Greetings, everybody, getting my presentation pulled up here for you. All right. So, my name is Jonathan Finoff. I'm the Chief Medical Officer for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. I'm a professor in the Department of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. And I'm going to be talking to you today about leadership. The title of my presentation is Answer Your Email and Other Pearls for Success. And I do mean that, answer your email. But before I start, I want to thank the 2021 AAPMNR Awards Committee for bestowing the Password Legacy Award and Lectureship on me. This is a huge honor for me. And the people who have come before me are just giants in the field of musculoskeletal medicine. I'm looking at the screen and I can see John Cianca right there. And I would consider him as one of the giants in the field, for sure. But people who have had this award before me include Monica Rowe, Sheila Dugan, Mike Furman, Heidi Prather, Joanne Borgstein, Venu Akathoda, Gwen Soa, Joel Press, Jerry Malanga, Mike Fredrickson, Bob Wilder, and Jay Smith. And I consider every single one of those individuals friends, colleagues, and mentors. And I'm so proud to be considered amongst that crowd. So thank you very much for that award. So before we start, we're recording this presentation. So just be aware of that. Make sure that you mute your microphone while I'm speaking. We're going to do both a combination of Q&A through the chat function. And I'll also have you raise your hand if you have any questions. And we'll call on you and hopefully have a little bit of discussion. There also is tech support. So if you have any questions for the AAPMNR producer, you can just go into the chat function and request some help from tech support. I have to go through my disclaimer and disclosures. So all opinions, viewpoints, and recommendations contained in this presentation represent those of the author alone, me, and do not represent the opinions, viewpoints, or recommendations of any organization with which me, I may be affiliated, including, without limitation, the USOPC. I have relevant financial relationships that are essentially, I would actually say these are not relevant financial relationships. But I get royalties from Springer and UpToDate. But I guess every financial relationship is somewhat relevant to anything that we do. So those are the royalties I get. So my objectives for this presentation are to help you identify your core values, help you understand how to write a personal mission statement and why it's important, and also to help you be able to create your own vision of what success looks like for you and discuss a variety of leadership pearls. So let's start off with talking about why is this important. And I'll just give you a little example. So if you go to the airport and you just walk down the concourse and get on the first plane that you happen to see and it takes off, you have no idea where you're going to go. You might end up in an amazing place like Rio de Janeiro. You may not end up in an amazing place. It's kind of roll the dice. Essentially, if you don't know what you want to achieve in life, you don't know where you want to be, then the likelihood of getting there is much lower because it's pretty much random. And this can evolve over time. So you really need to think about where you are, what you want to do, and revise this vision of where you want to be in the future as you gain experience and as you change and grow. So what's my path? I'll talk to you a little bit about that. I was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. Actually, taking this job brought me back to Colorado for the first time since undergraduate. But Boulder is full of world-class athletes. It's a pretty cool place to grow up. And I was good in school, but I really didn't care much about school. In fact, my high school goal from an academic standpoint was to not have homework the entire time I was in high school. I don't know if that was necessarily the right goal academically, but that was my goal. I didn't succeed. I did have homework, I think, once or twice in the entire time of my high school. But at any rate, my passion was definitely sports. And through high school, it was mainly cross-country ski racing and bike racing, both road bike racing and mountain bike racing. But eventually, mountain biking became more important to me. And I definitely had a vision of what I wanted to accomplish. I was thinking I want to become a professional cyclist. Well, I achieved that goal. And then I thought, well, I want to compete in the World Cup. Well, I got to race in the World Cup. Well, I want to go to the World Championships. And I made it to the World Championships. I was very interested in going to the Olympics, but at the time, they didn't have it as an Olympic sport. But they were talking about it, and they eventually did introduce it into the Olympics. And so that was definitely part of my goal. Then I figured that I would complete my career as a cyclist. When I retired, I would go into the bike industry, probably as a manufacturer's rep or a product ambassador and live in a mountain town. And that was going to be my life. That was my vision. But sometimes things don't go exactly as planned. And so I was in undergraduate at that time and studying business. And I was taking a test pretty late at night because I was in one of the initial classes that had hundreds of people in it. And so they did the test with all of the different courses for this particular class all together in the event center, which is the basketball stadium at University of Colorado. And so it was from 7 to 9 at night. And so I was leaving that test, riding my bike home. And it was kind of a stormy night, raining a little bit, dark, cloudy, really a lot of wind. And I was coming across this bike bridge that goes across Boulder Creek near the public library. And I was going pretty fast, trying to get home. And there was a guy laying in the middle of the bridge on his back. And I was going fast, so I kind of whipped by him, but saw that he was laying there. And so I slammed on my brakes and flipped it around and came back. And I looked closer and his eyes were open, but he was breathing funny. And there was all this liquid kind of around him. And as I was looking closer, I realized that liquid was getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And then I realized it was blood and he was bleeding. And that was why it was growing. And then he stopped breathing. And his eyes were open. He wasn't breathing. All this blood. And I called 911. This was pre-cell phone. So I went over to the library and called 911 from a pay phone. And then went back and just waited for the ambulance to come. But, of course, he did pass away. It turns out that he had committed suicide and shot himself in the head. But it was really traumatic for me. And my sport takes place a lot in the back country. And people get severely injured. And I thought I had no idea what to do in this situation. And this absolutely could happen in other circumstances when I'm out in the back country and racing and somebody gets severely injured. And I want to have some basic first aid skills. And so I took an EMT class. And everything changed. So, you know, now what? Everything changes for you. What do you need to do? Well, I think that this is the time that you need to think about what is my path. Don't leave it to chance. Don't get on that random plane. Make sure you know what the destination is. And that is your vision. What do you want to achieve in your lifetime? What do you want to achieve from a career standpoint? You know, from being a little bit morbid. But this is a good way of thinking about it. Think of somebody you admire. And if they were giving a eulogy of you, what would they say? What do you want them to say? That's what your vision should be of yourself and what you want to accomplish in life. And then think about your mission. How do you get there? How do you accomplish this? If I do X, which is my mission, I will accomplish Y, which is my vision. And then think about your core values. What do you want to be characterized by as you're going through and living your mission and achieving your vision? So we'll talk a little bit about that. One of the things for you to think about is starting with the end in mind. Be intentional. What do you want to achieve today? So when you wake up in the morning, write some goals for the day. Think about what you want to achieve that week, that month, that year. When I hold my all-staff meetings on Mondays, at the end of the meeting, we select three people from the staff. And it can be anybody. It can be me or anybody else. And we talk about what we're thankful from the last week, something that we are proud of achieving, and then what we want to accomplish this week and what things we might need from our teammates in order to achieve that. So I think that's really important. Go into every meeting with a goal in mind. What is the purpose of this meeting, particularly if you're running it? Why are you having this meeting? What do you want to achieve? Think about that when you're having important conversations as well as when you're writing important emails and texts. So what do you want to achieve? Well, I can talk to you a little bit about what I want to achieve, and maybe that will help you think about how you might vision your future. So this is my vision. So I want to lead the sports medicine team that takes care of the best athletes in the world. I want to create programs and policies that have societal and global impacts on athlete health and well-being, and I want to educate and mentor health care professionals in the field of sports medicine and discover new information to better understand and prevent injuries and illness in sport and build a diverse and inclusive team. That is my vision. That is what I want to accomplish in my career. So you have to make sure that your vision is in line with the vision of your organization. So we have a vision for USOPC sports medicine, and that is to be recognized as the premier provider of elite athlete medical care. We want to be the world leader in athlete health care, and that means that we want our athletes to have a high awareness of the comprehensive scope of the services provided to them by our team and how to access them. We want to receive high marks from our athletes, colleagues, and partners for our exceptional customer service and the quality of care we deliver to our athletes. We want our research efforts to advance knowledge and innovation in the field of sports medicine, and we want our team to be looked at both domestically but also internationally as the go-to resource for athlete care best practices. From a one team, one dream standpoint, we want to be a unified and passionate team that is committed to advancing USOPC mission and our team purpose. And we want to have an inclusive environment that creates opportunities for team members to learn and grow. We want teammates and colleagues to see us as collaborative, trustworthy, and effective partners. So you want to align your personal vision with the vision of the group that you're working with. And that that is the vision of USOPC sports medicine. So now you want to think about how do I get there? And there are a lot of different ways to do this, but I'll take you through a little bit of an exercise that helps you to develop the or acquire the information that you need in order to develop your own personal mission statement. So one of the first things to do is to kind of take a look around and say, who do you admire and why do you admire those people? So I'll talk about a few of the people that I've met and that have influenced me and that I really admire. So one of them is is a guy named Dr. Swenson. He was the chair of the Department of PM&R at University of Utah when I was in my residency. And he was he was an old school physician. He was pretty hard on the staff. He was hard on the residents. He had really high expectations and certainly didn't hold back. But I worked hard and I earned his respect. And and he just he helped guide my early the early portions of my career and opened up doors for me that I would never have been able to open up by myself. And so I just have so much appreciation for what he did and who he was. Jay Smith was the program director for my fellowship at Mayo Clinic when I did my sports medicine fellowship. And, you know, he was not only a mentor and educated me while I was there, but also became a really close friend and colleague thereafter. But Jay is intelligent. For those of you who know him, he is literally the smartest person I've