Chris revisits the key points made by Robert Lefkowitz, adds his own insights and gives listeners some suggestions for practical actions they can take immediately to help them get where they want to go.
Welcome to every one of our Perspectives from the Top community of listeners around the world to “Reflections on the Top”. “Reflections” is to help you get the best from the series by me reviewing the key insights from our latest guest, Robert Lefkowitz, physician, scientist, Professor and Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry.
First of all listeners I want to say that what you heard in the interview with Bob and this Reflection really only touches on a very very small element all his amazing life story and achievements. We have just been able to pick up on some of the key insights which he has given us. The totality of his amazing journey - of going into medicine to being presented with the Nobel Prize in Stockholm is covered in his book “A funny thing happened on the way to Stockholm” which is definitely, in my view, worth reading.
Often with guests we are talking about their job or their role but with Robert, as we discussed, his journey he described as a calling. A strong inner feeling that you were destined to do whatever your calling takes you to do. His memory is that this calling started from his time as a child with the family doctor, that he saw one person could do so much good for other people, in some ways even do mystical things by making people who were ill better, that truly captured his imagination. So even such a young age he knew he wanted to be a physician. This one example says so much about Bob and also very much about the impact that we all have through the example we give to those around us, in particular children, who see what we as adults do and learn from that.
He described his early years as a physician as, even with all the other things that he has achieved, perhaps the most rewarding of life in his ability to cure people and even save lives. That says a lot about his deep driver to help other people which has been a thread throughout his life from his days as a young physician, as a leading researcher, as a teacher and mentor and even as a Nobel Prize winner.
He was destined to become a physician but as we all know from our own experiences the best laid plans tend to get diverted by real world events. Roberts diversion by real world events was pretty dramatic, the Vietnam War, in which over 50,000 U.S. military personnel were killed UN significantly more Vietnamese. As a physician he would be sent to Vietnam potentially but he could avoid this by working in the US public health service in a research establishment such as the CDC an NIH. He took up a role there and was spending 20% of his time with patients and 80% of his time in research laboratories. This was really interesting learning moment for him because, as he said, this was the first time in his life he had experienced failure, and failure for quite a long time within the research context. With a lot of determination he eventually started to be successful at research but by then his appointment had come to an end and he went back to being a full time clinician.
But soon, as he said, that even though he was loving being a clinician he suddenly realised that he was missing the personal satisfaction of discovering and doing new things through research. This is a great example of what we all experience through our careers, that when we start we really don't know what we are good at and what motivates us. Discovering that is part of our career and life learning journey, as long as we keep an open mind and try new challenges.
But here we have another really powerful point that we've discussed before listeners - it was then that he got a new mentor who helped him be better at research so he then started to do more and more research, to the degree that he was spending as much time as he physically could in the lab.
We all deal with an element of both success and failure in what we do, in both our work and personal lives, and sometimes we find that failure is demotivating or potentially even depressing. We seem to assume that if we're not getting things right all the time there's something wrong with us.Well listeners, this for any of you that have felt like that. We need to get real about success and failure and accept that failure will happen, and that when it does we can both learn from it and realise that failure can reveal opportunities to take other directions which we would never have imagined before. One example of that from other guests is Jack Jarvis the young Royal Engineer commando who was devastated when he failed to be selected for special forces. But now realises that failure has now enabled him to do things he would never have done, such as rowing the Atlantic solo and doing ultramarathons as well as inspiring people around the world.
But for those like Bob who are in research the level of failure they experience would shock us all. In general most all of you listening who aren't in the research world will work on the basis that, hopefully, the vast majority of things that you do will be successful. As Bob said in research the reality is that the majority of things will fail and people who enter this world need to recognise that that is the challenge that they face and need to think that all of those failures are part of the ongoing journey to new discoveries. Thomas Edison's great point quoted by Bob that every failure narrows down your options and gets you closer to success.
That positive framing of failure he said was absolutely critical for someone to be a great researcher but I think that it also provides lessons for us all in terms of how we deal with the failures that we experience even though they might be a significantly smaller percentage of what we do for us. There was also his really powerful point that if you're not getting the occasional failure then you can't really be pushing the boundaries on what you could be doing, you must just be coasting along doing what you've always done. That’s not going to enable you to grow, to develop, to get better at achieving what you do.
There was also his great point about the importance of mentors, in really any environment, giving those who are new to that environment an honest reality check about how things go in terms of success and failure.
But we then moved into talking about humour and how that plays role in leadership and keeping people motivated when perhaps they have experienced failures. Bobs really interesting point that humour involves the moment of discovery, of realisation, where the humour becomes apparent and that is effectively an act of creativity, linking two different things together. That’s essentially what research is about, looking at the relationships between different things. That's not exclusive to research in my view, analysis of the relationship between different things and how they interact is at the heart all business and leadership. For example our understanding of how people might react to the different ways we might interact with them as a leader. Fact during our growth and development as people and as leaders we are effectively engaged in a research experiment investigating the interaction of ourselves other people and the wider world. So in that sense we are researchers in the world of leadership and life as we go through our careers.
