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Welcome to the AOA Future in Orthopedic Surgery podcast series.
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This AOA podcast series will focus on the future in orthopedic surgery and the impact on leaders in our profession.
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These podcasts will focus on the vast spectrum of change that will occur as the future reveals itself.
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We will consider changes as they occur in the domains of culture, employment, technology, scope of practice, compensation, and other areas.
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My name is Doug Lundy, host for this podcast series.
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Joining us today is Dr.
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Mike Archdeacon.
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Dr.
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Archdeacon is the Peter J.
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Stern professor and chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
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He serves as the Medical Director of Operative Services and the Director of the Division of Musculoskeletal Traumatology at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
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He's board certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery and specializes in difficult fresh care.
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Dr.
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Archdeacon attended Tulane University School of Engineering and then obtained his bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering.
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He then attended the Ohio State University College of Medicine where he received his MD.
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Then he also obtained an MS in biomedical engineering at the Ohio State University College before he completed a general surgery internship and Allen Orthopedic Surgical Research Fellowship.
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After completing his residency training in orthopedic surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, he obtained fellowship training in orthopedic traumatology at Tampa General Hospital.
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He joined the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Cincinnati in 2001.
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Dr.
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Archdeacon served as the 37th president of the Orthopedic Trauma Association.
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He served on the Mid-America Orthopedic Association and as well as the executive board of the Ohio Orthopedic Society.
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He is currently serving as the publications chairman on the Critical Issues Committee of the American Orthopedic Association.
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And today we're going to discuss Dr.
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Archdeacon's leadership lessons as his position as a tenure chairman.
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So, Dr.
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Archdeacon, welcome to the podcast, sir.
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Hi, Doug.
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Thanks for the invitation.
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And Mike, you and I have known each other for quite a while through our capacity in many places in the AOA and the Trauma Association and such.
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Can you just I gave your some of your bio there?
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Any other thoughts of you have a bigger role too at Cincinnati too, don't you?
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Currently, for the last four and a half years, I've served as a senior associate dean for clinical affairs and then the CEO of UC Physicians Practice Plan.
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That's fantastic.
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That's a lot of work.
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Are you able to get much work as a practicing trauma surgeon, or how does that work?
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So I operate on Tuesdays and I see patients on Friday, and I still take call usually about four to six nights a month on average.
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And how long have you served as chair there?
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Twelve and a half years.
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Okay.
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That certainly counts as tenured.
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All right.
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And before we get too far into this, we also have the chair forum at the AOA annual meeting, and you helped co-lead one of the discussions this year during the forum.
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Can you tell us more about the chair forum at the AOA and why that's of value to chair people across the country?
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Yeah.
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So first I just want to applaud the AOA for putting that together.
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I think it's probably been about four, maybe five years now.
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It's the idea of getting chair people together to talk and to be able to talk candidly about the issues we face, not just the operational issues we face, but also the stresses of the role and how you deal with some of the difficult situations you encounter, how you deal with difficult conversations with partners and those kinds of things.
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I think it's just nice to have a venue where you can be amongst peers and you can really have open and candid conversations.
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And that forum has really allowed that.
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So I really applaud the AOA for bringing that back, supporting it, and encouraging others to participate.
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And that forum is exclusive to folks who are currently in a chair role, but there's also a vice chair forum, too.
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There is.
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And uh what do you know about that?
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I haven't been involved with that one technically, but my understanding is it's very similar with the idea, again, having a group of peers that are facing similar issues.
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I think the
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one caveat, the slight difference, is there's also some time devoted to whether or not the person aspires to move into the chair role and what some of the differences between a vice chair and a chair role might be, commitment-wise, time-wise, the qualifications and skills that you might want to work on and things like that.
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So I think it serves a dual purpose in that environment.
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But I personally haven't participated.
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So that's my understanding, not from direct involvement.
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Tell us what you think or your story of how you were selected to become chair.
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I know you're in a very storied department with Dr.
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Stern, who's well known to all of us, and how all that kind of came about.
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So I think I would say my leadership journey has been a series of opportunities.
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And I don't think I had the goals of having the jobs that I currently have when I started my medical school or in residency or in practice, even.
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I think they've evolved over time.
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But I was fortunate that in my department, there was not a huge interest in serving as a division director for my division.
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So after a couple of years, Dr.
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Stern asked me to serve in that capacity.
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And then there was a series of steps, like most of us, that opened a door.
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I got more involved in the operating room committee.
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At some point, I was asked to serve as the chair of the operating room committee.
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And then from that, I was asked to serve as the chief of staff for our medical center.
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And none of these were, I would say, planned, but one opportunity led to others.
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And I'm certain that's very similar to most people's leadership journeys.
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And from my perspective, the question is when a door opens, you have to decide if you want to walk through it or not.
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And it's okay not to walk through every door.
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But I think if you decide you're going to walk through, then you have to be intentional about what you're going to do and how you're going to make the most of your in the big picture, short time of leadership.
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And you brought up an interesting point there.
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I've heard both sides of that.
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Many people say, I've heard this very frequently, but be very critical of the doors you go through, say no is whenever it's not a good fit, da-da-da-da.
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And then other folks suggest that the door is open, you need to move through it unless you're clearly not qualified, or that's not your sweet spot.
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And you kind of struck a middle ground there.
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So if folks are considering this along their leadership journey, what is your overall general advice in terms of which how do we strike the balance between going through to open doors and versus saying no?
