As she explains in this Practice Plan Bodcast, when principal dentist and practice owner, Shilpa Chitnis, first considered becoming a coach/mentor it was because she believed her ability to relate to the experiences of her future clients would benefit them. She had already walked a mile in their shoes (if not further!) and so was perfectly placed to help them overcome whatever was holding them back.
Shilpa advocates preventive coaching and mentoring, helping dentists recognise their potential, build confidence and seek support before reaching crisis point. Although she has developed toolkits to help people handle a number of different things, the conversation in the podcast initially focused on something many people find difficult: navigating change. Despite some viewing change as a negative, for others it can be something that helps them thrive. As Shilpa said: “Change can be quite overwhelming for some, whereas for others it could be an opportunity. So, it’s how you look at it or what perspective you have on it.
“People with a growth mindset thrive with change, and often, if things become repetitive, they feel stagnated and go looking for change. But then there is the majority of us who thrive in that day-to-day comfort zone. And that is where change can become challenging. So that’s what I have learned about myself. I didn’t cope with change very well for years.”
Finding the right mentors
Shilpa’s struggle with change grew and eventually led to her feeling disenchanted with her chosen profession and burnt out. Fortunately, she was able to find mentors who could help guide her towards a new way of thinking.
“The key was I had to change my approach,” she explains. “It was very hard, but I was lucky to have found the correct mentors for me who nudged me out of my comfort zone. And that’s where I developed a passion for doing the same for others as I can relate to them, because I’ve been there.”
Her route to becoming a coach/mentor herself was almost accidental. Having been impressed by how Shilpa had worked to improve her own wellbeing, a colleague approached her and asked for her support. Despite feeling like an imposter at first, she was able to overcome her misgivings and begin her development as a professional coach/mentor.
Shilpa continues to receive coaching and guidance from her own mentors while she works with her colleagues and clients. A subject that comes up frequently is perfectionism; something that seems endemic in dentistry. During her work with her mentors, she addressed her own perfectionism. She believes perfectionism is something perpetuated by the push to achieve academic success.
“Throughout our education system, we are taught to fix the problem and fix the problem to perfection,” she says. “For people who are already perfectionists, it becomes challenging to let something go when it’s at a level of 90% for them, even though the result might be 100% to someone else. So, again, it’s how you look at it. This was also a big part of understanding myself that if we strive for perfection all the time, yes, it’s a good thing. However, that cannot be the only way of looking at things.”
Encouraging independence
Although Shilpa’s aim is to help her clients to work their way through their obstacles, she does not want to become a crutch for them to lean on permanently. Depending on their circumstances, she typically works with her clients for only a few sessions. “How long we work together depends on the individual,” she says. “It could be three to five sessions for some. For others, they find the answers in the first or second meeting and then they might come back after a few months or after a few years because it’s more about them being able to find themselves.
“You may get the answers or the way of dealing with one problem that you can then apply across other areas as well. So, as a mentor, I don’t set a strict timeline but usually it’s the three or five sessions. It all depends on the individual as to how much help they need. And I would insist that they need to look at it as a process where they are not becoming dependent on a mentor, because that defeats the objective. We’re trying to set them up to be independent and function better on their own.”
Future plans
To accommodate her work as a coach/mentor Shilpa has reduced her time in clinical dentistry to three days-a-week. As well as working with her own mentees, she is a member of Dental Mentors UK which is a body that supports dentists in difficulty. She is also involved with a research project which aims to show the importance of preventive coaching and mentoring.
If all that sounds like a lot (which it is!) Shilpa is sanguine about how she will fit it all in. “When you have a passion for something, time just becomes available. You make time for it,” she says. “In the end it’s about me making sure that I am compartmentalising things so I’m not taking on more than I can handle. So, with mentoring, I need to know how many people I can help at any one time. And then, I should arrange my diary accordingly. Otherwise, I’ll probably end up doing what we often tend to do as dentists, which is overbooking ourselves and then second guessing whether we’ve been able to do the best work.”
Looking to the future, Shilpa sees her work as a coach/mentor as both a way of giving back and remaining in touch with the profession. “I don’t know anything else besides dentistry. And the scary thought is that one day my vision will fail and my hands may start trembling, so I won’t be safe for my patients. So, I would like to keep in touch with dentistry. And what better way to do that than to help dentists who feel the same way as me?”