I have spent quite some time pondering over what it truly means to matter. It’s a strange question to be honest, and I think it isn’t something one would expect to be asked. I struggle to answer this query because my first thought is always the same: doesn’t everyone matter? Then I think well, you probably have to do at least something to matter. So, I guess I have decided that my personal definition of mattering is contributing to something bigger than your own self. However, I also think it is important that one can personally feel that they matter because the world would be a better place if everyone could recognize that they are important. In the inspirational book Dare to Matter written by Jordan Kassalow and Jennifer Krause, Kassalow discusses what his definition of mattering is. He says that he once decided he would “be someone who made a difference in the life of the world with the life that [he’d] been given,” which I thought was an interesting quote once I could wrap my head around it. Kassalow recognizes that he is lucky just to be put on this Earth, so he should give back to it by making a positive impact on others. After this realization, he dedicated his life to mattering. Kassalow disclaims that every human life is equal, but there is a decision that one can make whether to matter or not. He states that ‘[t]he only difference between being and mattering is believing and then acting as if the world depends on you,” so you must go about life as if everyone else is relying on your actions. To me, this is a pretty extreme way to go about mattering, but I think it is a good mindset to have to an extent. As long as you are contributing in some way, shape, or form, you matter. I personally feel like I matter because of many things in my life. I am a college student on the pre-medicinal route, I play multiple instruments, and I have many strong relationships with friends and family. I contribute greatly as a college student because I’m acquiring education to improve the lives of others. My love for music is appreciated by anyone who hears me play. My relationships with those around me impact many lives. I feel like I am doing my job in the world to matter. In the book, Kassalow discusses asking yourself the questions “What needs you?” and “What feeds you?” When something needs you, you are vital to its success. When something feeds you, it will keep you energized. When I ask myself what needs me, I think of school, work, and my family. School needs me so I can further my path to impacting the world in an amazing way. I want to become a doctor one day, so school is very vital for me to achieve this goal. As for work, I have worked as a CNA for a couple years, and I have now decided to move from a clinical setting to more of a research setting as an intern at UNMC’s Mind and Brain Health Lab. This needs me because I will learn much more that applies to my future than I did at my old job, even though what I learned there was necessary too. My family needs me because my relationship with them is one of the most important things in their lives. As for what feeds me, that was a little harder to answer. I decided that music and enjoying learning both feed me. Music has been a passion for me throughout my life, whether I’m playing French horn or piano or simply listening to music. It’s a big part of what relaxes me and keeps me going in life. Enjoying what I’m learning and feeling like I can apply it to the real world is another subject of importance for me. This feeds me to keep continuing my education into my career path in life. Above all, mattering is something that anyone can do, you just have to put your mind to it. Since I turned sixteen, I have worked in two different nursing homes as a Certified Nursing Assistant. I have discussed these jobs in some of my previous posts, but only because being a CNA has truly been a life-altering experience. When I began my first job at a nursing home in North Dakota, I was super nervous to begin working because I had never worked in a clinical setting before. I felt confident in my medical knowledge from the course I took to get certified but being in an actual healthcare setting is so much different. Luckily, the woman who trained me had been a CNA for about 20 years, and she was the best trainer I could have asked for. She was always clear with her directions, gave me every detail she could think of about how the facility worked, and pushed me outside of my comfort zone so I could become confident in my abilities. She was the reason that my first job as a nurse aide felt so successful and less stressful than I had imagined it being. She gave me a very clear path to confidence as a CNA, and by the end of my training, which was even cut short, I was nowhere near nervous to be on my own. However, starting my most recent job did not go as smoothly as my previous one did. I had never toured the facility I was applying for before my first day due to COVID, so I was sort of taking a leap of faith. Showing up for my first shift, I was very impressed by the facility and I was welcomed warmly by the office workers and receptionist. I was guided back to the memory care unit, where I was assigned, and was instructed to wait for my trainer. She seemed to be arriving a little late, which was fine, but then 40 minutes went by without her showing up. When she finally appeared, she didn’t really apologize for being late. This obviously gave me a bad first impression of her, which I tried to ignore because she was supposed to train me for the next two weeks. In the first couple days of my training, I realized that my trainer was not a natural teacher at all. She didn’t tell me very much about how things were ran in the memory care unit, and she