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Yeah, I think it's a very good question, Doug.
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And I guess I think one, it's very different for each individual.
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What motivates people is going to be different.
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We're all somewhat motivated by ego.
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You don't go move into jobs that have titles if you don't have some ego drive.
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Many of us like to make change, be involved in positive change.
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So it's an opportunity to be involved in positive change.
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Some there are maybe financial considerations.
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I think there's a whole spectrum of reasons that people pursue leadership opportunities.
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My personal kind of feeling is that if you're not excited about the opportunity and understand the difficulties the opportunity brings, then you're probably not ready to accept the role.
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And then to the point made about if an opportunity is there, you should capitalize on it.
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I completely understand that.
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I do think that my mantra has always been if you do a good job and you're nice to people, there will always be opportunities.
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And I've found that that's usually the case.
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Now, maybe not in every opportunity in life, but it does feel like there's never a shortage of people asking you to do something.
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If you do a good job, you're responsive, and you're generally nice to people.
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So that's sort of been my mindset going into leadership opportunities.
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Did you succeed Dr.
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Stern as Chair?
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I did.
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So that must have been quite a role to fill.
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Intimidating to say the least.
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Yeah.
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Let's go into that.
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Tell us about that.
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So I would say it was intimidating, but at the same time, highly fortunate.
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So for those who know Dr.
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Stern, he's an incredibly humble person.
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He is selfless, and he was those things for my entire time from the day he hired me.
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And still, he still works a little bit in the Department Clinic League of one day a week seeing patients, and he comes to all the academic stuff.
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He, I would say, in some ways, groomed me.
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He gave me the opportunity to serve as a division director and then later as a vice chair.
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He made sure I was networked and organizations like the AOA and the AOS and always served as a sponsor for me.
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And because of those things, he really gave me the opportunity and helped me build the skills necessary, given those opportunities, and to hopefully succeed in them.
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Taking over for him was certainly intimidating.
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But again, to his credit, he was extremely humble about the transition.
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And he made himself available to me whenever I needed help, advice, or just a little mental support.
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But he also never really stepped in the way, never made a comment about a decision that I would have made publicly, never ever badmouthed me or my decision-making process, always supported me with the other partners.
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And I was very fortunate and blessed in that capacity because that can go the other way in a not so favorable manner.
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But for me, he was a pillar and a role model in terms of how to gracefully step away from leadership.
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And I hope to emulate that at some point in the future.
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And we should all be that blessed.
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That's a tremendous opportunity.
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Yeah, I'm very fortunate.
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So when I was in business school, we learned there's two jobs of the CEO, two prime jobs.
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One is strategic planning and strategic process, and the other one is succession planning to replace yourself.
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Yeah, that is an epidemic problem across every healthcare organization I've been in, finding the successor for the strong, positive, dynamic leader.
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I mean, in my institution here, it is rare to find a department where there's a strong beta ready to take over if the chairperson came out.
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What are your thoughts and how are you developing succession planning in your department?
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Or is it just not even going to happen if you, if Mike Archdeacon left Cincinnati tomorrow that has to do an external search?
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How does that work?
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Yeah, so again, I think it you have to be intentional.
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And a part of, I think one of our biggest roles in a chairperson role is faculty development and career plan.
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And so I've I feel like
I've learned some of those skills over the last five, 10, 15 years, whatever.
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And it's very much a part of my regular meetings with faculty.
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So annual review and other touch bases is talking about career goals, career plan, and those kind of things.
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So, with that as a backdrop, you start to get a sense of people are interested in leadership and you start to see where their skills and where they really excel.
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And I will say in my department, I think that at present, today, there are three very, very solid candidates for the chair role in my department.
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When I'm either fired, removed, retire, pass away, whatever it is that occurs, that I'm no longer in this chair.
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I think there are three solid candidates.
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And my perspective then is it's my job to help them be the best candidate they can be.
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It won't be my decision.
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It's a dean's decision, a search committee decision.
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But my job is to help them be as prepared as they can be so that each one of them is the best candidate they have capacity to be.
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And so we're very intentional about what assessing, you know, one, do you have the interest?
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And if you do, where are your strengths and where are the skills that we need to focus on?
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And for some, that's working on your financial acumen.
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For other, it's conflict resolution and other strategic thinking or philanthropic goals, right?
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Like learning how to engage philanthropically with potential donors in the community, et cetera, et cetera.
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So that's been our sort of path in my department is just trying to identify those who are interested, who have demonstrated the ability to lead, and then looking at what the opportunities are to help them be the best candidate possible when and if that comes up on their plate.
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Yeah, but some of or a lot of the real important things to develop as a chair occur in the spur of the moment, you and your dyad partner, oh my gosh, this came up.
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How are we doing?
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We need to work through this click, click, click, click.
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And many times the partial portion of the FTE that these folks that are vices or stepping into the role don't allow them to be in the midst of that.
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How do we get past because it's one thing to say, all right, you're the PD.
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So you're the vice chair of the PD.
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If you do a good job at running the residency, that'll mean you'll do a good job
running the department, which we know is not the case.
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And a lot of the faculty issues that you deal with are for the moment have to be done now.
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And that person doesn't necessarily sit in the room as you're doing it.
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How do you translate that leadership learning and that ability and that assessment of their acumen and their patients and their ability to deal with these crucial conversations when they're down the hallway in clinic or two floors down in surgery?
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Yeah, I think that's a really good question, Doug, because you're right.
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There are lots of decisions that you have to make when the situation presents itself.
