“What do you think it does to your team when the first thing they see in the morning is a frowny face?”
~Dr. Bruce B. Baird
I’ve told you the story about the smiley face frowny face. When I was a young dentist my team would put a smiley face on the board if I was in a good mood that morning, and a frowny face if I was in a bad mood. What do you think the reason was that my team was putting that up there for everyone else to see? That was them reaching out in the only way they could and saying “help”.
I have a question for you: how productive do you think your practice is going to be when the first thing they see in the morning is a frowny face? Not good, is it? For a long time, I was like a walking time bomb. I would let things build up and build up until I exploded. And I used the excuse “well that’s just who I am and you have to deal with me.”
But I realized in my mid thirties that my goal of creating the model dental practice was not going to happen unless I got ahold of my emotions. I had to learn to self-reflect, how to govern my emotions instead of letting them govern me.
Now, years later, it comes easily to me. Don’t get me wrong, there are still things that irritate and bother me, but I am now in control of my emotions so I can be the leader my team deserves.
And today I’m going to share some of what I learned about governing my emotions including:
- Discovering why I was acting the way I did
- Understanding the impact my behavior had on my practice and team
- Sharing resources I used in my journey to be a better leader
Listen to the full episode now: https://productivedentist.com/blog/episode-159-dr-bairds-dental-leadership-hack/
Episode 159 - Dental Leadership Hack