Create Your Ideal Dental Career

Before you can start down a path to a better career and more success, you have to have some idea of what that looks like. It’s important to realize that success means different things to different people. To one person success may mean traveling around the world, and to another, it may mean having the perfect job.

So what does success and your ideal dental career look like to you? When you ask yourself what it means to have the perfect dental career, what does that mean to you?

For example, you might have been brought up with the belief that success takes hard work. When you envision your ideal dental career, it may conflict with that belief. To you, your ideal career might not entail hard work. It might entail an abundance of leisure time.

Examine Your Beliefs

To fully embrace what success looks like to you and to create your ideal career, it’s important to examine your beliefs. How do your beliefs support your vision of success and your ideal career and how do they hinder it?

As you examine your beliefs, ask yourself why you believe something to be true. You may discover that you’ve held onto a belief only because you never thought to question it.

Write It Down

Take some time to create a vision for your future. You might start by closing your eyes and imagining an ideal day where you spend part of your day working with clients, part of your day pursuing your passions and living a simpler life. Once you have that idea in your head, it’s a good idea to write it down. As you document your vision for your future, it will start to take shape. You’ll have ideas about what you need to eliminate from your life and what steps you need to take to move forward.

Embrace What You Have

Often when we look to a new life and a new vision of success, it entails acquiring things. It’s important, before you take any steps to add more to your life, to assess what you already possess. Take a look at your personal strengths as well as your personal belongings. Chances are, you already have what you need to take significant steps toward a better future. You have the skills and knowledge. You have the enthusiasm. A life well lived often starts by appreciating what you already have.

No matter how close or how far away you believe you’re from achieving success and/or obtaining your ideal career, taking these steps, helps you get that much closer.  Now, it’s about taking the steps you need to take to achieve the vision you’ve set for yourself.

Interview Hack – Strike A Pose

Interviews can be a little nerve racking, even for the most confident person. Sometimes you need a little “quick fix” that makes you feel more courageous and gives you an instant boost in confidence. Here is a hack that only takes a minute or two and will increase your confidence and have you ready to shine in your interview.

What Is A Power Pose?

A power pose is a particular way to stand or sit that gives you an instant boost in confidence and courage. Research done on power poses even suggests that your body language or the pose you strike influences your hormones. In particular, the poses I’m about to share with you give you a boost of testosterone if you hold them for about two minutes.

You can strike these poses standing up or sitting down, and use them anytime you need that little extra confidence boost.

How To Strike A Power Pose

The easiest power pose in my mind is the “Wonder Woman”. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and your hands on your hips. Look at a picture of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman to get the perfect image of this pose.

When you’re at your desk, lean back in your chair, put your hands behind your head, and put your feet up on your desk for another strong power pose. If you don’t want your feet on your desk or are in an environment where that isn’t possible, lean back in your chair, keep your knees apart and rest your arm on the back of the chair or put it behind your head.

Simply standing up tall, or standing at the table during a meeting with your hands on the table, leaning in slightly can have a big impact. The most important thing is to not hunch over and don’t cross your arms in front of your body.

When To Strike A Power Pose

You can strike these power poses whenever you need to. It’s a good habit to spend two minutes in the morning before you get your day started doing your favorite power pose. This will set a confident tone for the rest of your day. Strike a pose throughout the day any time you feel less than confident. You can do these poses just about anywhere for a quick confidence boost break. Head to the bathroom if you feel silly standing like a superhero in the middle of the room.

Open More Opportunities By Saying Yes

“If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!” – Richard Branson

“Yes” is a powerful word that can have a huge impact on your life and your thinking. That’s why I love Richard Branson’s quote, this kind of strategy gets you thinking creatively in a heartbeat.

But, how often do we actually do this? Most of us have been raised to be cautious and prepared. We don’t like to stick our neck out there and say yes unless we’re fairly certain that we’re able to do what we’ve said yes to.

Sadly, that’s a very limiting attitude. You don’t know what you might miss out on by not saying yes. We already talked about avoiding negative words. The next step is to start embracing the yes and going for it.

Yes, you should accept opportunities even, and especially when, you’re not quite sure how you’ll get it done. Saying yes allows us to get more done and come up with solutions that will surprise even ourselves. We’re capable of so much more than we think we are. Saying yes more often will prove that to us.

Saying yes will help you with both positive and creative thinking. Getting in the habit of saying “yes” as your default response instead of “no” or “maybe”, gets you into a positive frame of mind. As soon as you start to say yes, your mind starts to work on figuring out what it will take to make what you just agreed to happen. It’s a good place to be.

