RESEARCH

Commentary
Are We Training Leaders? Conversations with
Three Leaders
Carol Porter, PhD, RD, FADA
ARTICLE INFORMATION
Copyright 2014 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
2212-2672/$36.00
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2014.02.022
This article is reprinted from the August 2005 issue of the
Journal of the American Dietetic Association (2005;
105(8):1204-1205).
T
HIS ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL CONTAINS TWO ARTICLES
related to leadership. The rst describes dietetics
students perceptions of their own skills, and found
that these students believe that they demonstrate
leadership in a variety of settings.
1
The second article iden-
ties competencies that are important for those holding the
position of hospital foodservice director.
2
The authors asked
those currently working in this position and hospital execu-
tives who hire and supervise these directors about the impor-
tance of these competencies and the preparation of the
registered dietitian to assume this position. Dietetics profes-
sionals were not perceived to be highly competent in some of
the leadership and operations management skills that were
identied as important.
Although we cannot conclude that the dietetics students
described in the rst article will not become leaders, we do
have many midlevel and senior-level dietetics professionals
who are not willing or able to take leadership roles. Certainly,
our academic and clinical standards address leadership
knowledge and skills,
3
yet it seems that our profession has
many followers who feel underappreciated, complain about
their compensation, and generally feel unhappy about their
professional lives.
Is this unique to our profession? This was explored in three
conversations with leaders: a chief operating ofcer, a dean
of a business school, and a dietetic intern.
CONVERSATION WITH A CHIEF OPERATING
OFFICER
The chief operating ofcer at UCSF Medical Center was asked
to describe her perceptions of the leadership strengths and
weaknesses of department directors (midlevel managers) in
health care. She did not focus on registered dietitians or even
people at UCSF Medical Center, but on experiences she has
had with midlevel managers in all disciplines over the years.
Her impressions of these managers were that they were
good operators, that they were skilled at minding the
store, and that they were experts in their area of inuence.
They were good patient and employee advocates and
managed crises well. However, there were areas in which
she thought that midlevel managers could be stronger
leaders: challenging the status quo, thinking more broadly,
planning ahead, owning issues, and solving problems across
disciplines.
She said that leaders are not in their jobs to promote
themselves. They should be easing the work lives of their
employees and worrying about their employees well-being.
They need to create an environment that encourages and
opens doors for others. A strong organization has leaders
who give their employees condence to do their jobs.
4
There is a delicate balance between competence and con-
dence, she said. It weakens people to move up the career
ladder too quickly. One must always be aware of boundaries
when taking risks, yet people must be willing to take risks to
be leaders. They cannot be timid. Leaders need to be pro-
vocative by probing and challenging current thinking.
5,6
They
should not let people feel too comfortable.
CONVERSATION WITH THE DEAN OF A BUSINESS
SCHOOL
The deanof business administrationat The Citadel (Charleston,
SC) is a graduate of the United States Military Academy,
received his PhD in organizational behavior and political sci-
ence from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a
White House Fellow, and taught at the military academy
and several business schools before going to The Citadel.
He was asked how business schools and the army create
leaders who take action in crisis, especially when their de-
cisions can result in great risk to the people they lead. His
response was that they teach men and women that risk and
reward go hand-in-hand. Every leadership initiative, every
new opportunity carries risk, but all of us must learn to step
off the edge into the unknown if we are to serve our society
and realize our potential. Furthermore, none of us will really
ever be satised if we do not achieve that potential. Indeed,
in his view, the source of most unhappiness in the workplace
is just this unwillingness to take risk and thereby achieve our
potential.
He recommended reading a speech given by Theodore
Roosevelt about taking risks, with the caveat that the
wording reected a different world in the early part of the
20th century.
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out
how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds
could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is
actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and
S8 JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS 2014 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes
up short again and again; . who knows the great enthusi-
asms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy
course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of
high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails
while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with
those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or
defeat.