mainly just had me watch her perform tasks. Most of the time, she did not even communicate with me. I soon realized that I was going to have to figure out a lot for myself. I began watching my trainer more intensely as well as watching my other coworkers to navigate how their system ran. I also took it upon myself to ask as many questions about the facility that I could think of and pushed myself out of my comfort zone by beginning to perform tasks myself under her supervision. My training became a much smoother process after I adopted this mindset of putting myself out there. You may be wondering where this whole story is even heading. Well, I was placed in a very ambiguous situation during my training. I had very little direction at my new job, which is very bad considering the importance and difficulties of being a CNA. My ability to navigate through the ambiguity of the situation was vital to my success in the memory care unit. Being comfortable with ambiguity is crucial to being a successful leader. If one is not okay with navigating through a blurry area, they are not going to be very effective because they are always acting out of caution. A leader needs to be bold enough to come up with a wrong answer or to not understand a concept so they can grow personally and inspire those around them to be comfortable with navigating the unknown. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I currently work in the memory care unit of a nursing home as a Certified Nursing Assistant. In my unit, there are about 25 residents, and we split up the rooms between 3 CNAs. There is also a Certified Medication Aide on the floor, but they typically do not assist with cares other than passing medications; however, they do have some supervisory power over the CNAs. On a typical work shift, the CNAs usually stick to the rooms listed in their assigned section. The way it worked at my old job and most of the time at my current one was that no help was provided by CNAs to sections other than their own. There is usually little to no communication between the CNAs about the different sections because each person is focused on getting their job completed. This can become a little frustrating, especially when your own section becomes a little heavier than expected for the night. It also may feel like you’re a little clueless as to what is happening with the residents outside of your section, which never ends well. Seeing the problems with this, my coworkers and I at my current job decided to switch things up for an evening. While we were eating dinner, we discussed how we could change up our system to produce a more efficient workday and instigate more communications among the CNAs and medication aide. We decided that we would deviate from our sections and rather work together to get our residents ready for bed. This pretty much enforced communication between us so we could know which residents were ready or not. Not only would we communicate the ready-or-not status of the residents, but this also allowed us time to discuss any changes in mood, behavior, or physical status of each resident. Normally, since we stick to our sections, this does not happen, so it was nice to receive updates on everyone. In addition to increased communication, our adapted way of working definitely increased our efficiency. Erasing the sections allowed for flow between doing chores (such as laundry or dishes) and helping the residents. It also ensured that an extra CNA was usually available to help out residents who push their call buttons or wander around looking for help. This night at work was better than any other shift I have done as a CNA in the past. This is because of the collaboration and creativity between me and my coworkers. Our ability to be creative and come up with a new style of teamwork with our supervisor really showed off our individual leadership abilities. Creativity is such an important aspect of leadership because without new ideas, things such as communication and efficiency may never improve. I agree with the statement, “Leaders must be creative in order to spark innovation and inspire those that they lead” because change, even if it doesn’t end successfully, is always a good thing to try. If things always remain the same, there is no chance for improvement, so creativity is always important. An important aspect of good leadership that I have not gone in depth on yet is listening. Listening shows those around you that you truly care about them. I think that with all of the distractions in today’s world, people do not value the importance of intently and actively listening to someone in the way that we should. I looked back into my own personal experiences involving listening, and I remembered a very emotional anecdote. I am a Certified Nursing Assistant, and I currently work in a nursing home with residents diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. This job is quite intense, and it takes some time to get used to working and communicating with those with dementia. There is most definitely a lot of listening involved, but one specific instance really stood out to me. I was having a fairly calm shift at work when one of my residents came out of her room crying. I immediately walked over to her and asked her what was wrong, and she asked me to come back to her room to talk with her, so I did. She began by just saying she was scared, and when asked what she was scared of, she had no idea. She started asking about her home and her family and worrying about them, and I comforted her by saying her family was safe and knew where she was. This is a very frequent concern among my residents, but then she began to say something I have not heard before. She asked, “I have this thing called