Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection: Leadership Philosophy

Interview with Amy Carpenter Hay, MS 
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Leaders invested in the institution

"[B]eing a female leader at this organization is oftentimes challenging.  And I think that’s changed over the last decade.  I can honestly say that…And part of that changing has come with individuals like myself… who are fully invested in the institution, and are passionate enough to be assertive and to stand up for not only what we believe in, but what is best for the institution… the biggest advice I give everyone is, if you don’t know what to do, ask yourself what is best for the institution?  [I]t may not be what’s best for you personally.  But if you are always doing what’s best for the institution, then you’re making the right decision."  

Interview with Raphael Pollock, MD
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Reflecting on listening and leadership

"As soon as you are seeking to listen, you’re opening yourself up to empathy—empathizing with someone else. Can you put yourself in their shoes? Can you look through their eyes and see what the horizon looks like? Can you remember back to when you were a first-year assistant professor and it looked like there were these giants walking the earth who could crush you with a single step? Can you think about how terrified you were about taking on new things that you didn’t know how to do yet with mentorship available? Can you think about that? Are you able to still recreate that in your mind?

As soon as you make the commitment to listening, you open yourself up to empathy and you open your mind up to someone else. If you’re going to be a leader, particularly if you’re going to practice servant leadership, you have to think about this from the perspective of what does someone else want to accomplish. And that includes people who may not have as much insight or experience or native talent or whatever."

Interview with Barbara Summers, PhD
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Being a nursing leader

"…[T]here’s lots of definitions of leadership, but I think leading is a state of being. I mean, if you’re a leader, you’re in a state of being a leader, and everything you do has to be consistent with being a leader. My definition of leadership is engaging the hearts and minds of others in pursuit of a shared vision, but the way you do that is by …not telling people what they have to do, but by leading.

 

…I would like to say my style is transformational, that I want to inspire people to be at their very best and to come together around a vision for a preferred future and then move ahead …. So, transformational, inspirational, aspirational, not transactional. I really don’t like the, you know, “If you do this for me, I’ll give you that. If you get this, then you’re going to get your merit increase.” I don’t think that that pays in the long run as a leader. "