What does it take to be a good leader?

Sep 24, 2009

Editor's note: The Coaches Corner column appears regularly on the DrBicuspid.com advice and opinion page, Second Opinion.

Dentists are leaders. We provide livelihoods for our staff and guide patients in healthcare decisions. But so many of us jump into this business with confidence in oral healthcare and not a clue about leadership.

What does it take to be a leader?

There is no easy formula. Leadership is a way of being. Leaders must continually reinvent themselves depending on every situation. But two qualities are absolutely key: resiliency and authenticity.

Resiliency is the capacity to bounce back from life's difficulties and to do this habitually, with our full capacities, resourcefulness, and creativity. It is a way of understanding how to function effectively without the need for control. Funny how we keep at the illusion of control. When we give up the illusion, our sense of futility lifts and we gain the capacity to roll with the punches.

When we try to be in control, both our field of perception and our range of actions are narrowed. Our attempts to control are often reactive, automatic, and rigid. We either deny problems or acknowledge them only slowly. This leaves us slow to respond to anything that is happening outside what we are trying to control. We are sluggish rather than nimble.

In contrast, when we are responsive to events, our field of perception expands and new possibilities present themselves. We have our full range of capacities, resources, and creativity at the ready. Looking through this new prism, we can build resilient systems and from that build resilient organizations. This is a topic I will cover in a future article.

Circumstances are always changing, and we cannot avoid the anxiety that goes along with this. Having the ability to be free to act is authenticity. To be authentic in a rainstorm means that we have the freedom to seek cover one way or another. To be inauthentic means that we either deny it is raining (delusional) or deny ourselves an alternative means of not getting drenched. Both options are bad leadership.

Authenticity is the companion to resiliency. To be powerful and proactive, to be clear and questioning, and to listen and communicate directly are all necessary features of an authentic leader.

Leaders who can be resilient and face the inevitable anxiety that accompanies uncertainty in an authentic way will be more competitive, more innovative, and more effective. Their lives will be more fulfilled. And burdens will be lifted as the feeling of being out there by one's self disappears.

Alan Goldstein, D.M.D., F A.C.D., is a member of the Dental Coaches Association, an organization of dentists and professional coaches who are committed to bringing professional coaching to the dental profession. Learn more by visiting www.dentalcoachesassociation.org.

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