Why Having a Bad Boss Won't Make You a Good One

For eight consecutive years, I partnered with a local hospital to deliver a leadership development workshop to the residents there going into their fourth year. The fourth year of residency at this hospital required those early career physicians to supervise others really for the first time in their careers. As part of that morning spent together, I'd facilitate a series of exercises and discussions to get these young leaders thinking about what the younger residents will need from them as supervisors, and every year during this exercise when I'd ask participants to describe the leadership style they believe works best, inevitably someone would say the following, my boss last year was terrible, so I learned what not to do. My plan is to do the opposite and be the kind of boss I'd want to have. Believe it or not, this is deeply flawed thinking when your charge is to lead people. I'll tell you why right after this commercial break. Just kidding, we don't have commercials. Play our theme song.