Here we are at the beginning of another exciting new year. One exercise I like to do (generally on my holiday break) is sit quietly and reflect on the year — a highlights reel, if you will, with a few questions in mind, how did I show up? How did I grow? How did I serve? I also do this with clients by inviting the doctor and team to review their year by asking, how did I show up as a leader? How did the practice grow? How did we serve our patients and community?

Often, there are obvious areas of great reward and satisfaction. However, there may also be some obvious areas where we can stretch both personally and as part of a team. And, that’s not always easy to confront. In fact, I find some teams initially resist this exercise because they may not be thrilled with their results. It may not be a year they want to remember, rather one they would like to forget. And, that is precisely where a radical new year awaits. On the other side of this exercise is also looking at the year ahead and that begins with dreaming, thinking and creating a new and rich possibility.

By making subtle, yet profound shifts in the mindset of the practice you can unlock the hidden potential and put your team on a path to confidence, peace and productivity.

The “mindset of the practice” is what I refer to as the collective thinking of each and every team member combined. This mindset or collective thinking permeates and penetrates every area of the practice — impacting the patients, treatment, environment, team morale, productivity. It is that powerful!

I discovered Carol Dweck, Ph.D. while doing some research on mindset and motivation. Dr. Dweck is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation at Stanford University. In her book, Mindset, she distinguishes between a fixed and a growth mindset. Her work is fascinating as she explores intelligence, talents and personality and how these impact mindset in an individual as well as a collective group. She proves how difficult it is for courage and innovation to survive a company-wide fixed mindset. In contrast, Dr. Dweck also demonstrates how a growth mindset can be developed to produce achievement, success and extraordinary results. If you are curious about this topic, you’ll definitely want to add this one to your reading list.

So, how does this relate to the dental practice? Well, I discovered, if you are curious to know the mindset of the practice you need only look at the results of what the practice is producing to provide the answer. Yes, I’m suggesting the health of the practice is the direct result of the thinking (or, the mindset) that preceded it. Some may say, ‘well, how can that be? … of course I want a healthy practice but, I’m still not getting the results I want’.

Some may even argue, ‘it’s the economy, our practice is in a rural area, corporate dentistry is dominating the market, our patient’s lost their insurance coverage…’. I’m not disputing any of these reasons. However, no one is being held hostage to them either. One can choose to believe these may be valid reasons while continuing to generate the results which that thinking (belief) produces. Or, consider there is something else at play. Consider some facts! There ARE offices thriving despite the economy, lost jobs and all the reasons one might come up with to explain a less than desirable result.

We all want a successful practice but that is not enough in order to achieve the desired results. My first question to those not getting the results they want is, ‘what do your innermost thoughts believe about what’s possible?’. I don’t necessarily mean what is spoken to colleagues, a spouse, the team or what you think you should be saying. What’s crucial to examine is the secret conversation you have with yourself — your innermost thoughts and beliefs about what’s possible. Therein lies your answer. And, until you are willing to be completely honest with yourself, you will delay having a breakthrough in this area — in your life and your practice.

The beauty is, you get to decide. Everyone of us absolutely has the power to create and recreate anything we want for ourselves — at any moment. In order to begin that process we must first believe that it is possible. Only then can we begin to shift the belief and thinking into alignment with what is truly desired.

So, how do we go to work on building that belief? It’s actually very simple…but, not always easy. We consistently and repetitiously feed our mind with the desired results. This produces an emotion or feeling in our bodies that cause action which then produce a result. Why is it not easy? Because giving up is easier than waiting around for the evidence to manifest. And, too often the truth is still that there is an underlying disbelief about what’s truly possible.

One way to remain on track is to be the gatekeeper of what we think. We build our thinking and belief around our environment. When we feed our minds with positive and rich possibility and pay close attention to what we expose our minds to, we can create a shift. We must safeguard our minds from the outside elements much in the way we safeguard teeth from cavities using sealants. What we read, listen to, watch on TV, the conversations we engage in — all have direct access to our minds and a direct link to having an impact on our beliefs, thoughts, actions and, ultimately our results.

Another way to build belief is to engage in persistent study of those who are successful. We’ve all heard the saying, “you can’t soar like an eagle when you hang out with turkeys.”. So, if your study club spends time comparing horror stories from the office and discussing how bad the economy is affecting new patient numbers then that’s not the study club for someone interested in producing extraordinary results in their practice. Find or create a source of collaboration and inspiration that gets your juices flowing and feeds that growth mindset.

The final piece here is coming full circle with our teams. As the doctor and leader of your practice you have the ability to shift the mindset of the entire practice. You have an opportunity to influence and empower the team with belief, possibility, productivity and success. Think of yourself as the executive producer, director and actor in the movie of your practice. You get to create the film set, the mood and control all the lines. Make it your dream team enterprise and a radical new year to remember.