ever met in my life. But at the same time, he is so humble. If you met him, he doesn't bury you with his intelligence. He he is inquisitive and thoughtful and kind. He's funny. He cares a ton about the people around him and about his patients, and he's really creative and hardworking. So I really appreciate those things about Jay. And then another person at Mayo Clinic, Ed Laskowski. Ed has been a mentor to me for ages. And again, if you know Ed, you know that he is kind, genuine, honest. He acts with integrity. He is selfless and just so devoted to his family, his community and his patients. He's very altruistic. Again, intelligent, hardworking, motivated. He's a great teacher and mentor. I was actually in Istanbul two weeks ago at a IOC conference, an International Olympic Committee conference. And Ed was there and it was so good to see him and to catch up and to still learn from him and ask him questions and let him serve as a mentor to me. He has really helped guide my career and frankly, my life. So the AAPMNR Board of Governors, I have to say that that was really influential for me. I was on the Board of Governors for quite some time. And there's some amazing people on the AAPMNR Board. Michelle Gitler, Steve Gehringer, Stu Weinstein, DJ Kennedy, Carrie Reed, Scott Laker, Dara Keelan, Kathy Bell, Steve Flanagan, Deb Phenasy. I mean, just a ton of people. I can remember sitting on a bus with Steve Flanagan. We're going to dinner after we had had a long day of working on different board related topics. And I was asking Steve, what's it like to be a chairman of a department? What are the challenges you face? How do you meet those challenges? And, you know, Steve really gave me his honest opinion and his insight. And I was thinking very seriously about being a chair of a department and what that would require and how I could be better. And here I was surrounded by these amazing people in their field. And that was just really an incredible experience. And, you know, the executive director for the AAPMNR, Tom Stautzenbach, he not only helps to guide and facilitate all the different roles on the board, but he really helped us develop as leaders and work as a cohesive group. I learned a lot from Tom and I really appreciate what he taught me. Most recently, though, I'd have to say that the person who has influenced me the most and that I reach out to the most frequently is Stan Herring. Stan just received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Hopefully all of you were able to listen to his presentation. But I, you know, this has been an incredible year and a half for me being at the USOPC as their chief medical officer. I mean, I arrived in a week later. It was a pandemic. The training centers get shut down. The games get delayed. There's a financial crisis. I mean, there's so many different things that were happening and so much pressure. And obviously all the things that I'm trying to do from a public health standpoint and from an infectious disease standpoint and keeping our training centers open when they can be and as safe as possible. It's not a popular position to be in. And there are a lot of people in this organization that are very strong willed and have very strong opinions. And and some of the things that I was doing, they did not necessarily agree with. And I had a lot of conversations with Stan asking him, what do I do in this situation? What's your advice for me? You know, am I doing the right thing? Because I was holding the line. I was doing what I believed was right. I was acting with integrity. And those are not easy things to do. You have to be super, super resilient, particularly when you get up to the highest level sports. And as Stan has told me many times, you go into these jobs and one of the first things you do is you write your resignation letter and you talk to the people who have hired you and you say, I'm going to do my best. I'm going to follow what I believe is the best course of action. I'm going to engage experts around me. I'm going to listen, but I'm not going to be influenced to do the wrong thing. I'm not going to be swayed to do the wrong thing. And if you need me to do that, then here's my resignation letter. And just be aware that that's written in advance. So, Stan, if you're listening, thanks for all that you've done for me over the last year. I can't tell him some of the other things you told me because they're all secret. It's all secret. What do you love to do? This is really, really important also, because you don't want to devote all of your time and energy to something that you don't like. So I love being a physician. I love taking care of people. I really like to get to know them, know what they care about, learn about their families and their problems and try to find a solution for them. I love that. We're the greatest profession in the world. I love to create, whether it's a new concussion program or whether it's trying to organize groups into subspecialties so that the right person is seeing patients for the right problem, creating a cohesion. I like developing educational content such as the sports board review course, bunch of the ultrasound courses that I've done. That's all really fun. I love to solve problems. And that's where research comes in. And it started out as doing sort of a scattershot of a lot of different types of research and a lot of different topics. But it certainly became more focused over time and I really focused on ultrasound and chronic exertional compartment syndrome and developing ultrasound guided surgical techniques. And it's really cool to think about what could a new technique be validated in a cadaveric model and test it out and perfect it and then translate it into clinical practice and do all of the research around that with cadaveric studies, case reports, case series, and finally comparative studies with surgery. I love new experiences and adventure. I like to learn. I like different work environments. I like visiting different countries and meeting different people. I'm hopeful that some of my great colleagues from the Philippines are on this presentation and listening because my experiences going to the Philippines were some of my favorite teaching experiences, both with the people I traveled with, Jeff Strakowski and Ken Mountner, but also with the people that hosted me. They're just