An Interview with Salar A. Khan, MD, MBA: Author of Unlocking the Natural-Born Leader’s Abilities

Salar Ahmed Khan, MD, MBA, FACA, FCCP, DTCD, MCPS, worked as an internist and pulmonologist at Karachi, Pakistan, from 1985 to 1987; as the chief of medicine, the acting director of medical services, and acting hospital director at Al-Midhnab General Hospital under the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia from 1988 to 1993; as an associate professor of medicine at Baqai Medical College and Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, from 1993 to 1994; as a surgical assistant, material management, and acting central processing supervisor at Edgewater Medical Center in Chicago from 1996 to 2000.

From 2000 to 2009, he was research administration portfolio manager, grant administrator, acting administrative officer, and acting director of a nonprofit organization, and since 2009 has been working as a director of research compliance in Chicago. He was nominated for and has won several awards at national and international levels. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, photography, and watching sports such as cricket. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two sons.

Tell us about your book.

The book is Unlocking the Natural-Born Leader’s Abilities: An Autobiographical Exposé – a leadership guide with an autobiographical foundation. The book received a couple of awards and delivers a highly readable mixture of motivational manual and medical memoir. Leadership is a habit we cultivate. It throws many challenges our way to rediscover who we are. While working under time-sensitive, high-risk, & high-pressure situations allowed me to unlock and develop my natural-born leader’s abilities & find several potentially hidden skill-sets to become a successful self-confident leader during last fifty years. The book helps reader identify and enhance the natural-born leadership qualities inside themselves. With lessons embedded through the book and a self-assessment tool at the end, this book will set the blueprint to your success, ready to teach the art of successful leadership for the betterment of the world.

Why did you want to write a book?

This book is not based on research. It based on my observations and experience of life. Readers may introspect and potentially uncover the Natural Born Leader’s Abilities (NBL) qualities within yourself. There is widespread lack of confidence in leadership – whether in business, govt, education, or elsewhere. Currently these organizations or institutions are managed by people who lack leadership competence. I believe the vision of self-confident NBL is necessary for the betterment of the world.

Why did you write about this particular subject?

This book is about my fifty-year journey to become a natural-born leader. I can be an NBL, why can’t a reader of this book also be an NBL? This book is a leadership guide with an autobiographical foundation, which is a highly readable mixture of motivational manual and medical memoir.

Currently, there is a widespread lack of confidence in leadership – whether in business, government, education, or elsewhere. Leaders have fear of failure, and therefore, they cannot perform well. I believe the world is facing a crisis when it comes to leadership; our society needs more positive thinkers. We need the vision of a confident leader – that of an NBL is needed for the betterment of the world. This was my main motivation and inspiration for writing this book.

My observations and experiences throughout the last 50 years of my life also have served as an inspiration. I remembered my parents provided a foundation of achieving confidence by teaching me to set smaller tasks or targets in my daily life. Having a clear goal in mind is imperative for achieving success. Free to make self-decisions, analyzing mistakes, after achieving targets or goals feeling happy and self-rewarding yourself.

An incident made me realize how unpredictable life can really be. On Sunday, March 6, 2016, at about 6:00 PM, the thirty-six-year-old son of my elder sister was sitting on a carpet at home, working on his laptop. He had no history of any illness when, all of a sudden, he dropped dead on the carpet. There was no warning, no signs, and no symptoms. In two to three seconds, he had already departed. Life honestly doesn’t play on anyone’s timetable except its own. And so, I was compelled to start writing this book in December 2016.

Why did you choose to self-publish?

It was my first book. I was not aware about the book publication process. Now I’ve learned a lot about publication.

What tools or companies did you use, and what experience did you have?

I select one publication company Xlibris. It was an easygoing and very good experience. Editing and publication were completed in two months.

What tips can you give other authors looking to self-publish?

First, do your homework by finding a publishing company according to your needs. No publishing company is ideal. The decision to make about a publishing company for your book is always a gamble. Once you make a selection, be ready for surprises from time to time and paying more money. Everyone looks for their own benefits. I have no complaints.

What was your steepest learning curve during the publishing process?

Fortunately, I have a quick learning ability due to my positive attitude since childhood, confidence in my own abilities, and clarity of vision. I split my learning task into smaller component and focus to complete with efficient manner without any overwhelming feeling.

As a writer, what is your schedule? How do you get the job done?

I am working full time as Director Research Compliance holding a top position at work. I have only weekends to think about writing book materials. Any time good thoughts come to my mind, I immediately write them down on paper and finalize the thought process during the weekend. I am very good with organization and time management since childhood, which helps me to organize my thoughts in a systematic fashion, giving me clear vision of how to prioritize my ideas. I think motivation and self-confidence are important to make the impossible possible. In this way anyone can accomplish a job on time.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

This process is easy for me because of my profession as a physician and my superior management role. At work I am dealing with a lot of written materials, amounting to thousands of pages (in three years I reviewed 1.5 million pages of research documents). In this way my eyes are set how to scan materials or blocks quickly to understand hidden concepts. This habit has helped me reach quick solutions by analyzing important materials.

Tell us about the genre you wrote in, and why you chose to write this sort of book.

It is based on my observation and experiences over the last 50 years. I define NBL through an autobiographical lens. Throughout my career, I found myself working under time-sensitive, high-risk, and high-pressure situations, which allowed me to uncover and develop my NBL qualities. I learned through hardships and accepting challenges that have allowed me to become successful. It is my hope that perhaps some of the things I have learned can be useful to the reader.

Everyone possesses the essential qualities and abilities of NBL. It is simply a matter of bringing your hidden talents and skill sets to the surface. In my book, I identify the qualities and abilities of NBL, so they can be refined and perfected through education, training, and experience. NBL possess a unique ability to deal with stressful situations confidently – they are creative, knowledgeable and self-directed and often establish norms. And they are charismatic: the ability to inspire and motivate others to accomplish their goals with positive outcomes.

Many leaders choose to follow instead to lead due to fear of failure and unable to take risks, play safe, keep quiet when thing get worse. These leaders do not have trust on their own abilities. When leaders become followers, they make excuses and blame others for poor performance. My book can help leaders gain more confidence while performing a leadership role in any organization or institution. The book includes a self-assessment tool to evaluate your NBL abilities and identify where you ultimately fall on the spectrum.

Life isn’t easy, but that’s part of its charm. It throws many trials and suffering in our way to help us rediscover who we are. In doing so, we become stronger, more capable and in the process can help make the world a better place. The main goal of this book is to hopefully produce hundreds and thousands of confident leaders throughout the world either working in political, non- political, CEO in any organization, and even at individual level to make honest and sincere confident decisions on daily basis. Through my book, I want to generate a positive thinker class of people and true NBL in the world that leads to the prosperity of mankind and reduces negative thinking leaders or destructive type of leaders to avoid world crisis in the form of wars and a lot of human suffering. In my opinion, this world is a better place to live depending upon our world leaders, and which way they want to take this world.

In this way, we are losing great talent before they come to play their constructive role. Life is very short to do good things and to find new discoveries in every field of life for making paradise in this world. Always try to do good things and help humanity and try to reduce human suffering.

How do your friends and family get involved with your writing? What do they think of your book?

My two medical college-going sons reviewed my book once I completed entire book and they thought that it is a good book based on my fifty years experience and observation through my autobiographical lens. This is going to be a good educational book about leadership for readers.

What did you learn on your journey as an author?

After writing this book I gained more confidence that I can write another book, although English is my second language.

What’s next for you as an author?

Next book coming soon: Am I Burned out? A Self-Care Solution.