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I think there's a couple opportunities there.
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One is not all of them are made on the fly.
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Even a crucial situation doesn't necessarily have to be resolved immediately.
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And one of the things that I've tried to learn and be better at is that I don't always have to give an answer.
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I oftentimes we feel obligated to answer when or when asked a question or posed with a situation.
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Most of the time, you can buy yourself a little time.
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So I think that's one.
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And then you can engage them in one capacity or another.
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You can lay out the situation, get their feedback, and you may not bring them in because of privacy issues or things like that, but you can get their feedback and tell them and then bring back to them, close the loop on how you dealt with it and how their recommendation or feedback input might have impacted the situation.
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We've built an executive committee in our department.
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And that executive committee is the constituents are the division chiefs and the vice chairs.
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So in our college, we can have an executive vice chair if you like.
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We have a vice chair of clinical, we have a vice chair of education and research, and we have a vice chair of well, we used to have a vice chair of diversity, equity, inclusion.
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That's now it's inclusive excellence.
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But my point is there are a number of vice chairs and a number of division chiefs.
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And we try very hard to bring issues to the executive committee and have the group weigh in so that many of those decisions, not all, but many of those decisions are vetted through the executive committee and then brought forward.
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And we've gone even a step further that a lot of the decisions are not even rendered by, in this case, the chair of me, but we'll decide that maybe the best person to bring this to the group is the vice chair of clinical or and the vice chair of education.
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Like rather than it coming from me all the time, we try to lay that work out and delegate it out with input from the rest of the executive committee so that it's not always one person handing out dictums and demands and things like that.
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It really does try to come from a leadership group.
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And we're not perfect.
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There's plenty of decisions I wish I'd have gotten more vetting on, et cetera, et cetera.
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But I do think that that's one of the things I've learned is having a group of leaders, one gives you a better perspective on things, and two, helps you implement things.
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Because when I have a team of people, in my case, the executive committee is seven.
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When I have a group of seven that comes into the room and says, okay, we've talked this, we've edited out.
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This is what we've decided as the executive committee, then it sells much easier to the rest of the group.
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And it gives those people that are likely going to be your chair candidates, so the ones that are in those vice chair division director roles, it gives them the opportunity to see some of that leadership, how you have to think about things as well.
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So it's not perfect, but it gives them more than they get otherwise in some cases.
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Those cadence meetings, or you just call them ad hoc?
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They're cadenced.
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Okay.
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How often do you do them?
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Usually monthly.
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And I say usually because on occasion there's a topic that we have to address and we'll have an ad hoc to add to the monthly cadence.
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And then there's occasions based on people's lives and schedules that we just can't meet one month and we'll push it off to the next.
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But it's almost all, I would say it's at least 10 or 11 times a year cadence, with usually one a year that we end up not having for various scheduling reasons.
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You do them in person or by zoom?
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Uh in person.
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With the exception that if somebody's out of town and is able to join in, we'll have them zoom in so that they can be part of the conversation.
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But in general, we and we try to make it also social.
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We have food.
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We go to one of our houses, we rotate whose house it's at.
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We have food, we have a social half hour, 40
minutes before we get down to business.
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The executive vice chair writes the agenda, runs the meeting.
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I don't run the meeting.
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The executive vice chair runs the meeting, does the action items and the follow-up, and we try to delegate out responsibilities so that we're working as a team.
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And again, it's not perfect.
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There are times that I wish I'd have been more engaging as a group.
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And there are other decisions that unfortunately fall to an individual and you just have to make the call.
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But it's been a good learning opportunity for me, and I think it's created a buy-in for the department.
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Sounds like it.
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Sounds like a very good way to do it.
00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:31.279
So your meetings are about an hour or so.
00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:33.359
If somebody's else, it's going to be longer than that.
00:18:33.599 --> 00:18:34.720
Yeah, they're about two and a half.
00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:35.920
Yeah, that makes more sense.
00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:41.839
And we try to have them, we try to cadence it such that it's a day or two before our departmental practice meeting.
00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:47.519
So we can bring follow-up items and new action items to the practice a day or two later.
00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:49.519
And that seems to work out pretty well, also.
00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:52.000
How many doctors are in your department?
00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:56.079
Probably about 32, 33.
00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:56.720
Okay.
00:18:56.960 --> 00:18:58.559
And they under the business side.
00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:01.279
And the academic department is closer to 50.
00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:02.400
Got it.
00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:03.279
All right.
00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:06.240
So when you first started out, of course, you were chair.
00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:17.039
Any recollections or any lessons learned during your very first couple of years or so as chair that looking back and go, wow, you know, if I had to do that one over again, I would have done this.
00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:21.519
Or did you hit a home run on something and say, wow, I was really proud of that.
00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:23.920
Just in the first couple of years, we'll move through your career.
00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:25.599
There's two things that come to my mind.
00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:27.440
One is more of just an awareness.
00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:34.240
Like I had no idea how much after hours, after work, work being a chair was.
00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:35.599
Like I had no idea.
00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:40.160
Like I thought, okay, you're going to have some recruiting calls and recruiting dinners, you're going to have grand rounds.
00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:46.160
But what you don't realize, I think, until you're in the role is there's also search committees for other departments.
00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:48.160
There's evaluations for other departments.
00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:49.359
There's College of Medicine.
00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:50.480
There's philanthropic.
00:19:50.559 --> 00:19:59.759
There's all these other commitments that I had no idea would take so much of my time in the evenings, in the mornings, and on weekends that you just can't.
