When Leadership Hurts: The Quiet Work of Rebuilding in Dentistry

A Free Training for Dental Offices by Dentistry Support®

By Sarah Beth Herman | CEO, Dentistry Support® | Host of No Silver Spoons® Podcast

Welcome to Week Three of our 12-week Keep Going series. Every week, we’re walking through the real work of building a life, a practice, and a mindset that lasts. If you’ve been following No Silver Spoons®, you already know that this season isn’t about instant success. It’s about the kind of leadership that grows in silence — when things don’t go according to plan. This written training is your precursor to the newest podcast episode dropping Monday. It’s designed for dental professionals — practice owners, office managers, and team leaders — who are ready to rebuild from burnout, overwhelm, or instability with a renewed sense of clarity and strength.

Before you listen to the episode, take a few minutes to sit with this training. It will set the foundation for what you’ll hear next.

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The Hidden Weight of Leadership in Dentistry

Dentistry is one of the few professions where clinical excellence and leadership intersect every single day. You can be an incredible clinician or a sharp administrator, but if your mindset isn’t anchored, the entire practice feels it.

When the schedule falls apart, when the insurance claims pile up, when your front desk team feels unseen — your tone, your words, and your steadiness become the thermostat for everyone else.

In my 25 years of working with dental teams across the world, one truth remains the same: your mindset determines your office culture.

Leaders who lead from exhaustion or self-doubt unintentionally pass that energy on to their teams. Leaders who pause, recalibrate, and ground themselves in purpose create environments that thrive.

This week’s free training is your chance to pause — not because you’re failing, but because great leadership requires regular recalibration.

The Pause That Most Dental Leaders Skip

In fast-paced practices, there’s constant pressure to move forward — new patients, production goals, claim submissions, team meetings, and technology updates. But progress without perspective leads to exhaustion, not excellence.

Research from the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that leaders who engage in structured reflection reduce burnout and increase team trust (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015).

Pausing doesn’t mean stopping. It means creating a space to ask:

• What’s working?

• What isn’t?

• What’s the real story I’m telling myself about this challenge?

This is what I call the leadership recalibration moment.

Before you jump into problem-solving or blame, pause. Recognize that leadership is emotional labor — and emotional labor requires renewal.

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The Mindset Rebuild Framework

If you’re leading a dental team — especially virtually or across multiple locations — you’ve likely learned that systems only work when people do. And people only thrive when they feel led, not just managed.

The Mindset Rebuild Framework is a practical starting point for any dental leader rebuilding confidence, structure, or culture. Use it in your morning routine, in your weekly team meetings, or during one-on-one check-ins.

1. Reassess

Ask yourself: What season am I in as a leader? Every dental office experiences growth seasons, pruning seasons, and preparation seasons. Growth requires clarity. Pruning requires courage. Preparation requires patience. Knowing which season you’re in helps you lead accordingly.

2. Reconnect

Who have you stopped connecting with because you’re “too busy”? Often, team friction comes from disconnection — not defiance. A quick moment of genuine conversation with your billing lead, assistant, or hygienist can repair far more than a policy ever could.

3. Reframe

Replace mental roadblocks with grounded truth. Instead of “My team doesn’t care,” try “Maybe they’re overwhelmed.” Instead of “I can’t find good employees,” try “I’m learning how to attract the right ones.”

Language matters. It shapes how your team perceives you and how your brain perceives possibility.

4. Realign

Revisit your mission statement. Is it still accurate? Do your systems reflect your values? A mission on paper is meaningless unless it’s mirrored in daily operations — how the phones are answered, how the front desk handles stress, how you communicate during conflict.

5. Rebuild

Finally, ask: What’s one small thing I can do this week that strengthens trust or structure? It might be rewriting your new patient welcome script, automating claims follow-ups, or just setting time aside to acknowledge someone doing great work.

Small actions compound into cultural transformation.

Why This Work Feels Hard — and Why It’s Worth It

Leadership is emotional exposure. It means making decisions when you’re uncertain and showing calm when you’re anything but.

