What dentists can teach us about leadership!

On Monday this week I had root canal therapy. It was not pleasant.

But as I lay in the surgeon's chair listening to the whine of the drill, I had time to reflect on a little piece of leadership that made the experience more bearable.

On hearing that I needed a 'root canal' operation, I did what most people do nowadays: I looked it up on the internet (Wikipedia to be precise - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endodontic_therapy). So, by the time I got to the dentist's I was pretty well informed.

Rather than patronise me with soothing reassurances, my dentist did something quite unusual. He asked me how much I knew about a 'root canal' and whether I had any concerns . I told him I knew the basics, and was able to ask him a couple of quite complex questions about the number of 'legs' the tooth was likely to have, the sort of pain control he preferred, and the prognosis for the tooth once the operation was done.

Without batting an eyelid he answered my questions fully and with as much detail as he would have done (I like to think) with a fellow professional.

The overall effect was that I felt respected, informed and, more than anything else, involved and engaged in the process. I didn't feel like a hapless by-stander to whom this nasty thing was being done.

And as I lay there having the nerve excavated from my dying tooth, I realised that now more than ever people need to feel involved and engaged in their daily work. The 'information revolution' gives us knowledge, insight, opportunity and choice. And like my dentist, managers and leaders must engage their people in running the business. We want it, we expect it and we need it.

The internet has democratised the medical world and it is democratising leadership, too. Faster than you think!