The beginning of the holiday season and the close of another year are always time for reflection. You'll look at your stats, year-end revenue, profits and losses, spreadsheets, and so on, and begin to plan next year's successes according to the numbers from this year.
Jay Geier is the president and founder of the Scheduling Institute.What if I told you that one of the biggest changes you can make to affect your practice's success in 2016 has nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with you?
If you know me, you know I'm a huge numbers person. I've been with hundreds of doctors who, over the years, have given me more excuses for their numbers than I would care to count. Many point to their staff. And while a bad team does significant damage to a practice, they are not the ones to blame. The fact of the matter is, the quality of your team is a direct reflection of you.
In other words, if you have a subpar team, you are doing a subpar job leading them. So now what? Stop making excuses and start addressing the problem -- beginning with yourself.
Look in the mirror
If your staff is a direct reflection of you, it's time to take a long hard look in the mirror. Are you tired, disengaged, and unhappy? Sounds a bit depressing (and maybe accurate), but this is good. This is a change completely in your control. You now have a choice to make. You can continue doing the same things you've been doing over the lifetime of your practice (which will result in the same outcome), or you can set a goal to do whatever is necessary to build your very own "dream team."
Walk the walk
Do you come into the office full of energy, passion, and purpose every day? Are you making the most of your interactions with your employees and turning possible disasters and mistakes into learning opportunities? Do you arrive to work early with a smile on your face? Are you excited about the day?
You are completely responsible for setting the tone in the office. Your engagement with your practice is always going to be two to three levels higher than that of your employees. So if you want your staff to be engaged, you better set the bar high.
Take back control
Once you have yourself in the mindset to change, it's time to look at your staff. If you're like most dentists I've worked with, you've been silently tolerating nasty attitudes and negative (or even rude) behavior from some of your staff members just because you didn't want to ruffle anyone's feathers. Guess what? It's time to start ruffling some feathers.
Here's the solution: Publically raise the expectations of your team. When expectations are high and known, your tolerance for negativity falls dramatically. If you have staff members who are consistently disrupting the flow of your office and bringing down the overall productivity of your team, they need to be warned that that behavior won't be tolerated any longer.
If you want good employees, you need to make them. They can either meet your standards or get out. It might sound harsh, but just like parenting and discipline, follow-through is key. This is your business, your livelihood. Why would you pay someone who is detrimental to the success of your business? Let them go.
Invest, invest, invest
Now that you've filtered out the bad apples, what do you do with the rest of the team?
Building a successful dream team means making the commitment to invest in them. And while it's important to train every area of your office -- from the hygiene department to your personal assistant -- it all starts with your telephones. I can't say it enough. If you have not trained your team on the phones, you are cutting yourself off at the knees. There is no way you can expect to build a team that consistently achieves high results if you have never invested in training them on how to handle new patient calls, schedule new patients, and own their results.
Not only does consistently training your team dramatically increase your results and boost practice growth, it also shows your team that you value them both personally and professionally. When you invest in training your team, you invest in valuable skills that will continue to serve them for the rest of their career.
So now take a look at your future. The beginning of a new year is a great opportunity to start fresh and lay out a new set of ground rules for both you and your team. And with the right changes, watch your numbers grow!
Jay Geier is the president and founder of the Scheduling Institute. Take the institute's free 5 Star Challenge.
The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.