The next question is, of course, how to get in the habit of saying yes more often. As with any new habit, it takes practice. Become more aware of the opportunities that are offered to you. Pay attention and make a note of every question you’re asked. Promise yourself to say “yes” more often. You don’t have to take it quite as far as Jim Carrey in the movie Yes Man, but give it your best shot. See how far you can take it and what sorts of opportunities start to open up to you when you challenge yourself to say yes more.

Most importantly, pay attention to how this one little mindset shift and habit affects your creative and positive thinking. Remember have fun with this… and challenge yourself to say YES! Who knows what opportunity will unfolf for you!

Simple Tips To Uplevel Your Career and Lead with Confidence

Confidence isn’t something you learn like rules. It’s your state of mind. It begins with positive thinking, practicing, training and gaining knowledge.  Confidence is built through actions and acceptance of your own skills and experience.

Whether you’re part of a team or the leader of a team, confidence in yourself and your abilities is an important part of excelling in your job and/or career.  This month we are sharing some simple tips to help you uplevel your career and lead with confidence.

Keep your emotions out of it.

Good leaders know that their emotions don’t normally have a place in business. Yelling and getting animated over problems have no place in the workplace. Allowing your emotions to get in the way is a sign you’re not objective enough and may be too passionate about the situation. Learn how to put your emotions aside.

Respond decisively and with conviction.

Leaders who have self-confidence don’t show any signs of doubt. You can do the same by speaking with conviction and authority- even if you are unsure. This shows you are in control.

Act like you have confidence.

If you are lacking confidence in some area, put on a smile and act like you do have confidence. Don’t lose your composure by worrying and giving in to fear. As the saying goes, “fake it until you make it.”

Know your strengths.

Knowing your character strengths helps you build your confidence in the areas you are lacking. Play up to your strengths in the way you lead. If you are good at building morale, use it in your role. If you are better at appointing work to others in a fair way, find ways to carry that over into other areas.

See yourself as confident.

A strong leader has a compelling vision of how they want to lead others. They know where they want their career to go. You can develop this skill by creating your own vision. See yourself as confident.

Hire a coach or find a mentor or role model.

You may need to get help building your leadership confidence. Hire a coach who specializes in building confidence. A mentor is another way you can build your confidence. Having someone who is already a confident leader mentor you through those times when your confidence is lacking will go a long way in building your self-confidence.

Take courses in leadership.

Most community colleges, technical schools and business schools, offer courses on being a good leader. These courses will walk you through different scenarios and help you build confidence in how you handle them.

Most leaders aren’t born with the confidence it takes to lead others. It takes time and practice before you begin to feel confident in your career role, whether as a leader or as part of a team.

Decrease Stress & Get More Done With These Productivity Tips

Productivity is not just about being efficient or getting things done. Increasing your productivity can help cut down expenses, increase your consistency, eliminate mistakes, help keep your mind and goals clear, keep you moving steadily towards your goals, decrease stress or worry and add more time to your day.

Do Your Most Important and/or Most Unpleasant Task First
Procrastinators do the most important or most unpleasant task last.

Do these tasks first and get them out of the way, and you’ll be more energized as you step into the rest of the day.

Shut All Your Browser Tabs Down
We all do it—have a gazillion tabs open while working. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and muddled, shut them all down and start afresh.

Use a Central Password Manager
If you’re not already doing so, take the time to sign up for either LastPass or RoboForm password manager. After you’ve set it up, any time you add a new site and create a password, LastPass will offer to save it for you.

That way, you only ever have to remember one central password (for your password manager). And you’ll never have to reset your other passwords multiple times or hunt around for the latest version again.

Break Major Goals into Tiny Bites
It’s far easier to reach the other side of the country one step at a time, rather than focusing on how far away and unreachable it feels.

Celebrate each step, and celebrate key milestones along the way even more. And remember that even the most famous musician in the world had to learn to keep at it, and learn one lesson at a time.

Untrain Your Brain
We have now hard-wired ourselves, quite literally, to multi-task—something that as of recent years has been venerated.

Psychologists have proved that multitasking dissipates energy and makes us feel dull and more confused later in the day. Furthermore, multi-tasking drops IQs by an average of 5 points, according to one source.

Focus on one task at a time, and shut off (and out) all other distractions.

