By now, you know that I recently cycled from Oxford to Putney bridge and onto Paddington for the train home. This trip also highlighted to me many aspects how to run a successful business, and is providing me many great metaphors in my role as your dental business coach.
As I have mentioned previously I didn’t do any focused training for the trip, and that in itself reinforced to me one of the central presuppositions of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
That is that we already have within us all we need or we can create them. Because I found everything I needed within me to reach my goal within the time parameters that I had set.
The first afternoon was really quite tough I was pedalling from Wallingford to Caversham, the sustrans trail would take us an indirect and very hilly route through Ipsden and Stoke row. My friend and I were already feeling a little weary and so we decided to take the more direct route along the main road A4074. This too was a fairly hilly route, to the novice fair weather cyclist like me. As I was getting off and on my bike pushing up the hills, coasting along the flat bits and really enjoying flying down the hills that this stretch of the route that reminded me of running a dental practice or any other business.
In your practices I hope that you have an overall goal with many other small goals or achievements that you have along the way. (If you don’t call me and I will help you clarify your vision and purpose). Your targets could include, awards you want to win, dates to want to retire, equipment you want to buy, the service you want to offer to patients, the types of treatments you want to make available, the number of days you want to work, many many things you want to do within your practice.
On my afternoon we had a series of obstacles, not least one big hill on the sustrans route. The hill like the problems and obstacles we encounter in practice / business can be dealt with in many ways and ignoring them is not one of them, despite what many practice owners do. Problems and obstacles can be resolved in many ways including,
· confronting them head on,
· going round them
· breaking them down into smaller manageable chunks
· Consolidating resources
As I pedalled along the A4070, there were occasions I admit that the pedalling was too hard and I don’t enjoy cycling in a really low gear, it seems pointless to me to keep pedalling and feel as if you are going nowhere, I prefer to get off and push, as I did this it dawned on me that there are also times in practice when doing what we are doing is too hard and not enjoyable and that there is probably an opportunity to take a different approach which is easier or more enjoyable.
For example you may not enjoy doing and ID block, (apparently many studies show that dentists’ blood pressure always goes up significantly when we administer an ID block) or waiting for the local to wait. Have you ever considered using an infiltration with articaine? A much simpler technique to administer, quicker onset and more profound anaesthesia.
There was also an occasion when I was perfectly capable of cycling up the incline and yet I could see a much longer and steeper hill ahead. In this situation I chose to get of push and save my reserves for a bigger challenge that was ahead. What would be a example for you in practice that you could take an action that would prepare you for a bigger challenge ahead. It could be you are running late and your next but one patient is verging on phobic and you are scheduled to do a surgical extraction, they have arrived early and are already pacing the reception and getting themselves and everyone else worked up. The patient in the chair, is in for an examination, has a broken tooth and potentially there are a number of treatment options to discuss. Rather than ploughing ahead with all the detailed treatment options, and running even later, is an option not to dress the tooth, take the necessary radiographs, ask the patient to consider what the ideal treatment would be for them and reappoint the patient once you have looked at the views and they have considered what they want from treatment and you will have considered all treatment options more fully. You would then have more time and energy to deal more effectively with your anxious patient ahead and be able to serve you other patient more effectively.
There was one wonderful part of the ride when we were able to free wheel down a long 14% hill into Caversham. Which I really enjoyed, it was a clear road so I could do most of it without breaks on. When in your practice do you make the time to really enjoy, those periods when everything is going smoothly, without effort and input from you? Do you make time to enjoy and celebrate and if you did what difference would it make?
In so many ways challenges in practice, whether they be to do with the clinical, business or management issues are very like my challenging cycle from Wallingford to Caversham and then on to Knowl Hill by 18:00. We all do have a variety of approaches we can take in any moment and we can choose to do things the hard way like taking the long hilly sustrans route or the shorter, flatter ( I use that term lightly) main road.
I would invite you , whenever you are confronted by a challenge or problem to consider what other choices you have.
If you, as so many often are, are unable to see the bigger pictures and your choices clearly enough, I can work with you as your dental business coach to help to see clearly, so your decisions ring true and feel great.
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