Listening to influencers

We finished our meetings with “influencers” for this week, enjoying a delightful lunch in Leeds with John Tiernan of Dental Protection. John has “been around” in the UK profession for over 20 years and has achieved success in practice as well as becoming a leading commentator from his perspective within the medico-legal environment. He listened to our plans for The Dental Business School and explained his opinions on the next 3 to 10 years of UK dentistry. Lunch, a few pounds – his wisdom, priceless. And once again, Barbara and I leave with our heads swimming and more knowledge on how best to develop our own services to create a compelling offer to our clients. I’ve said it before – I need to get out more and meet with people like John, Andrew and John – they are a fantastic R&D resource. Now I’ll be spending most of August working on my own professional 3-year vision, 12-month plan and 90-day goals. As an added bonus, last night I joined an informal bridge call with three great “influencers” in the coaching profession – Susan Austin, David Goldsmith and Michael Green, to listen to their views on the future. This morning I joined a conference call with Barbara, Steph and Simon to explain our findings and our plans from the dental week – we have much to do! I’ll be talking to Team CB in coaching, Jen Haver and Kim Black, in a similar vein in the days ahead. My moral for the reader of this blog is to schedule time each year to meet with the “influencers” in your own niche.