Great Leaders and the Rewards of the Abundance Mindset

Of all the qualities that define a great leader, one of the most important is a sense of abundance. To be clear, I am not talking about material abundance. From a leadership perspective, feeling abundant is about feeling rich with opportunity, and it marks the difference between the dentist who looks around and sees limitations—insurance limitations, patient value limitations, team limitations—and the one who continually sees possibilities everywhere.

And believe me, the opportunities are always there. Starbucks took hold with a young demographic at a time when coffee drinkers were thought to be dying out. Apple built the world’s most successful electronics company during the worst recession of the last century. When you have an abundant mindset, you can’t help but see opportunities that are largely invisible to many others. In fact, the biggest issue facing people who embrace this kind of abundance mindset is recognizing that you can’t possibly fully pursue every opportunity you see.

So when you find yourself abundant with opportunities—and all it takes is a visit to something like our Facially Generated Treatment Planning workshop to see the incredible possibilities that walk through your practice every day, at least from a clinical standpoint—it becomes about choosing what you’re going to get excited about and focused on.

What new area of clinical focus or technology are you going to master next—worn dentition? CEREC? Which patients tomorrow are you going to single out for extra attention in an attempt to get their dental health possibilities back on track? What is the next big thing you can do to keep your team aligned with your vision? If you have the right abundance mindset, your head should be swimming with ideas. From there, it is just a matter of selecting which ones to give your full devotion to, and then dive in.