For some of us, developing good leadership is one of the easier pieces of the puzzle—it’s just naturally in our wheelhouse. For others, it’s a skill we need to work hard to build. Mastering key dental leadership qualities is essential for running a successful practice.
There are many different types of leadership styles. Some people rule through fear, some rule through love; some wield a “carrot,” others wield a “stick.” One of the most important things to do as a leader is to be able to understand the type of leadership that you want and need for your team.
No matter what route you choose to take (and I sincerely hope you don’t opt for ruling through fear or wielding that stick), there are some qualities that every effective dental leader has. That’s why, for this week’s blog post, I’m going to give you three dental leadership qualities to focus on as part of your dental practice management.
1. Humility.
Too many business owners think that being a leader comes down to confidence. That belief might have some merit to it, but I’d actually argue the contrary. I think the best leaders are confident, sure, but they’re not arrogant—effective dental leaders exercise humility.
For example, let’s say you have a patient come in and they’re not happy with the result of a treatment. Maybe they’re upset with post-op sensitivity from a filling, perhaps their crown isn’t matching, or they don’t like how uncomfortable their dentures are. That patient storms up to your front desk and demands to speak to the dentist. As you approach that patient, the eyes of the staff are on you. In this situation, some dentists might believe it’s best to have a backbone and assert yourself. But, again, I’d argue that practicing humility is one of the key leadership skills for dentists to demonstrate your leadership capacity.
Let’s say you get short-tempered, refuse to admit that the patient is right about their dissatisfaction, and refuse to take accountability for their experience. What kind of example is this going to set for your team? How will they act when they make an error? If they don’t prioritize the patient’s experience, that’s going to be the undoing of your practice—not to mention how they’ll never grow. What if, instead, you act humble? Maybe you consider that an air bubble found its way into that filling, that the material isn’t hardened up, and say, “Let’s try again.”
The same goes when you’re talking with your team members. It could be a similar instance—a patient who is unhappy about their services—or you could be unhappy about their performance. Instead of directly blaming your staff for making an error or underperforming, you can practice humility by first saying, “Hey, this could have been an error on my part. Maybe I didn’t communicate the right way.”
2. No micromanaging.
Don’t create a culture where everything needs to run through you, because effective dental leaders don’t overreach as micromanagers. Instead, they’re letting their people succeed in their own areas and flourish into A-players. This is one of the most important dental practice management tips.
Many dentists are A-type people, so it’s already hard for us to not want to take control of everything. But it also doesn’t help that, for many of us startup doctors, we had to have our hands in everything as we started out our practices. We had to serve as the centerpiece, and it can be hard to take a hands-off approach. But you can’t be personally involved with everything, especially if you plan to grow and scale—there’s just not enough of you to go around.
It’s easy to grasp this concept intellectually but, when the clock is running and we need a solution, it’s easy to resort to micromanaging. We succumb to the “next time” syndrome and tell ourselves we’ll let our team handle it next time but, this time, things need to be done “right.”
So, practice restraint if you’re a micromanager. For example, maybe your dental assistant fumbling around while you’re performing a crown procedure on a patient. Maybe your hygienist is struggling to present treatment to a patient in a charismatic or convincing way. You might be able to do these things with your eyes closed, but you need to let them learn and practice patience.
3. Healthy communication with their team.
Improving dental team communication is key to any dental practice. You don’t want objectives, progress towards goals, etc. getting lost in translation, to say the least.
And perhaps even more important than plain ol’ communication is healthy communication that makes your team feel valued. That means having open and honest conversations. It means celebrating wins. Letting your team feel heard will help your team to feel engaged, it’s as simple as that—and an engaged team is an effective team.
Never be afraid to get input from your team; they can help you avoid stepping on landmines or falling into pitfalls you’d otherwise never be on the lookout for. Think of it like this: you’re on a big sailboat, at the wheel, and trying to catch the wind while they’re below deck plugging the leaks. You may be able to go down and help bilge or take a mental note of where things aren’t looking too hot, but you’ll never know what it looks like down there the way they do.
Leadership skills for dentists can be learned.
Some people are born with natural leadership skills—they are successful leaders by default. Others have to put in the time and effort to reach the same level of success as leaders. No matter how natural leadership feels to you, just know that these dental leadership qualities can be learned.
I run a community full of dental professionals who can give you some nuggets of wisdom about leadership in a dental practice. So, join the Nifty Thrifty Dentists Facebook group and reach out! People from all across the globe will be happy to let you in on their dental practice management tips.