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A learning and development podcast focused on bringing the Texas Tech University System Values Based Culture to life.
Creating Us - A podcast for Texas Tech University System & beyond
The Leader Fast Lane - Episode 28 - with Dr. Rick Lange, President of Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso
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In this episode of The Leader Fast Lane, Dr. Rick Lange, founding president of Texas Tech Health El Paso, shares lessons from building a university, leading through failure, and creating a culture of excellence from the ground up. We explore why the best leaders embrace humility, build trust, develop great teams, and practice servant leadership—offering practical insights that leaders in any field can apply immediately.
Hello, and welcome to the Leader Fast Lane, the podcast where accomplished leaders from higher education, public service, and beyond share real stories, practical principles, and hard-earned lessons listeners can incorporate in their everyday work. No buzzwords, no shortcuts, just real leaders sharing real lessons you can apply right away. I'm Lane Mears, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Leader in Culture Development at the Texas Tech University System. Today I am joined by Dr. Rick Lange, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. A prominent cardiologist, Dr. Lang is the founding president of Texas Tech Health El Paso. The Health Sciences Center was established as the Texas Tech University System's fourth university in May 2013. In 2021, El Paso Incorporated named Dr. Lang the as the El Pasoan of the Year in recognition of his leadership of the growing university, which transformed healthcare education and healthcare access in El Paso. This included welcoming the inaugural class of the Hunt School of Dental Medicine, the first dental school to open in Texas in over 50 years. In another first, Dr. Lang is currently overseeing the construction of the first comprehensive cancer center in the region on the Texas Tech Health El Paso campus. By working with its hospital partner, University Medical Center of El Paso, the future Fox Cancer Center will bring together cancer imaging, treatment, research, clinical trials, and preventive outreach programs under one roof. Before coming to Texas Tech Health El Paso, Dr. Lang served as Vice Chairman of Medicine and Director of Educational Programs at UT Health San Antonio starting in 2008. A tenured professor at UT Health San Antonio, he was formerly tenured as a full professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Lang obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of North Texas and an MD from UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He served as president of the American Heart Association's Texas affiliate and as a clinical investigator, publishing over 400 articles and book chapters. He serves on multiple editorial boards of medical journals and has contributed to national writing guideline committees. He has received numerous teaching awards from students, residents, and fellows at UT Southwestern, Johns Hopkins, and UT Health San Antonio. He is co-creator of the first and longest-running medical podcast in the world, launched at Johns Hopkins in the 2000s as PodMed, the weekly podcast continues today as TT Health Watch, hosted by Texas Tech Health El Paso in collaboration with Johns Hopkins. It's great to have you on the podcast today, Dr. Lang.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me, Lane.
SPEAKER_01It's my pleasure. I look forward to our conversation. As we begin, would you mind just telling us a little bit about your background and leadership journey?
SPEAKER_02Sure. I am an Air Force brat, so traveled around the United States with a family before settling in Texas. And that gave me the opportunity to interact with a number of different uh individuals, uh, really around the country. My goal was never to be the president of a health science center, it was to be a private practitioner in a local community taking care of patients. And then over the course of uh your career, you get exposed to individuals that inspire you and challenge you. You learn a little bit about your gifts and your ungifts. Uh, and it eventually led uh to the position here. But at no point did I ever imagine I'd be the president of a health science center uh and leading it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, that's great. It's you never know the road that we're on. And it's uh as long as you keep at it, good things can happen. Um well, you've led it, Johns Hopkins, UT Southwestern, and UT Health San Antonio, and now an entire Health Sciences University. Looking back, what leadership lesson took you the longest to learn?
SPEAKER_02That that's a great question. Uh when you think about leaders, you think about their successes, and very seldom do you uh see their failures or their struggles, the hardships that got them to where they're at. Uh and so you always think that a leader always succeeds. And probably the hardest thing I had to learn was uh when I experience hardships, when I experience struggles, uh, when I experience failures, um, they're actually opportunities and not obstacles. Um and to use those as a way to uh to reveal my leadership and other people's leadership uh to um refine my leadership qualities. And sometimes it's to realign where you're at. And sometimes you end up leaving a leadership opportunity to take something else. But all that time, it's hard to understand why the hardship or the failure or struggle that you're experiencing actually is an opportunity for succeeding rather than an obstacle that's leading to your success.
