Guest Blog – Leadership
This weeks theme is leadership.
So many people struggle with the understanding of this area and for your practice to be truly successful it relies on great leadership.
I have been working with Dr Nadim Majid since 2009, almost three years. The reason that I asked him to write this post is due to his leadership skills. He really makes it work in his practice and it’s a joy to work with him and his team! Over to Nadim:
There are many Books on leadership and many articles giving differing approaches from military personnel and religious leaders. In my opinion they all work for the individuals involved.
So where to start with leadership, well the first thing would be to define what leadership is then why does anyone need to have leadership skills then what can be done to develop them?
So here goes
My definition of leadership to” influence and inspire people to achieve a desired goal “so it’s a very broad definition and I believe all of us are leaders so some extent in our lives in the different roles we have. We might be a husband a father a mother a wife or a leader in business at work you can even say inspiring yourself to achieve your own goals is in fact self-leadership.
So with this definition it can be quite easy to see that we all need some understanding of leadership skills and also how to lead others after all “everything you want or need is in the hands of someone else. But why is leadership so important? Well the most important lesson I have learnt is that I can achieve my goals on my own and the second most important helping others to help you compounds your results in fact your multiplying yourself. As john Maxwell says in his book Level 5 leadership “Level 5 leaders are leaders who develop leaders who then go on to develop leaders” imagine the impact of that your inspiring people to achieve a goal or are then inspiring others to do the same.
how to lead:
If we are to influence someone then we must make sure we meet their needs, the simple hierarchy of human needs, by Abraham Maslow sate that food shelter and water would be the first level of needs that must be met. We then go higher up to levels of needs, then purpose. To have a purpose, a meaning, a reason why, is a need which must be met otherwise we get bored not knowing why we do what we do.
I guess the understanding of influence and inspiring people is paramount so here is a simple short formula to remember in how to inspire or motivate people in the work place taken from the book Drive by Daniel Pink
M—mastery to develop and have the ability to develop. This is giving your followers a clear path of development and for them to do so
A—-Autonomy – the ability to influence their environment and to change things so for instance at Google they all have 20% of their time which they can do whatever they like as long as they show what been working on – I guess in the dental setting this is allowing your people to make decisions without having to consult with you for everything. So for example if there is any decision or a series of decisions that doesn’t cost more than £100 a day then make those – only consult me if you need to make a decision which will cost £100.01 or more
P=—–Purpose – the reason why the mission statement exists. If you give people the reason why they are doing what you expect of them, the more likely to get buy in. I guess it goes back to the higher needs being met in each of us to know why we do things…
And finally praise and gratitude – the good leaders look out of a window and see their people and the not so good see their reflection.. A leader not only acknowledges the effort and work placed by the team but is truly grateful on a deep level………………So thank you
Dr Nadim Majid Lifestyle Dental
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