How To Become A Successful Leader
In order to be an ideal leader, the leader must know everything and anything about his or her job. And by doing that, they must learn their position. Machiavelli stated that “through the mind, the prince must read histories and in them study the deeds of great men” (Machiavelli 87). Many leaders in the world studied, observed, and learned from leaders that came before them. Here they were able to learn the things that leaders did good and also the things that caused the leaders some trouble. By observing what mistakes leaders have made previously, our modern-day politicians hope to refrain from making that same mistake again.
Jeff Romoff was able to study the works of leaders that came before him. He was able to learn from their experience on how to correctly run a company. With being mentored, Mr. Romoff was able to start from being the Director of Office of Education and Regional Programming to being named CEO and President of UPMC (UPMC). If Mr. Romoff never learned from the people that came before him, then there would be a possibility that he could not have become a successful CEO of a very popular healthcare provider.
It is not uncommon for leaders to receive a lot of blame and very little praise. There always people out their criticizing every move or decision that they make. There will always be a time where they aren’t being approved by someone. “When they are spoken of, and particularly princes, since they are placed on a higher level, are judged by some of these qualities which bring them either blame or praise” (Machiavelli 88-89). The leaders are not able to worry about making every single person happy or else they will not be able to get their job done. Mr. Romoff receives more blame than he does praise. One decision that heaped a lot of criticism on Mr. Romoff was the decision to stop accepting patients with Highmark insurance at hospitals or doctor’s office. This was very controversial because those patients would be out of care or they would be paying very high prices out of pocket. At this time, Mr. Romoff only saw where the money was coming in, he didn’t care about the needs of other people who needed help or to be treated.
There was a decision that brought Mr. Romoff some praise but people still found reasons to blame him for this decision. He recently started to expand UPMC by taking over different health systems throughout the state of Pennsylvania in areas such as northeastern, central, and northwestern. This was very good for UPMC because this was able to increase their revenue. Mr. Romoff liked the idea of having a presence in the entire state, all under the same company. He did receive backlash from many of his employees. The backlash that he received was not paying his employees enough even though he was able to expand his company. He also came under criticism for not allowing his employees to create unions for themselves.
Many business leaders will be generous to the people they are serving up until a certain point where it may cause them trouble or to lose money. Machiavelli stated in his book, The Prince, “in doing such a prince will always use up all his resources and he will be obliged, eventually, if he wishes to maintain his reputation for generosity, to burden the people with excessive taxes and to do everything possible to raise funds” (Machiavelli). Mr. Romoff is doing everything possible to raise the funds of his company. He recently announced that he is planning on building 3 specialty hospitals in the Pittsburgh area for two billion dollars. The hospitals would specialize in cancer, transplants, and rehab and vision respectfully. He says that he would like UPMC to become the Amazon of healthcare in a few years and that there is no entry into the marketplace that UPMC does not have a foothold.
UPMC has specialty services, a wide geographic are and an insurance division. Mr. Romoff is receiving criticism from the people over how much money he makes each year. Machiavelli said that “as a consequence of his generosity, having offered many and rewarded few, he will feel the effects of any slight unrest” (Machiavelli). The tax dollars that the people pay each year is what keeps the hospitals up and running. Mr. Romoff makes over six million dollars a year, along with other top executives and doctors who all make seven figure salaries. People are criticizing him for putting profit before charity. Mr. Beckwith, who is a chairman on the Board of Directors, justifies Mr. Romoff’s paycheck because of how much Mr. Romoff has done for the company.
