The AAO teams up with motivational speaker and author Simon Sinek to offer orthodontists leadership skills for better team management and business success.

By Steven Martinez

The American Association of Orthodontists recently unveiled the Simon Sinek + AAO Inspiring Leadership Program to provide orthodontists with the skills they need to be effective leaders for their staff and practice.

According to AAO Board of Trustees member Trista Felty, DMD, MSc, FRCD(C), it was something that AAO members had requested for a while.

“About 70% of orthodontists are business owners, and 100% of us have to lead teams every day,” says Felty. “A lot of us don’t have formal business or leadership training.”

In 2021, the AAO partnered with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to launch the Mastering the Business of Orthodontics online program to help doctors improve their skills as business owners, and the new leadership program aims to do much the same for orthodontists in their abilities to lead a team.

“I find that a lot of younger orthodontists and some women often feel that it’s hard when they first get out to get the respect that they want from their patients or their staff,” says Felty. “I think orthodontists of any age experience typical office conflict and drama and want to know how to better communicate to their teams and get their staff on board.”

Feeling unprepared to lead

Orthodontists come out of their residencies feeling prepared to treat patients but often feel they lack the preparation to manage a business or team. And while business skills seem more concrete, becoming a good leader is somewhat harder to define.

“So many things fall under leadership,” says Felty. “How can we deliver honest feedback to our teams? How can we rethink problem-solving in our organizations? How can we give people the autonomy to make decisions and have confidence that our team will make good decisions? All those things come with being a good leader, but we’re not taught how to do any of that.”

Felty recalled how she felt when she was first tasked with leading a team, how confident she was in her clinical abilities, and how completely unprepared she was for everything else.
“I think the hardest thing for me personally was the first time I had to have a really difficult conversation with a team member that I knew was going to be awkward, sensitive, emotional,” says Felty. “I was lucky enough that when I started in private practice, I worked with another orthodontist who was like a mentor. I can’t imagine trying to do that on my own. How much harder it would have been.”

Read More: How Leadership Increases Orthodontic Practice Production

For the Simon Sinek + AAO Inspiring Leadership Program, the AAO sought out motivational speaker and author Simon Sinek to create a new leadership program aimed at the needs of orthodontists. Sinek has written books on leadership and Felty first came across him through one of his TED Talks, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action, which has over 11 million views on YouTube.

“Simon specifically likes to approach teams and team leadership, and not just on individual leadership,” says Felty. “There are many speakers out there who talk about leadership as a way to climb the corporate ladder, which isn’t as relevant to us as orthodontists.”

Mindi Brothers, AAO vice president of strategy and innovation, got in contact with Sinek’s team in December and spent the next several months developing a partnership with them to create the new program.

“We wanted to get a really high-value partner for this program, where members would really see this as a big benefit,” says Felty. “This as a package is catered toward orthodontists but is also a better deal than if you went and piecemealed things one at a time, on your own. For us, it was looking at who’s up to the same caliber as the Wharton School of Business for something in leadership.”

What is in the program

The program costs $850 for AAO members and $750 for residents and consists of six online content modules created by Sinek and his collaborators. Each module begins with Sinek and Felty discussing common challenges that orthodontists face that would be relevant to the module to set up the course material. Sinek and his co-hosts then go through the module, which ends with an orthodontist who wraps it up by applying the concepts to real-life examples. The wrap-up sessions will be hosted by AAO members Neal Kravitz, DMD, MS; Richa Dutta, DDS, MSD; Alyssa Emory Carter, DDS, MS; Lisa Alvetro , DDS, MSD; Katrin Kramer, DDS, MS, PhD; and Kyle Fagala, DDS, MDS.

After signing up for a course, doctors will have access to it for an entire year, so they can go back through the modules and refer to them at any time. The AAO plans to have two cohorts run through the year. The course begins on a set date, but there is no required timeline to finish, and doctors can go through the material at their own pace. However, it would be beneficial to keep up with others taking the course at the same time to discuss concepts from a given module, says Felty.

The program, which is designed for all levels of orthodontics experience, aims to give orthodontists the confidence to lead and the ability to elevate the people around them. The goal is to create a culture where staff feel empowered to be leaders and understand how to manage on their own, says Felty.

“Leadership is important whether you’re on day one or your final day of practice,” says Felty. “I think any program that we can put out that is instantly applicable, is extremely worthwhile. Anyone can take this course and find something in there that is a pearl that they can use the next day.”

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