The definition of leadership that I shall use comes from the 1935 book “the art of leadership” by Ordway Tead. He says that: “leadership is the activity of influencing people to cooperate toward some goal which they come to find desirable.”

Leadership is an activity. That means it is neither a skill, nor an attitude, but conative.  A leader’s actions are directly tied to identifying team members’ instinctive capabilities and finding ways of putting them to productive use.   A leader is both an influencer and an enabler, and such qualities were rare in 1935 and remain rare today.

Depending upon their MO, every leader will have a different way of working. Every conative method can be used to influence others, but the most effective approach is when the leader is true to their own instincts. Trust develops between leader and team members when neither with holes the instinctive self. When leaders use their own instinct is to gain the commitment of other people’s instincts, goals become more attainable.

Leaders act as a catalyst for freely given cognitive commitments and give direction the variety of problem solving methods that a conatively synergistic group will suggest. And they managed to do this without inhibiting anyone’s participation. They bring out the best in people, drawing forth and focusing instinctive energy toward cooperative efforts.

The difference between a leader and a star is that the leader strives to increase others’ performances toward group goals, and the star strives towards individual achievement. We are all capable of being stars. It only takes a situation where one’s conative talents are most necessary for the star to initiate activity. A leader on the other hand uses all three zones of instinctive energy to help group succeed.

Perseverance is an essential characteristic of leadership. It takes backbone, great, and strength of mind to influence the goal setting process and to gain the cooperation of others. A common trait among leaders is their decisiveness. Their tenacity singles them out.

I tend to see two extremes in my work with dental practices. There is a lack of leadership either:

1) Because of an abdication by the practice owner or owners who are seeking to have equality within their practice and fail to take responsibility.

2) No regard is given to the team members’ instincts and therefore they are forced into roles where they are the least productive.

In neither case does the practice get the best out of their teams. Frustration ensues resulting in high turnover of staff, low productivity, and poor service being given to patients with a resulting drop in business profitability.

As an aside, I see a great many dentists who initiate in Implementor, presume that their staff know their jobs, like to believe that because someone has the title “practice manager” they know what they’re doing and therefore ignore what is going on around. On the other hand I also frequently encounter insistent Fact Finder who will not allow anybody any space and persist in micro-management. Both these scenarios produce unhappy practices.

Leadership is a responsibility, not a prize. It ought not to be given as a reward to individual achievement unless the person expresses a determination to fight for the will of the group. If leadership were merely a matter of making demands, of telling people what to do and rewarding them when they did it, then oppressors would rule, and ultimately fail.

Leaders in the workplace who nurture employees’ instinctive strengths are awarded with high employee job satisfaction and high productivity. Team members are pleased when leadership intervenes in, conatively stressful situations, whether they be conflicts, cloning, unrealistic self-expectations or misguided requirements.

It is important to select and train people for most suited roles on a team that is balanced to achieve conative synergy. However, every team needs a leader to take responsibility for influencing its members to strive towards achieving common goals. Every team needs a person or people who are willing to contribute instinctive energy toward leadership efforts, often forsaking the opportunity to use their personal resources in ways that are more likely to make them star performers. That’s the sacrifice of leadership. The benefit of leadership is in helping a team reach its greatest potential.

so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.”

Albert Einstein

The acronym KPIs has only drifted into view for many dentists with the recent imposition of the “PDS plus” contracts under the watchful eye of Dr Mike Warburton who is seeking to bring the same harmony to GDPs that he has to their medical colleagues.

A part of Peter Drucker’s philosophy of management by objectives, KPIs arrived along with the mantra “no management without measurement”. I firmly believe that there are certain basic parameters that must be measured and monitored in order that the performance of the business can be assured.

However, I know that measuring everything without regard for quality, the individuals involved and their understanding of the systems in which they work can lead to a target driven environment. This can rob the organisation of leadership, remove its flexibility and its ability to adapt to a changing environment.

So KPIs are important as a tool and a means to an end but not an end in themselves.

In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.

In our response lies our growth and our happiness.”