00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:03.200
Can't do during your regular day-to-day operations and things.
00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:10.160
So I think really understanding the commitment that it takes to do the job and what's expected of you to me was eye-opening.
00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:11.680
And I didn't do a very good job of it.
00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:15.839
I worked too much clinically my first two years, and it took me time to sort that out.
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:24.880
Fortunately, I had a couple of senior chairs who mentored me and helped me understand why, because I wanted to, I operated three days a week and I felt like I could do this job.
00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:26.160
And it turns out I couldn't.
00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:29.839
And I think in hindsight, I wish I would have been more thoughtful about that.
00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:36.400
And then I think an area that I really wish, still to this day, I wish I would have communicated better.
00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:40.400
And that's to me where I've made the biggest mistakes is not communicating adequately.
00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:45.119
And we, like many places, we had to assess our implant vendor situation.
00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:49.920
And we were looking at, in particular, the trauma vendors.
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:59.920
And we made the decision that we were going to, I made the decision that I was going to have the divisions that use the bulk of a supplier to be the deciders on the vendors we're going to go for.
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:05.599
So we all do hemiarthroplastys, but I was going to have the joint surgeons were the ones that were going to decide our joint vendors.
00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:09.759
We all use some of the knot tying and some of those suture anchors and things like that.
00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:11.440
But we decided the sports division.
00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:12.880
Same thing in the trauma.
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:19.039
Everybody does some fracture work, but we decided the trauma division was going to make the decision on who our vendors were.
00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:22.400
And I still think that was the right decision.
00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:28.160
I didn't communicate that up front as clearly and as well as I should and the rationale for it.
00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:35.680
And when we made a decision on our trauma vendors, it had a huge amount of pushback, consternation, a lot of anger and dissent.
00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:38.799
Really, people felt like the rug was pulled out from under them.
00:21:38.960 --> 00:21:41.279
And I still think it was the right path.
00:21:41.440 -->
00:21:47.920
I just don't think it was, it could have been brought forward better, could have been communicated better, the rationale, vetting it ahead of time.
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:52.240
And I still think I would have done it the same way, but I really learned a lot from that.
00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:54.799
And that was probably 10 years ago.
00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:56.160
Very interesting.
00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:57.359
Yeah, that's good.
00:21:57.680 --> 00:22:06.319
Your very sweet wife, Lynn, how did she respond to your this increase in your afternoon, evening activity?
00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:10.640
I mean, she's very accommodative and tolerant, and she's a very special lady.
00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:15.119
How did she deal with these changes in your work life as you became chair?
00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:16.400
Any advice for that?
00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:24.640
Yeah, it that's a tough one because I think it's easy to look at our career goals and aspirations and what we get value out of.
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:32.880
The value that I get out of the time and effort that I put into it, my wife doesn't really get that value, nor did my kids when they were living at my house and growing up.
00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:49.279
So I think understanding that, having a very clear dialogue about it, and then figuring out how, in my mind, it's not paying it back, but giving an equal credence and importance to the things that are important to her that we make sure we prioritize.
00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:56.799
If I'm going to prioritize these things in my side of the equation, then we're going to figure out what we need to prioritize in her side of the equation.
00:22:56.960 --> 00:22:57.920
And it's not perfect.
00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:00.640
And believe me, she gives 80% and I give 20%.
00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:02.559
So I'm very lucky in that regard.
00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:21.759
But I think just being committed to trying to acknowledge that even though these are my aspirations and I get personal gratification out of it, it's not that gratifying for my wife and kids, the work that I do, you know, they're proud of me and they're supportive of me, but they don't personally get much out of the things that I achieve in my work life.
00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:23.759
Now let's talk about your mid-career.
00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:29.519
That's before you assume these other roles outside of the department or those senior leadership roles.
00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:43.200
Anything pop to your mind during those periods of time, any lessons learned, any advice that you give folks after the, after you got the figure out where the meetings are, you know where you're going, people know who you are, all those things.
00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:47.519
And now you're in that mid-part where you're supposed to really start.
00:23:47.759 --> 00:23:49.759
The flywheel goes and you start going.
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:52.799
Any recollections or thoughts from that period of time?
00:23:53.039 --> 00:23:54.960
Yeah, I have a few things that come to mind.
00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:59.440
So one is I think there's a huge desire to offer an opinion.
00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:04.400
Like I've worked very hard to try not to offer my opinion when it comes right up.
00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:13.440
Like I still have a lot of work to do, but I try very hard not to offer my opinion unless my opinion is going to one influence the conversation.
00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:19.039
Two, I feel so strongly about it that no matter what the outcome is, I feel like it needs to be shared.
00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:25.359
And that's a hard thing to do for me, it is, to sit quietly and listen and not just speak up when it comes to mind.
00:24:25.519 --> 00:24:28.400
That's take, that's, I would say you've been very intentional.
00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:29.759
I'm still not very good at it.
00:24:29.839 --> 00:24:34.000
I'm better at it than I was 20 years ago, but it's still an opportunity for growth.
00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:40.000
And then I think another one is along those lines, is not feeling the need to respond to something immediately.
00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:41.759
We kind of touched on it before.
00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:44.240
Most circumstances have time.
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:48.319
There aren't that many that are, you have to make a decision right there on the spot.
00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:54.720
And I've found and been mentored that, especially on a tough decision, give yourself as much time as you can.
