JACD 71-4 - American College of Dentists

National Leadership Symposium
40
grateful for the role that the profession
lets me have.
There is a lot more interest in leadership
than there is agreement on what
it is. No topic in business is more misunderstood
and aggressively debated.
Questions that are raised include:
• How do we teach leadership?”
• What qualities should we look for?
• Are these skills transferable?
• In short, what do good leaders do
that others don’t?
Opportunities for Leadership
Our generation has the opportunity to
foster an entirely new wave of leadership
thinking, one borne from a greater duty
and purpose, where it is fashionable
again to participate in collective programs
for the good of others in organizations
that understand and make relevant the
common values that people share.
Carl Sandburg once said, “Time is
the coin of your life.” Clearly, our most
important currency is our time, and we
have a choice about how we wish to
spend it. Volunteering in an association
leadership position is no easy task; it
takes lots of time. And that’s the likely
reason that recruiting and involving
volunteer leaders in association work
is not getting any easier. Cultivating
leadership skills and passing them on
to the next group of leaders is a major
responsibility of current leaders.
How many times have we all seen
Art mentoring new leaders, making sure
that tomorrow’s profession will be better
than today’s? A kind word in the clinic,
remembering your name and what
might be going on in your family, support
for a job well done, and reassuring
encouragement if he knows you could
do better. It is imperative for volunteer
leaders to understand how important
this part of the job is.
Let me share with you a story about
where I come from. My dad was the editor
and publisher of a small-town weekly
newspaper—you know, the kind where
you find out juicy stuff like who had
coffee with whom last week. I just could
never see myself continuing that business,
and our town dentist was such a good
role model for me—an outstanding citizen,
a leader in the community, a
successful business person and someone
who always took the time to talk with
me. So, at the ripe old age of eight, I
announced I was going to be a dentist.
Dad thought I was kidding, Mom
thought it was a very proud moment,
and my brother thought I was crazy. And
after you keep telling people something
like that long enough, you just can’t go
out and be something else.
I reflect on that beginning often as I
face the daily challenge of administering
and participating in the leadership of the
largest dental organization in the world.
I am what I am because of an individual,
a single dentist in a rural community, a
man who so innocently and unknowingly
changed my life. And I never got a chance
to tell him this, because I really did not
understand what influence he played in
my life until after I’d moved away.
Leadership is like that. You get lots
of chances to lead. Some of them aren’t
very obvious, and regrettably, we often
miss those opportunities to say thanks.
Every one of us ought to go up to Art
and say thanks. Thanks for making the
profession better, thanks for continuing
to give of your time and energy, thanks
for challenging us and, most of all,
thanks for showing us how it’s done by
always living the life of a leader.
What Do Leaders Do?
Now what do leaders really do (Kotter,
2001)? Back in 1977, Harvard Business
School professor Abraham Zaleznick
published an article titled “Managers and
leaders: are they different?” That sounds
simple, doesn’t it, but it created quite a
stir. The business schools reacted strongly
because this distinction did not fit with
their management models, or their
organizational charts. Zaleznick argued
that half the picture was missing. The
schools only saw leadership amid the
planning, processing, and net revenue
procreation. What they missed was the
part that’s filled with inspiration, vision,
and the full spectrum of human drives
and desires.
How do you measure a relationship?
Leaders don’t make plans, they don’t
solve problems, and they don’t even
organize people. What leaders really do
is help organizations see change, prepare
them for the journey ahead, and help
them struggle through it.
In short, leaders are about change,
and managers are about stability; and
only organizations or groups that
embrace both sides of that equation can
thrive in turbulent times. Leaders, therefore,
are dealers in hope. A leader’s first
challenge is not to identify the issues—
most everyone already sees the problems.
The real work is in lifting people or
organizations out of a state of resignation
and helping them or it embrace change.
India acquiesced to British rule for
generations until one inspired leader gave
people hope and showed them an effective
and moral strategy. John Winthrop,
the first governor of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony, told his settlers, “We shall be
a city on a hill, the eyes of all people
upon us.” This sense of hope sustained
them during their first winter and laid
the basis for generations of Americans.
Hope is the very essence of vision.
Contrary to what you might think,
leading a dental organization is not
inherently different from what we see in
the business world. You start with your
own personal core values, determine the
organization’s values, and develop a
2005 Volume 71, Number 4