Modern Racism is a public health crisis. Susan Taah and Tony Hunter wanted to question Victoria Morris and me. So we turned over the leader spots and jumped in as the interviewees
Equity vs Equality
What is an example of equity vs equality that you’ve experienced? Have you ever experienced the opposite?
The New Minority
What does the cry for assistance for America’s failing middle class tell you about the minority struggle over the last 6 decades?
Systemic Power and Seniority
What is it like to not be able to hold people accountable?
Diverse discrimination/Overwokeness
Susan & Tony: Words for fellow minorities in the new civil rights movement
Reframing Privilege
If you could define privilege, how would you?
Microaggressions
Susan had to point out some for Jeremy on social media.
Effective Safe Spaces for Cultural Diversity & Inclusivity in your ATR
Dr. Mercedes Himmons believes the Diversity and Inclusion committees of her state organization are doing a really good job. She has worked hard to set the example and is now leading in the PATS organization
Dr. Himmons, if I walked down the hall of your parents’ house what would the pictures tell me about you?
I am sassy, always wore dresses and I am family-oriented.
What levels of education do your family members have?
I am a first-generation college graduate.
You have been traveling the world and Cairo on a camel at sunset was one of your highlights. Tell me more.
Dream trips:
Paris and Rome
Turks and Caicos
What is your favorite thing about athletic training and sports medicine?
Relationships
What is our working definition of diversity?
Having multiple people regardless of background all in the same place.
Make sure all of those people are heard and seen and their perspective is taken into account.
How about inclusion?
The word belonging is a good fit instead of inclusion.
What would you like to see from the local, district, and national levels within the profession?
PATS is doing a good job of trying to close the gap.
Racism is a public health issue
Be good humans to each other
The majority of our patient population as ATs is nonwhite but the majority of the ATs are white, so there is some disconnect.
Show that you are willing to learn and understand.
You are the NATA president. What would your platform be on diversity and inclusion for the profession? What about for NATA as an association?
First I would like to take the temperature of the room.
Everyone matters and should have a voice.
Keep the patient at the center of our focus.
Listening to understand and not just to reply.
What is some advice you would give companies looking to diversify? What about MSAT programs?
It would depend on the demographic
Retention is very important, what are you doing to keep the diversity?
Anything you would like to say to listeners that want to be an ally. What would you like to see or hear?
People need to know that they are going to step in and do the right thing to help eradicate the negative behavior.
Amy Hamilton will be taking over GLATA which is now two different districts in the NATA. Challenges and troubles will arise but with a good team in place, the transition should be easier.
Amy Hamilton, what are your thoughts as you begin to dive into the presidential role leading 2 districts in a few short months?
Management versus leadership – how are you going to handle these?
Look at the talent in the room and allow them to use their skills and empower the next generation of leaders.
I lead by example in my day job
A large number of our staff are involved in leadership.
Amy: one of my biggest passions is looking at ATs place in healthcare.
I hate the word “coverage” and provide healthcare instead.
Has being a Woman as a leader been difficult?
It has not been a barrier for me because I have not let it be one.
I do not want a seat at a separate table, I want a seat at “that table”
How do we encourage people to break barriers down?
Start by asking to help.
GLATA membership carries a good amount of the NATA membership (approx 20%), now that 2 districts represent those ATs, what advantages do you see in future?
We will have a lot more people involved and represented in AT now. We basically doubled our positions available.
Budget is one of the items we didn’t look at all the details for.
As incoming MATS president, John, what thoughts do you have in a state leadership organization in GLATA, District 4?
I look at it from a regional rep's point of view.
We have a lot more opportunities for concerns to be voiced.
We needed to develop future leaders. We had to bring back the Young Professionals committee.
We need leaders with diversity in their leadership experience.
A fun song from the musical Hamilton, “What Comes Next” is the line we are focused on for the start of the 2021 leadership in AT podcast series.
Thanks Patrick Ohaver for putting it all together.
What comes next??
You have wanted to move up to a leadership position in the company, the school, or even a professional organization.
Just as a young America made the leap into independence, now you are given the opportunity to lead.
That is the question on this episode..
Do you know how hard it is to lead?
Patrick– As Former supervisor for a hospital Outreach based program I was given the task of leading approximately 25 athletic trainers. Some of these athletic trainers were my peers and that in itself is a difficult part to lead your own peers.I really resonated with this song in Hamilton as I knew it would be difficult to lead however I did not realize the full extent until I was in that situation. It is difficult to lead and not just your peers but to lead a cohesive group of athletic trainers.
I was fortunate enough to have mentors that were in leadership positions and I observe them through my career taking mental notes on what I would do in certain situations how I would overreact how I would respond however I learned so much during my tenure as the supervisor of Athletic Training Services and dealt with a lot of specific leadership challenges.
