Volume 38 Number 6 | December 2024
Pat Tille, PhD, MLS(ASCP), AHI(AMT), FACSc, ASCLS President
Leadership. What does that mean, and how does one navigate the relationship and expectations of others in a member-driven organization such as the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS)? As a member of ASCLS since 1992, several strategic actions have occurred that have influenced how the organization operates, how it is marketed, and how it is perceived by others outside and inside the organization. This affects all levels of member involvement, from the grassroots constituent societies, committees, and forums to the ASCLS Board of Directors. As a member, and someone who served on the Board of Directors as a regional director and now as the Society’s president, let’s take a look from the outside looking in on the ethics of association leadership and how a member is consistently walking a fine line between serving as a concerned member of ASCLS versus serving in the role on the Board of Directors.
In order to begin to appreciate the transition a member must embark on to assume a leadership role in ASCLS and understand the expectations, it is necessary to break down some significant terms. The first, which many may think is the easiest, is leadership. As a professional that directs a graduate-level program in leadership, let me just say, this is no easy term to define. Leadership has been studied and conceptualized to include many components. There are hundreds of theories, texts, and articles available concerning leadership, however, many of them share a few key elements. Leadership is a process. It is not a natural born talent, although you may hear people say, “someone is a natural born leader.” It is a set of skills one can learn and develop with proper guidance. Second, leadership involves influence. A key concept is that someone in leadership can inspire and guide others to achieve common goals. Achieving common goals is the third element that is evident in all leadership theories.
Over the years, ASCLS members and leaders, in collaboration, have developed a set of common goals that are evaluated annually, updated, and revised as a process to ensure the organization remains relevant and provides value to the profession of laboratory science. Those goals are centered around what ASCLS calls the “The Strategic Framework.” This framework consists of three major pillars: community, knowledge, and advocacy. ASCLS is structured in a way that all three pillars of the strategic framework are embedded in the organizational practices, committees, taskforces, forums, and processes through volunteers in collaboration with the ASCLS staff and the Board of Directors.
The second item that one needs to define to appreciate the term leadership in ASCLS is the standard position description of a member of the Board of Directors. All members of the Board of Directors are sworn in to meet specific fiduciary responsibilities of the organization at the annual House of Delegates. What is fiduciary responsibility? Fiduciary is actually a noun and is considered an individual or organization that has a legal and ethical obligation to act in the best interests of another person or a group. A fiduciary is any member of the ASCLS Board of Directors, and anyone in a leadership role on a committee, taskforce, forum, or other designated role in the organization. One can also argue that as a medical laboratory professional, every member of ASCLS is a fiduciary in relationship to the practice of laboratory medicine and one’s “Duty to the Patients,” “Duty to Colleagues and Profession,” and “Duty to Society.” This brings us to the final definition that is important—ethics.
Ethics, like leadership, is not an easy term to define, nor is it a black and white, standard operating procedure that one can follow. Ethics concerns moral considerations on how each individual reaches a conclusion that is subjective and involves one’s personal values and beliefs. This means that the process of ethical evaluation of a consideration varies from one person to another. There are several levels of ethics that laboratory professionals are faced with in their daily demands. The first is personal ethics, which is one’s own set of moral beliefs that determines how a person lives their life. An individual’s moral code is influenced by community, religion, education, socioeconomic, and geographical factors. This level of ethics is the individual’s responsibility and must include the respect for autonomy and beneficence; the act of doing good and promoting the well-being of others.
The second level is professional ethics that describes the set of standards that are applied to one’s daily working environment and organization. This is what is considered standard operating procedures and protocols in a laboratory that reinforce the way in which the laboratory operates and how others perceive one as a healthcare professional. The last level of ethics in one’s profession goes beyond one’s own professional ethics and encompasses one’s work as a member of a collaborative profession to meet our obligations to the needs of others, patients, colleagues, profession, and society. In all reality, one cannot separate the three levels of ethics.
When one considers the ethics of association leadership and an organization such as ASCLS, it is clearly evident that there is a fine line between every member and leadership. And in fact, one can argue, there is no line and there should be no divide. Every member of ASCLS is a fiduciary that is a laboratory professional responsible for the legal and ethical considerations within the organization, the profession, and in their daily lives. As leaders, and members of a profession, it is important to respect others, behave honestly, and create trust by being as open as possible. Being as open as possible simply means sharing the information necessary to ensure the goals of the organization are met and acting in the best interest of others.
Together, we have now walked the thin line between leadership in ASCLS as a member of the Board of Directors, members of ASCLS, and laboratory professionals. We are all the same. The line is imaginary and often creates perceptions of lines one cannot cross or barriers to collaboration and communication. I recently came across two quotes that I want to share, to leave you with some final thoughts. The first is, “Someone asked me what I am going to do when I make it to the top. I said, reach my hand back down for the rest” (unknown author). As a laboratory professional and as an individual, you are “the rest.” And lastly, if one acts in an ethical manner and truly embodies one’s beliefs as a fiduciary for others, honesty, respect, and integrity naturally follow, which builds trust.
Trust is built on truth, and “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away” (Elvis Presley). As a laboratory professional and a valued member of healthcare, we are leaders, we are fiduciaries, we are professionals, we are the same, and we are not going away!
References
- American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. ASCLS Strategic Framework, Accessed September 20, 2024. https://ascls.org/leadership-resources/
- American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. ASCLS Code of Ethics, Accessed September 20,2024. https://ascls.org/code-of-ethics/
- Davey RX. Codes of Ethics for Laboratory Medicine: Definition, Structure and Procedures – A Narrative Review Based on Existing National Codes. EJIFCC. 2020 Nov 20;31(4):262-273. PMID: 33376466; PMCID: PMC7745304.
- Northouse PG. Leadership Theory and Practice. 9th Edition, Sage, 2022.
- Otto, Catherine. Leadership Ethics. American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science. Accessed September 19, 2024. https://labucate.org/
- Stanford CC, Connor VJ. Applied Law and Ethics for Health Professionals. 2nd Edition, Jones, and Bartlett Learning, 2020.
Pat Tille is the Graduate Program Director and Professor at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio.