A surprising observation
Sometimes people behave in the opposite of the way that is rational.
I’ve been presenting seminars for more than a decade. It has been a very fun ride and I still get a great kick out of helping dentists.
Many of the seminars I present are just to a single office or a closely related group of offices.
That means I often get to chat with the overall boss who knows how the individual dentists are performing.
Here is the surprising thing
If I see a dentist who is looking bored, not taking notes, playing on their phone, talking to the person next to them or asking smarty pants questions, then I know almost for certain they are a bottom performer.
Dentist: “What do you do if the patient does a hand stand when they come into the room?”
Me: “Has that ever happened?”
Dentist: “I know someone it happened to.”
To me it’s ironical — the type of dentist who has the most to gain from learning to communicate properly refuses to learn anything.
When I ask the boss about this type of dentist it is usually: “We give them 45 new patients a month and we can’t keep their book full.” or “"They only did 3 crowns last year.”
By contrast…
The top performers in a practice listen well, pay attention, take notes and ask intelligent questions that show they are engaging with the material.
Top performers are already good at what they do and they use every opportunity to become even better.
Success
This observation made me realise that being successful (however you might define that) is much more a result of attitude than natural ability.
With the right attitude you will succeed.
With the wrong attitude you will be stuck forever in the weeds of mediocrity.
It’s a choice we all get to make.
