A Great Dentist is a Great Leader (Part 3)

Paul Uliasz, President & Clinical Director

A great leader develops other leaders

One of the ways a good leader can benefit their dental team is by encouraging and developing their leadership abilities. It has been my experience that everyone wants to feel like what they do makes a difference in the world. Everyone wants to feel sense of progress and fulfillment in life. Even for those just starting their dental career, this sense of fulfillment is important. Fulfilling these needs begins with believing in yourself and thinking that you are good enough. An effective leader can be a powerful influence in promoting this mindset.

Three years into owning a dental practice, I realized that my team had created a very definite culture which values emotional intelligence, positivity, teamwork, humility, and kindness, in addition to extremely high professional standards. To preserve that culture and communicate it to new dental hires, I created a list of “Emotional and Behavioral Expectations of Our Team.†(see for the complete list). The first item on that list focuses on leadership.

Everyone is a leader and a follower

You have acquired leadership skills from someone, you were not born with them. In order to lead, you must first follow someone. Wherever you are and whomever you are with, you are the organization. LIVE your personal values and the values of OUR organization. Promote the vision and be the culture by being the living example of what we stand for when you are with fellow team members and our patients.

Leadership is the first item because I want to empower every team member, no matter what their dental job is, by encouraging them to think and act as a leader. More importantly, I want them to know that who they are and what they do matters and makes a difference. John Maxwell lays out the characteristics of a leader within this framework of influencing his or her team https://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/7-factors-that-influence-influence/

Everyone has the opportunity to encourage leadership

Whether or not you own a dental practice, you can empower your dental team to build leadership skills. A great way to start is by spending time with your team outside the office, for example, by taking your team to lunch. In this less formal setting, you can get to know them on a more personal level and learn about their dreams and goals in work and in life. This not only shows your team you care about them as an individual, it gives you valuable insight into what motivates them that can help you lead more effectively. This is also helpful for new team members in developing a bond with their co-workers at their new dental job.

Another great way to hone not only your leadership skills but your team’s is to have brief morning huddles to set the plan for each day. With that four to five minute huddle, you set the tone for the day by bringing your dental team together around common goals, encouraging each team member to lead in achieving those goals, and giving your team a consistent, daily message that their work and their ideas are important to you and their peers. As you learn about each team member, then you will be in the position to find opportunities to help them achieve their dreams and goals. You can find opportunities to develop leadership across dental jobs in your practice.

In the Blue Sea Dental family of practices, this approach has been the foundation of happy, collegial workplaces which are great environments even though they are very fast-paced and even sometimes quite stressful. Every day I see team members growing and flourishing because they know they are valued as individuals and have been empowered to lead. I have also had the great satisfaction of developing leaders in our practices who help promote and support our positive culture as well as our financial success. It would be easy to step back and feel like I’ve reached my goals as a leader, but I know that it all comes back to my commitment to continuing to grow as a leader myself. To be great in dentistry, one must not only be a great dentist, but a great leader.