Keep Going — Week 2: Humility & Hard Work in Dentistry

By Sarah Beth Herman, CEO of Dentistry Support®

Before you press play on Week 2 of the Keep Going series, “Humility & Hard Work,” I want to invite you to pause and prepare. This post is your prelude — a mindset primer to help you absorb the episode with more clarity and depth when it releases Monday on the No Silver Spoons podcast.

If you’re a dentist, office manager, or team leader, you already know the daily grind of managing patients, systems, and people. But beneath the tasks, there’s something far more powerful at work — the quiet discipline of humility. In dental leadership, humility and consistent effort form the unseen architecture of trust, retention, and legacy.

The following lessons are designed to ground you before the episode airs, helping you recognize that the foundation of true leadership in dentistry isn’t about recognition or reward — it’s about showing up with grace, consistency, and courage.

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Humility as a Leadership Posture

Humility is one of the most underrated leadership strengths in healthcare. It’s often mistaken for weakness or passivity, but the truth is that humility reflects a leader’s confidence in learning, listening, and serving beyond ego. In organizational psychology, leader-expressed humility is associated with higher trust, collaboration, and engagement among teams (Owens et al., 2025).

In dentistry, humility shows up in quiet but transformative ways — when a dentist admits an oversight, seeks staff input on a workflow, or listens to patient feedback without defensiveness. These moments cultivate trust and humanize leadership.

Power et al. (2021) highlight humility as a critical leadership quality within global dental leadership, noting that relational awareness and reflection often outperform hierarchical control. This mirrors what I see daily in dental organizations: teams thrive not because of authority, but because of approachability.

Before you listen to the episode, consider where humility lives in your own leadership. Do you accept feedback with openness? Do you lead meetings with empathy and curiosity? These small postures become the bedrock of legacy leadership.

The Quiet Power of Consistency

While humility establishes relational trust, consistency solidifies it. Dentistry is an industry built on routine — from sterilization cycles to patient recall systems — yet many leaders underestimate the leadership power of predictable behavior.

Bryant Consultants (2024) describes consistency as one of the most stabilizing factors for dental teams. When leaders communicate, follow through, and model reliability, staff performance rises and anxiety falls. Consistency builds psychological safety, a factor directly linked to team retention and patient satisfaction. Inconsistent leadership, on the other hand, can erode morale faster than financial strain. If a leader’s tone, expectations, or accountability shifts from day to day, it creates emotional whiplash. In dental offices — where multitasking, regulation, and stress already run high — emotional steadiness becomes a differentiator.

Owens et al. (2025) found that consistent humility in leaders fosters sustained performance because it aligns expectations with values. This isn’t about perfection — it’s about dependability. As you prepare for Monday’s episode, think about how you can model steadiness for your team. Your tone, follow-through, and reactions to mistakes all communicate more than any motivational speech could.

Unseen Work and the Leadership You’re Building

The unsung labor of dental leadership rarely makes headlines — but it’s what builds legacy. The unseen work might look like personally calling a frustrated patient, covering a front desk shift when short-staffed, or showing gratitude to a team member who quietly goes above and beyond.

This “invisible leadership” accumulates as cultural equity. Patients may never see it, but your team feels it — and they mirror it. Every quiet act of service reinforces the message: We’re in this together.

Sherzad et al. (2023) identified that leadership development in dentistry often occurs informally, through experience rather than structured education. This means your daily actions are your leadership curriculum. Each time you model patience, gratitude, or self-awareness, you’re teaching your team what leadership looks like — and they will imitate it more than they’ll remember your words.

As you reflect this week, identify one “small” task that might actually have long-term impact. Maybe it’s staying five extra minutes to check on a patient’s post-op recovery or writing a quick thank-you note to your assistant. These are the moments that sustain trust and character — the invisible glue that holds teams together.