Victor Frankl

Figures highlight mounting expenses of dental practice warns BDA

New figures published by the NHS Information Centre today highlight the increasing expense of providing dental care, the British Dental Association (BDA) has warned. The Information Centre’s report, Dental Earnings and Expenses, England and Wales 2008/09, shows expenses borne by dental practices escalating at a faster rate than incomes were increasing during the period it details. It also highlights an increase in the average self-employed dentist’s taxable income of just £500 during the year.
The average taxable income for all self-employed primary care dentists in England and Wales in 2008/09 was £89,600, compared to £89,100 in 2007/08, according to the report.
The expenses borne by dentists – the costs of providing the building, equipment, staff and materials necessary to provide patient care – increased rapidly during 2008/09. Practice principals saw their expenses rocket by 7.6 per cent from £218,000 in 2007/08 to £235,500 in 2008/09.
John Milne, Chair of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said:
“These figures underline what the BDA knows from its own research and talking to members: that the costs associated with providing high street dentistry have risen dramatically. Changes in the exchange rate have had a pronounced impact on the costs of equipment imported from overseas and costs associated with compliance with a variety of regulatory requirements.
“Trends in expenses will need to be monitored carefully to ensure that dental practices are properly supported and are able to provide the resources they need to continue providing high-quality care to patients. The Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body will clearly need to consider the issue of expenses carefully this year and the BDA will be requesting it does so.”
Notes to editors
1. The report is available at: www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/primary-care/dentistry/dental-earnings-and-expenses-england-and-wales-2008-09

DDRB role on GDP pay in England suspended

The Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body (DDRB) will play no role in determining the remuneration of independent contractor general dental practitioners (GDPs) and general medical practitioners (GMPs) in England for the financial years 2011/12 and 2012/13, it has been announced. The decision has been taken in light of the current financial climate and the previously announced pay freeze that will affect public sectors workers earning over £21,000 a year.
Instead, the government will determine any gross uplift for GDPs and GMPs directly. It is understood that any uplift will be determined based on the efficiency assumptions government wishes to apply and evidence on non-staff expenses. The government has said it will enter into dialogue with relevant professional bodies about expenses. The BDA will be contacting the Government to take forward that dialogue.
At the time of writing, it is unclear whether the governments in Northern, Scotland and Wales will mirror the decision made by the administration at Westminster.
The announcement comes just days after an NHS information Centre report showing that the 2008/09 financial year witnessed an average 7.6 per cent increase in practice principals’ expenses across England and Wales.

Thomas Leonard

Lance Armstrong

What are you doing to make sure that your team works together and stays together?

Editorial – Are Staff Happy?
By Steve Gold, Editor, Management in Brief

www.managementbooks.co.uk

I’ve just got back from not one, but two business shows this week in, respectively, London and Birmingham, and the one thing that struck me was that – behind the smiles to customers – staff were not happy.

When I say unhappy, I mean unhappy with their lot in life as regards business, and judging from the off-guard comments, it all comes down to the managers at the companies they are working for.

Poor management? Quite possibly, so I was interested to see a news story from P&MM Motivation in which John Sylvester, the firm’s executive director, said that keeping employees motivated throughout the recession is “a marathon and not a sprint.”

According to Sylvester, the announcement that the UK `officially’ came out of its recession at the beginning of 2010 may have offered some encouragement of a positive outlook for the year ahead.

However, he says, nobody is really left in any doubt that the end is, in fact, nowhere near to nigh as the UK’s economy remains in its turbulent predicament.

“To see this dim light at the end of the tunnel only for it to be quickly extinguished again, as the patience and resilience of organisations and their employees is tested further, really brings home the truth that maintaining morale through this difficult era must be considered as a marathon and not a sprint,” he said.

Sylvester argues that motivation must remain high on the business agenda throughout 2010 in order to break through the brick wall that marathon runners meet in the final stages of their race.

Continual re-engagement, he says, is required in order to keep employees tuned into the changing company objectives so that they can head enthusiastically onto the next stage.

