When I am seated comfortably in my office, looking back over twenty years of successful practice building, one concern is constantly raised by my colleagues in dentistry: “How do I become a good dentist and a mentor to others?” This interrogative prompted me to include a whole chapter within the chronology of my leadership upbringing in this profession.
Listen, and please do not be shocked—yes, it involves being an excellent dental clinician. You did not get me wrong. Even if clinician excellence is essential, it is certainly not all it takes to become an admirable dental mentor.
From my numerous years in this field, I have understood that every great dental mentor has, at classification, seven distinctive characteristics. These characteristic functions act as a seal for your DNA as a mentor because they are indispensable and determine the success of the generations of dentists coming after you.
First and foremost, distinguishing oneself in clinical practice is more than just concepts; it means beating inefficiency on a consistent basis. Many such excellent clinicians do excellent clinical work but find leading the next in command, mentoring, quite impossible because they cannot or cannot tutor their skills. You might have a firm hand for all the right reasons, and that is great; however, can your mouth also lead them to that same level?
Here’s where it gets even more fascinating – mastering successful practice management is a crucial skill, and it’s more complex than one might expect. During my mentor meetings, I always stress how I learned more from practice management failures than I did from clinical successes. A mentor with first-hand experience of the ups and downs, not just theoretical knowledge, in establishing and sustaining a practice is invaluable.
One of my biggest accomplishments isn’t the number of practices I have successfully run but the number of team members who have stuck with me for so long. Low turnover is more than just a number; it reflects how well you manage people. Good mentors find ways and circumstances where people do not leave but thrive and develop themselves.
Being a mentor means more than just coming in for scheduled meetings. Numerous nights I remember being involved with a mentee on a complex case. These behaviors are the ones that turn good dental practitioners into dentists with excellent leadership skills.
Communication isn’t only about being good with words. The best teachers I know excel at something almost magical: they change their voices while talking to another person. This means adapting your communication style to suit the needs of your mentee. Some mentees need explicit instruction, while subtle motivation works best for others.
This is also interesting because many people do not see it that way—your love for mentoring must outrun your individual success desire. Even immensely trained dentists have failed at mentoring because they were not able to enjoy the success of others. You have to feel it on an emotional level.
Lastly, being financially savvy is about something other than trying to be an investment banker. It’s about understanding the basics of a successful dental practice. It’s about knowing how to manage your practice’s finances, from budgeting for equipment upgrades to setting competitive pricing for your services. I have found the most effective mentors to be those who can extend beyond clinical skills and use their entrepreneurial skills.
These qualities have informed how I mentor and interact with young, promising dental leaders to this day. They represent what I view as the core of exemplary mentorship in dentistry.
Remember, good mentors are not naturally born; they are made through exposure, dedication, and a thirst for helping others. If you want to be a mentor or find one, these characteristics will be a road map of sorts for leaders in the dental profession.
Care to look at these precepts even more closely and see how these standards can change the dental leadership management in your case? Understanding the linkage of these elements in the formation of distinctive dental mentors has a lot to offer in terms of comprehension of this matter.