SPEAKER_01Was that natural for you to see failures as opportunities for growth? Or is that more that you have to grow in the discipline of having that mindset?
SPEAKER_02Uh, I had to grow. And in fact, it's oftentimes when you're looking through the retrospectroscope where you see it, where you get to a certain level and doors shut and/or your leadership abilities aren't aligned with that particular effort, and it forces you sometimes. Either you realize that and you move to a different opportunity, or someone else does that for you or to you. And at that time you're thinking, like, how in the world did I fail? Um, or why was I not a good fit for that particular opportunity? Um, and when I look at my career here and what I'm doing here, I would never be here if other people wouldn't have shut the door or put pointed me in different directions or closed opportunities that allowed me to say, gosh, I mean, I just I love leading. And if I can't do it here, where can I do that? So no, it was a growing experience. And it and it still is, by the way. Um uh no leader likes to think they ever fail at anything. And the truth of the matter is you become a leader when you fail, or there's some failure where people see you lead through that. That's the only way they see your leadership skills or abilities. And that's the only way you can refine them too, by the way.
SPEAKER_01I I concur, and my my background's similar. Um, can point to some clear professional and personal failures that that I think my bent is like, oh, this is just who I am. It's the self-condemnation, but the discipline takes over and your your maturity maybe takes over, and you know what, this is a growing opportunity, you got to keep pressing forward, and and that is growth. And I, you know, as as people across the system may be listening, it is it's a real temptation to let those failures define you. But they can define you in a positive way, things that you've overcome. And like you've talked about having the retrospective. Um when you're, you know, if you're having a bad day with a failure, you can look back and think of things that you did overcome and and and gain the courage, courage for the day to press on to new things.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, they as you said, they can either define you or refine you.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02And that's ultimately what you hope would happen.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Is it is that if you if you are self-reflective and humble and you don't expect to be perfect, and say, what can I learn from this experience, or how can this shape me into be a better leader? Uh, then it's an opportunity.
SPEAKER_01100%. Well, you've worked with some of the brightest people in medicine. From your perspective, what distinguishes the very best leaders from the very best experts?
SPEAKER_02Wow. Uh it it's I would say an expert is somebody that has uh a particular knowledge set or um uh and knows more about a particular information than anybody else. Um and it's easy, by the way, to be an expert in your field in medicine. An expert, for example, for me, would be an expert in cardiology. It's very different than being a leader because an expert is an individual. A leader requires a team. If you think you're a leader and you look over your shoulder and nobody's following you, you're not a very good leader.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, and so the best experts don't necessarily make the best leaders, it's an entirely different skill set.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, good. I look forward to diving into what that skill set looks like. Um, I've got a series of questions on a few different themes that I'm gonna ask as we go through our time. The first theme is on building a new university. Most leaders inherit organizations. You had the opportunity to build one almost from scratch. How is building a culture different from changing one in an organization?
SPEAKER_02Wow, it uh it's so much easier, believe it or not, to build a culture than uh than change one. I mean, when you walk into a situation, in many respects that culture has already been set. Uh and sometimes they bring you in to perpetuate the culture. It's a culture that's great, and they want you to make sure that you continue that and improve it. Other times it's a culture they want you to completely change, and that is difficult.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02When someone hands you a clean slate and says, you can put your fingerprints all over this, that is one of the most exciting things to me. And that's one of the things that attracted me to coming to El Paso. On the one hand, you might be frightened to saying this is a brand new institution, and as a result, there's a high likelihood of failure. I looked at it and said, Man, this is a great opportunity to establish a culture from the very beginning. Um, and uh, and to me, that's been the one of the most exciting things about being here. So growing a new effort to me is a lot easier than trying to change the course of the Titanic when it's headed towards the iceberg.
SPEAKER_01Sure. Well, when you stepped in the role, um, what did you decide had to define Texas Tech El Paso from day one? What was that culture that you were aiming to develop?
