GAP Australasian Dentist Mar Apr 2020

Category 118 Austràlàsiàn Dentist à oday, more than ever, our communication skills are central to our success as health professionals. àvery word we say, every look we give, every piece of artwork we hang on our walls – our patients are watching. And while this has been the case for decades, it has never been as important as it is today. Why? Because today, in this era of unprecedented connectivity, our patients are not only watching, they are reporting, rating, recommending. àhanks to the little smart phone in their hands, they are no longer just patients they are photographers, bloggers, advisors, advertisers. àoday, more than ever, our patients are fully equipped media outlets. àn the highly competitive private dental industry, this reality simply means that the bar has been raised. àoday, when we have media outlet after media outlet walking into our clinics, waiting for the next great experience to recommend to their social circles, providing anything short of a remarkable service is simply not acceptable. But just how do we go about providing this remarkable service? à was born of immigrant parents and à am blessed because of this. Growing up my parents taught me about the importance of hard work, of honesty, of respect, and of both the value and fragility of life. à was taught never to take anything for granted, and to remain thankful and humble. àmportantly à was taught the power of knowledge and success. And this helped me form my mission statement, a statement in which my entity, me, would be governed by as à pursue greatness. And that statement is this: ào do what is required today to allow tomorrow’s goals be possible – to be better today than à was yesterday and to be better tomorrow than à was today – and not to do more, but to do better. ào à embarked on my journey of greatness, but all the while knowing that the destination is not my goal. You see, this era of connectivity in which every person is a media outlet also presents us with another advantage – access to an abundance of published resources, on every topic, at our fingertips. History was full of lessons from masters of communication, and à planned to learn the art from as many of these teachers as à could. à began to read books and attend courses of people who à believed were successful. à learnt how when àir àichard Branson first began his Virgin empire he would ask his friends to answer phone calls and pretend he was busy meeting clients. à learnt how àteve Jobs landed Apple’s first big sale by convincing a retailer to order his product – before àteve himself knew whether he could create it. à learnt how much time and precision àteve put into the apparently unimportant things like the packaging of Apple products. à learnt how Wimbledon officials stood firm as Andre Agassi threatened to boycott and in fact did not play at Wimbledon from 1988-1990 because he had a problem with the events traditionalism and ‘white dress code’. à read how àarry Page once printed out pages of what Google’s search result looked like, pointed to the ads on the side and wrote in big letters “àH ADà CK” and then stuck it on the common room’s fridge. When we looked back at all these examples, although they were all communicating something different, what is common between them is that they mastered the art of message delivery – to their inner circle and the masses. àhese people were not special in any way, other than they had an amazing ability to communicate. àhrough their words, actions and presentation, they were able Dr George Abdelmalek Dr John Hagiliassis CommYOUnication By Dr John Hagiliassis and Dr George Abdelmalek – AOà A Australia àoluàn tà “If you have nothing to say, say nothing.” – Mark Twain