Are you a manager, a leader, or are you both? What are good management techniques, how does one become a good leader? All of these are things that you should be contemplating. I have some suggestions that I think will help you become a better manager, create a stronger team and thus help you to be on your way to becoming a better leader. Continue reading
Originally Published in “The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association”
My daughter and son in law recently bought a new business. As part of their financing package they got a loan from the Small Business Administration. They were, of course, required to submit a business plan, (as an aside, do you have a business plan? Did you write one when you purchased your practice? I will address business plans in a future article). I’ve written business plans, I teach students how to write business plans, but there was one section that I hadn’t thought of before. The SBA required them to write an exit strategy for their business. I began to think how valuable this is, and how it could help dentists in planning for their future. Continue reading
Originally published in “The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association”
I have a dentist friend who is retiring soon. You might say to yourself, “Good for him, after working 30 or 40 years he deserves to enjoy life and the fruit of his labors.” Now, what if I told you that this dentist was 39 years old and had practiced for only 12 years?
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Originally published in “The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association”, April, 2012
Do you remember when you were in junior high school? The teacher had given an exam and you did quite well on it, but some of your other classmates didn’t do so well. The teacher scolded all of you and you thought, “Why are you yelling at me? I did well.” This column is somewhat like that. So if you read it halfway through and think, “This doesn’t apply to me”, then stop reading, skip to the next page and be happy that you’re not one of the minority that I’m talking about. This column is aimed at that 2%-3% of the dentists who care more about the money they can make in dentistry than the well being of their patients. Continue reading
This is a short paragraph that I wrote a few years back after a discussion with a hygienist about some calculus that she had found on a patient. The radiographs from the previous maintenance appointment showed calculus in the same area. The hygienist was complaining to me that her colleague wasn’t doing her job properly. After she presented her argument to me, I asked, “wouldn’t it be logical to believe that a patient builds up calculus in the same areas between each appointment? It could be either because of poor hygiene, anatomical variables or structural differences in the patient mouth.” “Isn’t it possible that the previous hygienist saw the calculus, cleaned it off and it formed in the same spot between then and now?” She admitted that “yes that was a possibility.” It got me thinking about the many barriers that we put up that impede teamwork and cooperation, and so I wrote this ideology. Continue reading
I saw a great video today that I would like to share with you. It’s one of the great videos from Ted.com. I’ve made mention of this website before. It’s a talk by Itay Talgam on leadership as illustrated by six great 20th century conductors, a very unique view on the issues of leadership. Continue reading