The Psychological Meaning of Leadership in Exercise
Physiology
Tommy Boone, PhD, MPH,
FASEP, EPC
Professor and Chair
Director, Exercise
Physiology Laboratories
The College of St. Scholastica
Duluth, MN 55811
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Nothing matters more than thinking, doing, and talking
about the impossible, and what we can do now for our students and the
profession of exercise physiology.
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Exercise
physiology in recent years, particularly since 1997, has become more and more a
healthcare profession that deals with recognizable health problems [1]. Professional people in medicine and in others
fields of work have come to the consensus that "exercise is
medicine." Underlying this
consensus is the conviction that there is more to exercise than sweating, building
muscle, and counting heart rate.
Exercise itself is a personal experience; a relationship of the body and
mind that sets the stage for a specific and powerful connection and
influence. Whether this is consciously
or intuitively understood does not really matter to the one who is in a
relationship with exercise. Moreover,
the type of exercise does not appear to make any difference in the outcome.
Despite
the slow recognition of this point by exercise physiologists, it should be
possible to develop some common understanding that would help to define the
essentials of exercise as treatment [2].
Of course underlying this thinking lies the professional necessity to
deepen the exercise physiologist's standards of practice. Hence, what is important here is not one more
research article on how best to jump higher but to understand the necessity for
growth in our collective thinking that drives the sense of
professionalism. It is this integration
that defines our maturity or our inadequacy in seeing past yesterday's
thinking. It is the same as allowing
one's mind to see ahead, if not around the corner to better anticipate the
conditions and/or conflicts.
Believe that you have it, and you
have it.
-- old Latin proverb
Exercise
physiologists who can look ahead of where they are appear more flexible in their
dimensions of growth than those who are tied to the past. Their intrapersonal structures are more
accommodating to interpersonal experiences.
That is why they have the energy, if not the need, to think differently,
and to improve their control and understanding of exercise physiology. Such growth is both emotional and
intellectual, often occurring in non-ordinary ways. However it occurs, it is imperative that it
takes place. An exercise physiologist who has a doctorate degree
but who cannot adequately assess the importance of a professional organization,
the value of a code of ethics, or even accreditation presents a serious problem
for exercise physiology even if he is skilled in doing research. Having done good research, he has still failed
to develop his potential either as a complete educator or as a member of his
professional society [3]. Full growth
includes a complete understanding of the professionalism of exercise
physiology.
All
healthcare professions deal in significant ways with both professionalism and
research. Some exercise physiologists
are far more interested in one or the other, but both must be developed to
increase the full potential of the profession.
This article addresses the professionalism [4], which catalyzes the
emergence of exercise physiology as a healthcare profession. These points cannot be overlooked.
If
steps which are known to be important in the development of professionals are
neglected by exercise physiologists, it may be argued that they are not
responsible. This is true even though
they may be responsible researchers. The
decision not to demonstrate a socially and professionally responsible attitude
for their own accreditation is an all-important variable in their failure to see
around the corner. In essence, they
remain imprisoned in the early sports medicine way of thinking [5]. Here, please appreciate that this conclusion
is not personal as much as it is a professional necessity state. It is simply the truth.
It
also follows that if other healthcare practitioners have not neglected their
professionalism, which indicates their conviction and grounding in their fields
of work, why is it that academic exercise physiologists in particular turn a
blind eye to the ASEP organization?
Added to this is the obvious work other professionals have invested in
their own survival and indoctrination of the same. Yet, again, the doctorate prepared exercise
physiologists run around from lab to lab and meeting to meeting with little
understanding of the importance of credibility and professionalism.
Be the change you want to make.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
The
exercise physiologist's failure to confront this problem head on is speaks
plenty. Perhaps, many of them are in
fact personal trainers at heart! For
certain, the traditional defined of exercise physiology as the “acute and
chronic adaptations to regular exercise” is regrettable (and sadly, even understandable
to a point). To be specific, it is
regrettable because the definition of exercise physiology has not changed for
the past half century. It remains
imprisoned in the early thinking of the American College
of Sports Medicine [6].
