By: Amisha Singh, DDS, EdD
MDDS Co-Editor

What is the foundation of leadership? Is it the strategy the leader sets? Is it the vision they see and the possibility they impart through impactful communication and transformation? Is it their ability to execute that vision and make it a reality? Is it problem-solving, or results, or charisma, or veracity? Books have been written on this subject that can (and do) fill libraries.

For Henry Kramer, a professor at Northwestern Kellogg School of Management and previous CEO of Baxter International Inc., the answer is simple: the foundation of leadership is values. I had the pleasure of learning from Henry about values-based leadership this past December. For the past two years, in the chill of December as Christmas lights twinkle in the atrium of O’Hare and snow forms a light coat over the large lawns of Evanston, a group of colleagues and I fly to Chicago to learn, to end the year reflecting and growing ourselves as leaders and as people. We build community and we bring home lessons that we plant and nourish, elevating our vision for the year ahead. Like buried seeds, these lessons bloom all year long and gently shape how we see ourselves and what we accomplish.

Henry is an unassuming person, simple yet commanding. He once shared a private jet with President Bush, yet he reminds me of one of my favorite Restorative professors from dental school: smart, caring, kind and discerning. The lecture he gave last December lingers in my mind and drives my behavior as a leader daily (the mark of only the best of teachers). He wrote a recent article in Forbes answering the question, “do we really need values to lead?”

It is a particularly important question for me, as I examine the current culture. Professionalism is the crux of dentistry and our social fabric. As Henry’s article mentions, we are seeing more and more “examples of successful people wielding personal power and even autocratic authority.” In this article, he speaks to the standards of excellence we set for ourselves and how values-based leadership is truly impactful, especially in polarized times.

The standards of excellence we set for ourselves guide us and trickles into our communities. I believe leading myself is the first step in showing up as an impactful leader for others. Those standards of excellence are the infrastructure of my self-leadership journey. In a TEDNext Interview, an ethicist and rabbi named Ira Bedzow speaks to living a good life from an ethicist’s perspective. For me, his insights shed light on the meaning, impact, and implementation of values-based leadership. In this interview, he says his view of ethics is to “help people think creatively and make decisions based on who they want to be and what they care about,” sharing that ethics is less a binary of good and bad, and more a dynamic and daily decision-making process centered around intentionality. Ira says, “your values should entail choices, not something that you aspire to but never reach.” So instead of focusing on aspirational achievements, often externally validating, I aim to search for myself in smaller moments of daily choice to center my values, time and time again. It is easier some days than others.

These decisions are easier when success is at our doorstep. It is arguably easier to live a value-aligned life when things are going well, when we have momentum and victory on our side. But the challenge for many leaders, including myself, comes when we meet adversity. We may be tempted to let efficiency overshadow empathy and to prioritize performance over humanity, both ours and the people we serve.

Leadership is riddled with hard choices, and the hardest may be the introspection required to see where our values do not align with our path and our decisions. And then, it is harder still to make the brave decision to pivot, change, reflect and reorient. Sometimes that bravery has the runway of months, like a chronic inflammation that builds. And sometimes that bravery is demanded in the acute setting of a challenging discussion or witnessing of an injustice. No matter the situation, chronic or acute, I have found that one voice of unity holds a lot of power. In a room of division, values-based leadership can be the catalyst that allows courage to rise, and in turn foster a lasting culture of unity. Do not discount your voice; it has the power to shape worlds.

In our profession, the leaders who engage will set the tone for the culture and direction of our work in the future. So let us model what values-based leadership looks like both for ourselves and for one another. Let us set standards of transparency and authenticity which allow us to craft a legacy of integrity, inspiration and trust. Let us choose to bring together rather than divide. Let us choose empathy and kindness. Let us assume positive intent, even when it is difficult to do so. Let us remember that values are not just an accessory to leadership; they are its foundation. And let us begin by asking two simple questions: What are the values that we choose to lead by?
And, will we have the courage to stand by them when it matters most?

A huge thank you to ACD and AAPD for their support of my participation in the Leadership Institute and LI VII. This article is dedicated to you all. Education changes lives, and you all have certainly changed mine.