To be completely honest, there was a time, early in my career, when I rejected the idea of establishing practice values and a practice vision. The whole idea struck me as being some kind of “hocus-pocus.” “Don’t waste my time!” and “Let’s talk about what really matters,” I told my first practice consultant. And so, like many of my colleagues, I avoided this seemingly meaningless exercise and instead went about the task of establishing manageable systems that I successfully micromanaged for my … [Read more...]
Organizational Transformation Begins at the Top
I recently spoke at a major dental meeting. My topic was leadership and organizational transformation. The official meeting program categorized my presentation under the track heading of “Doctors and Staff.” I wasn’t overly surprised by the disproportionate number of staff to doctors in attendance because I have spoken to similar groups before. The point is that I can’t help but wonder what is going through the doctor’s mind when they send their staff to a presentation like mine while they … [Read more...]
Line of Sight Leadership
On Sunday, May 6th, I will be presenting at the 2018 American Association of Orthodontists Annual Session and wanted to share an excerpt from my presentation on leadership. An article, published in a 2000 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association, states the following: “An overwhelming percentage of dentists report that staff-related issues are the number one cause of stress in their offices.” I believe this to be true, however, based on my own personal observations, I would … [Read more...]
Rules for Giving and Receiving Feedback
Feedback, both positive and remedial, can be a powerful tool for developing people and enhancing the performance of organizational teams. However, when used improperly, feedback can become a demoralizing and dehumanizing weapon that destroys teams. Given this distinction, it would be wise for all leaders to learn the basic principles for providing feedback that is both positive and generative. It is important to realize that even remedial feedback need not be negative. Somehow, today’s … [Read more...]
It All Boils Down to Abundance
Out of curiosity, I went to Amazon online and searched under the title “leadership books.” I guess I was moderately surprised that there were over 200,000 possible choices. Being an avid student of leadership for over ten years now, I have read extensively on this subject (not quite 200,000 books!) and if my experience is reliable, I can confidently state that if there are over 200,000 leadership books in print, there are an equal number of opinions regarding the principles of … [Read more...]