Feature: Leadership Under Pressure — Dr. Joseph Turek on Teamwork and the Fuqua Difference
“An understanding of the economics of medicine that drives referrals and hospital decision-making is paramount. I wish that I had received training outside of clinical care earlier in my career. It would have been quite useful for understanding my environment and probably accelerated my career much sooner. The motto of Team Fuqua guides the tenor of the program and can be adapted in a similarly positive manner at your institution.”
— Dr. Joseph Turek
This perspective captures the leadership approach of Dr. Joseph Turek, PhD (Fuqua MBA ’20, HSM ’21), Professor of Surgery and Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at Duke Children’s Health Center. A world-renowned pediatric heart transplant surgeon, Dr. Turek leads teams that rely on preparation, precision, and absolute trust when the stakes are highest.
Those same principles are at the heart of an 8-minute Blue Chair Conversations video where Dr. Turek joins Duke Men’s Basketball Head Coach Jon Scheyer to explore how elite coaching and high-stakes surgery share the same leadership fundamentals. Their discussion highlights how Fuqua’s team-based leadership model directly informs Dr. Turek’s work guiding complex clinical teams.
Drawing on his Fuqua MBA and Health Sector Management (HSM) training, Dr. Turek shows how combining clinical expertise with business acumen elevates patient care, strengthens organizations, and shapes more adaptive, purpose-driven leaders.
The parallels between surgery and sport are unmistakable:
- Preparation builds peak performance,
- Trust enables decisive action,
- Humility fuels continuous learning, and
- Purpose unites teams in high-pressure moments.
For Dr. Turek, these principles aren’t abstracts—they define how he leads life-saving operations every day.
Watch the 8-minute conversation to see leadership, teamwork, and high-performance culture through the eyes of a surgeon and a coach at the top of their fields.