advocates for a broad range of people: for our patients, for our children, for our colleagues, for other women, and even for animals or for the environment. Accordingly, advocacy can and does take many different forms, from an informal discussion amongst friends to formal proposals to policy-makers.

October 19, 2008

Women and Leadership in Aboriginal communities

Over one year has passed since “emergency response” legislation was enacted by the Federal government in the Northern Territory. A raft of measures has been implemented as part of this intervention, including welfare quarantining, the suspension of the racial discrimination act and increased police powers in prescribed areas. While there are certainly examples of successful women leaders in Aboriginal communities, the NT intervention has undermined and castrated their capacity for leadership. Furthermore, this assimilation-based approach to Aboriginal affairs in Australia gives little hope that indigenous people will achieve self-determination and be supported in leadership of their own communities.

October 19, 2008

Mentoring Women In Medicine

Mentoring has been shown to be beneficial in many career fields, including medicine. A systematic review has shown that mentorship in academic medicine increases personal and career development and research productivity (1). However, mentoring may not always be a positive experience, particularly for women. In the field of medicine, men are three times as likely as women to describe having a mentor as a positive experience that influenced their careers, and women doctors perceive that it is more difficult for them to find a mentor than for men to find one (1). Optimising the mentoring process is important. Specifically, access to mentoring and optimising the experience of mentorship are important goals.

October 19, 2008

Confidence in Leadership

Confidence is a subjective, emotional state of mind. It is about being comfortable in your own skin, and reassured enough to act. It comes from the balance of believing in yourself, mastering your fears, and understanding what you want, and then what you’re prepared to do to get it.

October 1, 2008

The Importance of Leadership Training

Women comprise over 50% of medical graduates but they remain under-represented in senior leadership positions in academic medicine, practice settings, and professional medical organisations¹. The reasons for this are unclear but the need for opportunities to improve leadership capability among medical women is clear. Without these opportunities the profession will deprive itself both of the diversity of the work styles and values that women bring to the profession, as well as much of the capable pool of candidates to effectively fill such important positions².

August 10, 2008

Setting Your Goals

The fundamental skill of setting a goal is an open secret known by top-caliber athletes, successful businessmen and businesswomen and all the top achievers in every different field. Setting effective goals gives you short-term and long-term motivation and focus. Goals help you focus on the acquisition of any required knowledge and they help you to plan and organize your resources and your time so that you can get the best out of your life.

July 21, 2008