Patrick — Another point in King George's song what comes next really struck me was when your people say they hate you don't come crawling back to me. Now as a recovering people pleaser, I strive to make everyone feel Equitable and try to look for the win-win. However, during my time I discovered win-win just doesn't work out sometimes. When you have to lead a large group you are not going to please everyone now. I would not say that my employees “hated me “ however some decisions that were made did not meet with high favor.
I can recall a time when we sent out an employee satisfaction survey. It was a sort of 360-degree look at our leadership team.
Through the eyes of the employees and I was expecting an overall positive response however, the amount of negative response was shocking and really caused a point of reflection and revaluation of my leadership style and our leadership team’s style.
I was fortunate enough to work with two other athletic trainers in the leadership team. We assisted each other and each had our own strengths and weaknesses in the leadership team. However, that employee survey was a watershed moment for me and my leadership style.
Have you had an employee survey or an evaluation done on you that was not what you expected and did it change your outlook?
George Washington states – “Winning was easy, leading is harder”-
This point in the musical also echoes a similar thought that getting to the top may be easy however leading is harder.
Leading your peers is very difficult. We can look back at a recent Facebook post in the Secondary School group where an employee was ranting to her “friend” who was in an administrative position about the organization. I am not sure what was said or how it was said however the other party deemed it necessary to inform her superiors and her subordinate was reprimanded.
There's a good book called “From buds to boss” by Guy Harris and Kevin Eikenberry. It's a good book and help me get some perspective in my early supervisory times.
Being the boss isn't all Fame and Glory. Some people want that prestige and that title however, if you're not prepared, then it may be more of a detriment than an aid.
Call to action:
Were you ever on your own? I recently heard from a long-time listener Caleb who was out in China as an AT and he was on his own for a while. Share your story with us.
Is Leadership Curriculum a good way to learn to lead? Can it be added to our current AT course requirements?
How do we develop leadership in AT?
Curriculum is the hardest way to learn leadership – there is an absence of the practice of AT
“We tend to protect them from the leadership process in their clinical experiences”
The only way it can work is if we integrate them together into the clinical experience.
Trial and error – best most effective and efficient way
Observation
JBY: It is more outcome-based. It is easy to track clinical outcomes.
There are so many types of leadership.
Situational leadership or contextual leadership is critical.
In the current BOC practice areas, only about 2 of 8 deal with sports
How do we develop good leaders?
What makes a good leader?
Are we putting people in the right places to lead?
Energy bus
The military does this really well
They capitalize on the problem-solving process.
If you look at the CAATE and look at the math, .05% of ATs are in leadership as program directors.
MK: we need to be better at recognizing the reality there is a small percentage of us in leadership roles.
We need to train the program directors
Increase the exposure of our students
If we think adding clinical skills to our profession is going to change our profession we are sorely mistaken.
People want to know how we can help improve and all we have to offer is a new way to tape an ankle…
The BOC states we have to have skills in leadership…not knowledge of…
We have to be able to change hats.
We are 20 years behind compared to other healthcare professions as far as leadership.
Nursing is by far the leader in my opinion in the leadership curriculum.
We are making a big mistake as a profession by not putting more eggs in this basket.
Can we teach it at the MAT level? How do we measure such an objective subject?
MK: We get scared when we go to the literature.
Leadership is not like a clinical skill
It is not a checkbox item.
Instead of a concrete objective, there should be a certain number of leadership exposures per semester.
Develop a leadership philosophy.
JBY: New 2020 standards have shifted towards outcomes. How are you documenting them?
Checking the boxes is a managerial task, not a leadership task.
Self Assessment – SWAT analysis – how did I move this pile of beans to the other pile.
Operationalizing Leadership is hit or miss.
The MAT is designed for an AT student to ENTER the profession.
Some of the ways we have it is an AT Student Society
We have liaison positions in our program.
Being on a committee at various levels.
When everything is outcome-based how do we say “Leadership was performed”
MK: I hand out sticky notes and ask and ask them to put 3 words for each LEAD
That leaves us with hundreds of words dealing with leadership.
Now we need to make an operational definition from all of these words.
It depends is a real answer as long as you are not using it as a cop-out.
Leadership is a philosophical construct versus a hard skill.
MK: Leadership is not volunteerism
JBY: Education is a business
The student is our customer product and asset…it is so unique.
Why is PA more acceptable than AT in the medical community?
What is your responsibility as a program director? Differences between programs
JBY:When students come in I tell them I am interested in people who are looking to be leaders and agents of change. We will make you into good ATs, but we need you to be the change.
The leader needs contextual intelligence to be really good.
Management is checking the boxes
Leadership is influence
MK: At FIU we focus on helping them answer the “it depends” question.
We are developing leadership behaviors to influence the world, not just AT.
We need to add value to SOCIETY as a whole.
Leadership definition:
MK: leadership is not being the most productive person in the room…it is someone who navigates complexity.
Check out our 2021 Leadership Series
What Comes Next – Lessons From Hamilton the Musical
