Leadership & Ice Skating

When it was suggested I write a blog yesterday, I was on my way to the ice rink with my children. Whilst skating on the ice, I was thinking about the uncomfortable situations I have been finding myself in lately on this leadership journey. I got to thinking that actually leadership is just like ice skating. Some people just sit at the edge and watch while others step on the ice. Some people walk and talk on the ice, while others bump, fall, slip and trip, slide, glide and skate and some……. just dance.

Some people will get on the ice fall over and never go back on, due to reasons such as fear, embarrassment and hurt. Other people will fall but get back up and keep on trying.  Others will keep pushing themselves because they want to be the best they can. To become the best takes practice and patience. In this time they will fall and stumble lots of times, they will get tired, angry, frustrated. They may feel like they are not good enough a fake and a fraud. But they don’t give up, they keep on trying and then one day, they can dance!

The good thing about ice skating is that anyone can do it! Young, old, rich or poor. Same as leadership you can be a cleaner or a consultant, student or nurse. It doesn’t matter how qualified or unqualified you are. You just have to have the patient’s best interest at heart. To be able to dance on the ice, you have to lose your ego! Stop thinking, what others will think. Stop thinking that you’re not good enough, that you haven’t done it for long enough. 

The NHS needs YOU and your patients also need YOU to …….. just dance!

Be creative and innovative, take risks, and be brave because remember the problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking they were at when they were created. 

So thank you to all the people who have taught us how to ice skate and now helping us to dance! The people who have supported, inspired, encouraged and believed in us. Too many individuals to mention but from organisations such as PCRS, School of Health Care Radicals, NHS Changeday, ARNS, Education for Health, Respiratory Futures, NHS leadership Academy, Leeds CCG’s, The Practice PLC, Leeds Respiratory Network, Leeds Teaching Hospital Staff, UnLtd, Leeds Community Foundation, SEE ahead.

Mel

#RespEd #Respiratory #Leadership