At the time of this post, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted 188 countries, with 4.5 million confirmed cases worldwide and more than 300,000 deaths. Families are mourning, businesses are filing for bankruptcy, and those who have not yet suffered tangible loss are overwhelmed with fear and unanswered questions.
You’ve been waiting for this moment. After more than 12 years of medical school and training, the operating room is yours for the first time as an attending surgeon. You walk into the OR, expecting the same setup and routine that you used all through fellowship. But wait a second… you see a beanbag and wonder if people even still use those.
There comes a time in every leader’s job where a crisis emerges. In the Oxford English dictionary, the word “crisis” is defined as “a time of great danger, difficulty, or confusion when problems must be solved or important decisions must be made.”