wonderful, wonderful people. I love to teach. I love to teach residence fellows and other physicians. So those are things that are really important to me. And I want to make sure that those are part of my mission. What are your talents? Well, I know what my talents are in sports. I'm skinny and I probably have all type one fibers. So endurance and coordination, you know, and courage so I can take on the danger sports. But in medicine, I feel like my talents are creativity, thinking outside of the box, being motivated and hardworking. I work hard. I'm collaborative and I'm friendly. I like people a lot. I'm able to simplify concepts. I'm comfortable speaking in public. I feel like I'm a pretty good leader. And if you could accomplish anything, what would it be? And so, you know, I think about within the USOPC and specifically my current role, I want to provide world-class comprehensive medical care to my Team USA athletes. I want them to have access to the best clinicians and hospitals, the best health insurance. I want to have a medical funds to offset extra costs. I want to provide the best customer service and experience for those athletes. I want to have great medical teams at our training centers and at our delegation events like the Olympics and the Paralympic Games. And I want to do fantastic research for our athletes so they get the best possible care. And then what do you want your legacy to be? What do you want to be remembered by? So for me, you know, leading one of the largest National Olympic and Paralympic committees in the world, we're consistently at the top of the medal counts and people look to us to lead. We have a very resource-rich country. So why can't our sports medicine program be in the best in the world? Why can't we share our experience with other people around the world? So that is my goal from a career standpoint, you know, in addition to that, I want to be a great father, I want to be a great husband, and I want to be a great friend. So take all of that information and sit down and for 15 minutes without stop, just write, just write flow of consciousness, and then read it and start to revise it, refine it, make it really serve its purpose. And I came up with a long version and a short version of my mission statement. So my long version, I'll just read really quick, is I'm mission-driven and vision-focused. I have the courage to face adversity, overcome challenges, and do what's right. I act with integrity, lead by example, am reliable, hardworking, optimistic, and perform with excellence. I listen, collaborate, and treat people with respect, encourage diversity and welcome differing opinions, assume good intent, act with kindness, and genuinely care about my team and those we serve. I help others achieve their goals. I solve problems, am visionary, and have the organizational and human and leadership abilities to guide the team to its objectives. I'm funny and fun, humble, and create a safe and enjoyable work environment for my team. And that's a lot to think about each day, and so I have my short version as well, and that's one that you can read each day. But again, make sure that your mission is in alignment with the mission of your organization. And so USOPC Sports Medicine, mission statement is to deliver world-class comprehensive healthcare to Team USA athletes. And I believe that my mission statement is well aligned with that of USOPC. So what makes you tick? What are your core values? These are the things that really guide and characterize you. And so when you're coming up with your core values, you want to review them frequently. And the main reason is, is that these are gonna change over time. As you grow, as your career changes, as you have more experiences, these are gonna evolve. And so make sure that you're thinking about your core values and what you want to be characterized by. And so the way that you can do, you can identify your core values is doing a number of different exercises. But one is reviewing a master list of potential values, and there are a bunch of different lists with just a ton of core values listed. And then you can select the ones that are most important to you, the ones that kind of ring true to you, and divide those into common groups, no more than five, but common groups. And then from each of those common groups of the core values you've selected, select the single core value from each group that most characterizes you. And these are gonna be your core values, and this represents who you are. So here's a whole bunch of different core values that you can look at. And you can highlight those into, I used different colors, and so green, adventure, boldness, fun, humor, inspiration. I considered those all to be similar. And so then you can organize them into different categories, and then you can choose the ones that are the most characteristic of you. And so my core values are learning, service, integrity, optimism, and resilience. You wanna make sure that all of this is a part of your life. And the only way your vision, mission, and core values are gonna be part of your life is if you review them each day. You review them frequently, and then you reflect on them. Are you living your mission and values? Because of that, are you progressing towards your vision? Are there things that you could be doing better? Are there things that you should be doing differently? And in particular, in order to achieve your success, are there things that you need to cut out of what you're currently doing? So be a minimalist, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit here. So now we're gonna move on to a few of the different pearls. And one of the first ones is to be the thermostat. So I want people to use that hand-raising function and just tell me what is the difference between a thermostat and a thermometer? And I'll just let our technical people for the support for AAPNR to just choose somebody and unmute them and let them tell us what the difference is between a thermometer and a thermostat. So raise your hand and we'll choose you. All right, well, Michelle's already got it. So I'll just say one sets the temperature and one reads it. And that's exactly right. So a thermometer, it tells you what the temperature is, but a thermostat sets the temperature. So entrainment is the universal law of harmony. So if you have two things that