Retired Army Major General and USU parent speaks about leadership

 Weightman, in a suit, sits at a table and talks animatedly with civilians and military personnel
 By Sarah Marshall

Retired Army Major General (Dr.) George Weightman, former commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center, visited USU on Friday to meet with students, faculty and staff, discussing health policy and leadership. We had a chance to sit down with him, and here’s what he had to say.

A female in military uniform shakes the hand of a man in a suit (Weightman)
Air Force Capt. Elizabeth Belleau, a clinical psychology student at USU, presents retired
Army Maj. Gen. (Dr.) George Weightman a coin on behalf of USU’s Graduate School of
Nursing as a token of appreciation for his visit. (Image credit: Sarah Marshall)
Q. How has your perspective of a good leader changed throughout your career?
A. I've realized the longer I've been a leader and the more times I've been a leader, one of the greatest skills to have is knowing how to ask better questions. And that's because it makes you a lot more efficient if you know what questions to ask. You know what questions aren't efficient and what to ask to get to the crux of the issue. You also have to work harder and harder to unfilter [sic] the information you receive, i.e. you have to actually go and talk to people. You can't just go to the internet to look for the information you need. You have to talk to your patients and providers to find out what's going on in your organization.
 
Q. What advice would you have for these future leaders in military medicine?
A. Some of the best I ever received was, if you ever have an opportunity to be a leader, take it. Because you can make a bigger impact than you're making now. But that's what these individuals are already about -- making an impact on a greater number of people. Also, they're already leaders. They've been student council president, Boy Scouts, etc. ... So they bring that experience of having served as a leader. We're just trying to help them mature and grow those skills.
 
Q. Why is it important to be here discussing leadership?
A. It's important for young providers and providers in training to hear real life scenarios -- it makes it so much more relevant listening to stories told by previous senior leaders and makes what they're learning about more relevant. Hopefully they'll be able to learn from that.
 
Weightman stands facing three civilian men in suits and a lecture hall full of military personnel, answering a question from one of the three civilians
Retired Army Maj. Gen. (Dr.) George Weightman (left) shares a friendly chat with USU
leaders (left to right) Dr. Jeffrey Longacre, Dr. Art Kellermann, and Dr. Eric Schoomaker
prior to his leadership talk with USU medical students. (Image credit: Sharon Holland)
Q. You have a son who's a USU graduate. How did the University prepare him to be a leader?
A. The university does a great job of this -- leadership is ingrained in the culture here and it's incorporated into the curriculum. USU also has the advantage of teaching students who are already leaders, being former enlisted, etc., so they understand the importance of leadership, and know that this is expected of them.

Q. What kind of leaders do we need in the military and in military medicine?
A. We need leaders who care, who are empathetic, and have a broad background. We also need leaders who have exposure to as many issues related to health care as possible, during both war and peace...and we need leaders who are allowed to be innovative.