Article Insights for Dental Practice Leadership: The 5 Biggest Challenges Leaders Face

By Jamie MorleyOctober 16, 2025

Article Title: IoL Leadership Report: The five biggest challenges leaders face in 2025

Source: Institute of Leadership Report Autumn 2025

Link: https://ioledge.com/insights/iol-leadership-report-the-five-biggest-challenges-leaders-face-in-2025/

Summary

The IoL Leadership Report for 2025 identifies the five most pressing challenges leaders face today from a survey they carried out earlier this year among 350 respondents across a range of UK-based organisations.

Leading Through Relentless Change

77% of leaders expect change to increase in the coming year, with economic factors, technological advances, and geopolitical issues driving uncertainty. Dental practices, like other health businesses, must anticipate volatility and pivot quickly, making adaptability and proactive leadership a priority for growth.

Recruitment, Retention, and Talent Development

Recruiting the right people and keeping them engaged is a major concern—half of respondents highlighted this challenge. Practices benefit from redefining their value proposition by emphasising purpose, career growth, and wellbeing. Proactively building strong teams and investing in talent development is crucial for sustainable practice success.

Bridging the Technology Confidence Gap

The rise of AI and digital tools is transforming daily work, but confidence in leveraging new technologies varies widely among leaders. Dental practice leaders need to boost their own and their teams’ digital literacy, ensuring staff aren’t left feeling threatened or uncertain by technological disruption, but instead empowered to harness new tools for patient care and operational efficiency.

Prioritising Self-Reflection, Empathy, and Authenticity

Self-reflection now stands out as the most important leadership quality, closely followed by ethical decision-making and authenticity. Taking time for introspection and honest feedback is vital—leaders should regularly evaluate what works and what doesn’t, cultivating a values-driven and empathetic culture in dental teams.

Developing Future-Focused Leadership Capabilities

Adaptability, people management, and digital literacy are now seen as core leadership skills for the future. Leaders who prioritise these capabilities and support both teams and themselves through ongoing development will drive innovation, retention, and practice performance.

These findings emphasise the need for dental leaders to place people at the centre of change, prioritise human connection, and create environments where learning, innovation, and well-being are foundational to the practice’s success.

Commentary

My observations as to how these challenges translate over to leading your dental practice are:

Change will be constant

Accept that there will be further change, and be willing to embrace those changes whilst also maintaining your overall broader strategy, values and purpose as a practice.

Recruitment, retention and development

As a service based business, this is a critical challenge for leading your dental practice and something that is often ignored. Develop your purpose, work on your employer brand and create innovative pathways for development.

Prioirtise time for reflection, empathy and authenticity

Give yourself time to reflect on performance, progress and how you are showing up as a leader. Are you being true to your own values and beliefs?

Develop leadership capability in your team

Develop leaders in your team and help them to be able to lead change; recruit and retain their people; and prioritise time for reflection.

Fitting Leadership can help you with the above through 1:1 coaching, team coaching or Leadership Training through courses on the Academy of Fitting Leadership.

Click here to book in a call to discuss these challenges and how Fitting Leadership can help.