He is undeniably successful, but he doesn’t see himself as self-made — far from it.

Providence

Dr. Dan sees God’s providence all through his journey, and especially in the vision of leadership that has formed his success. 

When he initially started his own dentistry practice, he had assumed that he would lead simply that one clinic. “My goal was to just make one practice great. I had four employees, and I said, OK, I will just lead four people for the rest of my life.” 

But beyond his expectations, opportunities arose to expand exponentially. “People were entrusting me with their practices; we acquired a lot of practices in a short period of time.”

And Dr. Dan didn’t take that trust lightly, people giving him their legacies. “I felt like Moses, or every saint that tells God, ‘You know, I’m not the most qualified person to do this’ . . . I felt I had this responsibility to use my position to impact the lives of people.”

There were practical difficulties with maintaining a culture of Christian values when the company expanded so rapidly. 

“I couldn’t be everywhere anymore,” Dr. Dan said. “At the beginning, I had my team, and I could just influence the team, how you treat patients, how you respond to the not-so-happy patient, how are you being compassionate . . . When I realized I can’t be everywhere, I thought, I need to build more leaders . . . But not [just] leaders in leadership positions, it was leaders in every position. Because everyone has the power to use their talents to lead people to a better place.” 

Vision for leaders

Dr. Dan’s search for a way to build leaders led him to a closer look at the greatest leader of all: Jesus Christ. Praying over the problem and looking to Jesus as his model, Dr. Dan came up with seven marks of leadership: integrity, respect, positivity, empathy, teamwork, service, and humility. 

These form the core aspects of a vision of leadership that is essentially about seeing the human person, never just the numbers. It’s about knowing the incredible worth and dignity of each person you lead and empowering them to fully use their talents. It’s this idea of leadership that he outlines in his recently released book, The Leader Humanity Needs: How to Lead With Heart and Become a Force for Good in the World. 

This vision isn’t just Biblical and profound, modeled on Christ’s own leadership. It’s also highly effective, as evidenced by Dr. Dan’s own success. His company, Mercy Dental Group, is currently flourishing, with 12 practices in the Madison area. 

In addition to making Inc’s list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in America, Mercy Dental Group has also been listed as a best place to work by Madison Magazine for three years in a row, and earned a Global Recognition Award. 

The company has grown while maintaining a profoundly positive identity built on Dr. Dan’s seven marks of leadership.

Dr. Dan also has a nonprofit, Mercy Dental Missions, which serves those in need in local communities and on mission trips to Central America. 

And he finds time to run Fathers for Christ, an initiative designed to empower Christian men to meet their fitness goals through brotherhood and accountability.

Leadership open to all

His book isn’t aimed only at Catholics, or even only at Christians. “These are universal values. Even the atheist can acknowledge that Jesus was an impactful leader. He created a huge impact in the history of humanity. . . My goal for the book was to just reach everyone and just share my story, what I believe made my organization successful.”

 Of course, what he believes made his organization successful is God. “I’m sharing my experience . . . but . . . I want to at least spark curiosity in people who don’t have God as the center of their life.” 

Because ultimately, leaders can’t do it alone. “In this quest of becoming a better leader, hopefully you will realize that you can only reflect a light; you are not the source of the light.” 

The reality of all true light coming from Christ also means that leadership isn’t just about big companies or your role at work. 

Dr. Dan believes emphatically in the power of ordinary leaders, because he’s seen it in his own life. “Leaders, [who] didn’t even realize they were leaders, impacted my life and changed my life, without even knowing, by just being who they are, using their talents.”

One of those ordinary leaders was his high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Serra. When Dr. Dan was in his early years of high school, he’d come to the conclusion that he simply wasn’t good at school. “I was always a bad student.” After years of bad grades, “My mind was like, ‘yeah, no, [I’m terrible] at school, I’m not going to be successful, I can’t go to school for anything.’” 

Looking at life after high school, he was assuming he wouldn’t go to college. 

But one day, his chemistry teacher called him into his office after a failed test. 

“He said, ‘Why are you failing so horribly if you are such a smart kid?’ I’m like, ‘This guy doesn’t know me, he doesn’t know this is normal for me. Talk to all my other teachers, dude, they will tell you the same thing.’” 

But Mr. Serra didn’t give up that easily. 

Mr. Serra volunteered to tutor him for free, as his parents couldn’t afford tutoring, and they started meeting regularly. 

His teacher invested in him, teaching him not just chemistry but also other subjects, study tools, and how to learn. 

“I started realizing that I wasn’t dumb, and then I started getting excellent grades, so much so that I graduated top of my class.”  

That accomplishment was a key to his being able to go to college on scholarship.

Belief

“That really changed the course of my life. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t because of this act of love that he did. He used his talents to just change my life.” 

Dr. Dan’s son, hearing his father tell this story, once asked him, “Do you know if Mr. Serra ever realized how much he changed our lives?” 

And Dr. Dan reflected that his teacher’s simple act of belief in him really had impacted hundreds of lives beyond his own: His family, his employees, his patients, and beyond. 

“That is the most powerful thing you can say to someone, is ‘I believe in you,’ because people don’t hear that, people don’t know their worth, people don’t know they are a beautiful creation of God, and they are full of talents, and he did that to me, just like God does to us, right? So God tells us that. He doesn’t need us, but He says, ‘I believe in you. I want you to participate. I want you to use your talents.’” 

Fundamentally, Dr. Dan’s vision of leadership is about believing in people: seeing them as Christ sees them, inviting them to join you in pursuing God’s mission, encouraging their talents, and welcoming them even with their limitations. 

That respect for people also includes respecting yourself, and accepting that God wants to work precisely through your limitations in order to lead others. 

Dr. Dan commented that as an immigrant who has an accent, he never imagined that he would be a public speaker. 

For that matter, he never imagined he would be an author, either. 

“I was like, ‘I am not a writer, I’m just a dentist.’” 

But while God doesn’t need us, “He invites us, He wants us to participate, and He uses our scars . . . to impact the life of the world.”

“Jesus, when He comes back [from the dead],” Dr. Dan reflected, “He chose to keep the wounds. He was restored, completely, but He chose to keep those wounds. And He is showing the wounds as proof of the miracle. And a lot of times . . . we reject the wounds . . . The wounds are what make us great. Me with my limitations, I am able to do certain things that should inspire other people . . . the power doesn’t come from me, it comes from God.” 

Throughout the book, stories of the saints, of Christ, and from Dr. Dan’s own life help present this Christian vision of leadership in a practical way that demonstrates how it connects to business, to relationships, and how others are affected – sometimes for a lifetime – by the way you choose to lead. 

To purchase the book and explore this Christ-centered and effective vision of leadership for yourself, go to danieltataje.com/author