Since
1997, the founding of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists, there has
been a great deal of discussion by select members of ASEP about the dilemma of
narrowed thinking. The clear implication
of the ASEP's existence is simply that exercise physiology is a healthcare
profession, and like all other such professions, it must be regulated and if
not by licensure, then, from within. If
the reader is interested and willing to look within the infrastructure of the
ASEP organization, it demonstrates a completely different perspective as to
"what is exercise physiology" and "who is an exercise physiologist."
The
common underlying dynamic of professional organizations is the ability to
foster professionalism through accreditation and other related ways [7]. Most importantly, it illuminates the Board
Certification and the uncovering and integrating of exercise physiology
research with practical hands-on experiences.
This new movement, whatever its limitations may be given the lack of
understanding and/or support by academic exercise physiologists, has a breadth
and fullness which, even though it may not be appreciated, does nevertheless
express the true character of professional development.
It
is common knowledge that the history of professionalism is replete with
conflict and challenges until a flash of insight spreads throughout the
membership. Often, at first, these
"revelations" offend. This is
certainly true with exercise physiologists who find the ASEP perspective
difficult to deal with [8]. This
unwillingness to believe has been true with other professions, too. At first, the change is too threatening to
their comfortableness to integrate on a conscious level the need for their own
professional organization.
During
this incubation period, when even the best thinking often becomes distorted,
the principles of professionalism persevere.
The reason is directly related to the process of change within
individual members. This may be thought
of as an adaptation response to the stress of both staying as they have been
and the feelings of failure when failing to adapt. Hence, the stress is both external and
internal. While it is logical to expect
the external stress to play heavily on psychological adaptations, the internal
stress is just as real. Ultimately,
there is an emotional adjustment that is internal and external. After all, stress is stress regardless of the
source of competing systems.
Disequilibrium...arises out of conflict or antagonism among
competing systems.
– Carol A. Whitaker and Thomas P.
Malone
The Roots of Psychotherapy
Just
as Whitaker and Malone [9] pointed out that "...an individual provoked to
anger by another individual may simply suppress his anger and remove himself
from the situation, provided that in so doing he does not frustrate any of his
deeper personal needs." Imagine,
then, a non-tenured exercise physiologist in a Department of Exercise Science,
who is informed that if she continues to associate with the ASEP organization she
will not get tenure. Now imagine that
the non-tenured faculty member suppresses her true feelings and removes herself
from conversations about ASEP.
Presumably the faculty member responds on the most economical level
available to her. She may want to stand
her ground and argue for the right to membership in ASEP, but at the same time,
needs the continued support, if not, protection from the tenured faculty.
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Personal integrity, conviction, and the discipline to do
what is right are essential to professional development. So, why is it
a problem that an exercise physiologist should disagree with the sports
medicine model? It shouldn’t be. In a world of conflict,
confusion, and effort towards making sense of life, disagreeing with
colleagues ought to be considered imperative if growth and new vision are
important. The privilege of disagreeing is just that, a privilege.
Daring to question anything is appropriate and necessary for an understanding
of what is right. The cloud of unknowing or simply not knowing what is
straight thinking is a problem. True knowledge and understanding come
from asking questions, constructing hypotheses, and going about the steps of
critical reflection. True knowledge comes from insight, that is, a
moment in time when what has been standard thinking is questioned.
Greatness is awakened in each of us when truth within us calls out and tells
us what to do [10].
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The
ASEP's function as a professional organization is as essential a part of the
exercise physiologist's care as is its purpose in identifying the professional
infrastructure of the profession.
However, the organization cannot rely simply upon its internal dialogue
and programmatic developments, nor can it be everything to every member. The 21st century exercise physiologist must
assume the responsibility for adequate care of the profession.
In
a similar manner, exercise physiologists must assume certain responsibilities
in the professionalism of exercise physiology.