SPEAKER_02Uh we'll talk about values, but it was a culture of excellence. Uh not perfection, but we weren't gonna settle for being mediocre. Uh when you're a young health science center or a young business or a young effort, you can't do everything. But what you can commit is everything that we do, we're gonna do excellently, or we're just not gonna do it. So setting that culture where we said excellence is in our DNA. Um, and everybody buys on. And by the way, when I hire somebody, I say if you want to be mediocre, please don't come here because we're not about it. Or I tell the students, if you want to be a mediocre medical student or dental student, there are other schools to go to, but don't do that here because we're not into mediocrity.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So uh so from day one, we do we decided we're gonna be excellent. And uh and we that still persists.
SPEAKER_01That's great. Sets the expectation and defines who you have on your team and in your school. That's great. So this this was 2013, I believe, when when the Health Sciences Center was founded. It's grown quite a bit since then. And as organizations grow, there can be a tension between that growth and the culture. How do you protect the culture while expanding programs like the dental school and and the future cancer center?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So from the very beginning, our mission has been to improve lives, and that's the culture that we want to create. Now we can talk about the values, how you do that, and how we have defined that. But uh, but that culture of improving lives in our community around the state has never changed. Uh so everything we do, that's the lens we look at. Um is what we're doing improving lives? And if it isn't, then we probably shouldn't be doing it. So adding a dental school, well, that's a no-brainer. That's clearly improving lives here. Uh growing our clinical services, gosh, that improves lives here. Being better educators, that improves lives here. Doing research that affects our community, that all improves lives here. And uh, and we're in a health professional shortage area, so everything we can do to grow those, grow individuals here, uh maintains that culture. So um it's interesting that uh that growth is seen as a way of meeting our mission and driving our culture. Yeah and so it's not it's not been an issue. In fact, it's been one of the most exciting things when you think about the trajectory lane we've had over the short period that the institution's been here. It's absolutely remarkable. Uh and not only the medical community, but the entire community sees that and understands the culture.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. Well, you you've mentioned values a couple of times. As you know, the Texas Tech University system is is prioritizes developing values-based cultures at every university in the system. Can you talk a little bit about the values at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso and how you see those being lived out day by day?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Again, if we're going to improve lives, uh the the whole institution, everybody, from the janitor to people in the C-suite, met together to say, what are our values? And how do we want to how do we want to live those? Because you've got folders and binders and paper that talk about policies and procedures, and you can't dictate values. And so we wanted the community to know what they were. So our values are service. We're here to to serve our community and to serve each other. It's teamwork. Uh, we will work as a team, we will value everybody on the team. Uh, it's accountability. We do what we say, and we're held accountable for all of our actions. Advancement, we want to advance the institution, but also advance each other and supporting one another. Respect, we will respect everybody in our community, our patients, our staff, our faculty, everybody. And then finally, integrity. Um, it's what you do when nobody's watching. So those are our values, and we live those out. We promote individuals um based upon their values. Um we reward individuals, we acknowledge individuals based upon that. And we've had to let some people go because they don't reflect our values. And again, when I hire individuals, or when we hire faculty, I sit in my office and say, these are our values. And if you have a problem with it, this is not the place to work. Um, in fact, if you come here, you will be miserable because they're not your values, and we will likely fire you because uh you're not living our values. And so please consider that. And you think that would put people off, but I think uh more people say, gosh, I want to work at a place that not only puts them on the elevator and on the stairwell and on poster, but actually talks about them and lives them as well. So uh, and I do that with our students, by the way, the first day of class is say these are our values and live those. And uh and you'll be a better part of our community and a better part of our health science center.
SPEAKER_01I love it. One question I've asked a few others um on the podcast is how when you're interviewing somebody, can you tell that they authentically carry or are invested in those values? Because someone wants a job, they can say whatever they want, but how do you ground truth it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that that's great. Uh I'll ask them about it. I'll ask them about teamwork uh and give me examples of it. I'll also also ask them where they failed at sort of these values as well, and how did they recover when that happened? Or when you worked with individuals um that didn't have those values, how did we how did you react? And more importantly, when you didn't show those values, how did you react and how did people hold you accountable? Um, you know, it can be very difficult. Uh if it's a senior leader position, I actually call the references and people that even aren't on the reference list. Yeah um, because I and I'll go through it. I say these are our values. Um, tell me whether this person reflects those or not. Um and so uh it's it's not easy, sure, uh, but you have to do it.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's real practical. We've we've talked to different teams across the system um asking that very question. You know, we we want to we want to hire people that carry the values, how do we do it? And so that's some very practical uh insight there. Thank you for that. Our next topic is mission-driven leadership. Much of your work, as you said, is focused on improving health care access in underserved communities. How is having a mission bigger than the organization influenced your leadership?
