Page 6 - CEREC Q3|2013

4 | cerecdoctors.com | quarter 4 | 2013
How to Turn Today’s Limits Into Tomorrow’s NewOpportunities
Going Deep With CEREC
“focus on what you are good at.”
That’s advice you hear a lot and, in
fact, there is something to be said for the
“hedgehog” philosophy of playing to your
strengths. But if you are really going to
grow, improve and get themost fromyour
life every step of the way, you can’t just be
satisfied with focusing on what you are
good at now. You also need to have an eye
on what you are going to be good at next.
That’s where the frontier is — just beyond
the limits of what feels comfortable now.
That’s where the path to greater success
lies. To get there, you have to overcome
some natural inclinations to stay safe.
Think about a novice swimmer step-
ping out into an ocean. He is comfort-
able and feels safe, as long as he is in the
shallows and his feet are safely on solid
ground. As soon as he ventures into
deeper water and he can no longer feel
the sand beneath him, panic sets in and
he immediately turns back to where he
can find solid footing. It’s just a natural
human instinct — one that applies to
many areas of our lives. As soon as we get
out of our depth, we want to turn back.
But, here’s the thing: if that new
swimmer knows in advance that he is
going to go into deeper waters — if he
has a swimming instructor by his side
and he expects to venture beyond his
existing comfort zone — he is more
likely to proceed with confidence, or
at least with determination. In other
words, if he approaches it with the right
mindset and preparation, he has a good
chance of testing and surpassing his
previous limits.
When you think about it, this is how
the process of growth happens in many
areas of life: by testing limits. The same
is true for optimizing CEREC success.
t h e c o m p l e t e d e n t i s t | | | b y i m t i a z m a n j i
Limits Are Guideposts
Simply by being a CEREC owner, you
have already proven that you have the
ability to go outside of your comfort
zone in search of the next level. You have
gone through the process of re-learning
how to deliver dentistry using this tech-
nology. That alone has put you among
the leaders in the profession. But why
stop there?
I have seenmany dentists who embrace
CEREC technology, but only at a basic
level and only for the same kind of specific
cases. They will use it every day for poste-
rior restorations, with great success. They
will rave about how it has changed their
lives and how patients respond to it. But
when it comes to any kind of anterior
esthetic case, they are out of their CEREC
comfort zone and they stickwith the tried
and true lab-based approach.
That’s not to say that CEREC is always
the right choice for every situation. But,
there are plenty of dentists out there
who are proving that it can be a viable
option in a variety of cases. If you are not
exploring all those options, it’s probably
because you are coming up against some
self-imposed limits. It’s deep water that
you don’t feel comfortable swimming in.
In order to make real progress, you
have to use those limits as guideposts
rather than roadblocks. Whenever you
come up against a situation where you
feel out of your depth and you find your-
self turning back to what feels safe and
comfortable, take that as a sign. It takes
a certain kind of courage to do this — to
say, “this is where I start to feel unsure
of myself” — and then make a conscious
decision topush farther in that direction.
But that is how we challenge ourselves.
That is how we get better.
Creating a Culture
Beyond Comfort
As important as it is for you to force your-
self to stretch, it is even more important
for your team. Dentistry tends to attract
people who are obsessed by details and
who like consistent organization —
which is a good thing considering how
much there is to keep track of in a dental
practice. But, this also means these
attentive and consistent people aremore
likely to get uncomfortable in a situation
where they can’t control everything.
And let’s not forget human nature.
The people on your team — like most
people — like to feel good about them-
selves. They like to feel confident in
what they do. They don’t want to look
unsure of themselves in front of you or
the patients. They don’t want to feel
like they are not good at something. So,
when they find themselves faced with
something that challenges that sense
of security they have in their abilities,
they have a powerful impulse to resist
and turn back. And, from your position
inside the operatory you don’t have a
lot of opportunity to oversee and do any
hand-holding.
This is where true leadership comes in.
You have to create a culture that supports
excellence and, at the same time, gives
your people the inspiration to grow by
giving thempermission tomakemistakes
on their way to the next level. That is the
onlyway to ensure that they keepmoving
toward that next level. It starts with the
team seeing it in you. If they really feel
your dedication to exploration they will
be more willing to venture out beyond
their comfort zones, too.
This mindset of finding and surpassing
limits is especially useful when it comes to