According to a recent Gallup Workplace survey, 51% of US employees are actively seeking a new job. This statistic is especially worrisome in the dental industry due to an existing shortage of dental personnel. Learn the primary reasons dental employees depart and ways you can prevent it from happening. 

In this Dental Leadership Baseball game, the pitchers are your patients and your employees are up to bat. You are the owner and head coach and have assistant coaches on the field and behind the scenes helping you and your team win the league series. Running to first base is when your employees started transforming into team members through the implementation of several leadership tools and best-practices, and patient-oriented operating systems discussed in earlier blogs. Now, second base is looming ahead. The current question is: what leadership skills and tools are needed for your team to arrive safely on second base?

Look, the game is starting! The pitcher is winding up. It’s a classic fastball speeding toward one of your players. Who is the pitcher? It’s Mr. I’m Important, who is one of your patients that is constantly on an impossibly tight schedule. STRIKE 1… STRIKE 2… STRIKE 3… YOU’RE OUT!! What? How could your player be out? You carefully vetted your team players before hiring, you explained to them the ultimate goal of your game, outlined the rules of your game, and supplied your expectations. Where did you do wrong?

This month, we’re playing baseball, specifically, leadership baseball. You, the dentist, are the owner of this team, which we will call, “Team D” (for dental). You purchased Team D with a boat-load of money, time, and sweat by graduating dental school and purchasing or buying into a dental practice. Those decisions are what launched you into this game of leadership baseball.

The most effective team structure for a dental practice is a self-managed team structure. Why? In dentistry, the dentist-leader is the business's primary income producer. If the dentist-leader is not doing dentistry, the business is losing money. Over time, the stress of dealing with a dysfunctional team structure and being the number one producer will result in professional burn-out.

We started the year with a blog about the infamous “bad apple” employee; next we tackled how to avoid hiring a “bad apple” employee; and now, after following our effective Concepts Hiring System, we have a new employee, who is excited, energetic, a little nervous, and eager to learn. This is the point, right after hiring a new employee, when so many leaders (and not just in dentistry!) make two key mistakes.

When working with practices, often I see significant savings, increased efficiency, and higher patient satisfaction when outsourcing specific tasks and duties. Creating a modern office with progressive technology and effective operating systems makes the difference between a thriving practice and a struggling practice.

It’s Monday morning and your team is gathered for the Morning Huddle. Each goes through their reports and all agree that the schedule looks perfect! There are no openings in the schedule and everyone is ready to roll. But what happens? The infamous NO-SHOW BOMBS start dropping. It hits hygiene first…second…third!!! The final bomb takes out your most productive appointment of the day!