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Reflection Prompts Before Week 2

To prepare for this week’s No Silver Spoons episode, take a few minutes to reflect on the following prompts. Write your answers somewhere visible — maybe in your Notes app or journal — and revisit them after the episode airs.

1. What task in my practice feels beneath me right now, and how might humility transform it into a moment of growth?

2. Where have I been inconsistent in leadership? Consider tone, communication, and emotional steadiness.

3. When was the last time I admitted a mistake to my team or patient? What was the result?

4. How can I serve quietly this week, without recognition, in a way that strengthens trust?

These questions prepare your mindset for the episode discussion on humility and hard work. When you listen Monday, you’ll notice how small acts of humility compound into influence.

Dentistry’s Leadership Gap and the Role of Humility

Recent research continues to confirm what many of us in the industry already feel — that while dental education emphasizes clinical excellence, it rarely prepares practitioners for leadership (Sherzad et al., 2023). Most dentists learn leadership through trial, error, and experience rather than mentorship or structured training.

That’s why discussions like Keep Going — Week 2 matter so much. We’re reshaping the narrative around what it means to lead in dentistry — to lead people, not just procedures.

Humility bridges the professional gap between technical skill and human connection. Studies within healthcare leadership show that humble leaders enhance learning environments, reduce burnout, and foster stronger collaboration (Owens et al., 2025). Within a dental context, this means better team synergy, lower turnover, and more authentic patient care.

As you move toward this week’s podcast release, remember that humility doesn’t reduce authority — it refines it. It’s the grounding force that keeps confidence from becoming arrogance.

Before You Listen

When Week 2: Humility & Hard Work premieres Monday on the No Silver Spoons podcast, you’ll hear stories and principles about staying grounded in moments of discomfort, building consistency in your team culture, and choosing grace when leadership feels heavy.

But if you take one thing from this prelude, let it be this: humility isn’t the opposite of strength — it’s the expression of it. Every quiet, consistent, unseen action inside your dental office is a seed of leadership that will grow long after you’ve left the operatory.

Your future legacy is being built in the smallest choices today. Keep going.

References

Bryant Consultants. (2024, January 3). The importance of consistent leadership in dentistry. Bryant Consultants. https://www.bryantconsultants.com/dental-consulting/the-importance-of-consistent-leadership-in-dent…

Dental CPA. (2023, April 3). The importance of consistency and transparency in your dental practice. Dental CPA. https://dentalcpaca.com/2023/04/03/the-importance-of-consistency-and-transparency-in-your-dental-pr…

Owens, B. P., Hekman, D. R., & Chou, W. J. (2025). Leader expressed humility: A meta-analysis and agenda for future research. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 189(1), 104–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2025.104290

Power, F., Tysall, C., & Franklin, J. (2021). Voicing beliefs on global leadership for dentistry. Journal of Dental Education, 85(11), 1730–1735. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355252019_Voicing_Beliefs_on_Global_Leadership_for_Dentist…

Sherzad, S., Ahmed, H., & Al-Dabbagh, M. (2023). Leadership in dentistry: Current evidence and future directions. Asian Journal of Medical Health Sciences, 6(2), 28–36. https://www.ajmhsrcmp.org/images/journal/Vol6_Issue2_Nov23/04_SaraSherzad_AJMHS_2023_Vol6_Issue2_Re…

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Disclaimer:

To learn more about Sarah Beth Herman, the author of all free training content you can read her bio here. These materials are intended to provide helpful information to dentists and dental team members. They are in no way a substitute for actual professional advice based on your unique facts and circumstances. This content is not intended or offered, nor should it be taken, as legal or other professional advice. You should always consult with your own professional advisors (e.g. attorney, accountant, or insurance carrier). To the extent, Dentistry Support ®has included links to any third-party website (s), Dentistry Support ® intends no endorsement of their content and implies no affiliation with the organizations that provide their content. Further, Dentistry Support ® makes no representations or warranties about the information provided on those sites. You can view our privacy policy and terms and conditions by clicking those pages in the footer of our website.