Have you ever thought to yourself, “if I was first on the scene of a bad car accident, would I dive in and assist immediately, or would I look around for others to help?”
I have certainly considered how I would react, hoping that I would be driven by a surge of bravery and heroics. But I’ll never know unless faced with the scenario.
My step-daughter-in-law does it all the time. Tam is a paramedic. She is faced with trauma on a daily basis. How does she do it?
Despite me believing there are definitely heroics involved, she has a big reason to have faith in herself to step up at each occasion. She is trained for it. There is no doubt, confusion or panic. She knows exactly what to do.
The same is true for each one of us. Confusion and panic are eliminated when we have sufficient training and experience.
I was listening to a podcast where self-improvement author and presenter Tony Robbins was being interviewed by business superstar Marie Forleo. He delivered a quote by Archilochos that truly resonated:
“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.”
In order to be ‘brave and heroic’ in a situation of trauma, it would serve me to gain first aid and emergency training. In order for me to have become a successful dental practice owner, I needed to do much more than visualise my goals. I needed to train myself. And I did. I read everything I could, listened to training CD’s and I tackled every experience with a view to learning and becoming better.
Building a dynamic dental team is a challenge, and at times can seem elusive. But remaining true to Archilochos philosophy of “falling to the level of our training” is your pathway to success. Train and empower your team. Allow them to learn through experience. Up-skill them in all the areas that will serve them and the practice.
As my co-founder, Charles Kovess has learnt so well from others and his own journey:
“Good judgment comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgment!”