What I Learned About Leadership from a Root Canal

Excellent observation Michael, Its true as bloggers(leaders, managers) we can take lessons from all around us. Life teaches us same lessons again and again, and unfortunately we miss it every time.

This is a textbook case of a Good Doctor. I read the book First break all the rules. The author explained that great nurses differed from their mediocre counterparts, not because of their great skills in administering the injection any better but because they clarified expectation and they had empathy. The did not say “oh don’t worry, this will not hurt a bit” instead they said “I understand you are concerned and this is going to hurt a little, so please bear with me”

One Question, the qualities that you listed are they good qualities of a manager or a leader in your opinion? (I am not saying any role is better than the other)

Yet another great post!  Thanks for the learning.

I think the overriding lesson for me in this is to COMMUNICATE.  You ask about walking someone through a scary experience.  The very emotions you had leading up to the whole root canal experience…these are the same emotions our employees have when change is introduced!

Others have “told” them about previous experiences with change.  They are scared.  They are unsure of the outcome.  They fear pain.

If we, as the leaders, will simply communicate with them throughout the experience (as you described above), then we can avoid much of the fallout that otherwise might exist.

I appreciate you sharing this!

We’ll Michael, I can see you sitting in that chair, iPhone in hand, capturing every moment in Evernote. With gauze in your mouth, I can see you asking the doctor… “How do you spell end-od-o-tist?” :-)

I haven’t had a root canal yet, but I’m close. The old wives tales are very prevalent. Thanks for dispelling the myths and giving us a life lesson at the same time! Personal experiences are very powerful.

Good communication is key in situations like this. I work with people all the time that have sick computers. A frequent fear is… “Have I lost everything? Is my data gone?” I have to reassure them that we have a good chance of recovery. I try to put myself in their shoes. While fixing a computer is routine for me, it can be really scary for them. Using the right tone of voice and being reassuring, goes a long ways to create a positive experience. While a data restore may not be as traumatic as a root canal, the thought of losing years of pictures, documents, and financial data can bring on a cold sweat in just minutes!

Hmmm… note to self… buy a backup drive…sleep better at night…

A good dentist can be hard to find. I had a Navy dentist traumatize me so bad I wouldn’t see another dentist for more than 5 years, after I was in extreme agony for a few weeks. I smoked while I was in the Navy, I went in for my exit physical, and this dentist had me in a chair with my mouth stretched wide open, scraping my teeth and gums roughly and yelling at me about my smoking. I mean, he had a sharp instrument IN MY MOUTH and was genuinely ANGRY with me at the time. He started demanding I hand my pack over and commit to quitting on the spot. Heck no, I needed about 5 cigarettes after I got out of there. I have since quit, no thanks to people like that dentist.

Even after I started going back to dentists again, I never understood why they wait until you’re in the most uncomfortable part of the procedure before they start chewing you out for “not taking better care of your teeth”. I don’t understand how dentists can get away with such horrible customer service. From what I understand, none of their education is dedicated to teaching them how to run a business, so I guess that could explain it.

I currently have a good dentist. He’s an elder at my church, has a “no pain” policy, and does a good job. He’s the only dentist I’ll see.

By the way, Michael, one of your ad servers, static.nrelate.com is taking forever to load your site. I often have to open a tab to your site, then switch to another tab and come back later after it’s loaded.

Make yourself available…..

Thats so huge….I think instead of hiding, making sure the other person knows your available to talk is a huge priority.

Thanks for lettimg me think this morning.

James
Author-The Last Seven Pages
http://www.jamespinnick.com

I’ve had two root canals. One the old way – not fun whatsoever. The other a few months ago – still not fun, but much quicker – although I’m still paying the bill! Somehow the price for a one hour procedure is twice the price for the six hour one. 

Finding writing fodder in all life experiences is similar to Jesus sharing parables found in everyday experiences. He talked of seeds with farmers and fish with fisherman. God can use all our experiences and reveal Himself through them. That’s why my passion is “bringing an eternal perspective to earthly matters.” 

Thanks for making my root canal experience more worthwhile! 

Good reminders that God’s life lessons are all around if we are looking for them. These are good lessons to be learned for our ministries! Often our secular society does a better job of “serving” than our churches.

As far as the “folklore” of a root canal being a nightmare, my first was on an incisor and it was worry-free. My second was on a molar which had nerves descending in three places. It took so long that I needed a pain relief booster! ;-) And this endodontist was much like yours along with the latest technology for a computerized X-Ray and the ability to actually “look” into the hole by a small camera! So, folklore or not, I still equate some stressful meetings at church with a root canal – only no Novocain! ;-)

I enjoy your posts!

I had a similar experience a few years ago, except that some infection had formed not under a filling but under an existing root canal, all the way up where the tooth meets the bone. So the dentist told me I needed to see an “oral surgeon,” which sounded like a lot of fun. 

So I went to the oral surgeon, and the main difference between my experience there and a regular dentist’s visit was that the surgical procedure I underwent took all of ten minutes to complete and was less painful than a basic tooth cleaning. 

Overall, having lived on both sides of the Atlantic, I find that American dentists are far more concerned about patient comfort than European ones. In Europe, no dentist ever gave me a pain killer for a plain old filling. In fact, the last European dentist I went to started a root canal (!) on me without giving me an injection first. (And I’m not talking about some backwoods dental office in the Macedonian mountains somewhere. This was a high-tech first-world facility in Austria with a team of assistants and all manner of digital gadgetry.) 

For some reason, it seems that European dentists are slightly less concerned about traumatizing patients into refusing to return. 

In the States, it’s all about pain elimination. They even apply some gel to numb your gums prior to injecting the Novocaine. I’m surprised they don’t offer different flavors for the gel to accommodate every patient’s taste preference. 

I could not agree more with the items mentioned. I see it in my work place everyday where our employees struggle to meet those items with the client and it really messes things up. But when they apply them to the job the customer is forever grateful. Thank you for the insightful post.

Michael, I enjoyed your comparison of the doctor’s bedside manner to our role as leaders. The fact that you feared the process before knowing much; because of what you had heard, can also happen to us as leaders.  Someone’s experience with us, may be reported incorrectly, so we need to remember that when someone new comes into our responsibility as a leader.  Thanks for the reminder

I’m glad you had such a wonderful experience here and that you told us about it. Certainly should make me less nervous if I ever need one. Thank you!

God bless, Anne Marie :)