The element of humour then led onto talking about the importance of being open, honest and authentic and Bob said that those are elements which are most important to him as core values as a person and what he respects in others.
In terms of what Bobs work focuses on he gave us a great simple explanation of that - it's about simply that all cells in our body respond when they are sent signals by chemicals which our body produces, eg adrenaline and that the signals are received in receptors and that unless the chemicals match to the receptors the signals won't transmit. So for example pain killers will act to stop cells transmitting pain. But the problem was the people didn't really know how these receptors worked and therefore how to use them to enable drugs to be effective. Bob discovered the answer and so now 30 to 50% of all the prescription drugs which you and I now use are made effective or more effective by Bobs discoveries. That is a mind blowing achievement which has had significant benefit for all of humanity.
As a result of all his work early on 10th October 2012 he received a telephone call from Stockholm informing him that he had won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. That wasn't the one he was perhaps expecting to win at some point but it was acknowledgement of all the work that he had put into this critical area science. Not only had he won the prize but he was also sharing it with a former young researcher he had mentored Brian Kobilka. That’s perhaps one of the greatest compliments to your mentoring that somebody you mentored went on to win the Nobel Prize.
We discussed the amazing time which he had in Stockholm during Nobel Prize week and the joy of meeting all the other Nobel Prize winners from the vast variety of backgrounds. And the fact that Alfred Nobel, the founder of the prize expressed the wish that the winners of his prize would be those who had made the greatest contribution to humanity in that area of expertise for that year.
Bob's role as a mentor is staggering both in the number of years that he has been doing it and the literally thousands of research scientists he has mentored. His insights were really valuable and confirm absolutely much of my experience as a mentor over many years and that of many of the other guests you may have heard. The importance of tailoring your mentoring to the individual that you are working with, their level of confidence, self-awareness, ability to get on with other people, their best learning style eg do they learn best through doing or reading or having it explained to them, where their personal challenges are, their approach to both success and failure as we have discussed earlier.
Bobs objective as a mentor is to grow their confidence and expertise to give them the capability to take on greater challenges as they move on in their career. Confidence element being critical Bob said because if they don't have the confidence because you have not empowered them to grow and develop and then they wont be sure if their success has been delivered by themselves or by you – that’s a problem.
But this is the fundamental point I have to really get into mentors heads when I'm training them - you as a mentor are helping the person you are mentoring find their own answers to their own problems - that's what truly empowers them. It's not about you giving them your answers to their problems. Even if you know what the answer to their problems might be from your experience the successful mentor will ask relevant questions to help their mentee move towards answering that problem themselves.
But also this fundamental principles that tailoring your interaction to the individual, empowering the individual is exactly the same within the context of being a leader with your team members. In both the role of the leader and of the mentor you are focused on enabling that individual to become the best they can be. That's not only great for them but it's great for you, it's great for the team and, as Bob said, in relation to many of the people he has mentored it leaves a legacy for you which then goes on growing as those you have mentored go on to mentor others themselves. Bobs expression of his joy at seeing those he had mental go on to have careers of great acclaim absolutely epitomised by the fact but he shared his Nobel Prize with somebody he had mentored before.
Finally I suppose that just the sheer longevity and passion which Bob has is inspiring - that he is approaching his 80th birthday is still full time researching in his laboratory moving things forward, still mentoring research trainees and still enjoying life. That's an example to us all even excluding his contribution to humanity through his discoveries.
The lesson perhaps for all of us from Bob is no matter what you do if you have passion for it, if you believe in it, if it adds value to others, if you do it well, if you can face the challenges, if you can take the failure as much as the success, if you can be authentic and if you can work in partnership with others then you will flourish and you will leave a legacy.
That is perhaps the question that I would pose to all of you out there listeners - to reflect on what you are doing now and what you want to do in the future how does that align to example of success that Bob has given us all. Are you passionate about what you do? Do you believe? Are you authentic and working in partnership? As you move potentially from role to role over your career what is the legacy you leave with each of the organisations you have worked in? And what is the legacy you will leave with the people with whom you have worked? That latter one we all need to think about more often, to ensure that the legacy we do leave in the hearts and minds of those we have worked with is a positive one of being a good role model and a good human being. Bob is undoubtedly an example to us all of both.
If you want to dive into more of Bobs amazing career and achievements, and as I said at the start we have hardly touched the surface in our interview and this reflection, checkout his book “A funny thing happened on the way to Stockholm”. It's interesting funny and above all will make you think on what work, learning and life is all about which is good for us to do now and again.
As with the previous guests and now Bob hopefully you are seeing a pattern of simple actions you can take to be more successful. Share these interviews colleagues who would benefit so they can grow and develop with you. Certainly I will be using these powerful points in my speaking and Masterclasses in the future.
If you have any thoughts or questions connect with me on LinkedIn or via email as detailed on the Perspectives website. Don't forget to sign up to Perspectives from the Top. It's free, so you don't miss any of the great episodes in the future. That’s it for now, so from me its onwards and upwards until our next episode.