Mar 31, 2020
We’re doing things a bit differently on this episode of Feeling Good. We’re still talking all things wellness, but we switched it up and this time my guest will be interviewing me! Chuck Blakeman, a fellow dentist with a podcast of his own, asks me why our best leadership skill is our emotional intelligence.
You may not know it now, but all of us dentists need emotional intelligence if we want to run a successful dental practice.
What is emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is our ability to not only be aware of our own thoughts but to understand the way our staff and our patients are also thinking. No, this doesn’t mean we all have to become mind readers. Having emotional intelligence means you’re able to recognize how others’ thoughts will influence their feelings and actions.
Too often we’re all in survival mode and only thinking about “me me me”. But with emotional intelligence, you’re able to understand the way others think about themselves and empathize with their thoughts, their feelings, and ultimately their actions.
This episode of Feeling Good is all about developing your emotional intelligence. The process is very simple, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. As a life coach, I’ve spent my career teaching other dentists how to use metacognition, and we talk a bit more about what that process looks like on this episode.
To use metacognition, you first have to be aware of your thoughts and the impact they have on the world around you. For us dentists, this means that your thoughts influence the way you run a dental practice. If you don’t know what it looks like inside of your head, take a look at your business. That will give you a good gauge at how aware of your thoughts you actually are.
How does your dental practice look? Do you wish it would run a bit differently? No matter how you answer this question, you’re already on the path toward making new thought habits and developing your emotional intelligence. Once you’re aware of what you’re thinking, the process for changing these thoughts and being able to tap into the thoughts of others becomes much easier.
Your best leadership skill will be your emotional intelligence, but you won’t develop this powerful leadership skill if you don’t first understand the power of your thinking. In order to move forward, you will have to dive into your thoughts and get uncomfortable. But nothing worth doing is ever easy, and Chuck and I are here to help dentists at every stage of their careers develop the emotional intelligence necessary to run a successful dental practice.
In This Episode You Will Learn
Some Questions We Discuss
Resources