You have several options when it comes to leadership in your practice. Servant leadership is a style that can help you strengthen your team by keeping them personally and professionally satisfied, encouraging them to contribute high-quality work and assisting you in making your practice a success.

But how do you provide servant leadership?

With servant leadership, you focus on your team’s growth and well-being, putting their needs first. If you invert the traditional “top-down” hierarchy, the practice owner (you) serves the staff. In doing so, team members feel personally and professionally fulfilled and therefore, produce high-quality work more efficiently and productively.

Servant leadership is important in dental practices because it creates an environment where your staff feels respected, appreciated and valued. Many dental practices I’ve seen that utilize the servant leadership philosophy exhibit very strong work cultures, great morale and superior patient service.

3 principles of servant leadership

By no means extensive, these are the 3 primary principles of effective servant leadership:

1. Listening

The best dental practice owners don’t just speak but listen to their team. They’re genuinely interested in ensuring every member of their team is given a voice AND they listen carefully to what is said. The best practice owners also listen to what is NOT being said. They’re attentive, avoid interruption and give constructive feedback. Great listeners are also very good at seeing new opportunities within the practice which also makes the practice more desirable to a potential buyer.

2. Empathy

The best practice owners care about their team on a personal level because they understand that when their team members feel happy and content in their personal lives, it contributes to the success of the practice. The best practice owners I’ve worked with value the different perspectives of their teams and approach complex problems and situations with an open mind. In doing so, these practice owners visibly demonstrate to their team members that they care about them and will do their utmost to support them with personal issues whenever possible.

3. Stewardship

The most effective practice owners acknowledge their responsibilities especially when it comes to earning and maintaining the trust and confidence given to them by their team. More than anything, the staff of the practice owner must know that all communication with the practice owner will be held in the strictest confidence and that the trust will never be betrayed. Every practice owner I’ve met that operates as a servant leader sees themselves as stewards of their practice’s staff, assets and goals. These owners work hard, consistently arrive and stay on time and are, especially in the eyes of their staff and patients, dependable. They lead by example, demonstrating the behavior they want to see in their staff and patients.

CONCLUSION

Is servant leadership right for you? Truthfully, that depends. Transitioning to a servant leadership model is not easy and a coach should be considered essential. Those that have made the transition swear by it and there's no question that practices that operate using the servant leadership model are worth more when it comes time to sell.

Would you like to find out the ways to increase the value in your practice? To discover all your options, call 703.298.1690 or click HERE to schedule a Discovery Call NOW with Stan Kinder for the best alternatives.