7
CONVERSATION WITH A DIETETIC INTERN
One of the dietetic interns at UCSF Medical Center talked
about experiences she has had in her internship that fostered
leadership. She developed leadership skills when she had the
opportunity to make decisions on her own, when she was
encouraged by preceptors to think independently, and when
she was allowed to take calculated risks. She was empowered
and encouraged to look at the bigger picture when she had
the opportunity to discuss her experiences and give objective
feedback regarding the program. Leadership development
was stied when a preceptor had only one teaching style and
that involved micromanagement.
We can encourage our young professionals to take risks
within boundaries when preceptors give guidelines rather
than dictums and allow interns to accomplish work in their
own way, as long as it meets desired outcomes.
COMPETENCE, CONFIDENCE, AND RISK TAKING
Both competence and condence enhance our ability to take
risk. Yet there are those who have these characteristics and
are still afraid to make decisions, to move in new directions,
or to put themselves into vulnerable positions. Do our
educational processes and professional practices focus so
much on accurate and safe work that we are unwilling to take
risks ourselves or let our students, dietetic interns, or young
staff members take risks? Are we teaching our young pro-
fessionals how to solve problems, to work across disciplines,
to own issues, to challenge the status quo, to create, to lead?
In his book, Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage
of Identity, David Whyte describes an inner parental voice
deep inside us that tells us to stay away from the edge, to
nd safe work, adventure only on the weekends of life and
not in our work world. This voice, he says, affects our ability
to nd meaning in our work, our ability to become leaders. It
results in a feeling of powerlessness, having little faith in our
own opinions and ideas, being invisible, living in the shadow.
We ll our workdays with busyness and speed, which is
noticed, praised, and makes us feel self-important, but be-
comes so all-consuming that we do not stop and appraise
what we are doing or see the bigger picture that underlies
our work.
8
As we talk about and plan for changes in the academic and
clinical preparation of dietetics professionals, we must make
sure that they are prepared to be leaders. Their educations
and work lives must offer them many opportunities to
become good communicators, to lead multidisciplinary
groups in solving problems, to have the exibility and
freedom to question how things are done, and the willing-
ness to take professional risks. We should recognize that if
dietetics professionals are only competent, accurate, and safe
in their practice but have no leadership skills, they will be
part of a group of followers, not the leaders.
References
1. Arendt SW, Gregoire MB. Dietetics students perceive themselves as
leaders and report they demonstrate leadership in a variety of con-
texts. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005;105:1289-1294.
2. Gregoire MB, Sames K, Dowling RA, Lafferty LJ. Are registered di-
etitians adequately prepared to be hospital foodservice directors? J Am
Diet Assoc. 2005;105:1215-1221.
3. American Dietetic Association. CADE Accreditation Handbook. Chi-
cago, IL: American Dietetic Association; 2002. Available at: http://
www.eatright.org/Public/Files/accreditation_handbook.pdf. Accessed
May 2, 2005.
4. Kanter RM. Condence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin
and End. New York, NY: Random House Business Books, Crown Busi-
ness; 2004.
5. Kanter RM. The enduring skills of change leaders. Ivey Bus J. May/June
2000. Available at: http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/view_article.
asp?intArticle_ID216. Accessed May 2, 2005.
6. Heifetz R. Question authority. Harv Bus Rev. January 2004;82:37.
7. Roosevelt T. In The Arena. Speech given at the Sorbonne, Paris, 1910.
Availableat: http://hoopsu.homestead.com/motivtrarena.html. Accessed
May 2, 2005.
8. Whyte D. Crossing The Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity.
New York, NY: Riverhead Books; 2001.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
C. Porter is director, Department of Nutrition and Food Services, UCSF Medical Center, and associate adjunct professor, Department of Pediatrics,
University of California at San Francisco.
Address correspondence to: Carol Porter, PhD, RD, FADA, Department of Nutrition and Food Services, University of California, 505 Parnassus Ave,
Room M-294, San Francisco, CA 94143-0212. E-mail: carol.porter@ucsfmedctr.org
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author thanks Tomi Ryba, MHA, chief operating ofcer, UCSF Medical Center; W. Earl Walker, PhD, dean, Business Administration, Robert A.
Jolley chair, The Citadel, Charleston, SC; and Kristen Buckshi, MS, dietetic intern, UCSF Medical Center, for their thoughts and comments on this
topic.
RESEARCH
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