Q. How can a leader
get buy-in for a vision?
Control of you is the
biggest asset. Your
thoughts and your
feelings and your actions
are what really people see.
And they can’t see the
thought, but they can see
the actions, they can see
your feelings. If you don’t
have the control of your
thinking, where you can be
in a situation where it can
be a semicatastrophe, and
you don’t have the ability to
not display the emotion or
the feeling that is coupled
with that, that’s critical.
When I walk in to that
office in the morning, I set the tone, and I could set the
tone good or bad. If I wake
up and my thoughts are in
the wrong direction and I
go and set the wrong tone,
it’s transmitted through all
of us. That’s what the leader
does. The leader sets the
tone.
The other thing I think is
critical is that too many
times, especially in today’s
world, you talk about
teams, and your teams have
to run the office. So many
times I’ve heard this — let your teams take control of
things. I think that is good,
but the team is not the
leader. The team has to look
to the leader, and the leader
has to set the tone, and if
you’re not controlling your
thinking, you’re going to set
the wrong tone. And it may
takes months before it goes
the wrong direction, but
you have to have control.
There can only be the one
leader, and the team has to
follow the leader.
Q. What’s the key to
controlling your thoughts so
you can get that buy-in?
People will say to me,
‘How do you control your
thoughts? Thoughts just
kind of happen.’ Well, they
don’t just kind of happen.
My thoughts are controlled
by my goals, which are written down in a long version
and a short version
My goals incorporate part
of my vision. I read my
goals at least three or four
times a day. I repeat them
to myself. When I wake up
in the morning, at lunch, in
quiet time and before I go
to bed, those goals are
repeated. Those goals are
what are incorporated into
my vision, not just for my
business world but for my
personal life and for my
relationship and for my
physical world.
So, I am constantly taking
my mind where it should
be, as opposed to my mind
taking me where it wants to
take me because if you
don’t take control of your
thoughts, your thoughts will
take control of you.
HOW TO REACH: Williamsburg Dental, (610) 353-2700 or www.williamsburg-dental.com
