Leadership

From Rich Karlgaard's newest column in Forbes magazine, quoting a former emergency room nurse:

"It was about 10:30 p.m. The room was a mess. I was finishing up some work on the chart before going home. The doctor with whom I loved working was debriefing a new doctor, who had done a very respectable, competent job, telling him what he'd done well and what he could have done differently.Then he put his hand on the young doctor's shoulder and said, 'When you finished, did you notice the young man from housekeeping who came in to clean the room?' There was a completely blank look on the young doctor's face.

"The older doctor said, 'His name is Carlos. He's been here for three years. He does a fabulous job. When he comes in he gets the room turned around so fast that you and I can get our next patients in quickly. His wife's name is Maria. They have four children.' Then he named each of the four children and gave each child's age. The older doctor went on to say, 'He lives in a rented house about three blocks from here, in Santa Ana. They've been up from Mexico for about five years. His name is Carlos,' he repeated. Then he said, 'Next week I would like you to tell me something about Carlos that I don't already know. Okay? Now, let's go check on the rest of the patients.'"

Comments

[Brian Hayes]

Thanks for sniping this insightful tidbit.

The 'old doctor' conveyed a tremendous agenda in one short moment. Nicely wise.

We've made progress in educating bosses, or at least in restraining the bully boss, reducing subtle torment and disabling corruption.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Bruno:

Thank you for providing the quote and for this space. I am especially grateful for the wonderful snippets from traditional media: it is very much part of the conversation, and so it should be.