Take the Lead

Nalani Smith, a high school freshman, hosts a podcast called "Smith's Secrets to Success." In this episode, she interviews her mother, Erin Giles, who is an anesthesiologist. They discuss leadership and its importance in various aspects of life. They explore the characteristics of good leaders, such as leading by example and effective communication, as well as the qualities of bad leaders, like selfishness and dishonesty. They also discuss how leadership can change people, both positively and negatively. Erin emphasizes the importance of open communication, recognizing weaknesses, and utilizing resources when faced with difficult situations. They also discuss different leadership styles, including autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire, and the pros and cons of each. Erin shares her experience as a leader at work and at home with her family. The episode concludes with Nalani encouraging viewers to apply the knowledge gained about leadership to become successful leaders themselves. Hey guys, welcome to Smith's Secrets to Success. My name is Nalani Smith and I am a freshman in high school at Xavier. In my podcast, I'm going to dive into all the ways in which someone can find success as success is available to anyone and the possibilities are endless. I hope that by watching my podcast, you guys can take the knowledge that you've learned and be able to apply it to your own life. Hey guys, it's March 2nd, 2023 and I'm here in Palm Desert, California with my interviewee and today I'm going to be interviewing my mom. Hi, my name is Erin Giles. I'm Nalani Smith's mother and I'm very excited to be invited to this podcast today. I'm an anesthesiologist at Eisenhower Medical Center. In today's episode, we are going to dive into leadership in all aspects. By the end of this episode, you should know what good leadership is, how you can lead well in difficult situations, and what the benefits and costs are of being a leader. Keep in mind that this is just the base or backbone of what we're going to cover. It's important that you guys listen because knowing all about leadership can help you find success, which is pretty much what my whole podcast is about and leadership is a big part of the modern society today. Since we are going to be talking about leadership, it's important that we know what it is. The textbook definition of leadership is that leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization. And knowing this will help us get through our first topic, which is what is good leadership and then how to lead well in difficult situations. Mom, I'm going to start off by asking you, what is leadership in your own words? Yeah, I agree with your textbook definition that leadership is leading a group of people or an organization and leadership can occur in lots of different places. It can occur at work, it can occur at home, as a mother or father, it can occur at school, and it can also occur on the field if you're playing sports. Since you have some experience with leadership, can you tell me certain characteristics you look for in a good leader and what viewers should look for in a good leader? Yeah, so leaders can have lots of different kinds of characteristics. For me personally, I look for a leader that leads by example, somebody that's willing to work hard and do the extra work in order to get the job done. I also think it's important for a leader to involve others and they should also have good communication skills. And what I mean by communication skills is somebody who can verbalize, but also somebody that has good listening skills and is willing to listen to others and their ideas. Since we talked about good leadership, we should also talk about bad leadership, but we could compare the two. So what determines a good leader apart from a bad leader? Well, yeah, I think we just talked about some of the characteristics of a good leader, so I guess if we were to talk about some of the things that might be noticed in a bad leader, I might see somebody that was only looking out for what's best for themselves and not putting the whole team or group needs in the equation. A bad leader also might take all of the credit or the credit for other people's work. Sometimes bad leaders can be selfish. They might take the easy route out or might not want to go the extra mile or do the hard work to get the job done. Sometimes bad leaders are short-sighted. What I mean by that is they can only see their point of view and not see the points of view of others. Dishonesty would be a characteristic of a bad leader or somebody who doesn't keep their word or says one thing and then does another. Since we talked about good and bad leadership, do you think that leadership can change people? For example, a good leader can become bad or a bad leader can become a good leader? Yeah, I think leadership, when you're in a leadership role, it can change people. I think, for example, you could go into a leadership role as someone that's very well respected and over time you might become lazy or not as involved and maybe the power of leadership would get to your head and then that might make you become a bad leader. On the contrary, maybe you could start out as a bad leader or maybe you just haven't had a lot of experience in a leadership role, but over time as you develop the skills and you gain the trust of the people that are working around you, you would become a good leader. Yeah, people can often start off with humble beginnings and then as they become more experienced, they will grow more confident and sometimes even more arrogant. This can cause them to be power-hungry and abuse their power even. Well, I know that I want to become and grow into a leader and I know that leaders don't have it easy and I know that they're going to be faced with some difficult times. So what do you think a leader should do when faced with difficult situations? That's a good question. I mean, I think it's always good to start with open communication and dialogue with the people that you're working with. Ask for input and ideas on how to make the situation better. I think also as a leader, it's good to recognize your weaknesses and try to utilize resources and people around you that can help you. For example, like if you're weak at negotiating or have poor skills in that area, find somebody that has that skill set where they can add value to your group. I think it's also important to analyze the situation and don't take the easy way out or the shortcuts. Even though something might be easier to do, you might want to look at different alternatives and look at the goal outcome in the end. So I guess as a good leader, recognize your weaknesses and ask for help and utilize the resources around you. Yeah, I think that's really good too. Okay, so now we're going to be moving on to what it's like for leaders and how could you become one and different types of leadership. So Mom, I'm going to start off with asking you, what are the pros and cons of being a leader? Well, I think it's important to discuss that there's different leadership styles and different leadership styles work for different types of environments or different types of needs. And the three leadership styles that come to my mind first is like the autocratic. And it's kind of like the leader, you know, it's more of like the do as you're told. They're often very focus oriented and very goal oriented. And that type of leader might work well and say like in the military or in a war situation where you just need, the people need to be told what to do. But I wouldn't say that this type of leadership style works, you know, in like ways where some of the like employees might feel micromanaged or, you know, even the employees could become dependent on you and your leadership style and they might not be able to think for themselves. And then there's like the democratic leadership style. And that's kind of where the leader is a decision maker but also engages others and seeks input from others. I think that's probably what I've been talking mainly about. So this is a good style because it can make the employees feel appreciated, accomplished and part of the organization. I think probably a con to this type of leadership is that sometimes if people don't carry their weight, it might go unnoticed. So you have to really rely on the people working with you that they would be also doing their share. And then the third type of leadership style that I'm talking about is laissez-faire. And this type of laissez-faire leader will just kind of give off, they'll delegate their roles and responsibilities to people. This is a good leadership style if you really trust your employees and that you know that they're going to do a good job. And it allows them to reach their fullest potential. But I guess the con to that is if you didn't really trust your employees, the job might not get done. So I think being able to use that style of leadership, the people working with you have to be really motivated and you have to have trust in them. Mom, I heard you mention earlier that you said that you felt like you were a leader at work and other places. So like how do you like being a leader? Well, yeah, I think I definitely take on leadership roles at work. And like I was saying early on, like leadership can occur in lots of places. And I think my favorite place to be a leader is at home because I love my family and I'm engaged and I want it to be a success. So you guys are my greatest gift and my greatest accomplishment. So I would definitely say that's my favorite leadership role. Thanks, Mom. All right. That is it for today's episode. Even though our time was limited, there are many takeaways that we've gained, like how good leaders and bad leaders differ, how to become a leader in the different types like autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire, and how leaders should act in tough spots and much more. And last of all, I'd like to thank my mom for letting me interview her. I was really grateful for your input on leadership. And thanks to whoever is watching. Hopefully you learned as much as I did. And don't forget that leadership has a big part in success. And don't be afraid to apply what you've learned to your life so that you too can become a leader. So remember, don't be afraid to put yourself out there and be a leader because it will lead you to success. Thank you.