How to improve communication at your practice [VIDEO]

Like the characters from a horror movie, emotions that are buried alive will reappear … usually at the worst possible moment and will wreak havoc.

Here's help.

Teams that learn to trust and hold each other accountable by embracing creative, constructive conflict will be rewarded with breakthrough communication and success.

This is a skill that can and must be learned.

Bottom line: Systems, protocols and technology alone don’t create success, people do! Open, honest communication is a key to success and a skill we must develop.

We don’t hide our emotions well, so the goal is not to hide them, but to understand and challenge them. This process is really about developing your Emotional Intelligence, or your EQ. 

Most of us are familiar with IQ which measures how well you learn and doesn’t change. EQ is relatively new with serious research starting in the 1980s. Studies show that 70% of the time, it is the person with the higher EQ that is most successful … not the person with the higher IQ. This is great news because unlike IQ, EQ can be developed. 

EQ really levels the playing field and gives everyone an opportunity to be a successful communicator.  However, only 1 in 3 of us is aware of our emotions as we experience them.

Turn to look at the person to your right and to your left. Of the three of you, which is the one that is most emotionally aware? I’ll bet you said “I am!,”  but, if you’ve ever had a V8 moment, a “woulda, coulda, shouda” moment, you experienced an emotional disconnect or hijack.

Each of us brings our past experiences and bias with us to each new encounter, so there is the ‘event’ & then there is the story we tell ourselves about that ‘event.’  

When we recognize this and can put aside our patterns and see each event with a new perspective, as a new opportunity we clear the path for greater understanding and collaboration.

Ginny is the President of The Academy of Dental Management Consultants and a visiting faculty member at The Las Vegas Institute for Advanced Dental Studies (LVI). She authors the HR411 column in the Progressive Dentist Magazine and writes for First Impressions Magazine. She has podcasts on HR Best Practices available on the Academy of General Dentistry website.  Ginny also lectures at the Kornberg School of Dentistry at Temple University in Philadelphia as part of the Practice Management Program.

Reach Ginny at Ginny@GinnyHegarty.com  or 610-873-8404