I work with dentists in and through every stage of their professional careers; the associate stage; the new business owner stage; the first-five-years stage; the finding-my-stride 5 to 10 year in stage; the am-I-ready-for-an-associate stage; the partner stage; the ten-years-left-exit-strategy stage; the ready to sell stage, etc.. The transition from one stage to the next…
Do values and principles come at a price? At what point do you make the decision to compromise them for financial reasons? Of late, corporate dentistry has been courting a number of sole proprietor dentists with whom I have worked for a very long time. Every one of their situations and circumstances is different; age,…
MIRED or MOTIVATED? Recognize behaviour that undermines morale in the dental practice. When you face a challenge, does your behaviour help or hinder you? We all fall into old patterns of learned behaviour when the going gets rough. Whatever the reason is that we have established these default behaviours, at some point in our…
Let Go Or Be Dragged. These words from a Zen proverb say it all. And they are especially true when it comes to keeping staff that are either disruptive or not performing. Jim Collins tells us in Good to Great that we need to have the right people on our bus – and that we…
When does a good thing begin to feel like too much of a good thing? When the perfect employee begins to feel a little too perfect, how do you handle the doubts with sabotaging yourself? What is the tipping point for trust? So often, I hear from my clients about how lucky they feel to…
One of my favourite quotes is from John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. ‘Ma’ is helping her daughter understand the ways of the world and I believe it provides some insight into the challenges of owning a business, particularly a dental practice. Although the quote is about the difference between how men and women might respond…