Finding Your Comfort Zone

A common observation over the years in my role as a coach to dentists is that they are very reluctant to change. Change, of course, is always difficult. The status quo is so much more comfortable. But this risk averse, playing it safe mentality, eventually becomes paralyzing. Growth is difficult to impossible to achieve with this mindset. Consider these examples.

• Dentists are reluctant or embarrassed to talk to their patients about money. How can you expect the patient to buy something from you when they don’t know the approximate price? Making the financial arrangements and coordinating insurance benefits is a job for your financial coordinator. But the dentist’s job is to confidently sell the case.

• Dentists are reluctant to leave low-paying PPO networks for fear their patients will leave the practice. This paranoia and lack of confidence and insecurity is often unfounded. A large majority of patients will stay because they love you and your staff and the quality of your work and the excellent customer service experience.

•Dentists are reluctant to fire underperforming employees – those troublemakers who suck the energy out of the rest of the staff. With proper documentation and up-to-date HR protocols, dentists need not be fearful of an improper firing lawsuit.

•Dentists often have difficulty being the leader of their team – knowing how to draw the fine line between being a friend and being the boss. Setting boundaries, setting expectations, and knowing how to consistently communicate the vision for the practice are challenges you should welcome.

I recently read a great book called Reach: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge, and Build Confidence. It is authored by Andrew Molinsky, a professor at the Brandeis International Business School. The book lays out a step-by-step process to help you overcome these feelings of inadequacy that so many of us experience. Molinsky recounts with numerous real-world examples the fact that “successful people are not inherently different from anyone else; they’ve just found their own way to rise to the challenge they face.”

This is a quick read with action steps that you can implement immediately. As your New Year resolutions start to fade, reading Reach could be just the jump start you need. Click here to buy your copy.