Do you know what you are looking for – an associates eye view of finding the perfect job.
Many associates are unhappy with where they are working and looking to find something better. Some move frequently and could be considered job hoppers, searching for the ideal job, and not finding it.
Looking from the outside and with 33 years of being a dentist and 17 years of coaching experience, my sense is, that for many, the perfect job is like looking for a pot of money at the end of the rainbow because they either don’t know what they are looking for or are looking for the wrong things.
The reason you are struggling to find the ideal job is because you weren’t taught how to identify what is important to you. As we read ads for associates they often read as if one associate is the same as every other, you are not and what is an ideal practice for you, is someone else’s hell and vice versa.
Many ads read that associates are looking for practice with scanners, implants, rubber dam, particular composites etc believing that the equipment will make them happy. You can be very unhappy in a brand new well equipped surgery. The physical environment is often how people judge a practice and it is poor predictor of how well you will fit in.
Logical levels
I would like you to listen to your inner voice of wisdom, as I share something that was developed by my tutor and coach Robert Dilts. in 1976 Robert Dilts developed a concept called the logical levels. The logical levels describe how you process information, create meaning, how problems and challenges can be created and how they can be solved. there are six logical levels, environment, behaviours, capabilities, beliefs and values, identity, and purpose.
Problems cannot be fixed on the same level they were created.
Changes
When changes are made at the lower levels the solutions are seldom long lasting.
When changes are made at the higher levels, they are long-lasting and solutions also cascade down to the lower levels.
Changes at the lower levels never create changes in at the upper levels.
Making changes at an environmental level, e.g. buying a new sand blaster is like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic, new equipment won’t make you happy in your job or fit in your practice. This is the wrong criteria to be chasing when you are looking for your ideal position.
Firstly, you must really understand what you want, your criteria, to be meaningful the things you need to know about yourself include, beliefs, values, culture at work, philosophy, identity, thinking patterns and purpose.
When you are clear about your criteria then you can start to look for a practice that is a match or is complimentary.
The things that will make you really happy at work or so unhappy you want to leave, again, are the elements at the top of the logical levels. When there is a clash between you and your colleagues. You may want to use rubber dam because you identify as the high-quality clinician for whom it is essential and because your purpose as a dentist is to do the best care and treatment for your patients providing long lasting beautiful restorations. If you are working with a nurse, who wants to do bish, bash, bosh, dentistry, there is a clash and it will not work out, one or other of you will leave. it is not about the rubber dam clamps (environment) it is about purpose and identity.
I work with associates eliciting their criteria and showing them how to discover if there is a match or a clash with a practice, saving them the stress, heartache, and expense of working in yet another unsuitable practice.
Words
Another potential cause of frustration and dissatisfaction is when we have different meanings to the same words. For example many young dentists are looking for a mentor, what do you and your potential principal mean by that? For you a mentor may be someone who will come into your surgery, check your margins, stand over and assist your extractions, spend lunchtimes discussing cases, and weekly 1-2-1 conversations, for a principal a mentor maybe someone who has a light touch, is around and their function is to encourage and reassure, enable you to think for yourself, trust your judgement and not teach. If you start in a practice expecting one thing and they deliver something else you will feel let down, possibly deceived, simply because you have different meanings of the word mentor, and have not clarified what you each mean.
Supportive team is another phrase that means different things to different people. The interpretation of words can be categorised into seven different categories or drives based on the work by Professor Clare Graves.
Your scores
The statements below indicate 7 different meanings of the phrase, supportive team. Read them, consider them and if you had 10 points that you could share across the 7 statements, the number of points indicate how important the statement is to you, whole numbers only, how you you rate them. As your friends and colleagues, what are their scores, are they the same, are they different? Now imagine Statement number 5 was really important to you and you scored it 8 and the practice culture of the supportive team was a number 2, how would you find working in that environment?
- We are a supportive team, we keep each other safe.
- We are a supportive team, the leader takes the decisions that are best for us
- We are a supportive team, together we work hard now, making sacrifices now for us all to be rewarded later.”
- We are a supportive team, we support one another through healthy competition so we can be the best
- We are a supportive team, every voice has value and needs to be heard.’
- We are supportive team, we learn about one another and develop our skills together.
- We are a supportive team and we all fit together; in an interconnected system.
Moving forwards
Working with a career and transition coach can help you bypass working in soul destroying jobs. Because I have spent years learning the tools and psychological factors that predetermine a happy life at work, I assist dentists like you work out what is important to you, so you can make better decisions about the job offers you accept.
