Aimed at medical students, doctors trying to get (re) acquainted with dermatology and other paramedical staff this new on-line text book is worth investigating by dentists and their teams. Dentists are in the enviable but responsible position of seeing our patients regularly and are therefore better placed to observe changes of the head and neck than other members of the health team.

Follow this link www.skincancer909.com

and yes, there is a family link between the writer of this blog and the author of the book.

Here is not the place to deal with my lack of personal flag waving so….

I’M IN PRINT!!

A promo. for the new collection “Messages from Dental Masters”.

Compiled by Stephen Hudson with 30 contributors (and yes, I’m one), 40% of profits will be split between the BDA Benevolent Fund and Dentists Health Support Group.

A really good read for anyone in Dentistry – order it now from Stephen’s website gdpresources.com website.

From the BBC magazine www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14475741 

While the looters had cleared out the stock of Currys, Claire’s Accessories and Phones4U, nearby Waterstone’s had been left “without a scratch”

His arguments are put succinctly and he challenges many of the established points of view that we take to be automatically true. Whilst this is an American writer expressing his points of view about US dentistry his opinions translate readily to the UK & the rest of the world.

His pleas for dentists to put their patients at the very centre of everything they do will fall mostly on deaf ears of those who see patients as a source of UDAs. However by reading it, those who put system before patient may well question their slavish devotion to a way of working that does nothing grow them as individuals and will ultimately leave them despairing of how they spend their days.

At 147 pages it’s easy to get through in two or three reads and I promise your time will not have been wasted.

Available through Amazon here.

This review first appeared on GDP-UK www.gdpuk.com

I read this book at a single sitting and really enjoyed it as a “fly past”. It’s full of ideas and tips resulting from James’ experiences of personal and professional life, initially as an associate but primarily as founder and principal of Bow Lane Dental in the City of London. James shares the influences and philosophies that have helped shape his outlook and made Bow Lane a practice to admire and brought James the respect and acknowledgement of his peers. Taken like this it’s a thoroughly enjoyable skim across the surface of what it takes to be a success when you do things “my way”.

James straddles the line between innovator and early adopter, he’s definitely an educated opinion leader when it comes to clinical matters but hasn’t been afraid to try innovation in his business and is honest enough to share his few failures with the reader.

The book is laid out well with chapter headings that are straightforward to follow making it easy to return to and dip in and out, this also makes it suitable as the basis for a number of staff meetings.

Dr Goolnik definitely “gets” not only the advances in technology and communication but also the importance of the traditions of what is a relationship, rather than a transaction, based business. To read of someone advocating some of the marketing techniques embracing social networking that have worked for Bow Lane will come as a surprise to the practices who are still to be convinced of the value of a website. Currently these are frequently the practices that are beginning to wonder what happened to their patients.

Worthy of mention is his attitude to recruitment, team building, retention and reward. Utilisation of psychometric tests including Kolbe Wisdom™ is refreshing. There are few, if any, businesses that wouldn’t benefit from adoption of the Bow Lane approach.

I particularly enjoyed James when he was in crystal ball mode in the penultimate chapter “What does the future hold?” I’m sure that 50% of what he predicts will happen but which 50% that might be and what else will have an influence, who can tell? As this was written in 2011 he’s able to talk about the CQC but would they have got a mention 12 months ago?

This reflects the rate of change in life; dentistry is no exception and the author goes to lengths to tell the reader that in order to be successful and continue to stay ahead you have to keep evolving and improving. The competition in dentistry is fiercer than ever before and “change is the only constant”. Wise words.

I have a couple of small criticisms. One is that it comes across as a little simplistic and doesn’t necessarily reflect the extra hours of work and miles walked that are done by any successful entrepreneur alongside those when you’re doing what you’re paid for. I’m minded of the words of one of my mentors, “If it was that easy we’d all be millionaires”. The fact that James eschews alcohol, doesn’t watch TV and is dedicated to physical fitness hints at his dedication.

Also a formal reading list rather than the few mentions as footnotes would have been of benefit to the reader in order to follow up the author’s influences but these are small quibbles.

In short this is a welcome addition to the dental library and a good starting point to introduce change in your practice and life, but in the same way that this is James Goolnik “so far”; Brush is the start but not the end.

All profits from this book go to Dentaid. Available from Amazon here.

Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) was an American football coach, in a professional coaching career that lasted 16 years from his start with the New York Giants as offensive co-ordinator 1n 1954 until his death from colon cancer in 1960. His victories are too numerous to mention but they read like the script from a movie, transforming the Green Bay Packers from their worst ever season in 1958 to a 7:5 record in his first year when he was voted coach of the year. The following year his team lost the NFL final but never lost another final under his control.

His team won the first two Super Bowls in 1967 & 1968 and the trophy that the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers will play for tonight in Dallas bears his name.

Not known for his weaknesses “The Lombardi Rules” is a must read for anyone who manages others or wants to make themselves the very best they can working within any organisation.

Divided into 26 short “lessons” it makes its points in easily digestible chunks, each piece ending with three highly relevant tips. From the start “Ask yourself tough questions” which lays down the importance of self-knowledge, through “Explain the whys” on effective teaching / coaching or whatever one wished to call the passing on of information to the final “Run to win” this book repays repeated reading.

Lombardi who had three constants in his life, sports, family and religion never lost his sense of right and wrong, he believed that you should only win by the rules and that anything else could lead to anarchy with everyone a loser.