SPEAKER_02Um two ways. One is you've got to think big because this when you're talking about improving lives uh in a region and in a state, um, whatever your thoughts are, there's something bigger out there. Uh you also have to be flexible because what my idea of that vision looks like is very different uh than someone else's. And they may have a great idea and a great way of doing that. I gave you a great example, Lane, is um about six years ago, I was planning on putting together Allied Health School Training Physician Assistants. And as I'm planning that, I get a call and said, if I gave you $25 million, could you start a dental school? Well, I have to admit, the dental school really wasn't on my radar screen at that particular time, it was on somebody else's. And uh and I said, I think so. Let me let me let me get back to you about that. Because obviously, that's a huge commitment. There aren't too many cardiologists in the country that ever started a dental school. Um, so this bigger mission uh as a leader meant I had to expand my view, actually uh step out on faith. Um not only had another cardiologist never done it, but there hadn't been a dental school in Texas in 50 years. The higher education coordinator board had never put one together, so they didn't know how to do it. Uh having a big audacious mission means you need to be a big audacious leader. And sometimes that means stepping out of your comfort zone, a little humility, a lot of listening, uh, and going for it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine that uh the the complexity of that and how long that must have taken. But uh the proofs in the pudding seems like we we were fortunate to get a tour of the dental school about two months ago in one of the Polaris sessions down there at in El Paso and and excellent facilities, really impressive staff. So I'm um it it's it's a reality. That's great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and Lane, as you know, we're in the process of building a comprehensive cancer center, the first one out here in West Texas. And uh again, that was because one of our legislators said, if I can secure money for you, can you support that and go for it? And uh um again, big audacious ideas driven by people that surround me, not myself, but people surround me and taking that and running with it.
SPEAKER_01That's exciting. How um uh again on this mission-driven leadership topic, how do you help employees connect their daily work, which may seem run mundane, tedious, to the purpose that may be on their individual role? Yep.
SPEAKER_02Um, everybody here improves lives. And you say, well, it's really the doctors that improve lives. No, it's everybody here that works here is involved somehow in improving lives. That's the person that uh maintains the grounds here and keeps them beautiful, it's the person that maintains the air conditioning that allows us to see patients, it's the individuals that clean the rooms, it's the individuals that instruct our students, every every single person. It's essential that they do their job and do it well so that as a university we can improve lives. And so, first of all, I try to get to know everybody at all levels on a personal basis, um, and thank them for what they're doing to improve lives in our community. Um, I'm gonna relate, Lane, if you'll allow me three minutes to tell a story. Brene Brown, who you know of, uh, and talks about uh organizational leadership and culture, it's cultural leadership, uh, was uh sent to St. Jude Children's Hospital, which cares for cancer patients, uh, to actually do an assessment of their culture and to help them uh in their leadership. And so while she's there, she's standing in an elevator about to go up. And she asked the person outside the elevator who was cleaning the floor, had a mop and and a mop pail, said, How long have you been working at St. Jude's? thinking she'd get an assessment of what the community was like. And the person said, I've been curing cancer for three years. And Brene Brown kind of just took a step back and didn't think a whole lot about it until she went to the cafeteria and was checking out and thought, well, I'll ask the cashier how long they've been working here. And the cashier said, I've been working. She said, I've been curing cancer for five years. And what Brene Brown understood is everybody understood that they were critical to the mission.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And everybody at this institution is critical to making sure we can improve lives. And it's my job, it's my responsibility to make sure everybody understands that and takes great pride and great satisfaction in doing that too, by the way.
