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5 Game-Changing Reasons to Start Coaching as a Dental Practice Leader

By Jamie MorleyMay 23, 2024

Have you ever wondered how the top dental practices and dental practice leaders achieve such high levels of success and appear to be able to do it all? As a dental practice leader, embracing coaching could be the game-changer you need. Discover the five significant reasons why starting a coaching journey can transform your leadership approach and elevate your practice to new heights. Read, watch or listen!

What do we mean by coaching?

For many people coaching as a leader means telling people what to do. Tt means telling them how to improve and do things better. To me this is not really coaching in it’s purest form as defined by the literature that is out there and the various coaching bodies that now exist. I want to introduce you to the concept of the coaching continuum which is as below:

At the end of the spectrum we have telling whilst at the other end we have pure coaching which is where you only ask questions. What? Yes, to repeat, you only ask questions, you don’t tell or show people what to do.

One of the originators of this concept was Professor John Whitmore in his book Coaching for Performance. He says that the essence of coaching is about unlocking people’s potential to maximise their own performance. If you are telling people you are not doing this.

The International Coaching Federation defines it as follows:

‘ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. The process of coaching often unlocks previously untapped sources of imagination, productivity and leadership.’

The key here is about inspiring the individual to maximise their own potential. This is done through asking them questions and getting them to come up with the answers.

To give you an example, a team member may come to you as follows:

Team member: ‘I did what we agreed but it isn’t working’

Manager/leader telling: ‘You must have done something wrong, do it this way instead.’

Manager/leader coaching: ‘What do you think the problem might be? I need to go and do something, why don’t you try and figure out a solution?’

Why then can this have such an impact?

1. Transferring ownership

The core reason to coach is that you are transferring ownership. You are transferring ownership from it being your idea and your way of doing it to it being their idea and their way of doing it. When you tell people what to do it is still yours, even though you are trying to give it to the other person. When you ask questions and make enquiries it comes from the other person and therefore the ownership sits with them.

Now there may be some crafty people out there thinking that if I ask the right question I can get them to do what I want to do. This is not coaching because the essence of it coming from the other person is not there. People will see through this and won’t really take ownership. You have to ask questions with genuine curiosity as to what the person’s response is.

Example

Let’s say you have a Treatment Co-ordinator and you want to increase the number of treatment sign ups. If you give them a list of things to do it is your ideas. On the other hand you can say to the Treatment Co-ordinator that you are wanting to increase the number of treatment sign ups, and ask them: ‘How can we go about doing this?’ When they then come up with ideas, these ideas are from them, not from you. They own them. As a result this leads to reason number two which is that it significantly increases the…

2. Likelihood of it actually happening

When people own it, they are much more likely to do it.

I am sure you have had experiences of telling people to do something, they nod their head and seem to agree but then they don’t actually do it.

If they own it. If it is their way of doing it. It is much more likely that they will follow through and do it. This prevents you feeling considerable frustration and saves you significant amounts of time when you have to go back to the person to repeat everything, still wondering why it wasn’t done the first time.

Example

When the Treatment Co-ordinator comes back with several ideas, you can continue to ask questions around this ideas, trying to suspend judgement. ‘What do you think will be the likely impact of those actions? How can you measure the impact of that idea? What other ideas do you have? What idea will be most impactful? What is the priority?’

Ultimately when they commit to doing something it is much more likely they will actually do it.

3. Ideas of the individual

When you coach individuals you are getting their ideas and getting them to use their initiative and their brain. They are the ones doing the job and therefore are the closest to it. They know it better than you do.

This is especially true in today’s world where everything is changing so fast. This means that even if you did the role yourself in the past it is likely the best way to do it has now changed and will continue to change so the people closest to it are the best placed to do it.

Not only that but they could be smarter than you anyhow and may have more of a love and passion for it!

If you don’t ask them you are missing out on a massive opportunity to tap into their knowledge and ideas.

Example

I encourage you to try and interrupt your automatic response which will be that you know the answer. I have had several situations where I have asked a question and then have been about to give the person what I think is the right answer but have managed to stop myself. They have then come up with ideas and ways that are significantly better than mine! When this happens you really do see the potential in your people that you could be missing out on if you don’t coach.

Give the person the space to think and answer! Interrupt your want to give your answer because you think you know best. Interrupt the righting reflex!

4. Think for themselves

If we are always telling people what to do people become conditioned and in a way lazy. They don’t have to think for themselves. They are only ever waiting to be told what to do. They are never proactive because they are conditioned to just wait to be told what to do. This means there always has to be somebody around to tell them what to do and everything becomes very reliant on that person.

On the other hand if you start getting them to think for themselves by asking them questions they will start to think for themselves more broadly and be more proactive. When situations arise they will be able to deal with them without getting the leader involved. They will start to proactively look at what they can do to contribute to the broader success of the practice and to their broader area of responsibility.

Example

A Treatment Co-ordinator will be consistently proactive in how they can increase sign ups. They won’t be always waiting to be told what specific tasks to do. They will start to think for themselves about their overall responsibility. To track numbers and the impact of what they are doing. To adjust appropriately and come up with new approaches.

5. Reduce the pressure on you 

As a leader we can sometimes feel that we have to have all the answers and that we need to know everything. This is not realistic and can become an increasingly heavy load. Reduce this load by questioning people and getting them to come up with the answers. Of course, you can still give your view if you feel it is really necessary but reduce the load on yourself and get them to come up with the ideas.

Example

You may think you need to have all the ideas for generating additional income. This is not the case. A good TCO will proactively be coming up with ideas and implementing them. Take the load off yourself by asking them questions so that they are coming up with new ideas to drive revenue growth. You will be taking the load off yourself to always be coming up with the ideas.

Summary

These are the 5 game-changing reasons to start coaching the members in your team as a dental practice leader:

1. To transfer ownership

2. To increase the likelihood of it being done

3. To get great ideas from the person actually doing the job

4. To create a culture where people are thinking for themselves

5. To reduce the pressure on you to come up with ideas all the time

Coaching is about asking questions so that the individual can work out things for themselves.

Start by asking more questions with genuine curiosity.

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