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Patch Adam Leadership Style
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Patch Adams is a doctor and a social activist who has dedicated more than 30 years to the evolution of the health system in the United States, which he describes as expensive and elitist. We are immersed in a historical stage in which precisely the crisis of values and, especially the lack of character of the leaders. What adds value in the personality of a leader? Its virtues, values and traits of good character (as long as it is not faint-hearted), in addition to competition and commitment, since this union of factors guarantees that a leader is valid and respected.
However, virtues, values and traits remain indefinable (because of what it costs to unravel human nature even for the most expert in the study of personality and behaviour) and also challenging to achieve. This current of doctrine is what not only defines these types of leaders but applying a Saxon terminology that is very eloquent; they deconstruct them to analyze to demonstrate how character influences this particular personal journey that makes them in good leaders. (Setness, 1999).
How do we apply this in practice in organizations?
The organizations make periodic evaluations, the most common being the financial and accounting ones that respond to regulations and current legislation, although there is another type of assessment that people enter, for which the questions do not go through the analysis of ratios or an exploitation account: only the personality and character of the leader are interested.
Then, when you want to start making a difference in a company that cares about its people and especially those who can occupy leadership positions, first at intermediate levels, three fundamental questions arise: Do these people have the skills to be leaders? Do they know and of these, those that are key, as well as a domain of all the facts and relationships they need to do the job effectively? Do they have the vocation and commitment to stop being leaders?
Is compassion inborn or learned?
We have to go around the scale of values to put generosity and compassion above all, which are two feminine virtues. There is nothing like giving to others. Peace, justice and love that is my favourite trinity. This has to do with the education system on the one hand. Still, on the other, they are the organizations themselves that focus primarily on people's competencies — the know-how of the professional.
Maybe the question is more straightforward than it seems: we don't know what to think about the character, and more than one manager will ask if it works for anything. Of course, a manager of the so-called "old school" of Management. Because the professionals of the leadership and direction of the present, well that they have to deepen their social skills and emotional competencies in general, regardless of their technical qualities and abilities. Patch Adams is considered "spiritual" although it does not believe "in the God of religions." He defines himself as an "idealist communist" ("I want the same for the whole world") and travels the world with his long rainbow ponytail, wrapped at all hours in long and flowered briefs: "Even the leader more seriously he loses his composure when he sees me dressed in this way" (Centennial, 2002).
To have a character that adapts perfectly to each situation, adjusting more or less according to the receptivity of the people. Not all have the same level of flexibility, moreover: some maintain a type of rigidity, whose only way to modify and adapt to the needs of the rest of the team, is thanks to the character of the leader. The character of the great leaders makes it easy for them to know how to apologize. It is part of their personal seal, surely an education they have received that teaches the value of apology and forgiveness. What is true is that we must not abuse the excuse to cover inefficiencies or inactions.
How does humor fit into health care delivery?
Laughter is not a therapy, nor is music. Therapy sounds like surgery, homoeopathy or treatment. Laughter and music are much more; I would say they are life itself, an essential part of our human condition. What is not rational is seriousness. I do not know a single disease that is cured with calmness, anger or apathy. We will not get very far if we get very serious. The most healing thing is love, humour and creativity (Centennial, 2002). The character leader if he makes a mistake, instead of pretending that it is not a big problem or identifying the culprits, prefers to admit it and by taking responsibility, it is as if he adopts the ruling as his own. This behaviour gives strength to the character because the rest of the team members know that when something has not gone well, the leader bears his share of responsibility, not avoiding the consequences and striving to make a mistake become the training and practical experience. Without the need to put on a clown's nose or wear shoes of size 70 (he has one year left), Patch Adams travels the world 300 days a year and alternates the wise advice, with the jokes and the verses Grass blades of Walt Whitman Although there is nothing like seeing him in action in his seminars, infecting his love for life to his own and strangers, and orchestrating intense collective hugs like the one that melted the stones of the cloister of Santo Domingo in Pollença
References
Centennial, D. Z. C. T. (2002). The Good Doctor: Patch Adams.
Setness, P. A. (1999). Lessons in humanity from corporate America and Patch Adams: If patients
perceive it, they believe it.
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