But here’s the truth: your team doesn’t need you to be perfect. They need you to be consistent.

A study from Frontiers in Psychology found that consistency and transparency are among the top three predictors of trust in workplace leadership (Dirks & Ferrin, 2020). When leaders communicate honestly — even when they don’t have all the answers — trust deepens.

That trust creates a culture of stability that impacts everything from patient retention to billing accuracy.

When you choose to rebuild your mindset instead of reacting from frustration, you lead with authority that’s earned — not demanded.

Emotional Intelligence in Dentistry

At Dentistry Support®, we teach that systems solve problems, but emotional intelligence sustains progress.

Emotional intelligence (EI) — your ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in yourself and others — is one of the most important predictors of effective dental leadership (Goleman, 2011).

EI allows you to:

• Handle difficult patient conversations with empathy.

• Navigate team conflict without shame or defensiveness.

• Adapt when technology or insurance processes change overnight.

Leaders with high EI don’t avoid hard conversations — they approach them with grace and direction. That’s what separates reactionary offices from remarkable ones.

How to Practice Leadership Renewal in Real Time

If you feel stretched thin, try this short renewal exercise today:

1. Step away for three minutes. Put down your phone, close your laptop, breathe deeply.

2. Name your emotion. Saying “I’m overwhelmed” or “I’m frustrated” immediately lowers its intensity.

3. Redirect your focus. Ask, “What’s one thing I can control right now?”

4. Reaffirm your purpose. Remember who you serve — your team, your patients, and the vision you’ve built.

This micro-reset practice is supported by neuroscience. When you engage in conscious breathing and reframing, you activate your prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain responsible for logic and calm decision-making (Davidson & McEwen, 2012).

Doing this consistently helps dental leaders lead from grounded truth rather than reaction.

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Building a Resilient Culture

Resilient practices aren’t built overnight — they’re built through daily consistency, clarity, and communication.

At Dentistry Support®, we’ve seen hundreds of dental teams transform simply by shifting focus from “What’s wrong?” to “What’s possible?”

When a dental office starts prioritizing mindset, something powerful happens:

• Phone calls sound calmer.

• Patient follow-ups become more intentional.

• Billing errors decrease.

• Retention improves.

It’s not magic — it’s the ripple effect of leadership alignment.

As the No Silver Spoons® series continues, I’ll be teaching more about what it means to rebuild systems and self from a place of strength, not scarcity. But for this week, your work is simple: begin again.

Leadership Challenge: The Gratitude Lens

Before Monday’s episode airs, try this leadership challenge:

1. Write down three moments from the past week where something small worked out — even slightly better than expected.

2. Reflect on how those moments could represent forward movement, even if progress felt slow.

3. Share one with your team in your next morning huddle.

You’ll notice how quickly gratitude shifts energy. Research shows that gratitude improves team cohesion and job satisfaction in healthcare environments (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

You can’t build resilience without gratitude — it’s the foundation that keeps your heart aligned while your systems grow.

Prepare for Monday: Your Week Three Listen

Now that you’ve taken the time to reflect and rebuild your mindset through this training, you’re ready for Week Three of the No Silver Spoons® podcast series, Keep Going.

The episode drops Monday — and it’s one of the most powerful conversations yet.

Before it releases:

• Download your Mindset Rebuild Worksheet.

• Share this training with your team.

• Follow @nosilverspoons_podcast for behind-the-scenes updates.

This week, remember: your leadership doesn’t grow in comfort. It grows in the quiet, in the pauses, and in the waiting.

Keep going. You are building something worth leading.

References

Davidson, R. J., & McEwen, B. S. (2012). Social influences on neuroplasticity: Stress and interventions to promote well-being. Nature Neuroscience, 15(5), 689–695. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3093

Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2020). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1728. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01728

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389.

Goleman, D. (2011). Leadership: The power of emotional intelligence. More Than Sound.

Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model as an integrative framework. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(1), 72–96.

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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.