They should be equipped to refer to the ASEP organization those
colleagues with profound professional needs, although the responsibility for
personal development remains with the individual. In other words, the reorganization of the
energy that promotes change, and the realignment of the energy factors of one
or another aspect of a colleague’s personality is necessary and, professionally
speaking, desirable.
A leader must never
sacrifice tomorrow on the altar of yesterday.
-- Peter Drucker
For
certain, ASEP exercise physiologists must be able to go beyond the core
thinking of ASCM and apply the ASEP perspective in much the same sense that anyone
would do to promote the development of their interests. Those who learn how to engage others in the
ASEP professionalism, and how to function in a diverse academic department with
colleagues, develop some protection from the inertia and negative effects of
groupthink [11]. Yet, to others, it may
seem presumptuous to define exercise physiology as the ASEP leadership has done. Are they exercise physiologists?
Why
should exercise physiology be left to a medical doctor to define “what is
exercise physiology?” It makes no sense
to do so nor would the medical doctor allow us to define medicine. The definition per se is an implicit part of
the right of those who firmly believe exercise physiologists need their own
professional organization and who understand exercise physiology as a healthcare
profession. Also, why shouldn’t the ASEP
exercise physiologist continue to function in an implicit manner since the
basis for its functioning has to do with its members and their needs and the
role of ASEP in fulfilling them?
Further
justification for the effort to develop the professional infrastructure of
exercise physiology lies in the fact that it is always necessary to push the
capacity of every professional to new levels of achievement. There is no doubt that one of the problems of
the non-ASEP exercise physiologists is the uneasiness of supporting ASEP
without the security of a larger organization.
Lacking a strong professional definition of exercise physiology aside
from "having the doctorate degree," the non-ASEP academic simply
retreats to the safety of the larger organizations.
Here
again, no matter what is said about ASEP and exercise physiology on an explicit
level, no matter how well it will developed in years to come, there will always
be a place for exercise physiologists in sports medicine. It might even be said that this thinking is
understandable, and no amount of arguing otherwise would make sense to change
it. In fact, the ASEP leadership has
gone one step further to be open to collaborative work with members of other
organizations.
In
a very real sense, however, the absurdity of exercise physiologists failing to
support their own professional organization is paradoxical to say the
least. The doctorate exercise
physiologist has a significant amount of education, yet the prolonged denial of
ASEP sums up the deeply embedded connectedness with ACSM. Of course this thinking may not be far
different from the need to stay attached to memories and other personally
historical kinds of feelings. In
many respects, this tendency to find comfort in past associations represents
one of the most powerfully unconscious dynamics for the resolution of
conflicts. Perhaps, therefore, not until
the exercise physiologist puts the past thinking in its proper perspective is
there likely to the resolution necessary to understand the ASEP process.
But
to press the point a bit further, one wonders if some exercise physiologists
have not abandoned their sense of judgment, if not there understanding of the
genesis of professions. Admittedly, repression
is a powerful function of the unconscious mind, first, by assuming to protect
the conscious and, secondly, by "working with colleagues" who stand
to influence their actions and behavior.
By virtue of these interrelated and certainly complex considerations,
change isn't as easy to visualize as an analytical process as one might believe.
To
change the substance of how one thinks is to alter the actual essence of one's
brain. Any procedure other than direct
surgery would appear most foolish, having little to no actual merit. And, in the regards to reading this article,
one can only think what the words actually mean, how they might be working
through the mind or causing a re-thinking or re-experiencing of thoughts and
feelings. Most certainly, the direction
and quality of the experience is experiential in all of its facets. Presumably, the same experience and depth as
to its meaning can result directly from face-to-face conversation.
Key Point:
What you do really does make a difference.
It
can probably be said with equal validity that the ASEP organization, to the
degree to which it is defined by the leadership, is implicitly experiential,
and that experiential thinking reinforces the concepts of and the values
inherent in the ASEP vision. Ultimately,
however, the readiness of the exercise physiologist to grow while keeping close
to past personal values may explain why a certain rigidity and complexity
prevails. The exercise physiologist's
decision to join ASEP is no easy one for many who are emotionally involved with
sports medicine.
