Let’s Make a 2021 Dental Deal
Let’s make a deal? Let’s agree to make 2021 the year of leadership development in your dental practice. My part of this deal is to write a blog each month discussing one thing you and your leaders can do to improve your leadership skills. Your part is to read the monthly blogs and implement the skills in your practice for at least one year before deciding it does or doesn’t work. Wait… are you hedging? Are you wondering why you should spend your precious time on leadership skills? Before you turn down the deal right now, read the rest of this blog. Then we’ll revisit it.
When comparing the differences between businesses with healthy and happy work cultures and those without, studies show those with healthy cultures can produce up to 50% more than their counterparts. That is huge! And what does leadership have to do with a happy work culture? Just about everything. The leader is the one who defines and represents any workplace culture. How much will it cost you to improve your leadership skills and become a more effective leader? Little compared to the potential returns. Essentially, the ROI of this deal is huge, so that alone should make it worth reading a few blogs.
But wait, what if you just don’t want to be a leader? You simply want to be a dentist. Too late! You should have thought about that before going to dental school, because that DDS or DMD you worked so hard to achieve and paid so much to obtain, makes you a dentist AND, in most cases, a business and healthcare leader.
Whether you work in a private or corporate practice, in the eyes of your employees and patients, you are a leader. No matter how amazing your office manager might be, you are your employees’ leader. You are the one who signs their paychecks and determines whether they have a job or not. You are the primary person they need to please; you are their leader.
Now, from your patient's viewpoint, you are a professional and usually a local business owner. These two things alone imply community leadership, and your dental degree or degrees mean that you are an expert and leader in oral health care. Regardless of how you feel about the necessity of leadership, you are looked upon by others as a business and healthcare leader. Face the fact, if you are a dentist, you are expected to be a leader.
Now, what are you are thinking? I know. You are thinking, “I just don’t have a leader personality type. I couldn’t be one if I tried.” FALSE, absolutely false. Many of the most effective leaders in our world are or were introverted, quiet, shy and the opposite of what many consider a “leadership style.” Here are just a few: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Mahatma Gandhi; the list could go on and on. It doesn’t take a particular personality to make a leader, it takes awareness and a decision to behave like one.
Very few people are “born leaders.” The majority of leaders are developed through effort, practice, coaching, and the reinforcement of rewards. When I say rewards, I am not referring to only the financial rewards. There are many other rewards from effective leadership. Some of these intrinsic rewards include, but are not limited to:
Fewer managerial headaches;
Fewer number of operational fires;
Lower stress;
More smoothly running days;
Higher patient satisfaction and reviews;
Engaged and energized employees; and
Lower employee turn-over.
Let’s say you already embrace leadership and don’t think you need improvement. Reflect for a minute: are you more of a boss or a leader? Here are three sets of questions to help you answer this question.
Do you feel as if the standards you set for the team don’t apply to you? For instance, do you consistently arrive late in the morning or run off-schedule? Is this a behavior you encourage in your employees?
Do you have a bonus plan which rewards your team for working harder and smarter?
Do you use your cellphone in areas outside your personal office? Is this what you want your employees to do?
Just so you know, acting like a boss, rather than a leader, does not reap the financial or intrinsic rewards discussed above. In fact, according to John C. Maxwell and his first law of leadership, your leadership ability is what limits your success. It is the glass ceiling that so many dentists fail to address or even notice.
Now that you have a bit more information, let’s revisit this 2021 Deal proposal. Does learning and implementing proven, effective leadership skills sound more worth your while? For those of you who think yes, then I hope we have deal… A 2021 Dentist Deal to improve your leadership skills and break through that glass ceiling that is holding you back.
In two weeks, my first leadership blog, the January blog, will arrive and will focus on one of the hardest parts of leadership. If you want it hot off the press, sign-up for my Spark Concepts newsletter at www.bairdconcepts.com/blog. Until then, Happy 2021, the year of the dentist leader.
Footnotes:
Harvard Business Review; January/February edition 2012 “The Value of Happiness” edition
“The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” by Patrick Lencioni, 2012
“The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John C. Maxwell; 2007
