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Leadership is a game changer on your path to success. Self – Leadership influences and impacts your relationship with employees, associates, partners, and your dental community in general.
Uncontrolled employee turnover due to poor leadership is the most costly and destabilizing challenge a dentist will face. I have seen it derail clinicians on their path to success. Studies estimate that depending on the industry, turning over one employee who earns $24 per hour could cost a company from $10,500 up to $75,000.
First, it is important that you can recognize the signs of poor leadership in the dental practice.
In extreme cases some or all of the following tell-tale signs are present:
Elements of Leadership
Integrity: Integrity is one of the many facets of character and it is perhaps the most important for leadership. Employees want to work for those who are ethical and trustworthy. They know that working for an ethical person means that not only will the leader do what is best for the patients, but they will also do what is best for the employee. Integrity attracts and keeps the loyalty of talented employees and quality patients.
Self Assessment: the only way to see your dental practice clearly is to first see yourself clearly. What are you doing well in practice and where do you need help?
Self Regulation: you can’t lead if you can’t be fair and if you can’t be trusted. If you can’t control your emotions, you are driven by biological impulses and create an atmosphere of unfairness and mistrust. These environments are characterized by high drama and low productivity. On the contrary, in environments where even – handedness leads, energy is available at all times to focus on what matters. Service and marketing thrive and process is continually streamlined, so that efficiency increases. Leaders here have time to strategize on how to stay relevant in the competitive field of dentistry.
Drive: Motivated leaders achieve and exceed expectations daily and therefore, lead by example. This behavior to excel is contagious. These leaders are restless with the status quo and their employees and colleagues see it. They are clear about results and while they are not strangers to failure, they push through it quickly.
Compassion and patience: a leader must have a desire and the patience to understand where others are coming from. Furthermore, they need to be able to communicate in a style that creates trust in the relationship. Without these skills there is no collaboration and therefore little teamwork.
Social skills: are necessary to have influence on your team and to create collaboration. Social skills are not only necessary to effectively lead a team, but they are also the primary requirement of cultures of service. Service and the patient’s experience is the secret to marketing.
Accountability: in the dental practice, it is common to give employees a set of tasks, without giving employees a sense of purpose and a connection to the desired outcome. Management makes a mistake when they require tasks to be done without also providing clear expectations, measurement, and feedback. Management also needs to make sure that the employee has the skill set to deliver the desired outcome.