dementia, right?” This was my first time hearing someone be aware of their condition, so I was very shocked. I told her yes, and did my best to keep her calm, and she then forgot about her concern and wanted to go to bed. I felt as though my listening was important to her and being an active listener and understanding her concerns was helpful. On the flip side of things, I have also felt very listened to before. When I was a junior in high school, I was very unsure about what career path I wanted to take. I was pretty close with my anatomy and physiology teacher, so I decided to ask him about it one day. He had been pre-medicine in college, and since I wanted to go into the medical field, I felt like he was a good resource for me. Over the course of the semester, my best friend and I would talk to him often about careers and how to achieve them. He really listened to all of me and my friend’s concerns and gave us amazing advice, which I still take into consideration to this day. His genuine concern for his students also made me admire him as a teacher even more. Overall, listening is something that everyone needs to value more in their day-to-day life, whether you are the one listening or the one being listened to. Even if it may not seem like the most important conversation, it makes a difference that may impact people way more than you could imagine. As I have discussed in previous blog posts, the ability to empathize with those around you is one of the most important aspects of successful leadership. Empathy is what allows you to truly connect with others and look out for needs and desires other than just your own. I was recently given an assignment in order to practice using empathy to actively listen to others’ experiences. I was told to interview a fellow classmate about an anecdote from our first few months at college. During this, I was supposed to inquire about and assess the emotions she went through during each part of her story. I charted the level of her emotion on a piece of paper as the experience went along.
My interviewee decided on telling me about the week she moved into the dorms at our college. She began by telling me how excited she was for move in week. She was super optimistic to meet people and make friends, and she was ready to move on and be independent from her parents. However, her mood went a tiny bit downhill when none of her roommates moved in on the same day she did, and no one was to be found to become friends with. She really wanted to socialize on her first day, so she became a bit discouraged when she did not meet anyone. After her first day, her mood declined even more when her roommates still did not show up. She was getting really lonely at this point, as she had spent the entire day alone in her room. The next day, she woke up optimistic about her roommates arriving, but they still did not show up. She tried to walk around and meet people, but she could not find anyone to talk to. She was really disappointed at this point because college is all about meeting new people, yet the days just passed being alone. She got even more drained over the lack of sociability, so she decided to call her friends from her hometown to see if they wanted to hang out. She then drove to her hometown, but at this point her friends were not answering their phones. The night kept getting later, and she kept getting more upset about her friends seemingly ignoring her. Eventually, her friends got back to her, and they all hung out. It was still upsetting because of how long it took them to reply, so the night was not the greatest. Eventually, she began to meet new people through our scholarship program. A group chat was formed with a bunch of freshmen, and she hung out with new people and had a great time. This story made me realize that everyone’s college experience is going to be a little (or a lot) different. I personally had an amazing first week of college because my roommates had all moved in early, and we all got along really well. This really made me empathize with the girl I interviewed because I realized that not everyone is going to meet people as luckily as I did. Empathy Is very important because without it, you might not ever know what is really going on in others’ lives. Lack of empathy can lead to you assuming that everyone has it as good as you, even though a lot of people won’t. Empathy and Innovation - Doug Dietz's "Transforming healthcare for children and their families"10/14/2020
There have been many instances that have proven that empathy is a large part of effective leadership. An amazing example of this is Doug Dietz and his work on magnetic resonance imaging scanners. In his Ted Talk, “Transforming Healthcare for Children and their Families,” Dietz discusses his innovation in the medical community. Dietz developed an MRI machine, yet quickly realized this piece of technology was not fit for everyone. He noticed that children were terrified to get into this machine. They were so afraid of the beige room, the stapler-like machine, and the loud whirring of the scan that 80% of children had to be sedated to get their scan done. This is where Dietz’s empathy kicked in. He felt awful considering it was his invention that was terrifying young children who needed medical attention. He immediately kicked into design mode so that children would feel comfortable. Dietz used his empathy to feel for the children and their fear. He used this to look through the eyes of a child and understand what kind of design would be necessary for a pleasant experience. Dietz used children’s drawings for ideas and brought customers in for the ideation stage. This is an example of working in the environment of your end-user. He looked into the minds of his customers