Introduction

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things," declared management guru Peter Drucker. If that's the case, then learning the right things to do can be the quickest way to acquire leadership skills. Contrary to popular opinion, leadership is not a genetic trait. Rather, leadership abilities can be acquired like any other skill, given enough determination, practice, and knowledge.

Drawing on 22 years of consulting to dental practices, Levin Group has found that honing certain skills can function as essential building blocks for dentists who want to increase their effectiveness as leaders. These 10 techniques move dentists in the direction of taking charge of more practice areas, developing the interpersonal skills of a role model, streamlining their offices, and increasing staff skill and morale.

1. Create a Vision. Every practice needs a vision statement that outlines where the practice is going over the next 3 to 5 years. As the leader of the practice, only the dentist can create the vision statement. Often dentists have an initial vision but it gets lost amid daily demands. Vision statements are tools that not only help dentists lead their practices into the future, but also energize the team and create an environment with more focus and direction.

2. Develop Your Interpersonal Skills. Whatever an individual's leadership style, it must be built on a foundation of interpersonal skills. Effective leaders manage to motivate their staffs, get things done, and still be respected. They've mastered the art of balancing firmness, flexibility, motivation, and communication.

Most interpersonal skills can be described as emotional intelligence, a term introduced in 1990 by Howard Gardner in his book Multiple Intelligences. The term was further popularized by Daniel Goleman, an author of books about emotional intelligence and its application to business. Goleman believes that emotional intelligence, rather than IQ, is the strongest predictor of a person's success. These skills include the ability to communicate, convey respect, build consensus, handle conflict, create teams, give constructive feedback, and manage change.

Honing interpersonal skills is a process that continues throughout your lifetime. Most people would like to know how to get along better with others, but leaders who work to develop superior interpersonal skills can actually make this happen.

3. Lead by Example. True leaders set an example. A major tenet of leadership is to model what you would like others to emulate. If you ask employees to be on time, you show up on time. If you ask employees to display positive attitudes and not speak negatively about patients, you display a positive attitude at all times and refrain from negative talk about patients. Remember, you are the best role model when it comes to punctuality, customer service, case presentations, and general office behavior.

4. Motivate the Team. Motivation is one of the most important skills a leader uses to forge a team to achieve goals and move toward the vision. Leaders motivate in many different ways. Some use the power of their personality or financial incentives. Others educate their team with practice goals. Regardless of the technique, the leader figures out how to motivate each individual and the team. Leaders also tend to have a higher level of self-motivation, along with the ability to find external factors to motivate themselves.

5. Be Available. Leaders need to be approachable and available. Team members should feel they can come to the doctor to discuss any subject or seek advice and guidance. In a sense, a leader is a mentor. Staff should be comfortable discussing both professional and personal issues if they relate to performance in the practice. Besides the regularly scheduled meetings, team members should feel at ease asking to see the dentist. Demonstrating active listening, compassion, and caring to team members goes a long way toward building a long-term, highly committed team.

6. Develop Superior Time Management Skills

Time is one of the leader's most important assets. Dentists must not only manage their own schedule, but their staff's as well. Yet good leaders do not hover over their teams and micromanage. They recognize individual skills, use them to the benefit of the practice and the team, holding each member accountable for results.

Successful leaders have excellent time management and organizational skills. They also eliminate distractions that take time away from achieving their goals.

7. Hire Excellence. Staff quality makes a tremendous difference in the success of any practice. Practices that seek out top candidates and are willing to pay well tend to perform better. There is truth to the assertion that better employees lead to more profitable practices. While leadership and training are ongoing, employees who have demonstrated the ability to learn and grow can add greatly to the success of the practice.

8. Schedule Time for Improvement. Building time into the schedule for staff one-on-one discussions, staff meetings, morning meetings, and performance reviews is critical. It's true that dentists are busy and have enormous responsibilities both in and out of the practice. However, acting as a leader is a vital responsibility that enables the practice to perform better. Many essential discussions cannot take place in a group setting and must be scheduled as one-to-one conversations or regular performance reviews. When the dentist makes time to work on staff improvement, the team will begin performing at a higher level.

9. Build People and Careers. Leadership is not only about helping people excel in their current job, but showing them a pathway for the future. This is more difficult in dentistry because most practices are not large organizations where people can be regularly promoted, change departments, and acquire new skills through cross training.

However, careers can be enhanced by helping people improve their skills and grow personally and professionally. Providing continuing education opportunities to improve specific skills for each team member also enables the practice to reach its full potential. It's wise to provide a 3- to 5-year career plan for every employee that includes continuing education, benefits, and compensation. This fosters a career path mentality for the team and helps employees envision a future in the practice where they plan to remain as strong contributors.

10. Become a Strategic Planner. Strategic planning goes beyond plotting specific goals. Good leaders should be able to look at projects and plan a course of action. Strategic planning is a general direction that is based on your vision. Under the right conditions, leaders can look into the future to evaluate what needs to be accomplished to achieve their goals.

Summary

These 10 action steps can help you become a superior leader. Don't think of leadership as a genetic trait, but as a skill you can acquire through focus, education, and experience. One suggestion we make in Levin Group seminars is to select a single leadership trait each week for the next 10 weeks and use it in day-to-day activities. Pursue each leadership trait gradually and it will become engrained and contribute to the creation of a superior, high-performance team.

Dr. Roger P. Levin is founder and chief executive officer of Levin Group, Inc, a leading dental practice management consulting firm that provides a comprehensive suite of lifetime services to its clients and partners. Since 1985, Levin Group has embraced one single mission—to improve the lives of dentists.

For more than 20 years, Levin Group has helped thousands of general dentists and specialists increase their satisfaction with practicing dentistry. Levin Group may be reached at (888) 973-0000 and .