are vibrating and you put them close together, their vibrations will eventually come together so that they have the same vibration frequency, and that's called entrainment. And entrainment not only affects vibration, but it also, the same thing is affected by emotion. And so we affect those around us and those around us affect us. And in general, negative influence is stronger than positive. So really be intentional when you go to work or when you're around people that you care about, what is the temperature that you want to set in that room? So be the thermostat, establish what you want to be around you, and people will gradually entrain and have the same emotional feelings and they'll become similar to you. And this is called emotional contagion. So now we'll talk a little bit about emotional intelligence. So the Oxford Dictionary definition of this is the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. And if you look at some of the research that's out there on emotional intelligence, it's a really strong predictor of your success in the workplace and frankly, in life. In fact, emotional intelligence was two times more important in predicting star performers at work than those with technical skills or IQ. So emotional intelligence is two times more important than technical skill or IQ when you're looking at star performers. And this becomes more and more important the higher your position is within a company. And in fact, in senior leadership positions, 90% of the difference between a star and average performer is determined by their emotional intelligence. So really think about this when you're moving forward in your career. There are five components of emotional intelligence, including self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. And we'll talk about each of those. So the first one is self-awareness. And so with self-awareness, this is a self-management skill and it's the ability to recognize and understand your moods, emotions, and drives, as well as their effect on others. So if you know you do poorly with tight deadlines, plan in advance. Recognize how demanding patient impacts your emotions. Plan in advance how you're going to handle that difficult situation. Know where you're headed and why. What are your values? This helps you prevent you from making rash decisions. And if you have a high degree of self-awareness, it helps you to be able to speak openly and canonically and provide realistic self-assessments. How am I really truly functioning? One of the hallmarks of people who are really self-aware is that they have self-deprecating humor. And I'll kind of go back to Stan Herring with that. I mean, good grief. I'm always cracking up when I listen to his presentations because he talks about all these crazy things that are self-deprecating that he's experienced. But he's just phenomenal with that. So during an interview, one of the things that you can do is ask people about a time that they got carried away with their feelings and made a decision they later regretted. And self-aware people are going to be comfortable about talking about that type of situation, what their strengths are, what their limitations are. And they thirst for constructive criticism. They really want to improve. They have a firm grasp on their capabilities. They make decisions accordingly and they're less likely to fail. So one of the things that you can do to have more self-awareness is take a personality profile. And there are a whole bunch of different personality profiles that will help you understand more about your strengths, limitations, personality traits, communication styles. But the one that I'm most familiar with is the DISC profile because it's used at Mayo Clinic and USOPC, both of which are places that I've been. And so DISC includes dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. And there are different characteristics on each of these things. And so after you take this profile, it puts a dot on this circle, this DISC circle, and kind of tells you what your typical characteristics are. And it helps you understand your motivators and your stressors and how to interact and communicate with other people. And so this is my dot. I'm on the influencer portion of the DISC diagram here and a little bit more towards the dominant side. So, you know, I enjoy meeting new people. I'm enthusiastic. I like to express myself. I like colorful projects. I mean, I like to do big things. But things that stress me, it stresses me out when things are going at a slow pace. I don't like doing routine things. I like creating and doing new stuff. Just going and working steadily on a specific long-term goal without any progress that I'm seeing. Those are tough things. It's also tough for me to give people unpleasant feedback. I think that's a tough one for everybody, but, you know, influencers also really care about how people feel. And so it's hard when you're giving them unpleasant feedback and you know that you're not making them feel good right there. That's actually why I don't like EMGs. I can't stand doing EMGs. I love the intellectual standpoint part of it, but I hate poking people and electrocuting them without having any benefit to them beyond information. I like doing procedures that make people feel better. So yeah, I'm an influencer. So self-regulation is the next one on the list here. And so this is another one of those self-management skills and it's the ability to control, redirect disruptive impulses and moods. This creates an environment of safety, trust, and fairness. People with self-regulation don't blow up. They collect more information, look at the problem from multiple angles and draw conclusions. They're steady. That's really important. This also allows you to roll with change and deal with ambiguity, which is a huge deal. People with fiery dispositions often display extremes of negative emotion and it doesn't, you know, drive good leadership practices. You know, and I think that this whole thing about change and dealing with ambiguity is a big deal. You know, self-regulation in the face of adversity and the constant change that is life is really important. And out of the games, one of the most important words for me coming out of the most recent Olympic and Paralympic games was pivot. Everything changes. It constantly changes. And you have to be self-regulated and to