this isn’t a day about dentistry. It’s about leadership. Today, Friday 23 January 2026, I’ll be delivering a full-day workshop in Dublin that I’ve never presented before. That sentence alone is enough to make me slightly nervous and very excited in equal measure. Because this isn’t a day about dentistry. It’s about leadership. Not leadership in theory, or the version you’d like to believe you’re practising, but the leadership your team experiences on a wet Tuesday when two nu

If your practice feels “fine on paper” but heavy in the building, Dublin is the right place to start 2026 Thursday 22 January 2026 is the first day of our first quarter workshop tour for the Extreme Business 100, and we’re starting exactly as we mean to go on: with people. The greatest constraint in dentistry right now isn’t dentistry. It’s leadership, morale, trust, and the daily grind of managing human beings in a post-pandemic workplace that has changed faster than most pr

NHS dentistry contract changes 2026, how mixed practices can communicate the shift respectfully and increase private plan membership. This may read as a very strange request - but I'm looking for a guest speaker who can advise my "mixed practice" clients in The Extreme Business 100 on how to communicate the proposed changes in English NHS dentistry in a way that is respectful but also encourages private conversion. I'm in the unusual position of having designed a presentation

blink and you’ll miss it Dentistry in 2026 is having a moment. Not a quiet, incremental moment either. More of a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment, where technology is accelerating, patient expectations are rising, and the gap between practices that adapt and those that don’t is widening by the month. That is why I’ve put together a free download: "The Future of Dentistry: embracing the TCO, AI and digital transformation." It is a practical guide for practice owners, managers

Your donation goes straight into funding training and care where it’s needed most In two weeks’ time I’ll be swapping my usual mode of transport (a laptop and a decent coffee) for something with pedals, sunburn potential, and a worrying amount of Lycra. Along with Colin Campbell, I’m part of the Bridge2Aid Peak to Plains Safari Cycle 2026 team: a group of dental cyclists heading from the foothills of Kilimanjaro down towards the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania to raise funds fo

When the coach takes away the sword, it’s not a defeat. It’s the beginning of the shift from brave warrior to wise monarch: less doing, more designing, and leading through others. Thursday’s session with my business coach, Rachel Turner, didn’t feel like a “nice chat”. It felt like a controlled demolition. Not of plans, or ambition, or vision. Of identity. Rachel has a concept in The Founder’s Survival Guide  that landed with uncomfortable accuracy: the founder as the brave w

Most practice managers aren’t struggling because they lack confidence — they’re struggling because no one ever gave them a leadership framework. There’s a pattern I see time and time again with practice managers. They think the problem is them . Not confident enough. Not assertive enough. Not the right sort of person to be leading a team. You hear it in the way they describe their days:Firefighting. Drowning. Just trying to keep their head above water. But here’s the truth I

It's been a busy start to the year I’ve kicked off 2026 with a full slate of strategic planning sessions across the UK, and one thing is crystal clear: the independent dental sector is at a pivotal inflection point. Not a crossroads. A pressure point. At one end of the spectrum, practices are chasing 7- and 8-figure exit valuations. At the other, exhausted principals are trying to reclaim their time, rebuild stability, and simply make the machine work without their constant p

When everything feels urgent, serenity is the bravest decision you can make. At 10am on a Monday morning, she felt like she was going to break. It had been one thing after another. A compliance surprise that would cost thousands. A relentless drip-feed of staff issues. An associate too casual with boundaries. Nurses leaving, one applying for a job elsewhere, one training badly. Patients cancelling, white space growing, financial pressure tightening. It was one of those weeks

“Wearing every marketing hat — from social media to storytelling — and still wondering if one person can really do it all?” A conversation over the weekend amongst my clients (dental practice owners) raised an honest and much-needed question: is it realistic to expect one person to handle all aspects of dental marketing at a high standard? One practice owner shared their challenge recruiting a marketing coordinator who could cover everything — from social media and newsletter