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When I met my business partner, Josh Gwinn, the thing that instantly connected us was our shared values. So, when we started Optimize we made our shared values a foundational principle in building our organization.
I started exploring my own personal values and the role they played in my business life while working with Strategic Coach and specifically my coach, Cameron Herold. Defining my core values helped me in so many areas of my business life, including working with my teams, setting expectations for how we worked with patients, even choosing vendors and choosing the right path for scaling my organization.
So, when it came time for Josh and I to set the groundwork for our vision of Optimize Practice Alliance, our shared values became foundational to both our vision and our strategic planning.
Using Your Core Values in your Dental Practice
But is it helpful or even appropriate to use your core values in your business as a dental practice entrepreneur? Implementing your values in your dental practice does have a lot of benefits. With your core values, you can:
- Showcase your unique ability and what sets you apart from other dental practices
- Find a common basis and understanding for communicating with your teams
- Create a strong team culture
- Provide a foundation from which to make big and small decisions every day
- Galvanize your vision for growing your practice
There are so many benefits to truly utilizing your core values as a dental entrepreneur. And they alone can set the tone and tenor of so many of your daily dealings that not utilizing them can leave you squandering for words, answers and solutions when they are needed most.
What Are Your Core Values?
How do you determine what your core values are? My process started in 2014 when I began working with Dan Sullivan at Strategic Coach. I went through a process of discovery using a concept called Unique Ability®. In that process I developed a set of beliefs that became my core values.
But there are many ways of determining what your values are and which ones you want to be the core values in your dental practice organization. It behooves you to take some time and discover what your values are and how to apply them in your dental practice.
But for now, I’d like to tell you about our core values here at Optimize. You can, of course, check out our About page and read our core values there. But I decided to dedicate an entire post to them, that is how important they are to the everyday functioning of our organization. They are vital to how we interact with each other and lend our leadership and dedication to our partners.
Our values are the foundation of our actions, participation and cooperation and we strive to center those values in our interactions and daily execution of goals and our vision for Optimize and our partners.
We Believe in Transparency and Integrity
Integrity and Transparency are the cornerstone values on which all of our other values are built. At Optimize our actions and words are rooted in integrity. We strive for clarity and honesty in all our interactions and take full responsibility for our results. Transparency is the natural companion to integrity, showing everyone, we work with how we do what we do, with the goal of bridging trust between our partners and ourselves.
We Believe in Collaborative Teamwork
Collaborative teamwork is how we stay rooted, not just in our vision for Optimize, but in the visions of our partners and clients. We not only value their input and feedback, but we also need those insights for us to stay accountable for the visions our partners trust us to achieve with them, not just for them.
We Believe in Growth While Staying Focused on Results
What does “results focused” really mean for us? At Optimize we view problems as tools for designing solutions to quickly and efficiently remove the obstacles to growth. Our ever-present focus is on the solution using accountability, collaboration and commitment to quickly resolve issues and create opportunities to reorient ourselves towards our goals. This unique advantage of seeing problems as opportunities creates an atmosphere of cooperation and cohesion and helps our teams and partners grow both personally and professionally.
We believe in Giving World-Class Service
Giving world-class service is a core value for Optimize. We strive to provide a cohesive, synergistic and professional experience for all our partners, clients and vendors. We also espouse this value across channels so that our vendors and service providers offer the same level of professionalism and world-class service.
We Believe in an Ownership Attitude
At Optimize our ownership attitude does not end at our doors. We vest our interests and stewardship in every single partnership we create and build. By taking this approach, we balance our organization’s needs alongside those of our individual team members and partners. Our ownership attitude gives us the freedom to focus on long-term success rather than short-term profits for us and for you.
We Believe in Optimizing our Potential
It’s in our name, we optimize our potential through optimizing your opportunities for growth. And we start with the basics and strive for excellence in all we do. In optimizing your systems, operations and processes we learn, measure and grow your business with the best tools, strategies and vision while maintaining our focus on your individual and optimal personal experience.
These values are what hold us apart from all others and give us the ability to give you the opportunity to grow your vision and live your dream because we believe the future of dentistry belongs with dentists.
Giving Back Through our Values
In keeping with our values of collaboration and teamwork, we have some important ways that we give back to our community of dentists. One of those ways is through a regular mastermind hosted by my partner, Josh. A mastermind is a group of peers that come together on a regular basis to work out their biggest challenges, share resources and lean on each other to get through the rough patches and celebrate the wins. It is the single most effective tool that an entrepreneur has in her entrepreneurial toolkit.
One of the best ways I know to remain steadfast in your goals, bust through your obstacles, find resources and community to keep you strong is joining a Mastermind. We get together regularly to discuss the biggest obstacles to growth that dentists are facing in real time; tell stories of inspiration; share resources and celebrate what’s working in their practices. It’s a wonderful community and we want you to be a part of our movement. Click the button to register for the next one and we’ll see you at the next one!