A while back I had to do something we all abhor… get a root canal. I say we all abhor getting a root canal because I’ve never heard anyone say they enjoyed it. It is at the very least uncomfortable, inconvenient and expensive. At worse it’s extremely painful.
A root canal has become synonymous with doing something you really would prefer NOT to do! As in, “I’d rather get a root canal than speak with Mark Deo.” (A little self-depreciating humor there).
Yet I have discovered something good about a root canal. I am FORCED to shut-up! And not just shut-up but to actually listen.
So there I am sitting or lying in this rather humiliating position in the dental chair at the endodontist office, who happens to be a friend. He is droning-on about some specific problems he’s having (This is the downside of having a friend as your endodontist.) It is at this point I realize I actually have a perfect solution for his troubles.
Yet it is impossible for me to tell him due to my mouth being stuffed with; a suction device, dental dam, wads of cotton, various bits of metal, plastic and what feels like all twenty of his and his assistants fingers. I can only emit a deep guttural groan which I decide NOT to do because it might sound like a wounded animal or an ungrateful, onerous patient of which I am both.
Suddenly to my utter surprise he begins to articulate the very solution which I had been planning to tell him. Wow! How could this be? Hearing my own thoughts coming out of HIS mouth started me kicking my feet and waving my hands. I look up at him with big pleading eyes like a harp seal about to be beat over the head with a Louisville Slugger. He looks down at me as if I was a 5 year-old, “it’s OK, we’re almost done.”
Could it be that my higher (yet reticent) level of listening allowed him to work this out for himself? Hmmm… isn’t this what a coach is supposed to do?
So this listening thing, which I preach about all the time, actually works! Imagine that.
After all the various objects are removed from my distended mouth he proceeds to thank me for helping him work out a solution to his problem. You really are a great coach, he tells me. I swallow my pride because my jaw hurts too much to speak anyway from all the hardware that has been jammed in it.
I high-tailed it out of that office learning something yet again by keeping my mouth shut.
My next stop… the dental supply store to get some hardware of my own.