I’ve recently been reading Justin Leigh’s book, Inspire, Consult, Sell. It’s a brilliant read for those within the dental industry, as he considers how to improve communications, and grow to achieve your highest potential.
Something that resonated with me was one passage towards the end, in which Justin discusses his experience as part of an entrepreneurs’ group. The group met for members to help each other out, and having found himself at a crossroads, Justin asked his cohort for advice. He received the overwhelming answer that he should focus on what he did best: dentistry sales.
It was, he said, obvious once he’d heard it: a classic light bulb moment. The point here being that sometimes clarity can only be found through other people.
This also puts me in mind of a management course that I completed back in 2016 at University College Dublin. This drew together people from different locations and cultures with the aim of each becoming better at what they did. Spanning a week, it was designed to create the right conditions for each participant to experience a breakthrough on the final day.
Our first challenge was to sit and draw our management problem. At this stage in my life and career, I was relatively young and absurdly confident (something that’s conversely dwindled as I’ve become older and gained more skills). My younger self was happy to dive in and learn as I went, with a strong sense of my own abilities. During this exercise, I outlined my challenge, to which another attendee commented, “It sounds like you need a business consultant”.
Er, what? As a business consultant myself, I was miffed. I wasn’t ready to hear it, so I brushed the observation to one side and continued with my week.
After several interesting days, we came to the final exercise of the course. In this, I had to take the role of “presenter”, speaking to a chairperson and a panel of my peers, who had their backs turned to me. Here, across ten minutes, I had to explain my problem to the chair. The panel could take notes and listen in, but not talk to me. The chair might ask the odd question, but the majority of those ten minutes was dedicated to the sound of my own voice. If I finished early, I had to stand in silence until the time was up. Scary stuff indeed.
After my ten minutes were over, I faced away so that the panel could turn and share any questions they’d like the chair to ask. They then turned their backs once again, and a further six minutes of my own voice followed, as I answered the second batch of questions. Finally, the panel members turned and spoke to the chair for another five minutes, before sharing their feedback with me.
This exercise is so interesting because it demonstrates several things. Firstly, that what you say doesn’t always come across as you want it to, and secondly, that people do talk behind your back. But in particular, it highlights the true value of listening to others.
The feedback I received from this session was that – unsurprisingly – the person I spoke to at the start of the week was correct. My leadership problem wasn’t my problem. Actually, I was suffering from an excess of waffling and a lack of structure, which stemmed from not having a strategy in place. I really believed that I knew exactly what I was doing, but with everyone saying the same thing, it hit me that their insight was spot-on. This breakthrough showed a glaring need to change how I was operating, which was an important moment in my career. I’m still reaping the benefits today.
On this course, I also met Johann, an experienced marketer from Cape Town who became something of a mentor to me during the week. He shared the following pearl of wisdom: the truth only hurts once. There are certain truths that we’re all avoiding, or completely unable to recognise. We might not like them, but we may as well face up to them.
If you take a look at yourself, you may even be able to see the signs: perhaps you always seem to be busy, but don’t feel you’re getting the rewards this effort ought to bring. You might be stressed, with the sense that your business runs you, rather than you running it. My advice would be to listen to people. Everyone can tell you something if you take the opportunity to hear them. Ask yourself whether the narrative you tell yourself supports what you want to do, or what you need to do.
And if you want to discover your breakthrough truth, I can help you.
