Today saw me enjoying my family time, cycling with the kids and ignoring work. My 13 year old son decided our route and planned the timing and picnic. He delegated duties to all of us to make this happen and asked for advice and support when he needed it. He took the time to show his 7 year old sister how to peel a carrot. It was a fabulous outing and a lovely picnic.
He used a combination of authoritative, participative and delegating styles and allowed free reign when he knew others had the better knowledge. The boy is a natural born leader though I may be a little biased as his (extremely proud) mother.
And it made me look at myself as a clinician being a leader. You can be the most skilled, natural clinician but not be a good leader. Leading involves reading others and developing the workforce. It means taking responsibility for the good and bad that happens, and recognising a need to change. It means blending and developing good leadership skills to get the best out of everyone. And it means being able to hear criticism and take it on board. Not easy.
The main styles of leading are:
Authoritive: - you go and do what I say and then bring it back for me to sign off.
Participant: - let's work together to find the best solution and way forward
Delegation - you go and find out this while I do something else
I believe we need to have a good understanding of all three styles and recognise when to use which to develop as a leader. I also believe that as dental folks we tend to lean heavily towards being autocratic and authoritative. It fits in with our training and how we work as a clinician. It fits in less well with how we work as a team and the modern dental environment. Developing our leadership skills can lead to greater job satisfaction and increased revenue.
There is a simple survey link here that will let you see what kind of leader you tend to be. Then it is a case of learning how to blend your leadership approaches to get the best out of your team. Harder than it sounds.
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/survstyl.html
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