S2E2: Leadership Hack – Giving Others a Second Chance (feat. Miklos Fogarasi, MD)
Rahul
Welcome to Learning to Lead, a podcast about leadership, teamwork, and reimagining healthcare. This podcast is for learners, educators, and healthcare professionals interested in building leadership skills in a supportive community.
We are your hosts Rahul Anand, Maya Doyle, Peter Longley, Amber Vargas, and Brooklynn Weber.
Together we bring you conversations with emerging and established leaders, deep dives and hacks to help you become the best leader you can be.
Brooke
Welcome back to Learning to Lead. Our guest today is Doctor Miklos Fogaras, physician and educator at the Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. Welcome.
Miklos
Thank you. It's great to be here.
Brooke
All right. So, we'll just jump right in. What is one of your favorite tools or hacks to become a better leader?
Miklos
Yeah. So that's such a wonderful question. And I thought about something that's straightforward. I call it a second impression, beating a first impression. And technically, I had so many times in my life when after some important encounters, I wish that I did better. And I wish I could replay it or do it again. So, in my practice, both with patients, and with students, and coworkers, I decided to give a second chance. So, when I meet someone, a new co-worker, a student, a learner of any level, someone who was just introduced to me, I pay close attention to positive first impressions, positive first visits. And if that goes well, I cherish them. But I don't let a negative first impression bother me too much. I basically chalk it up to a person having a bad day, or someone have a hurried schedule, or an unexpected obstacle, or just as simple as getting into a traffic jam. And sometimes I simply tell myself, you know, maybe the issue I proposed was not the most important for that person that day. And so I let a first impression go, and if it's negative, this prompts me to schedule a second quick meeting within 3 to 10 days to give that person a second chance to come back better prepared to come back, less hurried, and to show their true colors to me. And what's really interesting, I don't say that that's the purpose, but most people realize, you know, I have a second chance and they come back well prepared. They come back smiling, they come back enthusiastic, open to discussion. So I do get impressed, I would say about 50/50 that after the second visit I have an unfavorable opinion that now changed to a favorable one. So that's a pretty good deal. Giving a second chance to get 50% more people in the good camp.
Rahul
Wow. This is Rahul. I love that hat for a couple of reasons. One, in healthcare or education, we don't know who's having a hard day. And often people are having a hard day. If we think about healthcare professionals as leaders in their patient interactions, our patients are pretty much having a hard day, which is why they are there to see us. So that is a great hack to give people a second chance. I'm also thinking about my own interactions in the past, where people have almost put me down in the first meeting. And to protect my own identity, I guess I told myself a story and didn't want to continue the interaction with them as enthusiastically as could have benefited me or the purpose. So I also love your hack for that reason that if our purposes are aligned, we always have a reason to come back and give people a second chance to work together.
Miklos
I fully agree with you. I think I got so many excellent, great collaborations born out of this process, basically not rejecting someone for a suboptimal first encounter allowed me to also come more openly to the table. It's interesting, the listener, who was not so impressed, it's also somehow more open. There is this, both of us being more interested in a good second encounter. And recalling over the years, how many second encounters went well, I use this now all the time with my students, with my colleagues, someone, a fellow co-worker who is just being introduced to me, and it's so simple. Give it a try.
Brooke
Yeah, I also agree that that's a really good hack that I really think anyone can use because we're always interacting with new people. And I think it's really optimistic of you, which is really nice that you don't just immediately jump to the conclusion that it's like a bad person and you're considering more than that. Thank you for listening to this hack, and thank you Dr. Fogarasi for joining us. Make sure to tune in next week to listen to the full episode where Dr. Fogarasi talks about Ikigai.
Miklos
Thank you for having me.
Brooke
Thank you for listening to our show. Learning to Lead is a production of the Quinnipiac University podcast studio, in partnership with the Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
Creators of this show are Rahul Anand, Maya Doyle, Peter Longley, Amber Vargas and Brooklynn Weber.
The student producer is Brooklynn Weber, and the executive producer is David DesRoches.
Connect with us on social media @LearningToLeadPod or email us at LearningToLeadPod@quinnipiac.edu.