“Many job roles will have changed over the last year and feelings of job security may also be frail. Take the time to communicate with a workforce and inform them of what the organisation collectively requires in order to get back on top,” he explained.

The P&MM Motivation chief executive says that, on an individual level, managers should redefine each job proposition and set appropriate targets linked directly to the wider company goals.

They should, he observes, offer incentives for reaching these targets, as this approach to `sharing the fruits’ of success will be well received in an environment where pay freezes are the norm.

“All things going well, the need for further redundancies is less likely this year so employers are tasked with assuring staff of their job security,” he said.

The key to all of this, he says, is `recognition’ as this will help to ensure that employees feel valued and rewarded for the extra hard work, commitment and contributions that the current situation demands.

Sylvester claims that, if these efforts are not properly recognised, staff will quickly lose their enthusiasm and begin to set their sights on leaving once the recession has subsided.

In fact, he says, CIPD figures suggest that over a third of workers intend on seeking new employment as soon as the recession has subsided.

If managers can pre-empt this negative attitude by looking after valued staff now, they will weather the storm, as he quite rightly observes – the marathon is far from over.

I think he’s right too. As my experiences at the two business shows I’ve attended this last week clearly show, junior and mid-ranking staff in a large number of organisations are not happy with their employers.

We all have to pay the rent or mortgage, which is why most of choose to work as we do. When this recession ends, you can expect large-scale staff movements between companies.

As some companies will discover to their cost, when their most valuable staff start jumping ship.

Have a good business day.

STEVE GOLD
Editor

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/196667.php

Pilots and dentists have more in common than one might think: Both jobs are highly technical and require teamwork. Both are subject to human error where small, individual mistakes may lead to catastrophe if not addressed early.

A dental professor at the University of Michigan and two pilot-dentists believe that implementing a checklist of safety procedures in dental offices similar to procedures used in airlines would drastically reduce human errors.

Crew Resource Management empowers team members to actively participate to enhance safety using forward thinking strategies, said Russell Taichman, U-M dentistry professor and director of the Scholars Program in Dental Leadership. Taichman co-authored the study, “Adaptation of airline crew resource management (CRM) principles to dentistry,” which will appear in the August issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association.

Airlines implemented CRM about 30 years ago after recognizing that most accidents resulted from human error, said co-author Harold Pinsky, a full-time airline pilot and practicing general dentist who did additional training at U-M dental school.

“Using checklists makes for a safer, more standardized routine of dental surgery in my practice,” said David Sarment, a third co-author on the paper. Sarment was on the U-M dental faculty full-time before leaving for private practice. He is also a pilot and was taught to fly by Pinsky.

CRM checklists in the dentist’s office represent a major culture shift that will be slow to catch on, but Pinsky thinks it’s inevitable.

“It’s about communication,” Pinsky said. “If I’m doing a restoration and my assistant sees saliva leaking, in the old days the assistant would think to themselves, ‘The doctor is king, he or she must know what’s going on.’” But if all team members have a CRM checklist, the assistant is empowered to tell the doctor if there is a problem. “Instead of the doctor saying, ‘Don’t ever embarrass me in front of a patient again,’ they’ll say, ‘Thanks for telling me.’”

At each of the five stages of the dental visit, the dental team is responsible for checking safety items off a codified list before proceeding. Pinsky said that while he expects each checklist to look different for each office, the important thing is to have the standards in place.

Studies show that CRM works. Six government studies of airlines using CRM suggest safety improvements as high as 46 percent. Another study involving six large corporate and military entities showed accidents decreased between 36-81 percent after implementing CRM. In surgical settings, use of checklists has reduced complications and deaths by 36 percent.

Many other industries: hospitals; emergency rooms; and nuclear plants look to the airline industry to help craft CRM programs, but dentistry hasn’t adopted CRM, said Pinsky.

For the next step, the co-authors hope to design a small clinical trial in the dental school to test CRM, Taichman said.

Source:
Laura Bailey
University of Michigan

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/196667.php