“Horses wear blinders so they can run their own race. Run your own race!”
- Carrie Wilkerson
“Running” provides a useful analogy for leadership. It makes sense because there’s an aspect of endurance and (healthy) competitiveness to it.
Endurance these days would seem to be the norm for dental professionals. As a current or emerging Solopreneur and Dentrepreneur®? you’re running in an entirely different direction.
It’s different because you’ve stepped away from the crowd in how you lead. Your leadership capacity is different mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Your capacity has evolved. Face it, you’re not the same leader (hopefully) that you were one, two, five, ten years ago, or more (depending on your dental tenure).
Leadership stretches you. And that’s the essence of increased capacity as a Dentrepreneur®?.> TWEET THIS
How many hats are you wearing?
As a dental professional you can wear more than one hat. It hasn’t always been this way, right?
One day you were the solo practitioner. You “drilled and filled,” as the old saying goes.
And now…
You’re manager, clinician, CEO, oh…and leader. And if you’ve decided that the CEO/Leader/Manager in you cannot be contained, your capacity is being stretched.
Welcome it! You have a new “race” to run as a leader in dentistry.
Four Strategies (You Can Use Every Day) that Expand Your Leadership Capacity as a Dentrepreneur®?
1-Do “stuff” differently
It could be said that as a leader, you’re consistently shaking things up or challenging the process. Leaders do this!
There is no leadership apart from challenge. It’s what expands your capacity to lead more effectively as a Dentrepreneur®?. TWEET THIS
At a fundamental level, you’re a “pioneer.” That means you’re accustomed to creating new paths where there have been none.
There’s something about the “unknown” that compels you. You’ve perhaps discovered that it’s better to launch into the “unknown” than to wrestle with the inevitable ambushes that attack dentistry these days.
It’s not about luck. Your dentrepreneurial leadership is about facing and even welcoming obstacles. TWEET THIS
Expect it. Your capacity as a leader will expand.
2-Be a source of inspiration
Inspiring leadership is the result of a compelling vision. The vision for dentrepreneurship must first compel you.
Do you actually see yourself doing dentistry the same way you’re now doing it or have for the past however many years? Is this your vision for the future?
I think not!
You’ve decided or you’re in the process of deciding to pioneer a different future. You, your practice, your group, your team(s) will be collectively inspired by nothing less.
“…Visions seen only by leaders are insufficient to create an organized movement or significant change in a company. A person with no constituents is not a leader, and people will not follow until they accept a vision as their own. Leaders cannot command commitment, only inspire it.” 1
As a Dentrepreneur®?, you believe in a better future for your team(s), your group, and yourself. This inspires every decision and related conversation.
Inspiration flows throughout your dental enterprise when you increase your capacity to lead with vision.
3-Go first
This is an attitude more than a position. It’s the idea that, as a Dentrepreneur®?, you’re willing to do first what you’re asking others to do.
“Sell” yourself before you “sell” your team.
For your team(s) to be comfortable with buy-in on decisions, direction, and doing-stuff-differently you must own the buy-in…first!
Your personal attention to detail is the first attention to detail. Be fearless in your willingness to do what you’re prepared to ask others to do.
Allow this “go-first” attitude to permeate your dental enterprise. Then lift (never demand) your organization follow accordingly.
4-Strengthen the “core”
Leading in a new direction is exhausting. Long before you or your team(s) give up they will face the temptation to do so.
Timing is essential.
Knowing the nature of fatigue and what and when to do something about it sets you a part as a dentrepreneurial leader.
Your ongoing task is to strengthen the hearts of your team(s). TWEET THIS
Encouragement has many faces. Be a student of your team members and what motivates them.
Trite, cliche’, or otherwise ineffective gestures will fail on weary hearts. Tap into their “soul” (individually) and you’ll win (together).
There’s more to loving what you do than saying so. Love translates into daily actions that serve your organization and the patients it serves.
Increasing your leadership capacity is a process. Join our community of like-minded Dentrepreneurs®?.
Contact us about your leadership challenges and the solutions you’re looking for.
Source:
1, James M. Kouses, Barry Z. Posner, “The Leadership Challenge - How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations,” p. 11