The time to participate in this year's Dental Economics/Levin Group Annual Practice Survey is quickly coming to an end.

This is the dental profession’s most important annual check-up, with thousands of your colleagues speaking out on:

• The state of their practices
• Important trends
• What they think the future holds

I strongly urge you to spend a few moments to fill out this year’s survey. By adding your voice, the report’s value will be increased for all of your colleagues.

Recently, I attended a leadership course at a notable business school that featured many case studies. It was interesting that each executive in the program perceived the case studies very differently. One executive looked at a case study and saw one thing. Others saw something else.

I realized how typical this behavior was in all walks of life and how important it is to understand the perspectives of different people before acting or making a decision. This can be referred to as the beach ball concept.

A beach ball has different colors. From a certain angle, we may only see one color predominantly on the beach ball. I look at it and see mostly blue while someone standing elsewhere looks at it and sees mostly green. This is exactly what happened during the leadership program when each team came back with a different perspective on the case study. We all had the exact same information but came up with different insights and conclusions.

Obviously, people don't all think alike. However, problems arise when we can't understand why someone has a different perspective or sees a different color on the beach ball. As doctors and leaders, we have an obligation to try to see all of the colors.

The next time you are talking to a staff member and wondering why she did something in a manner that you don't prefer, ask yourself, "Am I only seeing blue and she is seeing green?"

More than 50,000 people receive Levin Group’s free Tip of the Day Monday through Friday. Naturally, I am pleased that this service is reaching so many people.

At my recent seminars, many doctors and staff tell me that they read the Tip of the Day aloud at the beginning of each and every morning meeting they have. After the tip has been read aloud, everyone in the office spends a few minutes commenting on it and giving his or her reaction. Doctors and team members tell me that the tips help create a level of motivation and energy to get the day started.

Ranging in subject matter from management to marketing to leadership to motivation, the tips seem to be resonating with my colleagues and their staffs. I must admit that I love the idea of people reading the Tip of the Day aloud to get the day started. It may not get the juices flowing quite like a cup of coffee, but then again…

You hear a lot about social networking these days… mostly about making online connections through social media. That’s fine, as far as it goes, but something important is missing from digital networks. Live, face-to-face personal contact.

So many people seem to be literally “out of touch,” too caught up in their busy, complicated lives to spend time focused on each other. Family members live in the same house together, but interact very little. When friends get together, they are often distracted by tweets, text messages and other digital “contact” from people who are elsewhere. And the guy who always tried to dominate conversation at a party has now upgraded to new technology that enables him to drown out everyone else with a flood of digital drivel shared with a few hundred of his closest online “friends.”

Social networking is essential for people to feel fulfilled. Digital media create new communication opportunities, which are fine—as long as they don’t crowd out the traditional ones. There’s no substitute for making eye contact with an old friend… giving a hug to someone who’s sad… throwing your two cents’ worth into a loud, lively debate… sharing ideas with colleagues at work.

We all need to change with the times, and many of the new technologies—the new networking opportunities—are fun! But I hope we won’t lose sight of the value of good, old-fashioned “face time.”