By Thalia Kostopoulou DDSDDS.,MSc., Dental Coach

How many dentists would be able to use the services of an expert to help them manage their business finances? How many would be able to hire a sales manager, a marketing manager, and a personnel and procurement manager? Can we afford to hire that many people? Certainly not!

As if our profession wasn’t demanding an stressful enough, we are called upon to fill all these roles, without any sort of formal training.

And this is not just about our careers.

There are also shoes to fill in our personal and social life. We need a life full of fun, to get together with our friends, our families, our children, to take care of our home, and to pursue our hobbies.

How many of us have often pushed our endurance to its limits by everyday life’s responsibilities and demands?

In order to live our professional and personal lives to the fullest, we need the following:

Proper organization
Clear needs and objectives
Effective boundaries
Responsibility allocation
Task allocation
Talent development.

To get there, a certain set of skills is required.

The Coach is the person who will provide you with the proper mental skills and tools.

They will dedicate their focus on your individual needs, highlighting your potential, illuminating previously unlit aspects of yourself and supporting you to achieve your goals. They will ensure the well being you deserve.

This approach rapidly gains following all over the western world, and is now being introduced in Greece, as well.

We are referring to tailormade coaching for the specific needs of the modern entrepreneurial dentist.

Το Coaching στην οδοντιατρική, συμβάλλει στο να βελτιωθεί άμεσα το σύνολο της επαγγελματικής μας ζωής, να αυξηθούν τα έσοδά μας και να πάρουμε από την εργασία μας την ικανοποίηση που μας αξίζει.

WHAT IS COACHING?

Coaching is a methodology. It is both an art and a technique. It is the art of change. It teaches us to change ourselves for our own benefit and has emerged from the imperatives of modern reality.

Scientifically Documented Coaching is based on an entire academic discipline, called Coaching Psychology, and on behavioral neurosciences. Such concepts as success and happiness are now viewed as a form of science and studied as such. They comprise of a set of laws and rules one needs to follow in order to succeed.

Coaching is NOT a substitute of psychotherapy and differs in the following ways:

It is aimed at functional people, helping them enhance their performance, on both a personal and a professional level.
It does not study the roots of the problem, it focuses instead on the present and the future, the goal and the solution, the action and the implementation.
It is a process governed by a specific time-frame (6 to 10 sessions, in most cases).
Each session’s main characteristic is parity and alliance between Coach and Coachee. The Coachee decides on the issue or goal to work on and the Coach sets the framework.

COACHING IN THE DAILY LIFE OF THE DENTIST

Dentists who trust the Coaching process achieve the following:

– They identify their strengths, skills and talents and make the most of them.
They are able to identifiy their weaknesses, and learn to work on them, using their strengths.
– They acquire target setting skills. Our goal is our compass. Coachees formulate their immediate, short-term goals and long-term plans, and outline their vision.
– They familiarize themselves with strategies that enable them to overcome difficulties and daily-life obstacles.
– They learn time management. They make better and more efficient use of their professional time
and manage delays and emergencies. Effective boundary setting in our everyday practice is of the utmost importance. They learn to set boundaries towards their staff, their peers, and especially towards different patient characteristicss. Most importantly, they learn to set boundaries for themselves.
– They learn stress-managemenent, which, in turn, leads to a more functional, enjoyable, and less stressful everyday life. Momentary stress can be creative, but chronic stress is destructive. It is important to be able to make a distinction between the two daily.

Coaching in dental practice brings specifically the following benefits:

– Stressors management. It gives us the opportunity to manage all stressing factors in our work, such as phobic, demanding, recalcitrant patients, as well as difficult cases or complex treatment plans. It also develops the ability to react effectively in demanding situations.
– Well functioning relationships with our partners, suppliers, and assistants. It helps us build functional relationships with our professional and social circle by adding effective communication skills to our toolbox. It promotes flexibility and adaptability.
– Effective communication with our patients. This results in better understanding of the treatment plan on part of the patient, collaboration during treatment and smooth financial management.
– Leadership and business management skills development. It boosts creativity, promotes learning and develops leadership skills.
– Better work-life balance. It frees up time and improves our quality of life. It helps us set boundaries and make priority based choices.
– Dentist isolation relief. As discussed elsewhere, dentists have limited professional communication with their peers.
– Profesional burn out protection. Coaching skills enable us manage internal conflicts and external pressures in the best way possible, teaching us when to stop and make room for personal rearrangement.

Scientifically Proven Coaching includes the study of human behavior and wisdom through techniques and tools that promote:

The maturity and autonomy of the individual,
the liberation from their own entanglements,
and by extension their bliss and well being.

Coaching makes transition safe and easy, as it arises from natural, gradual processes, in a supportive, empowering and confident enviroment.

Coaching helps us bring out the best version of ourselves.

At the beginning of your coaching experience, you will part ways with your old self.And at the end of this journey, wherever in your career you mayt be, you will be a more flexible, effective and integrated,in other words evolved version of yourself.

Posted 17/11/2020 by OMNIPRESS

Bibliography:
– Vernon P Holt & Russ Ladwa: “Mentoring: A Quality Assurance Tool for Dentists”. Primary Dental Care, Oct. 2008, part 1-6
-Developing a Mentoring Culture in Dentistry. Making a Difference in a Changing World. Vernon P Holt & Russ Ladwa PDC 2010 17(2)
-The Art of Coaching, Char. Petras (2017)
-Coaching for Performance John Whitmore (2009)