#42 Lightwave Dental COO John Demma

Today my guest is John Demma, COO of a very unique DSO, Light Wave Dental Management. We discuss leadership, team culture, and leading through service. John has a unique story, growing up in the family restaurant business, learning important skills early on. As John said during the interview “When it comes to leadership and management, there is nothing new under the sun” it’s important to establish your decision framework, principles and guiding values to become a great leader. We go into details and examples from John career at Sleepy’s (10 year career path) and National Veterinary Associates (4 years) and how the idea of Servant Leadership has led John to the current role at Light Wave.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAAYfmtQh24

My Takeaways:

– Good people do great things

– First line of team and management is the most critical part of the organization and senior level management is the least important

– Empower the front line management

– Principles for growth:

– Self Exploration

– Decision Making Framework

– Values

– Work life balance always comes with the question: “What are you willing to give up to achieve X”

– No Foundation leads to firefighting. Strong foundation, leadership, long term planning leads to high performance

– One important skills to transition from junior management to more senior is to “Learn how to Story-tell”

– Walk and take calls to manage

Hope you enjoy it!