be able to roll with the punches and be creative with your solutions. Don't get frustrated and angry about things because you can't change a lot of stuff, but you can pivot and figure out a solution. And so I think that's really, really important. One of the things that I really took away from the games this summer. Motivation is another self-management skill. You have to have a passion to work for reasons that go beyond money or status. All effective leaders have motivation. They're motivated by a deep desire to achieve for the sake of achievement. It is not motivated by money. It doesn't mean that money is not a nice thing to have, but that is not why true leaders are motivated to achieve. Motivated people work hard. They seek out challenges. They love to learn. They take pride in a job well done. They track their progress. They tend to be pretty competitive and they're forever raising their own performance bar. And they really like to be pushed. You have to remain optimistic and committed to the organization or to be successful and direct your motivation. Next up is empathy. And this is a relationship skill. So rather than a self-management skill, it's a relationship skill. And this is the ability to understand the emotional makeup of other people. So you have to be thoughtful of other people's feelings in the process of making any intelligent decision. Effective leaders sense and understand the viewpoints of everyone on the team. Great leaders are mentors and coaches to their team. They understand them. They know when to push and when to hold back. I'll give you an example right now. We have imposed a vaccine requirement, not only for our employees at the USOPC, but also all of our athletes and anybody who's going to be going with us to a games. That is a big deal. Not everyone agrees. Not everyone is using the same information to make their decisions. But we need to be respectful about differing opinions. We need to listen and acknowledge people when they have these differing opinions. But then you need to explain why it's going to be a specific way and offer to help them find solutions to that problem. So last but not least is social skill. And so this is the proficiency in managing relationships and building networks. It's really, really important. It's friendliness with a purpose. It's moving people in the direction you desire. If you can't get everybody on the bus, that bus is not going to be driving in the direction that you want, you're not going to have the team behind you. You have to have a knack for finding common ground and building rapport with people. This is really a culmination of other skills including having self-control, so listening, having empathy, understanding the people, and then really trying to build that common direction for everybody. So is emotional intelligence trainable? Can you learn? Yeah, I mean there are both genetic and acquired components that kind of determine your emotional intelligence at baseline, and it changes. We get better from an emotional intelligence standpoint with age, sort of like wine, right? But changing our emotional intelligence requires limbic rather than neocortical learning. So our neocortex grasps concepts and logic, and our limbic system governs feelings, impulses, and drives. And in order to have limbic learning, you have to learn through motivation, extended practice, and feedback. So you want to identify a behavior. So let's say that behavior is somebody doesn't listen. You want to identify that behavior in action. You want to replay that incident and provide a better response. You didn't listen. What is a better way of handling this particular situation? And give examples of other successful people who do it right and then practice. Nothing great was achieved without enthusiasm. This is going to take time, effort, and desire. So be ready to work on it if you want to be better at emotional intelligence. So moving on to another pearl, I think, of successful leadership is communication. I think this is really a key determinant of success, and it truly is multimodal, and it's complicated. Right now, there's face-to-face communication, phone, email, instant messaging, video conferencing, social media. And how do you keep up with all this stuff? If you don't talk to people, listen to people, and promptly reply or respond to them, then opportunities pass you by. People don't think you're interested. They don't think you're paying attention. So make sure you choose how you want to communicate. Make sure that that is also a preferred form of communication used by your community, the people that you interact with, your employers. And let other people know what that best way of communicating with is. And when they use that form of communication, be sure to respond in a timely manner. It shows that you respect them. You're acting with integrity. You're interested in them. And this is going to be reciprocated. People really appreciate that. And that's where I come back to answer your email. I have to say that there are so many different doors that have opened for me just because I responded to people's email. And it is incredibly rare, no matter who is reaching out to me and no matter how busy I am, that I don't respond to people. And it might mean a lot of late nights for me and early mornings. But the fact of the matter is that I respect people who are reaching out for my opinion, whether that's the general public just asking, should I get vaccinated? Is it safe for my son to play football? Those are things that I'm going to respond to, despite the fact that my role is with elite athletics at the USOPC. So the difficult conversation is one of the things that we all have to, that we're all faced with. I don't like it any more than anybody else does, but it is really important. And if you are effective at having that difficult conversation, you are going to be a way better leader. So make sure that when you're going to have a difficult conversation with somebody that you talk to them in person, don't send them an email. A lot of times, if you give somebody a chance, they'll actually approach you with feelings of frustration or dissatisfaction around a specific behavior, because they're not getting the response that they are expecting. But if that's not occurring, then you want to talk with them and preferably shortly after you've