to innovate his creation. He understood that kids have infinite imagination, and he used this to his advantage. Their team began designing fun environments for the children’s scanners. They designed ocean scenes, camping scenes, and pirate ships. They incorporated fun lights, soothing colors, and aromatherapy to make the children feel like they were in a fun environment. The impact of these new designs was immediate. The number of children who had to be sedated for their scan went down to practically zero. This impact was not only seen among the children, but also in the parents. The parents felt the soothing energy of the MRI rooms, so their children sensed this and also felt calm. There was a very significant instance that Dietz recalled during his Ted Talk. This one little girl had just finished her MRI in one of the beautifully reinvented rooms, and she looked up at her parents and asked, “Can we come back tomorrow?” After the little girl asked her parents that, the technologist started crying because it made her remember why she got into healthcare: to help kids. Dietz broke down on stage telling this story, which shows just how much he cares about these kids and their experience with his invention. Dietz truly had a lot of empathy for these children because he was so passionate about whether or not they were comfortable during an MRI. Dietz’s willingness to redesign his invention shows that he can accept a beginner’s mindset when approaching a problem. If he was not humble enough to do this, or if he did not have empathy, then children would still be terrified to get an MRI scanner, and the problem would still exist. Dietz expresses his beliefs and his impact well when he says “When you design for meaning, good things will happen.” In a team, culture can be described as the way that people do things. A culture of trust can be developed by leaders by promoting vulnerability among team members. This is what new CEO Kathryn does in Patrick Lencioni’s leadership fable, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. When Kathryn is introduced to the team, she recognizes the absence of trust between her staff. This is evident because they did not work fluidly as a team, and they would not show any vulnerability. If a team cannot be vulnerable with and trust one another, then they will not be able to work together solidly. To fix this, Kathryn made the team answer vulnerable questions aloud. This overall made the team more comfortable with each other because they learned new information which allowed them to get to know each other better. When a team is introduced to a new sense of vulnerability, it allows them to trust one another so that they can have faith in their team members to complete their work effectively. This vulnerability also allows team members to learn how everyone works best, including their strengths and weaknesses. Overall, this will help them flow better as a team since they know where some members will be lacking. Teams must also be comfortable with conflict. If teams are afraid of arguing and pretend to have harmony, they will never truly function well. A team will be much more productive if they are able to express all of their thoughts even if they contradict their team members’. This will lead to more productive conversations and more success in goal completion. In the book, Kathryn encouraged healthy conflict among team members (even though they were uncomfortable), and this overall led to more productivity and comfort among the team. In addition, teams must also be able to commit without ambiguity in order to function well. If people are not fully committed to their team or their project, then they will not carry out their ideas successfully. Furthermore, a team should not let a minor disagreement hold them back from moving forward. Instead, groups can agree to disagree in order to move forward. A common problem among teams is the inability to develop shared responsibility for reaching common goals. Kathryn’s ideas to solve this issue are holding members accountable and also paying attention to results. It becomes a big issue when individuals in a team are given low standards so that their companions do not hold them accountable for their part of the work. Kathryn solved this by suggesting that some members of the group check in on each other to make sure they are on top of things. This solves any lack of participation and responsibility that may have been occurring previously. The other problem that Kathryn addressed was the inattention to results that rises from status and ego issues. If team members are only worried about the overall results that are the common goal of the team rather than their own egos, they will be much more successful. Overall, a team must care about the outcome of the team as a whole rather than their personal status. This book did an amazing job of illustrating the common issues a team may face and how they can be solved through a realistic story. Teams will be very successful if they follow this advice. This week, I was assigned to write a thank you note to someone of importance in my life. After little reflection, I decided to write my thank you to my high school anatomy teacher, Mr. Johnson. He deserves such a large note of gratitude from me because he has greatly impacted my life. Going into his anatomy class, I was unsure if I would enjoy anatomy or even the medical field in general. Early in the year, I decided that healthcare is right for me. This is not only because I enjoyed the course content, but also because of Mr. Johnson’s influence as my teacher. The way he taught changed my entire viewpoint on not only anatomy, but also every class in general. Mr. Johnson taught in a style that I had never truly