00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:59.839
And if you have someone you that can you can bounce it off of, then get as much input as you can.
00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:05.039
And I, and that's aware an area where I developed some mentors that are outside my department.
00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:15.920
I had two different department chairs, 10, 15 years senior to me, that I developed relationships with, and I they served as someone I could bounce ideas off because they didn't have a dog in the fight.
00:25:16.079 --> 00:25:22.000
And they could also look at it more less biased than an orthopedic surgeon because it's not their business and things like that.
00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:30.480
So those are a few things that I think that I've learned, continue to work on, and I wish I would have been better at it 10 or 15 or 20 years ago.
00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:32.400
It would have probably saved me some grief.
00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:34.559
How did you pick those mentors?
00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:41.839
So part of it was just circumstance, and part of it was I observed qualities that I thought would be helpful, right?
00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:52.160
Like how to manage conflict, how to compose yourself in the public, how to have people listen to you, how to have influence without commanding the dialogue, right?
00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:55.599
The one of the chairs I respected tremendously was the chair of older oncology.
00:25:55.759 --> 00:26:02.240
He had an unbelievable knack for influencing the outcome
with few to minimal words.
00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:09.119
And the reason was is that he was very thoughtful about what he said, and he said it usually after everyone else spoke.
00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:11.920
He would weigh in and he didn't repeat things.
00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:16.559
And I just found that that was like really great communication and impactful.
00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:19.200
And I've tried to model it not nearly as successfully.
00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:24.640
So part of it was just watching what I thought were good leaders, and then other parts were just circumstance, right?
00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:29.839
I just happened to operate on the same day as the one of the former chairs of neurosurgery.
00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:31.359
So we'd sit in the lounge and talk.
00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:36.079
And I had aspirations, so I would talk to him and pick his brain, and he'd give me feedback.
00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:44.160
And over time that relationship grew and evolved, and and to this day, still he's been retired for 15 years, but still serves as a great mentor for me.
00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:45.119
Wow.
00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:47.119
How fortunate is that?
00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:50.480
Let's talk about the folks that you serve as a mentor for.
00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:57.680
How do you do you ever proactively start that relationship or do you wait for folks to come to you?
00:26:57.759 --> 00:26:58.720
How does that work?
00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:00.720
I think it works both ways.
00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:06.000
I look for opportunities where I think you know, me being engaged would be helpful for them.
00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:16.160
It's particularly, it's a little easier when you're a department chair because one of my jobs is to have regular meetings with my faculty and understand what they want to do so I can identify where I might be helpful.
00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:23.839
But even outside my department, I think one is to the best of my ability, I'm a big advocate of having kind of this, I'll talk to anybody.
00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:32.480
It may not be right now, but I'll if someone wants to meet, I'll meet with anybody medical student, graduate student, department chair, faculty from another department.
00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:33.200
It doesn't really matter.
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:34.240
I'll meet with anybody.
00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:36.640
It sometimes takes a little time to get it scheduled.
00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:41.680
And I usually try to put a time limit around it, around 20 minutes, so that I can not spend too much time.
00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:51.279
But I think one is just being available to people, they really appreciate, and you get a good sense if you're going to develop a relationship, if they go down that road, then it becomes easier to be a mentor.
00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:54.640
And then I think the other way is very intentional mentoring.
00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:59.039
So I'll use the Orthopedia Trauma Association, an organization you
and I are very familiar with.
00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:08.079
When having the fortunate opportunity to sit in some leadership roles, you see talented people and you know that they're going to be successful.
00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:14.960
And I've engaged and tried to build relationships with some of those people to try to like, look, here's some mistakes that I've made.
00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:18.240
Let's hope that my mistake can be your opportunity to learn.
00:28:18.319 --> 00:28:23.920
And most of those people have been, I would say, very interested in sort of those kind of conversations.
00:28:24.079 --> 00:28:30.720
So I think some of it's intentional, some of it's circumstantial, and some of it is someone comes to you for whatever the reason.
00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:33.359
They see something that they want to learn from you, type of thing.
00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:34.880
Very good.
00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:39.359
All right, let's move on to the stage in your career you are now.
00:28:39.519 --> 00:28:43.200
So you're a well-respected, accomplished department chair.
00:28:43.359 --> 00:28:45.759
When you're in the meetings, people know that's Mike.
00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:48.960
He's got his act together, his department's running smoothly.
00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:52.480
And then these additional positions come on.
00:28:52.559 --> 00:28:58.640
So you have a position within the medical school, within the academic system, and then also within the physicians group, right?
00:28:58.960 --> 00:28:59.200
Yes.
00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:02.559
Very, very different, different jobs, different things.
00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:18.319
They're either interested in those roles or they're being approached for those roles, and they're a little unsure of how to proceed with that.
00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:20.000
How do you evaluate those?
00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.680
How do you decide what to get into, what not to get into?
00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:28.079
Any suggestions on the application process or any of those things?
00:29:28.240 --> 00:29:29.759
What about bandwidth?
00:29:30.160 --> 00:29:36.880
Just give us your advice and your thoughts on those positions, those other things above and beyond being department chair.
00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:41.759
Yeah, I'm going to hit on the bandwidth first because I think that's the most delicate balance.
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:51.279
And without question, serving in my college/slash practice plan leadership roles has come at a cost to my department.
00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:54.880
I have dual obligations and there is a conflict at times.
00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:56.000
And I have to balance that.
00:29:56.160 --> 00:29:59.119
Sometimes I do it okay, sometimes not as well.
