Dental Practice Growth: Leadership Matters
A Forbes article notes that “When good leadership is in place in a company, it can be felt throughout the entire organization” and “Bad leadership can also be felt throughout the entire organization―only not in the right way. We couldn’t agree more! In my dental consulting practice, I’ve witnessed first-hand the impacts of both effective and sub-par leadership. When strong leadership is lacking, the organizational culture suffers. In turn, it impacts the patient experience. Having engaged, high-performing employees is also essential for ensuring stable business operations. Bottom line: If you want your practice to grow and thrive, you need to have the right leadership infrastructure to mobilize the entire team’s support. In this article, we’ll touch on some of the steps you can take and why they matter.
If you’re thinking, “I don’t have time to focus on abstract ideas like ‘leadership,'” we hope that the following examples of the practical, tangible benefits of good leadership may shift your perspective.
Cultivate a Positive Organizational Culture That Fosters Growth and Achievement
The first question to ask yourself is “What type of culture do I want for the practice?” While the answers to this question may differ somewhat across individual practices, I think we can all agree that a culture that promotes a positive work environment, boosting employee engagement and high performance, is highly desirable. So how do you accomplish this?
Establish and share a clear mission and vision statement with all staff.
It is an excellent clarifying exercise for you and sets the tone for all employees.
Cultivate a positive culture.
Treat employees and patients professionally and respectfully. Model a positive outlook and show clear disapproval of destructive gossip and unkind behavior. Never make cutting comments about anyone.
Promote a culture of growth and learning.
Demonstrate a growth mindset by adopting a can-do attitude and continuously learning and improving your skills. Your behavior sets the bar for the rest of the staff. Also, be sure to encourage your employees to grow and learn. Besides providing training opportunities, you can include professional growth and development as a criterion in employee performance reviews. A growth and learning culture lift all boats.
Recognize achievement.
Countless studies have shown that employees highly value recognition. It also typically boosts contentment. Happy employees generally are more productive than those who aren’t. Additionally, employees who feel appreciated are more likely to enjoy their managers. Oh, and happy employees will typically stay with their employer longer. So, carving out time to notice and acknowledge individual and team achievements is well worth the effort.
Demonstrate Practice Values Through Your Actions
Another critical question is, “What type of values do I want to reinforce in practice?” You likely want your employees to value teamwork and respectful treatment of patients and colleagues, as well as practice growth. When you demonstrate fundamental values through your behavior, employees notice and usually try to adopt similar behavior.
Modeling teamwork and a caring, supportive approach.
Treat employees with respect, fostering excellent performance through encouragement. Avoid a strictly hierarchical approach in favor of an attitude of everyone pitching in and helping one another. If a staff member is trying to get out on time to pick up her child from work, offer to finish up for her. Employees feel supported and respected by gestures like these. Remember that how you treat your employees directly impacts how employees, in turn, treat patients.
Adopt a goal-driven approach.
Management studies have consistently validated the value of goal setting. If individuals and organizations don’t articulate specific goals, progress, and growth are much less likely to occur. Be sure that your practice has goals and that they’re shared frequently with staff. Working toward goals also helps employees to feel more engaged and part of a more significant effort. You also need to monitor progress toward goals, or else you will lose momentum, and employees will assume the goals are no longer critical.
Cultivate Staff Loyalty, Trust, and Longevity
Communicate regularly with staff.
A common challenge in dental practices is a shortage of time. Most dentists are hard-pressed to complete procedures while also keeping on top of managing the practice’s business side. Dental practice managers are also typically juggling many tasks each day in a busy office. However, taking the time to communicate with staff is crucial and will save you time in the long run if you’re able to keep good employees from walking out the door. We have two recommendations: 1) Hold a morning huddle with all staff each morning; and 2) Talk to employees frequently, showing that you care. Regular communication makes staff feel like a valued part of the team and generates employee trust and loyalty.
Provide staff training opportunities.
Providing opportunities for staff to grow, learn, and develop new skills is a well-documented way to reduce staff turnover. It also helps to improve employee engagement and morale. Plus, most importantly, your staff performance will improve as well!
Organizations big or adopt these tried-and-true strategies presented above. You might want to start with some small steps. Just enforce a couple of these suggestions and watch the positive changes that will emerge in your practice!
About NGT Academy
We are one of the very few turnkey-Learning Management System providers that specializes in the dental industry. Currently, with a library of more than 30 courses created for dental teams, our eLearning platform is one of the easiest to use. Simultaneously, eLearning typically costs at least 30% less than conventional training making for a truly efficient solution for your dental organization.
Do you want to learn more? Contact us for more information or schedule a demo