experienced in high school. He was truly passionate about whatever he is talking about, and it showed. He often went on tangents off of the lecture slides, so the class felt like we were learning from his stories and knowledge rather than just reading off and copying the PowerPoint presentation. It made us feel more connected to him, and we were always excited to hear what he had to say next. In addition, Mr. Johnson served as a mentor as well as a teacher for me. My best friend, Sarah, and I were pondering our career choices for the future and were unsure who to talk to about it. Since Mr. Johnson was pre-med in college and we both wanted to go into healthcare, we decided talking to him was our best bet. He gave me wonderful advice regarding medical school and also helped me confirm that I wanted to become a doctor. He also gave Sarah some great advice for careers based on her interests because she was unsure of what she wanted to do. Sarah is now on the track to nursing school, and I am a pre-med student. I can also be grateful to Mr. Johnson for writing me a wonderful letter of recommendation that helped me secure my Scott Scholarship. Mr. Johnson showed great signs of leadership. He broke from the status quo that most high school teachers adhere to by sharing much more about his subject than what was on the notes. He truly connected with our class in ways that I hadn’t seen before. He also showed his leadership abilities through his empathy. He always listened to our class and attempted to connect with all the students individually. It felt really nice to believe that a teacher really cared about how his students are doing in both class and life in general. His empathy was vital because it made us more interested in his class, so we all performed well. It also just brought enthusiasm for learning into the classroom, which I feel like isn’t too common in high school anymore. So, I wrote a note to Mr. Johnson thanking him for everything I discussed above, and it felt amazing to share everything with him. He has not yet replied to my note, but I hope he sees it in the near future. Writing this note made me realize that I need to share my gratitude for people much more often than I currently do. Those who influence my life need to know that everything they do for me pays off more than they think.
At Stanford University, there is a group where students can come together to solve problems that are prevalent in other countries. These students come from all trades including engineering, pre-medicine, and many other majors. These students can pool their knowledge and creativity together to solve problems using a method called design thinking. Design thinking is when you empathize and proceed to come up with as many ideas as possible in order to effectively solve a complex problem.
In this video, a group of students went to Bangladesh to design a cheaper version of IV medication for children suffering from pneumonia. Another group went to Indonesia to assist those enduring a shortage of water in their town. These teams had some traits of collaboration that were very desirable, while others had ones that are not. The teams both went out to the countries they were working with and learned the environment and culture of the end users of their project. Learning what the cultures respected and what they did not had a big impact on the teams. If the teams didn’t go learn what the end users could afford or what resources they had available, their product wouldn’t even help in the end. The groups also acquired empathy when they went out and met the people who are so in need of help. Empathy is one of the most important aspects of design thinking and without it, true success will not be achieved. Another important aspect of good teamwork is being openminded. Groups must realize that every individual has the potential for a good idea. Furthermore, there is no such thing as a bad idea. Even if a concept happens to not work out for a group, the idea may still inspire certain aspects that can help towards the end product. This is an essential component of design thinking. It is also important for individuals on a team to let go of any internal bias they may have for themselves. Each member needs to accept that they may not come up with the perfect end solution by themselves. They must value their team members’ opinions as much as their own. In addition, every individual must know their boundaries. One of the girls who was on the Bangladesh team recognized when things were new to her or out of her comfort zone. This honesty really helped the team overall because they knew that they needed to help her or work harder on the areas that she was not as comfortable with. This is a really helpful and mature aspect of good collaboration. In the video, one of the groups begins to experience conflict between team members. One of the members did not trust the others’ work on their device, yet he felt rushed to do all the work by himself. The group kept arguing, which definitely did not help anything. They were hostile toward each other and could not agree on anything. Their project ended up working anyways, but the cost of a bad relationship within the team is just not worth it. Overall, the teams in the video created wonderful products for the countries they were working with because they displayed signs of successful collaboration. They felt empathy, came up with several ideas, had motivation, and, most of the time, valued each other’s work. One of the groups definitely could have done a better job of working together, but the most important thing is that the teams used design thinking to make a difference in the world. In the documentary It Might Get Loud, the lives and musical styles of famous