See Jane Lead — The Dentist’s Way

I think one of the scariest questions you have to ask yourself as a dentist is, “Am I ready to lead my team through obstacles and barriers to a new level of success?”

For the female dentist or office manager, the second question (usually thought about when you wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night) is, “Can I confront my team on things I’d like them to do better … and still be liked?”

This always brings to mind the stereotype of the female leader who runs her practice like a sorority versus a business. This ongoing stereotype that women as leaders fall into is perfectly highlighted in one of my favorite books, See Jane Lead by Lois P. Frankel, PhD.

The good news? Since the 1980s, there has been a dramatic shift in the traditional business world when it comes to effective leadership skills and traits. The shift resulted from the emergence of technology and dot-com companies that flattened lines of communication and accountability. This rendered obsolete the old-school leadership (the male stereotype) required to run a big business, which was aptly labeled “command and control.”

Command-and-control leadership was based on the assumption that when the boss would say, “Jump!” the employees would say, “How high?” A command-and-control leader exhibited traditionally male characteristics, exemplified by blind adherence to strict rules; a rigidly defined, top-down hierarchical chain of command; and an emphasis on winning at any cost.

Now, thankfully, it is a widely accepted business truth that the people who should lead the change processes and systems of an organization are those closest to the customer. As a result, the self-directed work team model was born, which is the perfect model for dentistry!

The self-directed team doesn’t want to be told what to do, when to do it, and how it should be done. In fact, the new type of leadership that evolved out of command-and-control has led to the feminization of leadership, based on the characteristics and traits required to inspire from the bottom up, instead of the top down. These fall under the heading of “softer,” more intangible skills traditionally attributed to women.

Therefore, the essential traits of leadership to succeed are perfectly created to use and embody the natural characteristics of the female dentist. In fact, in today’s business world, women are considered to be the more natural choice for leadership roles. Let’s see how many of the reasons naturally fit you:

• Women are more likely to consult with others (experts, employees, and fellow business owners) when developing strategies. We all know the story of a man never wanting to stop for directions. In a dental office, that can lead to misfires on financial management, staff management, patient management, and clinical and technology management because it would close the old-fashioned leader off to new information and a paradigm shift.
• Women have a greater natural tendency to multitask. That reminds me of the lyric in that old song: “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan …” Female dentists are more likely to come out of the operatory and deal with the other administrative, management, and leadership tasks required to be a successful small-business owner because they’ve been naturally trained to have the tea party, change their dolly’s clothes, and still be able to beat up their little brother when nobody’s looking.
• Women have fewer competitive tendencies and often seek a more collaborative approach. Need I say more? The sports analogies that are used to explain success in leadership diminish to the degree that women are in charge.
• Women emphasize relationship-building as well as fact-gathering. It’s easy to look at the clock and see that your appointment coordinator was seven minutes late on Wednesday and 10 minutes late on Thursday. But wanting to know why she’s late, as well as collaboratively attempting to negotiate a solution that can work for both, is a more likely scenario for a female leader than a male leader.

These traits indicate that leadership has become a woman’s art: What’s needed in today’s work environment are the softer skills. It doesn’t mean that men can’t do it; it means that just as women had to learn to be competitive and controlling and exhibit position power, men will have to learn to be collaborative and inspiring and willing to be in relationships with others. If you want to inspire your team and your patients, then assume the mantle of new leadership as Jane Smith, DDS!

So, what are the first steps in using your natural characteristics to become a true leader of your practice? I want to suggest a leadership model based upon values. Nearly every successful woman in the business world has attributed her success to values-based leadership as a core principle.

The model based upon core values also emphasizes direction-setting, influencing, building teams, risk-taking, motivating, and having the emotional intelligence to support those core values. The key feminine skills that support a values model, highlighted in See Jane Lead, include:

• Creating a vision, aligning people behind it, and developing a plan for executing it. Do you know what you really, really want to accomplish? And more importantly, do you know the strategic tactics you’ll focus on to make the accomplishment of your goals possible?
• Communicating in a way that inspires trust and confidence. To communicate effectively with your team, you must tune in to three radio stations: WIIFM (“What’s in it for me?”), WSI (“Why should I?”) and MMFI (“Make me feel important”).
• Motivating followers to sustain the effort required to meet organizational goals. There’s a huge difference between a “nice gesture” and a “motivating moment.” A nice gesture will get a thank-you at best; a motivating moment gives your team members a reason to be inspired to act a certain way into the future.
• Building teams that understand and value interdependence and synergy. If you’ve ever experienced the West Side Story phenomenon in your practice — the Jets vs. the Sharks, also known as “the front” vs. “the back” — then you know why this is so important in running efficiently in dentistry.     
• Exhibiting emotional intelligence. This strictly means being authentic, honest, and genuine – no hidden agenda when communicating what you want and why you want it.

Don’t tell me that every one of you reading this doesn’t recognize in yourselves at least one or two of these key skills. The myth of women not being naturally raised to be effective leaders is hereby busted!

You want to survive this crazy economy? Then it’s vital to embrace your leadership role and inspire patients and team members to want to do what you want them to do.