Hence,
the question: "What brings the
exercise physiologist to ASEP?" The
pressures which bring about the decision to take the step to complete the ASEP
membership application must be important.
The first and probably most important of these is the belief that the
association is satisfying in certain ways.
For example, it may provide the new member with a kind of thinking that
allows for reversing past thinking. The
individual emerges with a mature freedom to participate realistically to
integrate new relationship.
The
central point to be inferred from all of this is the fundamental significance
of the exercise physiologist's new-found image as a unique professional who has
a status even more profound than that with which the culture of sports medicine
provides him. This makes more sense when
one looks upon cultural patterns of change and the acceptable ways of limiting
the negative anxiety that underlies it.
In short, ASEP is the chance to take what we know and care about
(namely, exercise physiology and students) and do it in a professional
setting.
Although
the following may come across as a very basic piece of advice, the reader might
just get the point. First, take a stand
and do the right thing. Appreciate that
doing so is likely to make enemies, especially if colleagues believe their
comfort is threaten with taking a stand against them. Second, learn to take sides. This is what defines a person's state of
thinking and character. After all, a
person with goals and dreams is expected to challenge traditional thinking
however provocative the ideas. Third, it
is important to understand that any profession is going to have dissenters and
naysayers, especially when the profession is undergoing a major change.
The greatest change agent is pain.
-- Libby Sartain with Martha I.
Finney
HR from the Heart
Fourth, choose an organization that values its
members; one that is driven by sincere leadership to realize its vision. Yes, by all means, look for colleagues with
passion for exercise physiology and look for students who want to be exercise
physiologists. Fifth, keep in mind the
organization is all about the profession first.
Remember, it is personal for exercise physiologists. It is what they do and live. Sixth, choose an organization that gives you
confidence that the right thing is being done for the right reasons even when
ideas are tried and they fail to work. After
all, it is okay to make mistakes.
Today's
paradigm for exercise physiology is quite different from what it was a decade
ago. The largest difference in exercise
physiology is the change in focus from just research to research, teaching, and
"students." The expanded
emphasis on caring for the students' education argues for a much stronger
emphasis on promoting a healthier view of exercise physiology. And, the emphasis on professionalism and
taking personal responsibility for the professional development of exercise
physiology is unprecedented.
For
certain, the ASEP leaders have not been sitting around since 1997 waiting idly
by for fate to smile upon them. They
have stepped out into the unknown to create opportunities to grow exercise
physiology and to improve career opportunities for students. This is a crucial point. Credible jobs with an excellent salary and
health benefits make a big difference in the return value on student's tuition
dollars. And, just think, it is just a
matter of time students in exercise physiology will no longer be neither
invisible nor inconsequential.
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We become what we think, what we talk about, and what we
do. If we think our work is for the
right reason, if we think that our actions will bring forth positive results,
and if we start living as professionals, we will become our vision.
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Exercise
physiologists are left, therefore, with the conclusion, that if there is any
meaning to an academic degree, then, it is we who must discover it
ourselves. Credibility will be not be
handed to exercise physiologists, but rather they must seek it through similar,
if not, the same steps other professions have done for decades. For those of us in ASEP who spent our entire
academic lives obsessed with research and recognition, or in the manipulation
and control of other organizations, the realization now is that we alone are
responsible for the professionalism of exercise physiology.
ASEP
is about searching for opportunities for ways of doing exercise physiology that
have never been done and, thus putting meaning back into the purpose of a
college degree. By drawing upon the
great resources that lie within each of us, and by contemplating our future as
exercise physiologists think of themselves and not as others may want us to do,
we become our vision.
Nothing that is worth doing can be
achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good
makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be
saved by faith. Nothing we do, however
virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore we are saved by love.
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
Justice and Mercy, 1976
Reference
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