Hardeep Phull, MD

A leader who demonstrates and embodies a capacity for being a lifelong learner empowers the entire team to continuously learn, reflect, and adapt. In such a model, constructive mentorship relationships are built at all levels, which foster non-punitive opportunities for failure, feedback, and authentic growth for all. Through skills such as emotional intelligence, one can empower other individuals to be self motivated, recognizing key strengths that work in directing an inner drive or passion towards a favorable outcome. In such a process, RESILIENCE is the ability to stay persistent, positive, and empowered, with a sense of authentic purpose, despite setbacks or failures on the journey.

I'm reminded by Albert Einstein's quote: "Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of a lifelong attempt to acquire it." Lifelong learning requires fostering an innate human ability to learn, innovate, and expand ceaselessly, filling in gaps of knowledge over time, mastering concepts so that they can be taught in a simple way to empower others, investigating all sides to a theory, thinking outside of the box, testing ones' hypotheses without fear of being wrong, and being empathetic and emotionally intelligent, as well as mentally intelligent. As Gandhi said, "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

Open communication in a healthy work culture creates a "safe zone" for constructive education, advancement opportunities, and mentorship relationships to form. Different team members at any level of the organization can provide unique perspectives that can lead to a better understanding of work flows, fundamental weaknesses, assumptions, and areas for innovation. When each team member feels like they have an important role and place at the table, he/she becomes empowered to speak up about a unique perspective that others may not have thought about. This process empowers everyone to work at "top of license", which also helps bring purpose, fulfillment, and job satisfaction.

Empathy, self-awareness, and self-regulation are critical aspects of emotional intelligence. These features are hard to measure through standardized intelligence tests, but they are some of the most fundamental, real world skills all people must master over a lifetime to have a meaningful impact on any individual and community. Through skills such as emotional intelligence, one can empower other individuals to be self motivated, recognizing key strengths that work in directing an inner drive or passion towards a favorable outcome. In such a process, resilience is the ability to stay persistent, despite setbacks or failures on the journey. 💯

True success comes from consistent investment in oneself and others with intense focus, hard work, and patience through a lifelong pursuit of excellence, understanding that growth is not always linear and not always upward. This requires daily reflective practice on failures and mistakes, with root cause analysis, to improve steadily on shortcomings while celebrating accomplishments.

Stephen King once remarked, "Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work." Getting over the initial inertia is the biggest hurdle in managing one's time effectively. Rather than making excuses to procrastinate, an effective time manager knows how to hunker down to spend focused periods of intense concentration to tackle the work at hand, interspersed with periods of personal interaction and personal leisure.