00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:11.759
And I think that's one of the values of my having my executive committee group is that it helps me counterbalance my other roles and responsibilities and my commitment to the department and my responsibilities for the department.
00:30:12.079
--> 00:30:17.359
So I think you have to sort out if you're going to choose other roles, how you're going to balance your obligations.
00:30:17.519 --> 00:30:24.400
And that to me has been, I would say, my biggest struggle with some of these more senior leadership roles in the last few years.
00:30:24.640 --> 00:30:31.920
That said, how to look at the opportunity, I think it really comes down to where you think you're impactful and what you're interested in.
00:30:32.079 --> 00:30:37.519
And I, right, wrong, or indifferent, felt that I was impactful in the leadership sphere.
00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:43.680
Like I felt like that was an area where I could bring something valuable or at least positive to the table.
00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:51.279
So in our practice plan leadership role, the bylaws state that it has to be an acting chair to serve in that role.
00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:53.599
So there's a small candidate group.
00:30:53.839 --> 00:30:58.079
And when the role became available, you applied for the role.
00:30:58.480 --> 00:31:02.079
And at the time, I felt like it might be something that I could do.
00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:09.920
And I like having the ability to influence, not so much make decisions, but influence how we're going to look at things.
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:18.240
And being amongst the group of chair peers, the influence was more so than in my department, which was super fulfilling.
00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:22.640
But instead of 30 to 40 people, now it's 1,500.
00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:34.960
And that's from my eyes, I could make some impactful I could have part of impactful decisions and help look at impactful decisions that go beyond my day-to-day lens.
00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:37.440
How'd you evaluate?
00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:39.680
So they're two very different roles, right?
00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:45.200
I mean the the physician group role is different from your university, your school level.
00:31:45.519 --> 00:31:46.640
Well, they are and they're not.
00:31:46.720 --> 00:31:50.079
They have different responsibilities, but they're actually coexistent roles.
00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:55.519
So if you the senior associate dean also serves as the practice CEO, they kind of go together.
00:31:55.680 --> 00:32:03.359
And then on one side, you serve as the university's lead for the clinical practice and recruitment and things like that.
00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:15.119
And on the other hand, it's the liaison to the health system and how the physician, we lease our physicians to the health system and how the physician practice is going to incorporate into the health system.
00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:23.920
So the two roles are different in their responsibilities, but they overlap that having a single person is probably not a bad way of doing it.
00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:26.160
That's obviously a biased opinion.
00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:31.519
So, how do you evaluate yourself to know that that's the position for you?
00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:32.960
Or is
there any thoughts into that?
00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:43.680
Did you guys do any formal processes where you did any personal personality or any other type of inventories or just through your mentors or your friends saying, hey, Mike, you'd be really good for that?
00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:44.400
How did that work?
00:32:44.640 --> 00:32:51.039
Yeah, I would say both with these roles and with just my own personal leadership skill development.
00:32:51.279 --> 00:33:02.319
So I think personally I've had a professional coach for probably 12 years, and that was very helpful, mainly to have someone to bounce things off outside of my profession.
00:33:02.400 --> 00:33:06.960
And secondly, someone who could really assess what my strengths and opportunities were.
00:33:07.119 --> 00:33:13.839
And we did formal things like a Hogan assessment and things like that, developing a plan, how I'm going to improve my leadership skills.
00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:15.279
What are the areas I need to work on?
00:33:15.359 --> 00:33:17.359
So that was sort of the extrinsic.
00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:22.799
And then internally for the particular role, the CEO role, there was an interview process.
00:33:23.039 --> 00:33:27.359
We didn't actually do a formal assessment, but the chairs had had assessment.
00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:31.279
So knowing that it had to come from a chair, that assessment had already been done.
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:42.160
So some of that leadership assessment, again, using a Hogan inventory system, as well as Myers Briggs, which I think has maybe fallen by the wayside a little bit in terms of how people evaluate.
00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:46.559
But some of those tools are used not infrequently in our university.
00:33:46.799 --> 00:33:58.720
And then again, extrinsically having someone with that I intentionally engage to help understand the opportunities I have to work on as well as the things that I could leverage as strengths.
00:34:00.559 --> 00:34:01.359
Or do you pay for that?
00:34:01.920 --> 00:34:03.279
That one's out of my pocket.
00:34:03.519 --> 00:34:06.240
So you and Lynn just talked about it and said, Hey, I need this.
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:07.680
And Lynn was like, sure, go ahead.
00:34:07.759 --> 00:34:08.320
And that was that.
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:09.679
It was more or less like that.
00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:13.920
I think the way I look at it is an investment in your career.
00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:21.280
And I think people look at price tag for that kind of work and they're like, oh,$25,000 a year, that's a lot of money.
00:34:21.360 --> 00:34:23.039
And it is, don't get me wrong.
00:34:23.280 --> 00:34:32.719
But I think when you look at what we do and how we're compensated and what you get out of those kind of things, if it's important enough, it feels like it's a good investment.
00:34:32.880 --> 00:34:37.840
And most of those engagements, in my experience, are it's pretty high up for that first year.
00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:43.679
The
ongoing dialogue is much less because you're not going through continued assessments and things like that.
00:34:43.760 --> 00:34:46.000
It's more about a cadence of conversations.
00:34:46.159 --> 00:34:48.719
So the cost up front is pretty high.
00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:50.480
The maintenance cost is more reasonable.
