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Transatlantic Innovations: New Frontiers in Plastic Surgery

2009; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 123; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/prs.0b013e3181993ab7

1529-4242

Daniel Marchac, Brian M. Kinney, Phillip Blondeel, Greg R. D. Evans, Bruce L. Cunningham, John W. Canady,

Science, Research, and Medicine

I recently had the honor of participating in the nomination process for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation. As you know, this process attempts to select those people who have demonstrated previous leadership skills that will in time lead the societies into the future and navigate challenges that currently exist on local, national, and international levels. During this process, I had to ask myself, what is leadership? Is leadership something that is learned or is there an internal natural ability that directs people to positions? Do circumstances create leaders or are leaders brought to the forefront during times of challenge? Although there are many potential examples that come to mind, Churchill and Roosevelt are two. Now let me state right off that I have no answer to these questions, and on a personal level, I do not consider myself to hold many of these qualities that people view as those belonging to a leader. But the process does raise some interesting questions. Recently I have been involved in an executive health management course at the Paul Merage School of Business through the University of California, Irvine. The purpose of the course is to provide institutional “leaders” with additional tools in healthcare management. One of the assigned books is Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Challenge. 1 In chapter 2, they ask, “What do people look for and admire in leaders?” In conducting their research, they identified several hundred different values, traits, and characteristics that people look for in a leader. Over multiple analyses, they reduced these characteristics to a list of 20. From this list of 20 characteristics, they developed a survey questionnaire called Characteristics of Admired Leaders. This questionnaire was distributed to more than 75,000 people in a variety of businesses, banks, companies, and professional societies. They discovered that what people most look for in a leader has been constant over time. Their research documented this consistent pattern across countries, cultures, ethnicities, organizational functions and hierarchies, genders, and educational and age groups. In the end, the four qualities that stood out, in descending order, were as follows: Being honest Being forward-looking Being inspiring Being competent These are the characteristics that have remained constant for more than 20 years of economic growth and recession, the surge in new technology enterprises, the birth of the World Wide Web, the further globalization of business and industry, the ever-changing political environment, and the expansion, bursting, and regeneration of the Internet economy. This has lead to the Kouzes-Posner First Law of Leadership: If you do not believe the messenger, you will not believe the message. So who is a leader? In October of 2007, before the American Society of Plastic Surgeons meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, I had the opportunity to visit South Africa. I was invited by a friend to deliver some lectures in Johannesburg. It was a wonderful week, and the day before I left Tambo International Airport I had a free afternoon so I organized a tour to Soweto. Although I was a bit young during the burgeoning development of the African National Congress, I did remember some of the conflicts and issues as seen in my living room while watching television with my family. Specifically, the death of Hector Pieterson during the June 16th riots of 1976 was one memory that I retained. One of the stops that we made was the Soweto Hospital, which sees more than 3000 trauma admissions per year. I thought that Los Angeles County Hospital was busy, but certainly this is overwhelming. Traveling to the West Orlando section of the city, we finally arrived at 8115 Ngakane Street, the former home of Nelson Mandela. In fact, this street is interesting in that two Nobel Peace Prize laureates live within a short block of one another: Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Imprisoned for 27 years for his opposition to apartheid, Mandela came out of prison in 1990 and subsequently shared his Nobel Prize with F. W. de Klerk in 1993. The following year he was elected as the first democratic president of South Africa. I had the opportunity to tour his small and, most probably in the eyes of U.S. standards, meager home. Not more than three rooms and a kitchen (Fig. 1), it was filled with memorabilia, including paintings, photographs, and a collection of honorary doctorates bestowed on Mandela from universities around the world. One piece of memorabilia was the World Boxing Council Welterweight Championship boxing belt from Sugar Ray Leonard. Nelson Mandela was an avid boxer and even opened a boxing gym to train young men in Soweto. No matter what your politics, you could not help but be moved by the power and influence of such an unassuming man. The ironic part about my visit was that in his former living room I met an older woman who currently lives in Santa Monica, California. She was originally from the West Orlando section of Soweto and had moved, something that would not have been possible before the abolition of apartheid. Although my tour was brief, I was amazed at the economic diversity in Soweto. Some areas were composed of shacks with no running water, while other areas looked very similar to the neighborhood that I grew up in.Fig. 1.: Nelson Mandela’s home in the West Orlando section of Soweto.I arrived back at my hotel to a myriad of several thousand people. The Springbok rugby team was playing England for the World Cup title. There was a Jumbovision set up in the plaza next to our hotel and a celebration going on that in all aspects looked much like our Super Bowl. My friend had purchased some seats and there must have been 20 people in our party ready to celebrate. Previously, in 1995, South Africa had won the world cup. During that game, a similar Jumbovision had been installed in the same plaza in which the current celebration was taking place. I was interested in hearing that just before that game in 1995, Nelson Mandela appeared on the hotel balcony to greet the crowd and inspire the victory. There were rumors that now, in 2007, he might make a similar appearance. In fact, just before the game began, Nelson Mandela arrived on the balcony of our hotel. Although probably moving much slower than he did in 1995, he radiated with a presence that inspired the crowd. His voice was weak from age but still had the power to command an audience. His white hair glistened in the lights that illuminated his face. His smile was that of a grandfather supporting his children before the big game. Now, with more than 2000 people standing and cheering, his wave goodbye drove the crowd to cheer on the Springboks in what turned out to be a victory over England. Just after this brief appearance, my consumption of the local ale led me to walk back to my hotel to use the facilities before the start of the game. I had removed my cell phone and camera for fear of the large crowds. As I pressed the up button for the elevator, my wait was suddenly interrupted as Nelson Mandela emerged from the opening elevator doors. He had little security and politely smiled at me as he passed and shook hands. It was one of those moments that would never be captured by my camera or cell phone, but perhaps was not meant to be. He was whisked to a waiting car, and in as brief a second that it happened, it was over. A bit shocked, I continued with my original plans and joined my friends again to watch the conclusion of the Springbok victory. I doubt if they really believed my story of the hotel and the elevator. As I flew home the next morning, I remembered a small quote hanging in that auspicious living room on that small street in Soweto: “A leader … is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” What is a leader? I do not know, but I can tell you that I have met one once.