Effective (and ineffective) leadership comes in many flavors, but there is an underlying quality to any good leadership that you know when you see it. In this episode, Colonel Jim Czarnik, MD and Josh Bucher, MD break down the lessons they’ve learned leading in both the military and civilian worlds of medicine and crisis situations. My favorite quote from this episode: “Purpose is embraced, not imposed.”  

Guest Bios:

Colonel Jim Czarnik, MD  is the Deputy Chief Of Staff, Surgeon United States Army Special Operations Command. He has previously served as Command Surgeon for US Army Africa and was instrumental in coordinating the multinational response to the recent western Africa Ebola outbreak.

Josh Bucher, MD.is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Rutgers- RWJMS. He is EMS-fellowship trained and currently holds the position of associate EMS Medical Director for RWJ-Barnabas MHS. An expert in tactical emergency medicine, he is medical director of the Middlesex and Somerset County SWAT team. 

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For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast website

We discuss:

• What it means to be a leader and why leadership is a state of mind [03:15];
• The culture that you want to create in your professional environment [04:10];
• The ERO relationship (Event + Response= Outcome) [06:20];
• Why self-motivation is so important for success in the emergency department [09:00];
• How teamwork is directly related to your mission: a good patient outcome [10:40]; 
• Keys to success when you transition to a position of leadership [13:40]; 
• Mistakes young leaders or people newly in leadership positions commonly make [20:15];
• The right mix of being respected and being liked [22:30];
• Czarnik’s special skill for being able to start conversations with anybody, no matter who they are [27:25];
• How Czarnik manages email [31:15];
• Czarnik’s personal philosophy and approach to life [33:00];  
• Czarnik’s ask for the world of medicine and something he’d like to see change [34:10]; 
• And more.