You may support the Packers or the Steelers; like me you may be smarting today following Wales losing to England at rugby and England’s cricketers losing the plot following victory in the Ashes series. It’s quite possible you have no time for sports at all, that doesn’t matter this little book will help you to success.

Available from my Amazon book shop here.

I love his sense of fun and innovation, he’s the founder and senior partner of Box of Crayons where he is dedicated to helping organizations and individuals make the leap from good work to Great Work. This book is the follow-up to the wonderful “Find Your Great Work” and features contributions from Seth Godin, Dave & Wendy Ulrich, Chris Guillebeau and Leo Babuta.

Michael was Canadian Coach of the year in 2006 and, in the great tradition of authentic coaches from Thomas Leonard onwards, The Box of Crayons website has a host of free stuff that will inform and entertain.

Do More Great Work, like  its predecessor and his first book “Get Unstuck & Get Going“, is easy to read, it’s full of ideas, exercises, quotes and inspiration. It carries on the work of Stephen Covey who wanted us to differentiate between the urgent and the important in that it urges you to move away from the “busywork” and start the work that matters. It’s practical, small enough to carry around, with chapters that are concise and stimulating. An essential read for those who are looking to move from good to great.

You can find it here.

In addition there is a series of podcasts where you can listen to the interviews that Michael did with a host of field leaders whilst he was researching and writing the book and which he has continued to the present time. Entitled More Great Work it’s available via the podcast links on iTunes.

What about the kid who could have been a great, say, lacrosse player but had no idea that the sport existed?Now that far fewer schools play cricket than in the past are there Bothams. Gowers and Boycotts who are having to make do with kicking a football and perhaps being OK club golfers?

Is there a point in a sportsman’s career where the coach catches their ability and manages to both enthuse them, get top level performances and leave them with a set of values and habits that will carry them to the peak of their career?

This book, subtitled How Champions are Made, by Matthew Syed goes a long way to exploring and explaining how success is attained and maintained. The surprise (or not) is that winners aren’t born, they are made; and the key to achieving greatness lies in hard work, and the right attitude and training.

The author is a three-time Commonwealth table-tennis champion and an award-winning sports journalist.

Through his own experience of being in the right place at the right time, he is able to give an autobiographical take on the subject.

• His parents seemingly out of the blue bought a top of the range table-tennis table
• He and his brother were able to play daily as they had a large garage.
• His brother was as keen & talented as he was.
• The local coach was the best in the UK.
• The local club was the most successful in the UK.

As a professional writer he brings an analytical mind to the subject.

A thoroughly readable and fascinating book.

Available from Amazon here.

“the end of the month arrives before the end of the money? all’s well”

“managed to squirrel enough away for the January tax bill, or at least can pay it from February’s cashflow? everything is hunky dory”

“want new kit? (or as usually happens just bought new kit?) where’s that leasing guy’s ‘phone number?”

“save up to set up a new practice? the bank say they’ll lend me enough.”

Prior to 2006 anyone with an NHS contract was able (to quote one of my higher earning & spending clients) to: “get your backside in the air and dig harder”. Sadly, or otherwise, those days are gone.

Whether you like it or not just relying on your accountant to produce figures which can sometimes be nearly 2 years out of date isn’t good enough to run a business that will be competitive and provide  the rewards you deserve for the commitment you have shown.

There have been several books about finance for dentists produced over the years (and this writer has wrestled with most of them) but I can happily recommend Paul Kendall’s “Finance for Dentists”. Paul is a partner in the firm of Dodd & Co, based in Penrith but with clients throughout the UK, he was the founder and chairman of NASDA (National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants) and has been working successfully with the dental profession for more than 25 years.

I particularly like this book because it isn’t written in accountant-speak, the author understands the dental profession and, whilst accepting that neither one size will nor should fit all dentists or all practices, there are certain financial fundamentals that must be understood and implemented if success is going to follow.

It will repay the time spent in a thorough initial read so that you are able to understand the financial differences between dentists and their businesses as their career progresses. Later on because the chapters are concise it’s possible to dip into and out of it as you need.

It would be my wish that all new graduates could be given a copy of this book and to discuss it in groups the way that Foundation Dentists are encouraged to talk about clinical techniques.

One inevitable drawback with all books like this is that where figures and minutiae of legislation are quoted they can be out of date almost before the book goes to print however Paul covers the principles so well that one outcome for the reader is that they will be aware not only of what might be changing but also where they can find out about those changes.

You can get it from my Amazon Reading List

Victor Frankl was born in Vienna in 1905 and trained as a psychiatrist, as a Jew he was persecuted by the Nazis and spent years in the death camps including Auschwitz. Miraculously he survived; this book is not so much about his experiences, although those he mentions are chilling enough, but how how he found the strength to survive. As he says it is not the fact that so many died but that any one survived is so remarkable.

From the foreward by Harold S. Kushner: Terrible as it was, his experience in Auschwitz reinforced what was one of his key ideas: Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught but a quest for meaning.

The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life. Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during difficult times. Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it. At one point, Frankl writes that the person is “may remain brave, dignified and unselfish, or when the bitter fight for self preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal”. He concedes that only a few prisoners of the Nazis were able to do the former, “but even one such example is sufficient proof that man’s inner strength may raise him above his outward fate.”

Finally, Frankl’s most enduring insight, one that I have called on often in my own life and in countless counselling situations: forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.

Man’s Search For Meaning is available here.