STAT Leadership S2e3: Buffering Your Team: Influencing Up When Leadership Falls Short - STAT Leadership Podcast | Lyssna här

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In this STAT Leadership Podcast episode, hosts JR, Dr. JR Pickett, Dr. Chetan Kharod, and Dr. Phil Moy continue revisiting Season 1 “open loops” by discussing how to limit the impact of an ineffective leader when you are not in charge, building on Season 1 Episode 8 about influence through character, compassion, competence, and courage. They distinguish formal vs informal authority and warn against undermining leaders while emphasizing the necessity of difficult conversations. Phil shares an example of advocating to moderate an excessive professionalism response against a physician, using a deputy to keep the conversation objective. Chet recounts a deployment where proactive communication reduced a micromanaging boss’s pressure, and another case where he risked asking a wing commander about recent commander reliefs, ultimately prompting transparency. They reference leadership lessons from Band of Brothers, Star Trek’s Jellico/Picard episodes, Essentialism, and Penelope in The Odyssey.

00:00 Welcome and Setup

00:30 Leading Up Against Bad Leadership

01:59 Middle Manager Sandwich

03:10 Hard Conversations and Intent

05:02 ER Write Up Story

09:11 Deployment Micromanager Fix

20:34 Why Leaders Act This Way

23:14 Wing Commander Icebreaker

35:26 Professionalism and Safety

40:13 Pop Culture Leadership Lessons

51:52 What We Are Reading Now

56:47 Final Takeaway and Close