Celebrate the Differences

One of my favorite things to do is to deliver a class for dentists and their teams. I used to do it a lot more but now only get to do it once a year. I love it because I get to have an impact not just on the practice, but also on the lives of everyone who makes the practice work.

This is what makes delivering a program like The Yes Practice, which we just wrapped up last Saturday, so special.

It's the energy that comes from working with a great mix of people of different ages, from different regions of the country, with different personalities, backgrounds and mindsets (even within individual teams).

Some of them start out reserved and unsure of what to expect; some are engaged right from the start. By the end, everyone is bonding through this shared experience and they have a clear vision for what is coming next. I see it in their faces and hear it in their conversations as they mingle outside the auditorium and in the courtyard afterwards. It's the buzz that comes from knowing tomorrow is going to be different.

When you think about it, this is what leadership is all about; acknowledging and respecting the differences in people while getting them aligned and excited about a common goal. Whether it is with the members of your team, or the patients in your practice, you are faced with the same challenge. My advice is to love the challenge.

People are different. They have different motivations and they respond in different ways to any given approach. You can choose to be frustrated by this or you can choose to love it and be energized by the diversity in the people who go through your practice each day. After all, how boring would it be if we were all the same?

So as a leader, make yourself a student of human nature. Understand that just about everyone has a way to be "reached." Each person has a sense of passion within them. You just have to find out what ignites it. Take it from me, when you can get a diverse group of people to come together and be moved to action by your message, there is no feeling quite like it.

In fact, my love for this kind of teaching has motivated me as well. That was the last Yes Practice program I will be delivering in that form. My thinking on practice leadership is evolving and I am looking forward to taking team alignment education to the next level. So the next time I get in front of an audience of dentists and their teams, it's going to be with a lot of new ideas and completely reinvented course content. I have all those delightfully different participants to thank for inspiring me.