About this episode
We're taught lots about the multidisciplinary team and how important each member is — but that's not always the experience in the real world. What I really want to know is: do you need to be a dick to be a good leader? So I'm on a mission to ask this question to all the people I admire in medicine. Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram is a plastic surgeon and CEO of Proximie, an augmented reality platform for virtual surgical collaboration. Dr Nadine received the British Empire Medal in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours for her innovation in surgery. Here's what she said.
In this conversation
- The one-question series: does it take being a dick to lead well? Nadine's answer is an emphatic no — and a short, sharp case for why.
- Her definition of a great leader: someone who has empowered so many people around them that they're almost not needed, because they've built the team and culture to run without them.
- Don't force people onto the journey — take them with you. Alignment around a shared "North Star" beats being pushy or dictatorial every time.
- Striking the balance: empathetic, supportive, one of the team — while still driving hard for excellence and pushing people to grow.
- Nadine leads Proximie, an augmented-reality platform for virtual surgical collaboration, and holds the British Empire Medal for her innovation in surgery.
Transcript AI-generated
Do you need to be a dick to be a good leader?
“A great leader is someone who has empowered so many people around them that they're almost not needed — because they've just built such a great team and a great culture around them.”
Nadine
That's a very good question — and absolutely not. And it's one thing I'm proud of, of what I've managed to achieve at Proximie. It's difficult when you're talking about yourself, but we can look outward as well, to many inspirational examples. You don't want to force people on a journey — you want to take them along the journey with you. You need to all be aligned in what you want to do, and be excited about that North Star. We all want to be excited about making a difference.
So me being pushy, or dictatorial per se, or not being a nice person, isn't going to help. You really want to lead by inspiring people and empowering people. I always say a great leader is someone who has empowered so many people around them that they're almost not needed — because they've just built such a great team and a great culture around them.
It's difficult when you say it about yourself, but you can go and ask people at Proximie. I think I've managed to strike that balance of being empathetic, supportive, one of them — and at the same time being able to drive for excellence and empower people to push harder and work harder. So I don't think you have to.
And if we look at political leaders — someone like Jacinda Ardern, for me, is just inspirational. The way they carry themselves, the way they get people to look up to them and make sure everyone is working for the betterment of their country or their city.
I don't really know many leaders, at least that I'm friends with, who are of that character either. So it's an important question — but I don't think you need to be, at all.
You can listen to episode 20 of this podcast to hear the full interview. And if you've been enjoying the podcast, then please consider leaving a review on iTunes. Thank you.