~~Leadership in the Dental Practice
Motivating & Inspiring Others
"Are you crying? There's no crying! There's no crying in baseball!"
(A League of Their Own (1992))
Bluto (John Belushi): “Hey! What’s all this laying around stuff? Why are you all still laying around here for?”
Stork: "What the hell are we supposed to do, ya moron? We’re all expelled. There’s nothing to fight for anymore.
D-Day: [to Bluto] “Let it go. War’s over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.”
Bluto: "What? Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"
Otter: [to Boon] “Germans?”
Boon: “Forget it, he’s rolling.”
Bluto: “And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough… [thinks hard of something to say] The tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!”
(Animal House (1978))
In last month’s blog, I told you that in this series of blogs, I’ll be discussing Leadership. I’ll address the following traits and skills that good leaders must have:
• Motivating & Inspiring Others
• Listening Skills
• Recognizing and Meeting Needs
• Retaining Valuable Employees
• Understanding Personality Types
In this month’s blog, we’ll discuss Motivating and Inspiring others.
The two quotes at the beginning of the blog demonstrate two types of motivational speeches that work poorly in ongoing relationships. There are only so many times you can holler at people and belittle them before their resentment overcomes their motivation; and it’s a pretty short timeline on that. The “inspirational speech” also has a short shelf life, unless you are a great leader. If you’re on the front lines of a battle, yelling, “OK, boys, over the top!” becomes less and less necessary as long as the leader is a true leader (see last month’s blog). The “Rah! Rah!” speech always makes the manager feel great, but doesn’t make for long-term motivation. Thus, the football coach has to use it before the game, during the 1st half, after ripping the team apart during half-time, and throughout the 2nd half. How well would a sports team perform if the coach said, “OK, guys, nice to see you all showed up for today’s game. Let’s go out and warm up. I’ll be along in a few minutes”? Adrenalin comes in small doses and requires frequent recharging. But, we’re not talking about the gridiron; we’re talking about every day, workaday life. How do you keep people motivated to perform on a 40-hour/week, 50 week/year performance schedule?
Motivation is a type of communication. Yet, it’s onion-like in its complexity. In order to motivate and inspire people one must:
• Be trustworthy. We are not inspired nor motivated by those we don’t trust. Trust is built through having integrity. If the margin on a restoration leaks, we say that the restoration has no marginal integrity. What would give it integrity? If it did what it’s designed and expected to do: not leak. That’s integrity, doing what we are supposed to do when we are supposed to do it under any circumstances, even when nobody is watching.
• Understand what it is that motivates people. This is a hard one, because it requires something that you must develop if you want to be a true leader: having an understanding of human nature and its variety. Understanding that each individual is motivated by any number of different things. This leads to the next point:
• A leader must know those whom she leads and what their needs and expectations are. You remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? It can be broken up into a lot of sub-needs, but the basics are:
1. Physiological
2. Safety
3. Love/Belonging
4. Esteem
5. Self-actualization
This is dynamic. Any of us can be on any level depending upon our situation. If we have lost our job, 1 & 2 are definitely effected, but so is Self-Esteem, and certainly we’re stopped dead on the route to self-actualization. Knowing your people can help you determine on what portion(s) of the scale each individual’s needs are at.
• A leader inspires and motivates more effectively when they care about their employees. If you genuinely care, you’ve gone a long way towards meeting needs 2&3.
• Show respect to your employees. People are much more responsive to those whom they know respect them. Never, ever put an employee down nor discipline them in front of others. Let them know you appreciate their contribution to the practice and team.
• Be observant and considerate. We all have difficult days. If you are observant and care, you’ll see red flags of personal issues. Maybe you can fix them, and maybe you can’t; but your esteem will increase in their eyes if you care enough to ask. “Jimmy, I see you’re a bit down today. Is everything alright? Anything I can do?” “No, thank you, I’ll be OK.” Alright, but let me know if I can be of help.” If you are trustworthy and caring, they are more likely to let you know. Who knows, maybe they’ve found another job and they don’t know how to tell you. If you’ve established trust, you’re more likely to find out sooner than later and they may be more willing to help in the transition.
• Involve followers and let them have ownership. The best ideas are always the ones we come up with ourselves! Have regular meetings where you discuss issues and corrections. If the employees’ ideas are used, then they are more motivated to do their best. That covers needs 3, 4, &5. They know that they belong, that their ideas are respected, and that they can come up with great ideas.
There are many, many more layers and complexities to leadership. Nobody is the perfect leader, but, respect and care for others are foundational traits.
When problems arise, a leader will:
• Maintain or even enhance the employee’s self-esteem. “Kim, you make a great contribution to the team, the way you came up with the idea on how to improve the efficiency of cleaning and sterilization is a big help. May we talk about one concern that I have?” Etc.
• Listen and respond with empathy. This means you understand, even if you may disagree. “I can understand why you did what you did, but the result is...”
• Ask for help in solving the problem. “Any thoughts on how we can solve this?”
No fear, no humiliation, no nerves when they hear that the ‘boss’ wants to talk with them. You are their leader and they trust that you know them and will always give them a safe (need #2) environment when discussing problems. It’s not personal, for the benefit of the team; you want to work it out (#3). And, you have made it plain that you want to help them be the best that they can be at their job and at reaching mutually agreed-upon performance goals (#5).
In summary, being a leader who can motivate and inspire followers requires acquiring a multitude of traits, but respect, trust, consideration, understanding & caring for followers & their needs, and giving them opportunities to contribute to the team are foundational.
Next month: Listening Skills.