Get Up An Hour Early
“If I only had an extra hour a day”, you may have said. So make one! Get up an hour early (even two or three hours early, if you can hack it) and see what you can accomplish when the world is quiet and everyone else in the house is still asleep.

Keep Things Fun
It’s not rocket science to note that we humans tend to abandon activities or tools that are stressful, difficult or boring. No matter what new habits or tools you decide to use to increase productivity, make sure that you find them easy to adopt—and fun to use.

Productivity is really just another way to make sure your quality of life—as well as your relationships with others—rocks. Being truly productive keeps you energized, inspired and heading straight towards your dreams.

How to Improve Collaboration Among Dental Team Members

In the world of dental offices, collaboration is the key to growing a thriving practice. Getting team members to work together in cooperation with each other is mandatory for success.

Bringing together a diverse group of people to work towards a common goal is extremely rewarding to a team leader. It can be unnerving and frustrating as well. Knowing how to collaborate effectively takes hard work from you.

Here are 6 tips to help you improve collaboration among your dental team members.

1. Clearly define the goals and the expected outcome of the dental team. Each member’s responsibilities should be explicitly identified. It may seem obvious to you but you want it to be obvious to the team member as well. They shouldn’t be wondering what to do next or who is doing what. Delegate key responsibilities to your team; those that make an impact on the project outcome.

2. Choose your team by carefully thinking about the people you want to work with. Assigning tasks to the right people is necessary to having an effective collaboration. When choosing members, consider each member’s skills, personality, their experience and their schedules.

3. Are there members of your team who are afraid to voice their opinions or to argue? These members won’t be adding any helpful and stimulating ideas and need to be encouraged to speak up. Just because they are quiet doesn’t mean they don’t have good ideas. Always include every team member in discussions.

4. Encourage your team members to socialize outside of work. This can be a great way to open up communication channels and break down walls of mistrust or misunderstanding.

5. Recognize and celebrate good collaborative behavior. Mention the great work the team is doing in the company newsletter, on a podcast or annual report.

6. Provide your collaboration team with the right and necessary tools. Do they need specific software or task management tools? These types of tools can be especially important if your team works from different locations.

7. Once your collaboration is going, continue to mix things up. If the people on your team are collaborating more with people they know, like and trust, it might be time to mix up your teams.

Improving collaboration among your dental team members is sometimes necessary. Team members need to know their role in your office and be encouraged to socialize with other members they don’t know in order to build trust to work together cohesively.

The 8 Most Damaging Online Reputation Mistakes You Can Make

Warren Buffet once said, ‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.’ In the high-speed information age of the Internet, we might amend that to say it takes five seconds to ruin it, or nanoseconds if we’re talking about viral content.

Surprisingly, most employees’ and/or companies’ reputations aren’t ruined by past job experience, education or unhappy reviews. You’re much more likely to damage your credibility by an online mistake. Here are the most damaging online reputation killers to be avoided at all costs.

1. Social Media Under the Influence

Perhaps the worst mistakes are made when you decide to get on Facebook or Twitter after having a few too many drinks. Companies have to be careful about what they say in posts and tweets. Even if you’re slightly tipsy, the filter that keeps you appropriate may fall by the wayside. There’s nothing more embarrassing than waking up and discovering what you posted the night before.

2. Badmouthing a Customer or Employer

Never badmouth a customer or employer online. The whole point of your online presence is to attract customers or potential employers. When you say something nasty or inappropriate about one, this sends the message to prospects that you don’t respect them. Even if you’re valuable, you’ll drive them away.

Actually, it’s never a good idea to trash anyone online. This goes for colleagues, companies, or any other person that annoys you. This rule even applies if a person has said something about you that you don’t like.

You should be building a reputation for being a friendly person that anyone can feel comfortable sharing information with.

3. Flat-out Lying

The urge to lie or bend the truth online is always there. It’s easier to lie through a computer screen than in person. In fact, you may be stretching the truth without realizing it. But the best thing you can do for your reputation is to be honest and transparent. You should always assume that a lie will be discovered and you’ll be exposed to the inevitable damage to your reputation.

4. Embarrassing Photos and Videos

One embarrassing photo or video can completely ruin your online reputation. Think of all the celebrities that have suffered this fate. Be careful about what you’re doing whenever cameras are present. You want your viral video to be one about how amazing you are, not how drunk you were at a party last weekend.

5. Getting Defensive

Again, if there’s a complaint or someone says something nasty about you, don’t get defensive. This looks bad, even if you’re in the right and the other person is a complete jerk. When you’re defensive, it shows that the person got under your skin and that there might be some truth to the attack. It also shows a lack of confidence on your part. Always handle complaints in a friendly, professional manner.

