The Importance of Honesty in the Midst of a Pandemic

Can we be honest about honesty for just a minute? Being truthful isn’t always the easiest path. Sometimes it’s much less painful to just hide something that could hurt someone else or a business. However, the easy path isn’t always the correct path … especially when we’re talking about COVID-19.

So far this year, we have seen dental practices impacted by team members who are exposed to COVID-19 outside of the practice and then don’t tell people in the practice about the potential exposure until it’s too late. Maybe it’s because people don’t want to cause alarm. Maybe it’s because people don’t want to miss work. Maybe it’s because it’s just easier to not say anything until you know everything. Whatever it is, it’s not the right way to approach the situation when it comes to your fellow dental team members and your business.

I have some thoughts below, based on lessons I’ve heard from other dental practices … and I don’t want you to follow in their footsteps.

Note: Photo of “Honesty” by thinkpublic is licensed with CC BY-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

Kevin Henry

Kevin Henry

With more than 20 years in the dental publishing industry, Kevin Henry is the former group editorial director for Dental Products Report, managing editor for Dental Economics, and editor-in-chief for DrBicuspid.com. He now serves as the co-founder for IgniteDA, a community designed to empower, enlighten, and educate dental assistants, and as director of marketing for Fortune Management. He has spoken to dental assistants throughout the world, in person and through the Dental Assistant Nation podcast series, reminding them of the important role they play every day in their practice. He is also certified as a DiSC trainer, helping dental practices learn how to understand each other better through personality assessments and training.