Why Leadership is Worthless While Leading is Priceless: with Dr. Thom Mayer, Medical Director for the NFL Players Association

May 2, 2024

Why Leadership is Worthless While Leading is Priceless: with Dr. Thom Mayer, Medical Director for the NFL Players Association

I was privileged to interview our repeat distinguished guest Dr. Thom Mayer, who  is the Medical Director for the NFL Players Association.  Dr. Mayer is  one of the most widely-sought speakers on healthcare patient experience, leadership and management, hardwiring flow, trauma and emergency care, pediatric emergency care, EMS/disaster medicine, and sports medicine. His work in each of these areas has resulted in changing the very fabric of patient care.
 
In our discussion Dr. Mayer outlines his top take-aways from his newly published book : “Leadership is Worthless…But Leading is Priceless: What I Learned from 9/11, the NFL, and Ukraine”.
 
Dr. Mayer opens our discussion with the concept that he is re-defining leading to encompass actions, consistency, building trust, and the application of Servant Leadership. In his book he states “Leadership is worthless…because it’s a noun, the things you say—just words. But leading is priceless…because it’s a verb, the things you do—actions, not just words.”
 
What I love about Dr. Mayer’s leadership approach is that he inherently believes that EVERYONE at EVERY level is a leader. I encourage everyone to listen to this episode and share with your community, family and friends. You will be inspired, and also have a greater understanding of how you too can become the leader you have been waiting for.
 
 

 

 

 

Thom Mayer, MD, FACEP, FAAP, FACHE

Medical Director NFL Players Association

 
 Dr. Mayer is the Medical Director for the NFL Players Association, Executive Vice President of Leadership for LogixHealth, Founder of BestPractices, Inc., Speaker for Executive Speakers Bureau, and Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University and Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University. He was named the 2018 winner of the James D. Mills Outstanding Contribution to Emergency Medicine Award, which is the highest honor of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He was recently nominated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. USA Today named him one of the “100 Most Important People in the NFL.” Tom Peters, the internationally acclaimed leadership guru, referred to his work as “gaspworthy.”

 

When asked about these awards, Dr. Mayer simply says, “I have only one talent.  I know how to hire people who are not only better than me, but much better than me.  They won the awards, not me.”

 

Dr. Mayer has been the founder, CEO, and principal shareholder of physician leadership, staffing, and management and ambulance transport companies with revenues exceeding $100 million, which were then sold with an average IRR in excess of 38%.  He continues to hold intellectual property rights to all the content developed by these companies.

 

He is one of the most widely sought speakers on leading in times of crisis, patient experience,, hardwiring flow, trauma and emergency care, pediatric emergency care, EMS/disaster medicine, and sports medicine. His work in each of these areas has resulted in changing the very fabric of patient care.

 

In 2022, Dr. Mayer helped lead a mobile team to Ukraine. On September 11, 2001 Dr. Mayer served as the Command Physicians at the Pentagon Rescue Operation and has served on 3 Defense Science Board Task Forces, advising the Secretary of Defense. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, over 200 book chapters, and has edited or written 25 textbooks, including:

  • Leadership for Great Customer Service:  Satisfied Employees, Satisfied Patients: 2nd Edition
  • Leadership for Smooth Patient Flow
  • Hardwiring Flow
  • The Patient Flow Advantage
  • Strauss and Mayer’s Emergency Department Management.
  • Battling Healthcare Burnout

Dr. Mayer was named the ACEP Outstanding Speaker of the Year and has been named ACEP’s “Over-the-Top” award winner 3 times.  Battling Healthcare Burnout won the ACHE’s James Hamilton Award for the best healthcare leadership book in 2022 and Leadership for Smooth Patient Flow won the ACHE’s James Hamilton Award for the best healthcare leadership book in 2008.  In sports medicine, his work at the forefront of changing concussion diagnosis and management in the NFL has changed the way in which these athletes are diagnosed and treated.

 

Dr. Mayer was the originator of the entire NFL Concussion Guidelines program, and thus has changed the nature of concussion diagnosis and management world-wide.  He gives many examples of his NFL experiences in his talks.

Dr. Katie Cole

Affectionately called “The Healer’s Healer,” Dr. Katie Cole is an award-winning psychiatrist and consultant who works with physicians and organizations to reinvigorate their passion for medicine, create healthier work/life balance, and prevent costly burnout.