The doctor and the staff person are just two different people. I have never known a doctor who ran a successful practice for very long trying to be buddies with the staff.
The relationship between employer and employee is naturally antagonistic and any attempt to change the universal nature of that relationship is destined to crash and burn in a fiery heap.
What’s the goal of most doctors? Why, to make the dental practice a healthy, successful business, right? Well, that’s the main one I hear anyway.
OK. To build a thriving practice one of the things that has to be done repeatedly is to come up with new ideas and programs. To get those ideas and programs successfully implemented you have to bring those ideas to your staff members and get them on the same page. You can’t get much done without them. I know there are lots of doctors out there who think they can do it all, but let’s deal in reality for a while. Your staff is necessary to carry out new programs in the dental office.
Sometimes your staff can really get on board and help you, too. If you present the idea to them in a way that they understand, believe, and trust, they can help the business do things that couldn’t have been done without them. However, in the lack of a great sales pitch by the doctor, the staff will likely sit back, do the least amount of work on the new project that they can, find ways to explain why other things in the practice are more important, and quietly wait for the doctor to lose steam and motivation to follow through on their accountability. Shamefully, too many docs are guilty of holding a half-hearted meeting, giving some lackluster instructions and handing off what could have been a life or practice altering project if it were done correctly. Then they don’t monitor the staff or hold them accountable (or even appoint a trusted key employee to do it for them). They check up on the project sporadically if at all and the golden idea slowly fades into oblivion. Don’t think for a minute that your staff is terribly sad about the loss of a potentially great office policy. You see, it requires vision and faith to know that something will change the practice forever for the better without the proof of seeing into the future. Vision is squarely in the court of the doctor when it comes to job responsibilities. Sorry, you can’t delegate that one out.
Our profession has enjoyed a great run in which we could afford to be lackadaisical with our management abilities and our interaction with our staff. This is no more. To prepare and strengthen ourselves for the future to come, we must learn to get the very best effort from our most precious asset, our staff. Find out the secret issues that have been holding them back and find out what it feels like to employ a superstar team.
Once you discover the secrets that your staff members are hiding, you can break down the barriers that have sapped productivity and caused squabbling in your practice for so long. One of the greatest findings of Dr. Griffin during his consultation with dental practices has been that once everyone is aware of the few little things that have been nagging at them, they can resolve longstanding issues and enjoy fun, profitable growth to superstar levels. You can get your free CD explaining the 5 most common Staff Secrets at http://www.dentalstaffsecrets.com.