Presence, Excellence, and Leading as an Introvert with Dr. Edward Barksdale

Leading the Rounds

In this episode we interview Dr. Edward Barksdale. He is the newly elected American Pediatric Surgery Association President. He is also the Division Chief of Pediatric General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.

He recently Launched the Anti-fragility Initiative, which takes a unique approach to addressing Cleveland’s teen poverty challenge and has already received over $2 million from the Governor of Ohio.

We hope you enjoy our conversation where we talked about living in the moment, committing to excellence, leading from a place of purpose, leading as an introvert and the difference between success and significance.
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We hope you enjoy this episode of Leading The Rounds.
Questions we asked included:

• You met Dr. MLK when you were a child. Tell us about that story and how it impacted you?
• How do medical trainees work to live in the moment?
• What advice would you give to someone struggling to find their purpose?
• What does excellence look like for you?
• How do you know if you are adding value to interactions?
• How can someone overcome their introversion as a leader?
• What are some of your favorite books?

Our favorite quotes:

• “It doesn’t take wings, a halo, or anything from divinity for you to a leader and have tremendous impact”
• “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way”
• “History is not the past. It is the present. We carry our history with us. We are our history.” -James Baldwin
• “[Don’t] be a human doing, but strive to be a human being”
• “Success is the pursuit of maximizing your talents to the best level you can, and then giving that away.”
• “A smooth seas never made a strong sailor” -Franklin D. Roosevelt
• “Hope… is the ability to work for something because it is good, not because it stands a chance that it will succeed” -Václav Havel
• ““If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” -Seneca
• “You’ve got to get your boat in the water”
• “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” -Ernest Hemingway

Book suggestions:

• Altruism, by Matthieu Ricard
• Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor, by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
• The Second Mountain, by David Brooks
• Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  

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