SPEAKER_01I love that. And uh we had a guest on uh Derek McIntyre a couple weeks ago who talked about a similar story with Nick Saban and the football program in Alabama, that you know, the the guy in the locker room, folding towels, to win a national championship. But you alone can't instill that mindset throughout the organization. How do you lead people so that it trickles down so that everybody does understand their role in the bigger picture?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh and that is uh, I would say, part of the issue. It's part of the challenge, which is fun though.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh, because on on the one hand, I do interact with these individuals. They clean the offices here, they check me out at the cafeteria. Um, they're taking care of our grounds, they're doing our business affairs. So uh I can skip down what I'm gonna call several layers and just say, Listen, I want to thank you for what you do to improve lives. And then my expectation is when I walk into a meeting, I say, here's our mission, and I always run PLR mission, and here are our values, by the way. And when you have your meeting at the department level or at the staff level, is I want you to do the same. So I model it uh and give them the same expectation. Yeah, and then and then you can test it out because you can ask somebody how long have they been working here, and if they don't say I've been improving lives for five years, then you know it haven't gotten all the way down yet.
SPEAKER_01Right, right. So that's great. Well, thank you for that. Um our next topic is on developing people. You've trained generations of physicians. What qualities predict who will become an outstanding leader, regardless of technical ability?
SPEAKER_02So uh several qualities, Lane. Uh humility happens to be one of them. I think the best form of leadership is servant leadership, where you're willing to serve and in that show individuals how you want them to lead. You have to be uh flexible, malleable. You have to be transparent, be willing to admit your failures and let people learn from them. Um I find the best leaders are those that uh can assemble a team and instill trust in that team. They trust you, that is, they think you care about them. They think you're sincere when you tell them something. They think you're reliable, you'll do what you say, and finally you have the skill set to pull it all off. And that trust is essential, in my opinion, to all leadership at all levels. Um so the the leader that's humble, a good communicator, a listener, transparent, and one could instill trust in those around them. To me, those are the qualities I look forward to leader.
SPEAKER_01That's great. And that's good to hear, because in a in a high-pressure, highly educated, complex field like medicine, one might think it's the exceptional surgeon who would be the most qualified leader, or whatever it could be. But but these qualities that you've said, I think research shows that those are the most effective leaders, people that can engender trust, that are transparent, that are willing to give credit where credit is due, and it's not just the exceptional performers.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02And in fact, I'll take it a step further. For for those individuals, I'm not a cardiac surgeon. I did run an interventional lab for 20 plus years doing cardiac catheterization and putting in stents and balloons and doing valve work and things of that nature. And on the one hand, you might think it's the doctor whose technical expertise, it's the entire team. And the team that feels comfortable when they see an impending disaster or they see something that's just not quite right, where they're well, they're they're willing to talk to the physician and say, Yep, let's take a step back. Or have you considered this? How do how do we work as a team? Because that that patient needs care not only on the cath lab table or the operating table, but long before then and long after then.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And any good surgeon will tell you that it's the supporting team that's absolutely essential to making sure the patient receives best care. Yep. Um and again, in high-quality institutions, uh, it is in fact that team that works together.
SPEAKER_01Well, and that brings up the topic of psychological safety, something that we talk a lot about with faculty and staff and students uh across the system in some of our leader development trainings is creating that environment where people are willing to take professional and personal risk without fear of consequences, being willing to speak up if they see something in the operation on the table that may not look right. Because the absence of that, certainly in something like medicine, can be catastrophic. So I love that that's that's one of the key qualities that you've that you've mentioned.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, again, that means that there's a level of trust.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And the trust isn't I'm the best physician around. The trust is we're gonna do what's best for the patient. And that's always gonna be our driving force. And trusting that it takes a team to do that, because no single person has all the knowledge and all the experience and is perfect.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um and uh yeah, so so building that trust, building that teamwork, building that, as you said, that safety. Because it's not about uh holding somebody up as being a star person, it's really about always doing what's best for the patient.