6. The Invisible Man/Woman

To build a good reputation online, you need to be consistent. Don’t disappear for days or weeks on end. Make it part of your regular routine to be present and interact with your audience online.

7. Online Reputation on Autopilot

Actively monitor your reputation consistently and frequently. Don’t only get concerned with it when there’s a problem. Set up alerts so that you know when people are talking about you and respond quickly when they do.

8.  All on the Same Page

If you have a staff of even one other employee or contractor, make sure they understand how serious online reputation is. Create a reputation policy so that everyone is on the same page and you can effectively avoid making any of these mistakes.

Golden Rules To Hiring Your Next Dental Dream Team Member

Hiring a new employee can be a stressful process. You need help and you need to trust someone to take care of certain tasks, as part of your dental team. By following these golden rules, hiring your next dental dream team member will be a lot easier.

Always Trust Your Instincts. If you’re not connecting with a potential employee or something just feels off, trust your instincts. If you feel like it may not be the right fit, test them out first. If you think they can handle everything you can throw at them and then some, hire them! Your instincts are one of your best assets; use them to help you grow your team successfully.

Clearly Explain What Your Needs and Expectations Are. Always tell your potential employee exactly what you need them to do. Don’t make them assume or guess. Provide as much information as possible. One great way to accomplish this is to create a SOP (Standard Operation Procedure) so your new potential employee knows exactly what to do and what is expected of them.

Check References. If you’ve decided to do the hiring directly yourself, always check references. If you’re working with a staffing agency, they do the heavy lifting for you. It’s important to follow through on this part, you’re hiring someone; make sure they’re the right person for the job you need.

Test Them Out. One of the best ways to develop a solid relationship with a potential employee is to start small. This is a huge benefit to working with a dental staffing company. When you try someone out on a temporary basis, it takes the pressure off and gives you both time to develop a relationship. This gives you time to learn how this person might fit with the team. Plus, it ensures you hired the right person to help you grow your dental office.

Utilizing a dental staffing company is a good business decision to help with the process of hiring someone for your team. If you decide to tackle the task on your own, remember to take your time, trust your instincts and follow good hiring practices and procedures.

Stand Out and Get Hired

Who doesn’t want to get hired on full-time at a dental office they love?  As we head into the new year, we thought we would share some tips on helping you stand out and get hired!

Standing out and getting hired means being the ideal candidate.  

An ideal candidate prepares!  The more prepared you’re, the more impressed the dental office will be!  Want to take it a step further, do some research on the dental office and “know” everything there is to “know” about them.  When it comes to standing out from the crowd, being prepared is the best way to set yourself apart from everyone else!

Show off your superstar skills.

Part of being prepared is showing why you’re the ideal candidate for the job.  Take some time to identify and list out how your past experiences relate to the required skills for the position.  Once you have those, pull together different examples that you can share, that will showcase your superstar skills and how they relate to the job.  Don’t forget to keep both your personal and career experience relevant to the position you want.

Don’t be afraid to share why you are the superstar for the job.

It’s time to sell yourself, so don’t be shy.  Let your best qualities shine and let your potential employer know exactly why you are the ideal candidate.  Use the research you did on the company to share specific examples of how you can improve the company or solve problems they may be facing.

Now, go out there, be your best self and land that dream job!

Minimize Stress, Relax and Refresh with this One Tip

Everyone today has turned into a multi-tasker!  We lead busy lives and juggle work, home, family and probably more.  Finding time for yourself can be difficult to do of often gets pushed off, leading to increased levels of stress.

As much as we all want to take care of everyone that is important in our lives, it’s important to pay attention to the most important person in your life, and that is YOU.

Putting everything and everyone before yourself is fairly common, but done for too long and you can find yourself feeling burned out.

Before you know it, you wake up one day and realize how stressed out you are and it can be difficult to get things back into balance. You may have gained weight or your health may not be the best.

Now is the time to think about YOU. Start by going for a walk a couple of times each week. This can be alone or with someone special in your life. Whether you go by yourself or not you want to concentrate on the sights and sounds as you walk. This has shown to be a great way to relax and refresh yourself and is one of the single best things you can do to combat stress.

If you let stress creep into your life your health can be pat risk.  Studies have linked stress to disease.  Dealing with stress at any age can be challenging, but it’s important to listen to your body and take action before hitting burn out.