00:34:50.639 --> 00:34:53.119
It's still expensive, but it's more reasonable.
00:34:53.760 --> 00:34:58.239
Now you have a substantial amount of credibility professionally across the country.
00:34:58.559 --> 00:35:04.079
You and I served extensively on the OTA board together and we know each other very well.
00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:10.239
And a large portion of that credibility is the fact that you continue to put scrubs on, wash your hands, and operate.
00:35:10.880 --> 00:35:21.199
If you go up really much higher at all in in the university at Cincinnati, there, you're probably not going to be taking calling where you're probably not going to be operating.
00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:22.880
You're going to just be a full-time suit.
00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:24.320
Thoughts on that?
00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:26.000
How does that how do you make that?
00:35:26.159 --> 00:35:27.760
Have you considered that decision?
00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:36.559
Have you thought, would I ever give up being a clinical physician and just being saying I used to do this, but now my full-time role is administrative?
00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:38.320
Have you considered that at all?
00:35:38.639 --> 00:35:40.079
Yeah, I actually I have.
00:35:40.159 --> 00:35:46.000
I'm at a point where I think I'm getting towards the end of my chair tenure in the next few years, probably.
00:35:46.159 --> 00:35:47.760
And I'm what are my next steps?
00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:50.320
And I've thought about just exactly as you phrased it.
00:35:50.480 --> 00:35:56.800
Would I be interested in another tier of administrative role, whether it be in a health system or a college?
00:35:57.039 --> 00:35:58.880
Or what are the alternatives?
00:35:59.039 --> 00:36:05.199
And I think for me, like I find a tremendous amount of joy from taking care of patients.
00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:06.400
I really like that.
00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:10.480
It's interesting that that's the least stressful environment I work in, is the operating room.
00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:12.880
As a trauma surgeon, I think that's kind of funny.
00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:15.280
Literally, people's lives are in your hands, right?
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:20.239
It's less stressful than the meetings that I go to, which I find erotic.
00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:33.039
But I think for me at this point, we've talked about it, Lynn and I have had the conversation that I think in a few years, probably somewhere between two and four, depending a little bit on the department, the dean, where we're at, etc., a few goals that I want to try to accomplish.
00:36:33.199 --> 00:36:41.679
I think my current plan is to probably transition out of leadership and pick up clinical practice, maybe not at 100%, but like 80%, right?
00:36:41.760 --> 00:36:49.360
Like maybe I go back to doing operating two to three days a week and seeing patients a full day a week and then do a day a week not working.
00:36:49.599 --> 00:36:51.360
That's sort of the current thought.
00:36:51.440 --> 00:36:57.920
And I mean, I guess anything can change, but that's sort of where we're at because I don't know that I want to give up clinical practice.
00:36:58.079 --> 00:36:58.800
I like it a lot.
00:36:58.880 --> 00:37:00.159
It's very fulfilling.
00:37:00.400 --> 00:37:08.239
And like you, before this more recent spin, I've been in the same environment for almost 25 years, and I get to see a lot of people.
00:37:08.320 --> 00:37:15.280
I just saw a I just operated on a patient yesterday that I took care of 17 years ago, which is really neat and it's fun, and I like it a lot.
00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:18.079
And so that's my current thoughts, but I agree with you.
00:37:18.159 --> 00:37:33.280
I think like one more tier, whatever it might be, if you want to be a formula in the C-suite or a real like a dean or executive vice president of health affairs or provost or something like that, I think it becomes almost impossible to maintain clinical practice.
00:37:33.440 --> 00:37:37.679
And that's purposely the reason that I haven't I've not wanted to give that up.
00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:39.920
And I think even now I wrestle with it at times.
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.960
Like I make it difficult for everyone to do clinical work around me because of my other commitments.
00:37:45.039 --> 00:37:48.559
So the residents, so like I'm like, guys, I can't start till eight o'clock today.
00:37:48.639 --> 00:37:51.360
I I gotta leave conference because I got to go to this meeting.
00:37:51.519 --> 00:37:54.079
So I make it difficult on everyone else around me.
00:37:54.239 --> 00:37:56.320
I like to think it maybe helps my department.
00:37:56.400 --> 00:37:56.719
I don't know.
00:37:56.800 --> 00:37:58.880
You might, my department may not feel that way.
00:37:59.119 --> 00:37:59.599
Right.
00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:01.519
I know exactly how you feel on that.
00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:03.679
And I'm sure many people listening do as well.
00:38:03.920 --> 00:38:06.960
I'm sure you just strong hit a lot of heartstrings on that one.
00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:12.719
All right, so let's roll this thing up with knowing when to step down, which you kind of talked into.
00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:20.960
So our friend Mark Swinkowski has that hard and fast 10-year rule, both on him being chair and then also on him being editor for JPJS.
00:38:21.039 --> 00:38:28.000
He said it for 10 years, told everybody, I've heard Mark say this story many times where he told everybody going in, it's 10 years.
00:38:28.239 --> 00:38:33.119
Y'all better start getting ready to replace me because I am out at 10, and everybody thought he was kidding.
00:38:33.280 --> 00:38:35.039
And
then he got there and he's like, no, I'm done.
00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:36.639
And that's how it goes there.
00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:42.639
And then we know other folks that stay in way over their expiration date.
00:38:42.880 --> 00:38:45.760
How do you assess this was a good run?
00:38:45.840 --> 00:38:48.639
It's time for me to get out of the way, let somebody else do this.