SPEAKER_01Right. I've got a couple of questions on on decision making. So cardiologists, physicians often make life or death decisions with incomplete information. How has practicing medicine influenced the way that you make leadership decisions?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh and you don't always have all the information, but it's not because you you've been negligent in searching for it. So one of the things that my residency at Hopkins taught me was you go the extra mile to make sure you have all of the information available so you're not missing anything. So whenever I have a difficult decision to make, what I try to do is make sure that I have all the information available, not just what I think, uh, but reach outside. Um and sometimes uh the fact you don't have all the information is because you didn't ask for it, you didn't search for it, you didn't look hard enough. You were uh lazy or you discounted somebody else's opinion or you didn't take the time. And so when I have difficult decisions, I literally get in a room with I have eight or ten individuals that we have first of all created that uh environment where it's safe to voice your opinion. We put the issue out there, I want everybody's opinion. They're not supposed to be searching for what I'm looking for, they're supposed to be providing their opinion. Um, and you'd be surprised how oftentimes facts become available that we just weren't there before.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Uh uh because we didn't search for them. So the first thing I'd say is my being a physician uh means that I don't ever want it to harm a patient because I didn't have all the facts. And so that's driven me to always for difficult decisions to also do the same thing. And also, as a physician, if I don't know the answer, I don't hesitate to ask a colleague their opinion as well. Present them. Yeah uh and so the same thing with very difficult decisions. Um, everybody sitting around that table is there because I trust their judgment and value their perspective and wisdom. And everybody around that voices their decision. Ultimately, someone has to make a decision at the end, but you've gotten all the facts, you've got everybody's opinion. And I do the same thing with patients, by the way. Um and it's a rich experience.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, just placing myself as a fly on the wall in that room. When you're with your senior team and you're talking about an issue, getting um everybody's opinions, is there a lot of interaction, back and forth, debate? Does that help feed your perspective as well? And then the second question on that is how do you ensure buy-in from everybody, even if your decision runs counter to some of the opinions shared?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh it is uh uh people are candid and kind at the same time, which is it's very easy to do, by the way. And when I walk in, I set the tone and say, here, guys, I have a difficult decision to make, and I need uh your help in doing that. And so here's my understanding of the facts. Um please provide me additional information or facts. Uh and then what I say is everybody around here, I'm gonna solicit your opinion. Uh, and at the end, we have to we have to go out with a single decision. And that decision, over the course of time, we will find out it's right or wrong. And if it's wrong, we will backtrack immediately. Because it's not about making sure that my decision was right, it's making sure that we made the right decision. Right. And so we will and I so I tell them we'll change course. And I don't have any problem at all with that. And everybody around the table needs to realize that we we could have made the wrong decision, and we will come back and we will revisit it. So we always revisit those decisions. And finally, after everybody's spoken, I go around the table and I ask everybody is there something you've not said or something you're concerned about? Because I want you to speak right now. And we literally go around, and everybody around the table has the final word. And then and then we make a decision based upon that. And uh and everybody feels very comfortable with it. Everybody's had a voice, yeah. And everybody knows that we will come back and re-evaluate it and we'll redirect if we need to.
SPEAKER_01One one follow-up. You know, we we've talked, you know, a little bit of my background, 16 years working uh internationally in different countries, and this uh comfort level in some cultures of giving that feedback, that honest opinion to the boss is much more difficult than it may be in the American context. And I presume in the field of medicine in El Paso, there are people from different cultures. How do you build that with people that may come in with more of an ingrained sense that I cannot speak up to the boss?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's what I will typically do is I will try to put that person in that meeting so they can see how it's done. And especially if it's somebody from a different culture, or sometimes it's just a new hire who may have had a different experience. And that is, if they voice their opinion, next thing you know, they're on the chopping block. But when they can actually see it in action and realize that everything's safe, and especially by the way, if I walk in with a preconceived idea and everybody's spoken and I change my mind or change the direction, then they get it.
SPEAKER_01It's powerful.
SPEAKER_02So uh so uh you have to you have to model it. I wasn't it didn't happen the first time we held the meeting. Uh it took several uh several meetings for people really understood and got it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But now it's just it's a part of how we make difficult decisions here.
SPEAKER_01I love it. I love it. And I hope everybody listening can can develop that dynamic on their teams because it really is. It's work and it can take time, like Dr. Lang has said, and in my experience too, certainly cross-culturally, just to break down those barriers. But the result really does lead to better decisions and better dynamics within a team. Um so thanks for sharing that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And again, Lang, there are times where I'm not here and difficult decisions need to be made, and I want the team to know how to do it. Right. Um and so it doesn't fall on any anyone's shoulders in particular, but as a group, they know how to make that decision.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
unknownGood.
SPEAKER_01Well, you mentioned servant leadership earlier. I'm my next theme is is character and servant leadership. And so we've had occasion on a a couple of times to spend a little time together, um, which has been lovely and really appreciate your showing me around El Paso and introducing me to Taconetta and those types of things. Um But one thing that struck me about you is your kindness and just genuine caring nature. Some might question whether a kind and caring leader can make tough decisions necessary to lead successful organizations. How would you respond?