observed the specific behavior. And one of the things that you don't want to say is, do you want me to provide you with some feedback? Or I'm going to give you some feedback. That's not the greatest way of opening the conversation. Start the conversation and say, hey, do you mind if I make an observation that's going to really help you with your success and well-being? That's a much more positive way of opening up a difficult conversation. And then focus on the specific observable behavior and how it's limiting their success. You don't seem to be listening to people. I saw that with this specific interaction that you had with this person just now. And did you see how that person responded to you? That is limiting your ability to achieve your goal of that conversation. How do you think that we could do that better? Ask them for solutions. And then end the conversation by reaffirming your support for them and asking how you can help in the future. So moving on, I think resilience is a huge deal. So if you know your core values, definitely stick to those core values. I can't tell you how important for me having a strong moral compass has been. Elite athletics, a lot of people don't make good decisions. And there is a huge amount of pressure to make things easier for different people or to change your position because it's uncomfortable for somebody or they have to figure out a new way of doing something. Make sure that you know that what you are doing is right, why it is right. If you have questions about it, bring in experts, ask others opinions. But when you believe that something is the correct way, be strong about it. Have that moral compass and do the right thing. You know, don't let people sway you. Do what's right. Not everybody's going to like you. That's a really hard one for me. I like people. I like being around people. I don't like upsetting people. And I have to say that a lot of my current job and one of the most difficult things that I have to do is that any decision I make, 50% of the people are happy and 50% of the people are angry. When I would go in and I would see patients in general, my typical patient population was rarely angry and was very appreciative of what I did. I had great relationships. This job has way more adversity from that standpoint. You've got to be resilient. You've got to accept some of those things like not everyone is going to like you and stick to doing what you believe is right. Find mentors. I talked about some of my mentors. I've surrounded myself with people that I think have the core values that I believe in and exemplify the behaviors that I would like to also portray, you know, and also have achieved things that I'm striving to achieve. You want to watch, listen, and learn. You know, I have to say that, you know, when I was with Ed Laskowski this last week over in Istanbul, he, you know, there are just different opportunities that always open up themselves and listening to Ed and talking to him about those different opportunities really helps me to focus better looking at how he's lived his life and what he's been able to accomplish and also the satisfaction he has with what he has accomplished. Those are things that I strive for and so I think it's really, really important in getting advice on those critical decisions in those difficult situations. So work-life balance. This is really different for everyone. I've had a real struggle because nowadays a lot of people say, well, you know, work-life balance is getting to work at eight and leaving from work at five and not working after hours. It's like, man, my phone's on 24-7. I get into work very early and I leave very late, but you know what? I love what I do and I'm happy with my life and I'm devoted to my family and when I'm there, I'm focused and what I found is that work-life balance, everybody has a different definition of what work-life balance is and you need to determine what is right for you and don't let sort of a societal global definition of eight to five, easy does it, you know, that doesn't work for me and it may be the perfect thing for somebody else, but don't try to push your work-life balance on somebody else and make sure that your work-life balance is true to your core values and not just adopting what somebody else tells you is the right work-life balance. And I think it's really, really important to work hard but be focused. What typically happens in life is you'll do really well at something and people will recognize that and they're like, you do really well with this, so now we're going to have you do three more of these and oh you did well on that, now we're going to give you six more and so it builds upon itself and suddenly you've got 50 projects that you're responsible for and instead of doing an amazing job, you're spread so thin that you do a mediocre job on a lot of different things. So this is important. It's not about getting everything done with mediocrity, it's about getting the right things done in an exceptional manner. So prioritize what is important, focus and learn to say no and how to say no. Say no respectably. If somebody says, can you come and give a lecture at such and such and you have 10 lectures that you're doing and all these other projects that are on your plate and you can't do it at that time, thank them for asking you to do that. It's really an honor to be asked to present and unfortunately right now I just can't because of x, y, and z reasons but man, I really appreciate you thinking of me and I will do this for you in the future when I have more time available. So we kind of got went through a whole bunch of different stuff. So what was my path? Well after after I took that EMT class, I realized that you know what, medicine is what I want to do. That's what I'm passionate about. I'm a good athlete but I could be a great physician. So I redirected and really became much more focused on what I was going to do. I changed my major, I applied and went to medical school and my residency at U of U and my fellowship at Mayo Clinic. And within one year of being in practice, I was offered the job as a head team physician for a division one university for all of their athletics including football and basketball and track and tennis, golf, soccer. It was just it was a great opportunity. And then the Olympic and Paralympic Games occurred in in Salt Lake