What it takes to be a SURGEON leader!!!

In my last blog, I asserted that the UNITED STATES needs both a SURGEON President and Congress, because the country is in the mature stage of its life cycle and it continues to believe that it has the resources to be ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE.

The reality is that the country has limited financial and military resources and they need to be selectively allocated. The country is a debtor nation and it is getting worse.So the country needs to have leaders at all levels with a clear recognition of reality and not a bunch of dreamers.

1. Surgeon leaders have three key characteristics:
   First they are realists and survival driven. This means that leaders must be focused on setting priorities and then allocating the resources to the highest priorities and not just spread them across the entire portfolio. In simple terms it means that some programs will be cancelled and the resources allocated to the key priorities. This is not simple, but it is critical to survival.



2. Second, surgeon leaders are not tied to the past or the "status quo". "Nothing is sacred" and all of the programs and projects are given the same objective and comprehensive evaluations. Even the "sacred cows" are considered to be expendible. This means that some of the traditional services will be curtailed or eliminated.



3. Third, surgeon leaders "challenge the folklore" and evaluate the present and anticipate the future and not just the past. The old saying it "worked in the past" and so it is assumed it will work in the future, is not accepted. This requires understanding why it worked and determining if the situation is the same as the past.

Surgeon leadership has enabled many companies to succeed. My favorite example is GE. If the GE leaders in the 1970s and 1980's didn't recognize the need to execute sound and critical evaluations and accept the philosophy that nothing is sacred, GE would be among the list of companies that no longer exist.

In the next blog I will discuss the type of team that a surgeon leader needs.

If you wish to learn more about strategic leadership, I recommend you read my books:

Risktaker, Caretaker, Surgeon, Undertaker- the four faces of strategic leadership

THE SECRET TO GE's SUCCESS.