SPEAKER_02Um I don't think those things are mutually exclusive. In fact, I would say uh the kindness can inform tough decisions. Uh let me give you an example. Oftentimes those tough decisions are around personnel, and that is uh somebody's not performing at what they're doing. And uh you'd say, well, you're kind and you don't really want to remove them or move them out of the position. And I'd say that's actually the kind thing to do because that person is not succeeding, they know it. Yeah, and the team knows it. Everybody knows it. And if you don't get them into a position where they can succeed, you're not being kind to them at all. You're basically setting them up to failure. Uh so one of the things that we encourage in our leadership training is to identify what someone's gifted at and what they enjoy. And oftentimes they're doing a really good job there. We move them to a different position where either they don't enjoy it or they don't succeed. Uh and uh if you're unkind, you'll let them flounder there. And what I think is that doesn't sit, I I'm interested in their success, and that doesn't promote that. And so the kind thing to do is to make that tough decision. And you sit them down, you say, listen, this isn't your best interest because you're not happy, you're not enjoying this, and you're not succeeding.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I need to get my goal is to promote your success, and let's get you into a position where you can do that. If the organization is headed in the wrong direction and you don't correct it, um, you're not being kind to the organization. And so what I what I would say is those tough decisions, if they're rooted in kindness and doing the right thing, always doing the right thing, those tough decisions really aren't very tough at all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I love that. It's almost a shift in how someone might think of kindness. Kindness can be kind of that surface level. I don't want to upset them, want to maintain a relationship, but like you've said, that's not serving the best interests of the other person. And so it's more kind to think of their development and their future. And so it shifting from this maybe again surface-level kindness to truly what's in the best interest of the other person and the organization.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And uh and when it's done that way, and when people believe and they sincerely believe that you're interested in their success, then it's very again, it's not tough at all. It's very kind and very considerate.
SPEAKER_01That's great.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, when you're a parent, uh, you would never let your kid put their hand in the fire. Never let them jump off the a rooftop. And you say, Well, you're not being very kind. I'd say, no, it's just the opposite. You're being extremely kind by preventing them from doing something that will either bring harm to them or they won't succeed at.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh and uh and that's what the job of a good leader is, is to set people up to succeed and the organization to succeed.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for that. You've led nationally through the American Heart Association and advised the FDA while also leading locally in El Paso. How do you stay grounded when your influence continues to grow, when your profile continues to grow?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's easy to be humble when you're not perfect and you have uh failures or struggles. And so uh I realize that uh everything that we do and every success I've had is either built upon the foundation of people that came before me or have helped me or are continuing to do that work right now. I'm just a piece of that um entire puzzle that paints that picture of what happens, either here at the American Heart Associate at the FDA. I'm just a piece of it. Uh and it's it's a privilege to be a piece of it and to lead in those organizations. But uh I eat uh if I don't serve myself humble pie, somebody else will.
unknownThat's right.
SPEAKER_02So I try to eat, I try to eat a big piece first thing in the morning. Actually, you uh the first thing I do each morning is I make a cup of coffee. I try to get here early in the morning before anybody else gets here so that uh I can plan my day. I can evaluate what I did yesterday that didn't go so well and what I didn't succeed at and plan this day. And then after I eat that, I eat my imaginary piece of humble pie, and it serves me very well.
SPEAKER_01That's great. Well, I can attest that you're another riser. You drove me to the airport, I think, at 5:30 a.m. on one of my first trips to El Paso, which I was greatly appreciative for, but uh not.
SPEAKER_02You made me late to work that day.
