Building a Strong Foundation for Your Practice Starts with Your Team
The term “solo practice” is used commonly in dentistry, but as Steve Jobs said, “Great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team.” Building a strong, productive team is essential, because your team is the foundation of your practice and ensures its success.
When building your team, remember the following…
A Successful Team Starts With YOU
Dental owners often Struggle to find a balance between providing patient care and leading their team. While it may take some time upfront, it’s important to establish clear goals and operational protocols for the practice. Without them, the team lacks direction, causing confusion and stress. This can negatively impact the patient experience, as well as the productivity and profitability of the practice.
Knowledge is Power
Protocols are only effective if your team understands them. To ensure everyone is on the same page, utilize a standardized process to train each member of your team. This includes detailed job descriptions and workflows – establishing responsibility and accountability amongst the team.
It’s also important to remember that effective, thorough training takes time and can’t be accomplished between appointments. Instead, schedule staff training outside of patient care hours, so you and your team can focus on the information being shared.
Shared Goals Can Unite Teams
You know the goals/priorities of your practice – but does your team? To be successful, it’s important that everyone at the practice is working toward the same goals. Share the practice goals with your team and make sure each team member understands their role in achieving them. Shared goals not only boost your practice performance, but they also give team members a stronger sense of purpose at work and promote feelings of ownership and commitment to the practice.
Compensation Matters
Although you may be concerned about compensating your team too much (in dentistry, labor is typically the highest practice expense), ensuring you are compensating your team fairly and competitively is essential to attracting and retaining top talent. You may also want to consider implementing a bonus structure that’s tied to your practice goals, which can be an effective way to increase staff engagement and loyalty even more.
Your team can teach you too.
No one knows your practice or your patients better than your team. Their feedback can provide you with invaluable information on what is going right at the practice, and more importantly, uncover areas to improve. Set aside time to meet with your staff regularly. This is a great way to make sure your team feels heard and supported, gives them the opportunity to ask questions, discuss any issues that may need to be addressed as a group, and share ideas.
A dental practice is only as strong as its team.
In order to achieve long-term success, it’s essential to invest in developing and retaining a high-performing team.
If you would like support enhancing your practice performance, Dynamic Dental Advisors offers a wide range of practice management services, including developing operational protocols for your practice and staff training, to ensure your practice is operating as efficiently and profitability as possible.
Contact us today to learn more.
