Over the years I have attended many staff meetings where employees discussed great ideas to improve processes, but none ever came to fruition. Their ideas stay ideas. And how about all those dental meetings that are followed by exhibit hall strolls, up and down the aisles, where you see and learn a few new ways to do something or try out new products that will help you be more productive and efficient with your time. You return to the office, excited and anxious, present them to the team at a staff meeting, and it stops right there, never moving forward. Ideas get an eye roll and product samples get pushed to the back of the storage closet never to see the light of day. Those who attend these professional development activities are excited to share a better way, but then the wind is taken out of their sails. If your audience is receptive, the team will maybe be excited about your suggestions, but only for a day or two, and then everyone goes back to the same ol’ ways and nothing changes.
You are a dental professional, and you want to make a difference in your work, but you can’t seem to get anyone in the office on board. I recently read the article “How to Influence Decision Makers” by Marshall Goldsmith in the Spring 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review. Goldsmith offers some tips on how to influence those above you to follow your lead. He suggests you take your ideas right to the top, to the key decision maker(s) in the office. Goldsmith ads they may not be the right person, the smartest person or the best person, but that’s OK. What’s important is this: If you can influence them, you can make a positive difference.
Three tips on how to influence the decision maker:
1. Focus on the fact that you want to make something better. Own the presentation with passion and take responsibility for the results. Don’t talk about what has been. Do not place blame for why things are the way they are. Instead, talk about what will be and how you will guide the team to achieve. Be positive throughout.
2. Leave them nothing to figure out. Keep in mind that you want to make a difference for the good of all. Not for you, not so you or your team gets all the credit, rather how this new idea/product will make a positive change on the business and it’s customers as a whole. Remember who you are presenting to, and do not assume they should already know everything. Focus on the positive impact across the board and give them all the details. Do all the work for them.
3. Know the cost and put value to the dollar. Remember the business has limited resources, time and energy. Be realistic and have a good understanding, knowing that something else, or someone else’s idea may have to give, in order to implement your idea or suggested change.
You are being an influencer when you take your ideas and suggestions for improvement directly to the decision maker. When you have done your homework and prepare well, you will also be prepared for any objections to your idea before they even occur. Own it, implement it and stay on top of it. The company will benefit, and you will have added another level to your work satisfaction. You have invested in you and the future of your organization.
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