SPEAKER_01I I apologize and I'll pay for payback. Um who are some leaders that you've tried to emulate and uh what characteristics did they model that still shapes your leadership today?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So early on, there was a youth pastor, this is when I was in high school, who taught me the value of having a strong faith, uh certain leadership, um, caring for others, and not being uh self-focused. And so that was very early on uh in high school. Um as a physician, a guy named Dave Hillis, Dr. David Hillis, uh, took me under his wing and taught me how to be an academic cardiologist, uh, how to take great care of patients, how to be a very good administrator, and uh, and how to lead. And then more recently, a couple names that you'll recognize uh Ted Mitchell, um, a gifted communicator and gifted leader uh and supporter, and then Steve Saucelin as well, who instills the value of developing uh individuals around us, leaders at every single position. Um and then finally, uh my parents, you say, well, uh, not only do they lead a family, uh, but they uh taught us how to be generous with everything. Every gift we have is the gift given to us, and we're to share it with others. And so those are the leaders that have uh most uh influenced me.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's great. Do you find opportunities to pass that on?
SPEAKER_02Well, uh we do. I hope everything we do here passes that on as well. Um and then uh at the family level as well, the kids understand uh generosity and caring for others. Um and then uh I think uh the individuals around here aspire to be good leaders as well, and they'll they'll have their their skills will be different, um, they'll manifest it in different ways. But you can always be humble, you can always serve others, you can always be transparent and caring, uh and looking to advance and to help others. And those things uh those things cut across everybody's skill set.
SPEAKER_01Excellent. Well, I've got a few final speed round questions for you before we wrap up. What's one habit every leader should develop?
SPEAKER_02Self-awareness. Self-awareness.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Uh you can either be self-aware or people will point it out to you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. How does how does one develop that?
SPEAKER_02Um you need to be uh introflective, you need to be introspective. I'm gonna say introflective, reflective and introspective at the same time. You need to be honest and you need to be humble. You need to always be preparing to be better. And uh and if you can't see it, if it's a blind spot, you need to have two or three people around you. They feel comfortable telling you where that is.
SPEAKER_01No, it's good. So what's the best career advice you've received?
SPEAKER_02You know, when I took this job, uh I uh I was the vice chairman of medicine and was asked to be president of the Health Science Center. I mean usually you go from vice chairman to chairman, chairman to dean, dean to provost, provost to president. Um, and I took the giant leap. And uh the chancellor at the University of Texas, Francisco Segaroa, I talked to him, I said, This is the craziest move I will ever make. He actually recommended me for the job. I said, What makes you think I could possibly do this? And he said, You have a moral compass. If you keep your moral compass, you will be fine. And that's the best advice I've gotten. It drives every single decision.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And that is, is it the right thing to do? Well, that's powerful.
SPEAKER_01Last question. What's one thing that you intentionally say no to?
SPEAKER_02I say uh no to things that don't advance our mission and are contrary to our values. Uh anything that would impugn the character of our institution or myself, it's just not worth it.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_02You can spend a lifetime developing a reputation and a character and lose it in 60 seconds.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02So if it looks like it it's not aligned with our mission, our values, I say no.
SPEAKER_01Great. Dr. Lang, thank you so much. Any final words for listeners that you'd like to share that we've not talked about?
SPEAKER_02No, I you know, leaders come in different styles and different shapes, and there's no one magic bullet. Um, but there are values, I think, that cut across that. And um, you know, I I'm privileged to have been mentored by some terrific individuals. I'm privileged to be in a place where uh we got to develop the culture uh and privileged to be here now for over a decade to see the results of everything the team has accomplished. Um and oh, by the way, I've had failures along the way. And oh, by the way, I'll have more failures before I'm done. So any any listeners out there, I would say use those as opportunities and not as obstacles.
SPEAKER_01I've had the opportunity to be down there, I think, three trips over the past year, and I've just been impressed at every turn with the team, the leadership, the facilities. Um I'm um thankful for you and what you've been uh developing there in El Paso and the legacy that you're leaving. Uh, you've got some amazing people around you um that you know are implementing and carrying on the vision. And so um just kudos to you and thank you again for taking time with me today to talk.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you for what you're doing is to uh promote leadership and uh to make uh not just our listeners, but me make all of us better leaders in everything we do. So thank you, Lane. Appreciate you.
SPEAKER_01My pleasure. To those listening, thank you for joining me on the Leader Fast Lane. If today's conversation sparked a moment of reflection or a lane change in how you think about leadership, take a minute to share this episode with someone you lead or learn from. Join me next time when I'll be joined by Andrea Sparks, Director of Government and Strategic Relations at Buckner International. You can find more episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, keep leading with purpose, integrity, and clarity, especially when it's hard.
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