Host: Christopher L. Camp, M.D., Creator & Guide | Mayo Clinic Human Optimization Project

Guest: John C. Benson, MD, Neuroradiologist | Associate Professor, Radiology | Mayo Clinic – Rochester, MN

Regardless of your official role or job title, you are a leader. Leadership takes on so many different forms, and this is true both inside and outside of the workplace. Any time you are interacting with another human being, there is an opportunity for leadership. Fortunately, we all have leadership skills inside of us. The question is whether or not we fully understand them, work to develop them, and put them into practice in our everyday lives.

In order to help you do just that, our expert guest today is Dr. John Benson, and the three big questions we are going to answer are:

1. What makes someone a leader?
2. Why do we often struggle to embody leadership qualities, or struggle to see them in ourselves?
3. What practical steps can we take to become well rounded, fully formed leaders?

How to start a Mayo Clinic Human Optimization Project “Pod-Club”:
Step 1: Find 2-30 friends who want to get better
Step 2: Choose your episodes (can be focused on specific themes or random)
Step 3: Listen to/watch the episodes
Step 4: Meet with your group to work through the provided discussion questions for each episode, and feel free to add your own!
Step 5: Celebrate the fact that you are turning passive knowledge into action!

Discussion Questions for this Episode:

1) How do you personally define leadership? What are the ideal qualities of a good leader?

2) Prior to reviewing this content, did you consider yourself to be a leader (independent of your professional title)? Why or why not?

3) What are some of the qualities you embody that allow you to have a positive impact on others? Do you view this as leadership?  Why or why not?

4) What are some of the reasons that you haven’t considered yourself to be a leader in certain situations in the past? Do you feel like these qualities are legitimate reasons that you can’t lead others? To overcome them, do you need to change your behavior, change how you see yourself, or change your definition of what a leader is? Or is it a combination of all of these elements? 

5) What are some of the obstacles you’ve experienced in being a young/new leader? Now, what are some of the benefits of being a young/new leader?  

6) What are your leadership goals for yourself? Who, what, how, and why do you want to influence others? No wrong answers here as leadership goals can (and should) look very different for each of us. We have to cultivate our own definitions of success here, but you can refine that definition based on feedback from others.

7) Now you’ve defined your leadership goals, tell your group at least one new thing (action step) you are going to do or behavior you are going to adopt to improve as a leader.

8) After others list the «one new thing» or «action step» they are going to do, help them refine that to make it more: clear, objective, measurable, and simple. The more we can make our actions clear, objective, measurable, and simple, the more likely we are to do them and enjoy the process!

Learn more about the Human Optimization Project at: https://ce.mayo.edu/optimize
X: @MayoHumanOpProj
Instagram: @MayoHumanOpProj
YouTube: The Human Optimization Project – YouTube

Email: optimize@mayo.edu