00:38:48.880 --> 00:38:50.800
How do you figure that one out?
00:38:51.679 --> 00:38:53.119
I don't know that I have the answer.
00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:57.760
One, because I'm not there yet, but I'm certainly thinking about it, but I can tell you where my thoughts are.
00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:02.079
So, one is I understand Mark's role of 10 years.
00:39:02.239 --> 00:39:08.239
I think it took me almost 10 years to build the structure that I think is now fairly effective.
00:39:08.559 --> 00:39:10.480
So that took some time.
00:39:10.559 --> 00:39:14.960
And I almost feel like I would have been abandoning my commitment if I would have jumped out of 10 years.
00:39:15.119 --> 00:39:21.199
Now, more likely, Mark is much more efficient and better at building things than I am, and he did it faster than me.
00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:22.880
And it took me 10 years.
00:39:23.039 --> 00:39:26.880
But then honestly, I think for me, at this point, it's goal-oriented.
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:31.039
I have a couple of goals that I want to try to achieve before I step down.
00:39:31.199 --> 00:39:36.960
And I articulated those goals a while ago, and I had an idea how long it would take me to achieve them.
00:39:37.119 --> 00:39:39.840
And I'd like to try to bring those things to fruition.
00:39:40.079 --> 00:39:56.159
That said, I think right around this, I said a couple of years, two to three years, I think if in in two to three years, if I have not achieved those goals, I think the logical question is what makes anyone think I'm going to achieve them in two more years or three more years or five more years?
00:39:56.320 --> 00:40:03.119
So I've set these couple of goals or what I'd like to achieve, but if I Don't get them done in two to three years, then I think it's time.
00:40:03.280 --> 00:40:06.079
I feel pretty strongly that I don't want to be complacent.
00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:10.960
I want new energy, new ideas, and I don't want to stay in a role because it's working.
00:40:11.119 --> 00:40:12.880
I want it, I want us to be dynamic.
00:40:13.119 --> 00:40:17.679
But I think if I can achieve those goals, it puts the department in a better place for the next chair.
00:40:17.920 --> 00:40:19.920
So that's sort of how I'm thinking about it.
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:22.800
I don't know if that's right or wrong, but that's sort of my mindset.
00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:24.800
I'm not going to ask one more question.
00:40:24.880 --> 00:40:28.159
I'm not going to ask you if water is wet and the sky is blue because we know the truth.
00:40:28.239 --> 00:40:29.360
We know the obvious things.
00:40:29.519 --> 00:40:45.920
But on the not so obvious things, is there any skill set or anything that you learned or developed as department chair that enabled you to be a better leader within the Orthopedic Trauma Association, within the AOA?
00:40:46.079 --> 00:40:49.599
You were on the board of counselors for Ohio and the BOC, correct?
00:40:50.239 --> 00:40:52.159
You've you've served in a number of organizations.
00:40:52.320 --> 00:40:53.920
Were there things that you picked up?
00:40:54.079 --> 00:41:08.159
Obviously, not the obvious simple silly answers that we all know the answer to, but something that's a little unique, or I wouldn't have thought of that had come up that when you were OTA president or and you were Ohio president too.
00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:08.960
Yeah.
00:41:09.599 --> 00:41:11.840
That kind of helped you in that capacity.
00:41:12.400 --> 00:41:20.159
Yeah, I don't know that it's unique to me, but uh the thing that keeps resonating for me and I struggle with and continue to try to work on is humility.
00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:24.000
Just learning that I I'm one, not always right.
00:41:24.320 --> 00:41:26.000
Oh, I'm rarely right.
00:41:26.559 --> 00:41:31.519
Two, that the group will almost always have a better decision than the individual.
00:41:31.679 --> 00:41:31.920
Right.
00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:36.159
And that learning to respect and understand other opinions.
00:41:36.400 --> 00:41:42.559
Because, like a lot of people, I feel like I see it very clearly, and clearly I don't.
00:41:42.880 --> 00:41:55.679
So learning the humility to be wrong, to acknowledge being wrong, to be open to other people's opinion, having group decision, those kind of things have something that I've had to work on and continue to work on.
00:41:55.840 --> 00:42:03.840
But I think to me, that's been one of the most valuable skills that I've tried to work on, and it's paid dividend where I've been successful with it.
00:42:04.639 --> 00:42:05.679
Wow, that's fantastic.
00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:07.360
What a great way to end this.
00:42:07.599 --> 00:42:11.679
This has been an absolute pleasure talking with my friend and colleague, Dr.
00:42:11.760 --> 00:42:18.639
Mike Archdeacon, who is well known for his work in pelvic and acetabular trauma and trauma in general overall.
00:42:18.880 --> 00:42:25.280
I served extremely high levels within our organization, serving as president of the Trauma Association and other locations as well.
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:28.559
And then also very high roles within the University of Cincinnati.
00:42:28.719 --> 00:42:30.639
Mike, thank you very much for being on the podcast.
00:42:30.880 --> 00:42:31.440
Thanks, Doug.
00:42:31.519 --> 00:42:32.880
I really appreciate the opportunity.
00:42:33.039 --> 00:42:36.000
I love the AOA supporting these leadership things.
00:42:36.079 --> 00:42:41.199
There's so much to learn from our peers and colleagues, and it's really a pleasure to be part of it and humbling.
00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:42.000
Yes, sir.
00:42:42.079 --> 00:42:48.079
And y'all stay tuned for future podcasts on this podcast channel within the American Orthopedic Association.