guitarists Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Edge of U2, and Jack White of the White Stripes are discussed. The documentary explores the struggles each band member faced in their early lives until eventually they made their way to immense fame. This may not sound like a story of leadership, but the deeper you look into it, the more the true meaning unfolds. In the opening scenes of the documentary, Jack White discusses how he has always viewed technology as a negative aspect of life. He said it was distracting, and he was always more fascinated by music and instruments. This opening statement already shows that White is not afraid to deviate from the norm. Most people were enthralled by technology and its advancements at the time. White shows that he is different and is not afraid to express it. When White was young, he was so obsessed with instruments that he filled his room with them as a child and could not even fit a bed. However, when he was a kid in school, punk rock was looked down upon. In fact, just playing any instrument was seen as uncool. White ignored this and continued to follow his passion for music. This is what eventually brought him to success. A leader must follow passion instead of the norm and allow room for diversity and uniqueness. In the following scene, The Edge explains how music comes from a feeling and a consequential flow for him. This can be said by several artists, however. Inspired to push himself, The Edge pushed himself and embraced struggle. He would take on challenges in order to grow and thrive in the music writing industry, such as using three strings instead of six on his guitar or placing an organ further away than he was comfortable with for a transition. The Edge showed that he did not have a fear of failure, and he was willing to push his limits in order to improve himself. This shows leadership because leaders are people who aren’t afraid to try something out of their comfort zone if it means growth will result from it. Jimmy Page then begins to tell how comfortable his band was with one another. They could take their music in any direction, they had passion, and they had intense collaboration skills. Page said that he had no clue that he was going to turn into something big, and they just did music for enjoyment. Little did he know that he would grow up to be a part of one of the biggest and most influential rock bands of all time, Led Zeppelin (one of my personal favorites). The musicians also discussed how bad their lives were growing up. They grew up in a poor economy, believing that things couldn’t change. Yet they had a glimmer of hope that there was more to life than that, and they had a vision and hunger for a better future. They wanted to change the rock industry. They saw how rock artists looked down on their fans and felt superior, which they heavily disapproved of. They wanted to connect with the music and inspire their fans. This shows their leadership qualities because they were more concerned about inspiring their fans and connecting with music than earning fame and glory. All of the musicians were also very open to criticism and vulnerability in order to grow. They all had a large appetite for music, so they always pushed the boundaries and looked over the horizon for new challenges. Music was a way for them to progress in their personal lives and come up with new creative ways to share the same story or same emotion with the world. In Page’s instance, he accepted that he was just learning how to play other musicians’ pieces, so he challenged himself to come up with his own original work. White learned from his employer at a young age that learning from others and being critiqued helps you improve. The Edge was never afraid to take big risks and push himself outside of his comfort zone. All three of these legendary guitarists have essential qualities of good leaders. These three guitarists obviously all knew of each other, but for this documentary they all got together to play guitar with one another. What was observed by their interactions was that despite their different tastes and styles, they could all appreciate each other’s ideas. They learned from each other even though they are the best of the best, and they could see music in ways they never had before. This is, once again, another quality of an effective leader. A leader should be open to any and all potential improvements, inspiration, and suggestions even if they have more than proven that they are qualified for their position, much like these musicians. A good question to ponder is what does it mean to matter? I believe that mattering comes into life when you are living for yourself and not for other people. You’re open to expressing yourself freely and being confident that it will drive you to success rather than following the social-cultural norms of current society. The artists in It Might Get Loud are definitely mattering if you follow this definition. They grew up in a world where rock music was not appreciated and not normal. They did not allow this to stop them from following it as their passion, and it led all of them to immense success. We’ve all heard the songs “Stairway to Heaven,” “Seven Nation Army,” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” before. In fact, these are some of the most popular rock songs of all time. This proves that following your passions instead of what society wants you to do will lead you to a life of happiness and success. What’s most important is that these musicians are happy with their lifestyles and careers. That makes them matter more than any amount of success could. |
Ellie ZentnerThis blog is where I share my personal commentary and insight about leadership within certain media and events. |