#44 How to make the 3-point shot: Humanistic Leadership With Kimberly Manning, MD

June 26, 2024 | By Era Kryzhanovskaya

Audio

Transcript available via YouTube

Join us for a live-recorded episode with the one and only Dr. Kimberly Manning. We cover Dr. Manning’s leadership journey, share practical tips for budding leaders in health professions education with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and cover how to stay grounded and vulnerable in the process of being a humanistic leader. 

Sorry, no CME for this episode!

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Show Segments

• Intro, disclaimer, guest bio
• The start of Dr. Manning’s leadership journey
• Humanistic Leadership Tips 
• Amplification of DEI principles in leadership
• Audience Q&A
• Take-home points

Humanistic Leadership Pearls

1. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses as a leader and align with individuals who have complementary strengths and weaknesses.
2. Be vulnerable, aka human, with your team.
3. Pass the cultural ball: create a space where each member of your team can share about themselves and be heard. 
4. Some people don’t like pizza: you will not win over everyone with your leadership style and that’s okay. 
5. Show discomfort with your body language when microaggressions occur.

How to make the 3-point shot, aka Lead Successfully with Dr. Manning 

Dr.Manning’s Leadership Journey 

Dr. Manning shares that her journey began early, when she was a member of her high school cheerleading team.  Dr. Manning didn’t like the way the junior varsity competition team was performing, so she took over coaching the team.  She shares that this approach has continued in her professional career: if you don’t like how something’s going, step in, roll your sleeves up, and figure out how to improve it.  At just 16 years old, Dr. Manning realized that she was capable of successfully crafting and executing a plan for change as well as working well with others to make change happen. 

“Wanting the ball when the buzzer goes off” is what Dr. Manning describes stepping up to take ownership in order to make change happen. 

Leadership Tips

Dr Manning emphasizes first off, everyone is a leader in healthcare. 

Recognize your strengths and weaknesses 

As leaders, it is important for each individual to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. Once a leader recognizes their weaknesses, they can then find colleagues to work with who balance them.  For example, Dr. Manning is very creative with a visionary leadership style; however, she is not a “spreadsheet” individual who is incredibly detail oriented.

Aligning yourself with individuals whose strengths match your weaknesses is important in order to have the best chance of “shooting a three-point shot” once you get the ball.  

Know the names (and ideally personalities/likes/dislikes) of your team members.  If you are at a large organization, as a leader at the very least, get to know the names of everyone.  

Be vulnerable (aka human).  Being vulnerable with your team as a leader helps create psychological safety in which your team members feel comfortable sharing their struggles.  

Be a team leader and also a team member.  Have team members that you trust and with whom you can be your real self.  As Dr. Manning puts it, have people you can turn to when times are tough, people you can cry in front of. 

Delegate tasks. On a larger team, Dr. Manning recommends a leader focus time and energy on the things that only the leader of the team can do and avoid doing tasks that other people on the team can do.  Delegate the things that can be delegated. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Leadership  

Inclusion should be at the forefront.  The most effective leaders think about how to include everybody.  No team is good with homogeneity.  If you form a baseball team of all all-star pitchers, you will lose every game.  If you want to win, you need players with all different strengths and backgrounds. 

Pass the cultural ball 

Effective leaders create a space where each member of the team can share a little bit about who they are and what matters most to them.  Climate questions can help with this.  Ask individual questions to each of your team members.  Questions can range from smaller to larger things, such as “How are you doing today?”, “How are things going on a scale of 1 to 5 for you today?”, or “Where should I go to eat in our city?”

Do not just ask questions of your team.  You should also share your personal experiences.  It’s okay (and human) to be vulnerable and honest with your team.

Some people don’t like pizza

It is okay for team members to not always like you or your approach.  What is effective for one person or learner is not going to be effective for another.  You may not get perfect feedback from everyone despite your best effort and that is okay. 

Microaggressions 

Dr. Manning recommends displaying discomfort in the moment to acknowledge the microaggression.  It can be as simple as looking at the ground or not laughing at jokes that are disrespectful.  She also recommends leaders acknowledge when they are biased and/or display microaggressions themselves. 

Questions from the Audience 

How do you make people feel seen in a large academic institution? 

Divide individuals into smaller groups so that at least someone knows each individual.  At the very beginning, such as orientation, each individual should share their name, how they wish to be called, and how they wish not to be called.  There is a core group of people, for example, program directors and program coordinators, who should know who everyone is. 

How do you teach people to relax into power or role model assertiveness?

Dr. Manning recommends empowering learners to increase psychological size.  For example, with a learner who may come across as lacking confidence, she recommends “swag” rounds in which she walks with a learner while coaching them about ways to increase psychological size. 

How do you approach a (senior) individual with too much swag?

One option is to talk to a peer about the obstacle you are facing with a particular senior individual.  If your superior has stated that they welcome feedback, then Dr. Manning recommends framing your issue in terms of clarifying intention.  For example, if you have a superior that is constantly interrupting you (and welcomes feedback), Dr. Manning recommends framing the conversation as “sometimes when I’m talking and you start talking, it gives the impression that you do not value what I am saying. And because I don’t want to misunderstand you as not valuing what I am saying, I have to give you the feedback that it would be super helpful if you would just let me finish my thoughts.” Dr. Manning does recognize that the individual has to be open and receptive to feedback. If they are not, tell someone else. 

Take Home Points:

Everyone is a leader.  As a leader, be a good steward of your influence on others, check in with yourself regularly, and be kind to yourself.  Despite your best efforts, some people just don’t like pizza.

Links

1. Some folks just don’t like pizza episode from the Human Doctor
2. Dr. Manning’s pick of the week: Cowboy Carter and Legacy  

Goal

Listeners will gain knowledge around leadership best practices, specifically with a focus on advancing DEI and humanism in leadership roles.

Learning objectives

After listening to this episode listeners will…

1. Identify specific leadership skills to amplify DEI in small or large groups
2. Recognize ways to be an effective humanistic leader

Disclosures

Dr Manning reports no relevant financial disclosures. The Curbsiders report no relevant financial disclosures. 

Citation

Kryzhanovskaya E, Heublein M, Manning K, Chaiklin C, Kopp, Z. “#44 How to make the three-point shot: Humanistic Leadership. The Curbsiders Teach Podcast. https://thecurbsiders.com/teach June 26, 2024