Case Study #5: Becoming a More Effective Leader in Practice and in Life

The client: Diane* practices dentistry on the West Coast. She’s a bright intuitive woman with a busy solo practice and six employees. She had worked with practice management consultants in the past but this time when she needed help getting, as she called it, “unstuck,” she contacted me.

The issue: Diane felt she needed to improve her skills as a leader in order to continue having a successful practice. She had a challenging relationship with a clinical assistant who had been with the practice for several years. Additionally, some of the issues and/or behaviors that created stress in her role as a leader at work also cropped up in her role as a mother.

The process: I worked with Diane exclusively by telephone for just over a year. I elected not to approach helping her develop leadership skills in the conventional way — addressing employer-employee communications, how to give feedback, how to effectively delegate, etc. While that approach is indicated with some clients, in Diane’s case it was not. Instead, we looked more deeply at how she could take actions and make decisions that that were more in alignment with the kind of leader she wanted to be. One of the interesting facts that surfaced during the course of our work together was that Diane had been coming across to her staff in a way that was 180 degrees from how she intended to act or handle herself. The core of our work was helping Diane look at how she managed herself, how that impacted her staff, and how she could adjust her behaviors to generate preferred outcomes. Our work together included a combination of coaching and consulting, as well as the Emotional Intelligence (EQ) profile, which proved to be invaluable as a learning and skill development tool for Diane.

I also coached Diane’s office manager, which turned out to be extremely valuable for both the manger and for Diane. As Diane emerged as a different kind of leader, her office manger developed a new work style and together they began making necessary changes so that the office functions more harmoniously.

The outcome: “Everything is timing and I was ready to clear up some things and move forward,” says Diane. “There has been a total change in my consistency as a leader. I’m much less reactive. There is a tremendous amount of good energy in the office now. I’m fair, but I don’t tolerate things I shouldn’t. I became in control of myself as a leader,” adds Diane. By working on herself, Diane blossomed as a leader in both her practice and her personal life.