Team Level Communication & Collaboration (Dental Confidence and Connection Course) #dentist

So what are your individual personal growth areas? I think oftentimes we focus a little bit too much on our weaknesses, on our, you know, we don't do this very well, or we have a hard time when it comes to telling the patient that they need $10,000 worth of treatment. Many of us just have difficulty because we feel sometimes that anxiety about how the patient is perceiving what we're talking about. And that's a normal human response. Anxiousness and stress, this is a very common human response. It's up to us as the dentist and dental provider to be able to overcome that in a way, again, that allows our patients to exercise choice, their choice, the patient's choice to move forward. But they need to be able to move forward with accurate data. Okay, so we have certain weaknesses. Oftentimes we focus too much on those weaknesses, right? Sometimes I think to think about my particular difficulties, whatever it is, too much, which can drag us down. So we have strengths and we have weaknesses. I would encourage you to focus on your strengths. Focus on what you do well, whether it's connecting with the patient well, whether it's explaining your procedure well. Focus on what you do well and consider how you might do that better. But not necessarily do more of it. Do it in a more concise and more clear and more confident way. I resist overbearingness. I resist any type of salesiness. When someone approaches me and I perceive that there's going to be a sales discussion behind me, it usually creates a barrier. And so I would suggest as you're working on your individual strengths, in particular as it pertains to communication with a patient or a team member in an M office, that you consider how you're coming across. We want a good, solid connection with our patients. Before we do anything, we'll talk about connection for non-adolescents, but consider what your individual strengths are. What do you do well? Build on that. Clarify that. Hone that. Shape that. Don't just discard something because you feel like you want to do something else. If you're doing something well and you feel good about it, continue doing it. Now, on the other hand, each of us has weaknesses we have opportunities to improve, opportunities to elevate who we are. Our communication skills, our delivery services skills, our skills that reference compassion as it pertains to individuals we interact with, whether it's members of our team or patients that we serve. So focus on your strengths. Build on those strengths. But recognize each of us have opportunities that we can grow and learn from and become better. Oftentimes, if we make a list, you know, my strengths are here, my weaknesses are here, but we tend to get down on ourselves, especially because most of us consider we have a lot more weaknesses than we have strengths. I think the opposite is true. We are much better than we actually think we are. So recognize the strengths that you have. Celebrate those. Make a list of them. Again, celebrate them, enjoy them, and maximize, magnify those strengths so that you can continue being who you are. But then realize that each of us has opportunities to improve. And then you want to intentionally and very orderly take advantage of the time that you have to focus on what one of your weaknesses is. And in a very structured way, consider what you might do to improve that particular weakness. So often we see all of these opportunities or weaknesses or lackings, and it just, you know, falls on us like a toe brace and destroys our confidence. We don't want to do that. Recognize your strengths. Look at your weaknesses or opportunities for improvement, and take them systematically one at a time. And as you have time and as you feel progress, do the development and addressing those weaknesses or opportunities for growth so that you can improve incrementally. It's important that we don't overwhelm ourselves and that the improvement that we're making is substantive. It doesn't have to be substantial, but that there's substance to that improvement. And learn and grow. You know, it's a constant learning and growing environment. Weaknesses are many. But as we look at them from the standpoint of how can I make my strengths and my weaknesses and my opportunities opportunities now to help my patients, we can really learn and grow in a way that, again, empowers us to empower our patients with additional choice and additional agency.