Secure a Dental Leadership Grand Slam
Welcome back to Leadership Baseball. There was a lengthy rain delay, but we are back on the field and ready to WIN the Dental Leadership Baseball League championship.
Need to catch up on all the previous action? Navigate to the Dental Leadership Series on the blog or select a specific article below:
Each article covers valuable dental leadership skills that have advanced your practice to the high standing it currently holds in the league.
You’re on Second Base
Thanks to your practice’s commitment to consistently utilizing Patient-Oriented, Best Practice Operating Systems, your team made it safely to first base. Then, after installing regular team meetings, report-driven Morning Huddles, and a powerful Annual Retreat - and improving communication throughout - you made a solid base hit to second. What leadership tools need to be used now in order to reach third base and, ultimately, home?
Now off to Third Base
In the game of Leadership Baseball, Third Base is referred to as the Accountability and Motivation Base. As a dental leader, you spend 95% of your time deep in a dark, slippery, wet, oral cavity. During the day, you don’t have the freedom to manage or motivate each of your team members. Something else besides you must provide this drive and engagement, but who?
During the work day, your Chief Operating Officer handles the management part of your practice’s operating systems. These systems were adapted and instilled at First Base. On Second Base, you improved and strengthened your practice’s communications and teamwork skills.
To get on Third Base, you must address the all-important internal motivation, drive, and engagement that is critical for dynamic teamwork and practice success. There are three widely used leadership tools:
1. An effective TEAM-BASED Bonus System;
2. Monthly Team Monitor Reports; and
3. Regular Team Activities.
Team-Based Bonus System
Let’s tackle the Team-Based Bonus System first. Individually focused bonuses usually create internal resentment, conflict, and poor cooperation. Team-based bonus systems reward everyone for working together more effectively and efficiently. Isn’t that what you should be rewarding? Of course, every department in your practice will have internal goals, but the bonus is based on the bottom line: what is collected. All your practice’s operating systems must be working smoothly and efficiently before the money you work so hard to earn is deposited in the bank. The most important fact to remember is that timely Collections is a team activity - it is not the sole responsibility of the front desk. Team training can make this fact obvious to all.
Important Note: Be sure to calculate your bonus on a three-month average and not just one month. Award it monthly, but calculate it using a rolling average of the last three month’s collections. Monthly bonuses, as opposed to quarterly or semi-annually, are more motivating and result in enhanced motivation. Bonuses calculated on one day, two weeks, or one month can be too easily manipulated for effective motivation. Ask yourself, would you be willing to work harder or go the extra mile if there was nothing in it for you?
Monthly Team Monitor Reports
Next, let’s glance at the Monthly Team Monitor Reports. Every practice management software system in a dental practice collects valuable data and produces reports reflecting the success level of each operating system in your office. The data from these reports reflect how well each of your team players is executing their specific job duties and systems. For instance, you can leverage the all-important Production/Collections reports, as well as reports showing the number of no-show patients, amount of empty chair time, or whether the schedule met the Scheduling Goal that day.
Assigning each team member a few of their key reports to present each month at the Team Monthly Meeting, creates a powerful motivator because no team player wants to report weak performance data. A 20-minute report requires accountability for each team member and provides transparency across the team. This leadership tool also highlights areas that may need more training, system revisions, brainstorming, or troubleshooting. Besides creating accountability and motivation, catching these issues and trends on a monthly basis helps assure your annual results are not seriously affected.
Regular Team Activities
The final Third Base tool is nothing but hosting dental team fun. Dentistry is an intense, serious, stressful, and time-intensive profession. It is imperative that, as their dental leader, you frequently provide fun team activities and events. This improves team communication, efficiency, and comradery. Dental employment opportunities usually provide few perks (i.e., medical benefits, expense accounts, or travel opportunities). As a result, fun activities provided by the practice become extremely valuable in the eyes of your employees. They become unique benefits of working for your practice.
There are many ways to make this team fun happen: birthday celebrations, annual retreats, continuing education (CE) conferences, summer picnics, sponsoring a community egg hunt, Halloween celebrations, coloring contests, etc. Other ways to add some fun are holiday parties, rafting trips, walks for cancer, health fairs, a parade float, a lunch out, a spa day, and the list can go on and on. Get your team’s input to planning fun activities (an activity always included in the practice’s “annual retreat” to which I keep referring). They will have great ideas and suggestions. Ask them to arrange the details and come back to you with their proposals. Schedule at least four each year, not counting the team birthday celebrations.
If all this sounds like a waste of time and money, you are missing one of the most powerful aspects of stress reduction and business success! Research supports it: Happy teams are more productive and engaged, give improved levels of customer service, stay longer, and result in more 5-star reviews. Your investment will pay off ten-fold.
Are you interested in how these leadership tools can reduce stress, fire up your team, and increase rewards for everyone? Reach out! Together we can make them work in your practice.
Home plate is beckoning. With players on first, second, and third, your team is set up for a Dental Leadership Grand Slam! Stay tuned to learn what happens next!