and so I was a physician there and then joined as a pool physician for the United States Ski and Snowboard Association. Gradually worked my way up to being the head team physician for one of the sports within that organization. Went to multiple Olympic Games and now I'm the chief medical officer of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. So that was my path and did I achieve my vision? Am I leading the sports medicine team that takes care of the best athletes in the world? I think I am. Am I creating programs and policies that have societal and global impacts on athlete health and well-being? I believe so. Do I get to educate and mentor health care professionals in the field of sports medicine? I'd say that's one of the things that's dropped off a little bit and it's something that I'm really passionate about and I need to work more on that. And so I'm going to be focused on that and I'm going to be intentional about reintroducing this into my career. Am I discovering new information to better understand and prevent injuries and illnesses in sport? Yeah and we've got some super cool projects that we've got going on right now that I'm happy to talk to you about but you know it's I'm definitely doing that. And am I building a diverse and inclusive team? That's high on my list and I want to create a diversity task force to start a pipeline of people in medical school, residency, fellowship, early career of diverse backgrounds, diverse experiences, but also diverse gender, race, ethnicity into elite athletics because those doors don't open necessarily automatically. You have to be intentional about it. So where do I go from here? I want to improve games planning. We need to make sure we have the right staff, right supplies and services. I want to build that diversity pipeline that I was talking about, improve communication and collaboration between the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and our national governing bodies like USA Gymnastics, USA Track and Field, all of the different national governing bodies of sport which there are more than 50. I want to increase our health care resources and establish medical criteria as part of our NGB certification process so that we have at least minimum standards that every NGB has to meet for the provision of medical care to ensure that our athletes are getting good health care. And I want to establish rotations and fellowships to train and recruit our clinicians and make, you know, the health care for elite athletics better in the future. So in conclusion, know who you are, know where you're going, know how you want to get there, and be the thermometer. Set the temperature. Emotional intelligence is a huge key to your success so really take the time to improve your emotional intelligence and communicate effectively. And I'm going to leave you with one question. Are you living your life to its fullest? Really think about that. Thanks very much for your attention. I really appreciate it. So I'm going to stop sharing my screen here and we'll take some questions here. You can, if you want to do it in the chat. So what books would you recommend for leadership development? Man, there are a bunch of books. Essentialism is a really good book. There's, what else? All the Harvard Business Reviews are really, really good. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is really good. But I have to say, I like courses better. For me, I like having that personal interaction and so I'm not as good with the books. So I wish I had better recommendations for you, but hopefully those give you some thoughts. Any other questions? And I'm happy to unmute people if you want to chat. Thanks, Jane, for your comment. I appreciate it. And Steve as well. Well, it is good to, if you guys can unmute your cameras, it would at least be good to see you guys for a second. Oh, do you have a recommendation on how to beat Michelle at Cornhole? So Amy, I don't know if anybody's going to be able to beat Michelle at Cornhole. Maybe it requires a little bit more beer and wine. So that might be the key. But Stan, John, Deb, Michelle, Amy, it is so good to see people. I'm really sad that we can't be together in person, but it is so good to see everybody for sure. So good to see you, friend. Peter, good to see you. Carrie, Tom, boy, we were just out. Our dogs are healthy and fit. Tom helped us identify the perfect dog, a burner, and she's a great dog. We got it from the same breeders as Tom Stotzenbach. Hey, Monica. Chris, thanks for helping me with that patient I referred out there recently. Really, really appreciate it. You guys are great. Ah, so here's a question. In a career trajectory, how do you rate the effectiveness of intentionalism versus being open to unexpected opportunities? You know, I, both are important. So what I would say is that I knew what I wanted to achieve, but I didn't know exactly how that road was going to take me there. You know, you're thinking about what are your core values? What are the stepping stones to get from point A to point B? But going to Utah State University, that job fell in my lap. I didn't expect it, but it was absolutely along my career trajectory. And if it wasn't, then I, you know, I shouldn't take that job. And so I think that having those unexpected opportunities, but making sure that they're on the path that's going to achieve your vision and that fits with your mission is perfect. Any other questions? Stu, good to see you. Good to see you. Great job on the opening presentation also. That was a really cool presentation. And Jane, I hear you're doing great things out at Mayo. All right. Well, I think that, oh, thanks for answering my email about Botox and chronic exertion compartment syndrome. Oh, that's good. They did really well in soccer season. Fantastic. That's one of the things I love to do. Hey, Jake. Thanks for your kind words and best to your family as well. Well, it's always so hard to say goodbye after just saying hello, but I hope everybody really enjoys the rest of the Academy meeting. And hopefully next year we'll be in person and I'll have four games and one year behind me. So have a great day, everybody. Enjoy yourselves. Great to see you.

leadership

core values

personal mission statement

vision of success

communication

emotional intelligence

resilience

work-life balance

prioritization