Strong leadership is the foundation of any successful business or organization. As Nab Kundu, the chief executive officer of Reunion Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin affirms, an efficient leader is someone who communicates openly and reflects self-awareness into his or her everyday actions.
“To me, the qualities that make up a good leader are to demonstrate humility, take ownership of successes and failures, and hire people smarter than yourself,” Kundu says.
Kundu is thankful that Nobis Rehabilitation Partners provided him this once-in-a-career opportunity to be part of building a brand new state-of-the-art inpatient rehabilitation hospital.
During the pandemic, he has gained deeper insights into the U.S. health care system and has learned how to care for patients more effectively.
“COVID-19 has shown us how fragile we are as people. I have seen our health care workers step up over and over to ensure there is a safe environment for our patients and each other,” says Kundu. “The compassion seen by our workers has reaffirmed to me why we all chose to get into health care.”
Kundu says that Dublin has had so much to offer his family. In fact, many of his children’s best memories are tied to the community.
Tips to Success
Believing that every individual has strengths, Kundu says that only while working together can they improve a hospital to reach the desired goals of excellent patient care.
“I once had a college mentor who told me to make a list of 10 things I wanted from a career, and simply find a career that fits my list,” says Kundu. “It was one of the best pieces of career advice I have ever gotten. I would also advise young people to work hard at whatever their current job is. The better you are at your current job, the more likely the next big thing will present itself. My last piece of advice is to have patience and be resilient.”
Kundu firmly believes that a good leader has to listen to their team and be open to change where possible. A good leader also reinforces a culture of excellence in daily conversations while holding accountable those who choose to disrespect others in the workplace.
In addition, here are some other qualities Kundu believes a good leader does each morning:
1. Do your best to wake up with a positive attitude.
2. Try to leave some of your personal stressors at the door when going to work.
3. Make a list of items to accomplish for the day and rewrite the list every day before opening the computer in the morning.
4. Get a solid night’s sleep, so you are refreshed as much as possible before work.
5. Be easy to work with and be open to hearing different ideas.
Michael Devine of Michael Devine Counseling in Dublin says that there are a million leadership assessment tests that purport what a good leader is, but every job, company and person is different. In his experience, he has seen three behaviors that he believes are innate within most great leaders.
Devine describes a leader:
1. “They possess what I call the ‘golden rule’ – which is they know how to be OK not being OK,” says Devine. “In business, things can change in an instant and great leaders will be able to acknowledge when things are not good and will choose a course of action that only serves the purpose of increasing the probability of success, ... even if that means the answer is to do nothing.”
2. “They have the ability to admit when they are in the wrong and take responsibility for it,” says Devine. “When I do leadership development classes, I tell young leaders to embrace young employees who can admit their mistakes because if I know that an employee can admit something is their problem, then I have faith that they have the ability to make the changes that they need to.”
3. “They are doers not planners,” Devine says of the third leadership characteristic. “Planners will say, ‘Hey, we need to do something about this next week,’ but when exactly is next week? Most of the time those things will fall through the cracks. A doer on the other hand will say, ‘We need to do something about this! Everybody take out your schedules and let’s put a day on the books and we are going to take care of it!’”
Sanaya Attari is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.