Going to the dentist is rarely an enjoyable exercise. It’s stressful, uncomfortable and sometimes painful. But while it is rarely pleasant, there are plenty of professional lessons we can all learn from going to the dentist. Here are five career lessons you can take away from your next oral appointment.
It’ll usually be better than you think it’ll be.
The first time I learned that I had a cavity and needed a filling, I nights leading up to the appointment waking up in a cold sweat as I visualized (in agonizing technicolour) the image of the needle penetrating my gums and the drill cutting into my tooth. The amount of stress and energy I spent worrying about something I had absolutely no control over was remarkable. In the end, when I went under the hands of my skillful dentist, I hardly felt more than a numb prick. It wasn’t fun; but it wasn’t Armageddon either. Same goes for scary challenges at work. You can spend hours obsessing and worrying, but rarely will that get you anywhere and frequently it’ll leave you in worse mental shape than before. Whenever you can, channel the positive manta of: “It won’t be so bad” – over and over again until you believe it. I also often project a month into the future and consider whether the issue will be cringe-worthy and it rarely is.
Keep your teeth (and professional house) in order.
Brushing and flossing everyday sure makes the dentist stay away. By keeping up on your oral hygiene, you’re making deposits to your future set of teeth. Same goes for work. Identify tasks or jobs you can accomplish while you have capacity and reap the rewards later on when things get crazy. You may also want to consider continuing your networking and engaging others in your professional community, even if you have a position that you enjoy and value. Keeping engaged, learning new skills, meeting new people and continuing to grow professionally are just priorities when you’re starting out in a new role – they should be career constants. Lead the way and reap the rewards later on.
Have an eye for detail.
Good dentists have a real eye for detail. They notice faint discolorations on our teeth and need to work precisely when doing things like drilling cavities else they cause huge (and unnecessary) pain. Their ability to peer use tiny mirrors to spot all sorts of oral issues has always impressed me. I try to channel a similar amount of meticulousness into my own work. Whether it’s avoiding typos or sloppy presentation templates, keeping an eye out for the little things is always a great professional move.
Don’t avoid doing things you dislike.
That’s what I did. It took me three years to find my way to a dentist’s chair. The result was a mouth full of “deferred maintenance” and three different visits to several dentists for cleanings and consultations. It cost me lots of time and plenty of money. While it shouldn’t be surprising that avoiding the dentist has consequences, the same could be said for avoiding what we hate at work. For me, that was doing my expenses and all the paperwork that went along with it. While procrastinating worked out for me in the short term, in the longer term, it only made the reckoning more painful and plenty of cautionary warning emails from an understandably irate finance department.
Customer service always matters.
Dentists aren’t always known for their customer service skills. But recently, I got a great opportunity to witness top notch customer service that was frank, thoughtful and friendly. Particularly when addressing stressful topics that provoked significant anxiety, the soft touch had a big impact on me. Same goes for when you’re delivering bad news to a customer or challenging the ideas of a colleague on a project. Being softer and gauging the other person’s emotional response is a sure-fire way to collaborative success and/or sales. Ignoring this and “calling it as you see it” may make you feel like a straight shooter, but may also alienate the people you with whom you work and engage.