Thank you, Laura Horton

Over the last few months, Laura Horton has taken her workshop tour with Extreme Business to Belfast, London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh. The feedback from delegates has been outstanding. That is no surprise. Laura has a rare ability to take subjects that can feel uncomfortable, awkward or overly complex and turn them into practical, usable leadership tools for real dental businesses.

What she has covered on this tour has been both broad and deep. Her workbook and workshop material show a clear focus on communication in practice management, performance conversations, communication cultures, and how to present business change in a way that brings people with you rather than pushes them away. She has helped practice owners and managers understand that communication is not a soft skill sitting on the sidelines. It is at the centre of team performance, culture, retention and growth.

One of Laura’s great strengths is that she has given people language for the moments that matter most. She explored the communication archetypes we can all fall into under pressure, from avoidance and overthinking to people-pleasing and control, before pointing leaders towards a more thoughtful, emotionally intelligent response. She broke down the difference between story and fact, highlighted the damage caused by passive-aggressive communication, and shared a simple framework for difficult conversations built around fact, impact, expectation and agreement. In other words, she has given leaders a way to stay calm, clear and constructive when it matters most.

She also spent time where the real work always lives: culture. Not culture as a set of words on a wall, but culture as daily behaviour. How does the team speak to each other? How does the front desk function under pressure? How are treatment rooms managed? What is acceptable in digital communication? Do people feel psychologically safe enough to speak up, ask questions and make mistakes without fear? Laura’s message was clear. The standards leaders allow become the culture the business lives with. And when communication is poor, small issues do not stay small for long. They become cultural issues, then performance issues, and eventually retention issues.

Another important theme throughout the tour was that strong teams do not happen by accident. Laura covered recruitment, structured interviews, trial days, onboarding, regular one-to-ones and the first 90 days of employment with real substance. She showed practices how to stop improvising and start building systems that help good people settle, grow and stay. She also reinforced the importance of separating capability from conduct, so that managers know when someone needs training and support, and when they need accountability and clearer standards.

And then there was change. Laura’s use of the Aristotle framework for presenting change, hook, problem, solution, benefits and action, gave leaders a practical structure for winning buy-in. Alongside that came the reminder that how you say something matters as much as what you say: slow down, pause, hold eye contact, invite dialogue, and lead with clarity. That is gold dust for any manager trying to move a team forwards.

Most importantly, Laura has left practices with actions, not just ideas: clearer communication policies, better huddles, stronger onboarding, more structured meetings, and greater confidence in handling the difficult conversations that shape culture. For that, and for the professionalism, generosity and insight she has brought to every room on this tour, we owe her a huge thank you.

Laura, thank you. You have made a positive difference, and Extreme Business has been better for having you on the road with us.