I met Mariam recently, an interesting and inspiring woman. During our conversation, she shared her perspective that there are three mindsets that we can choose from when in conflict and pushing for change.
VICTIM: This is egocentric. It is focusing on your personal response to challenging times, at the exclusion of anything else. This is an ineffective approach if you are trying to inspire change, as it only addresses your needs.
ANGER: This is accusatory and demanding. It does not inspire anybody to want to change. People’s response will be to either become defensive, or walk away to avoid the conflict.
EMPOWERMENT: This is where effective change happens. Empowerment is to educate yourself, develop skills and be strong. This is how you enable change to occur.
Like any workplace, dental practices need to regularly introduce or modify processes. The prompt is when a problem occurs, and you want to avoid it happening again.
When things go awry, it is not uncommon for managers of the situation to be in the mindset of anger. This can generate upset and anxiety within your team. If anger is a common response, teams become defensive and be prone to blaming each other to divert the attention away from themselves.
The better and more effective way is to become an empowered team.
Move away from whining, blaming and shaming. Instead, see every team member as valuable and deserving of a chance to realise their personal power. Encourage input and brainstorm ideas for solutions. Boost each other up and offer real support.
Things go wrong in life, this cannot be avoided. Successful lives and successful businesses only become that way through the effective management of those things that go wrong.
Shift your practice’s mindset and build your empowered team. Things won’t seem so ‘wrong’ after all.
