In today’s challenging dental marketplace, your dental team needs to be better than ever.
A highly effective team provides high quality patient care, more consistent performance, less stress for the Doctor, and increased production.
Most dental practices have competent individuals, but without an overarching strategic vision and tactical goals to help the individuals become a cohesive team, they will often fail to achieve their potential. And a weak team will also tend to deliver poor patient experiences. This inevitably affects the bottom line.
A goal of building a collaborative, cooperative team that targets exceptional patient care and practice growth is in every employee’s interests.
Fundamental to a cohesive and effective team is training. We’ve discussed the power of systems in small businesses, and establishing and perfecting a training system is critical to the long-term success of a dental practice. The training system should accommodate a variety of individual needs, and help instill a sense of teamwork in the entire staff.
1. Identify opportunities
Every individual has a specific and unique history that informs their skillset. Your training system should help you identify unique areas of opportunity where efforts, attention, and support will result in productivity gains.
2. Onboarding
An effective training system helps a practice establish a baseline of skills for every employee, and ensures that critical responsibilities have been cross trained among a variety of staff.
3. Comprehensive training
A formal, ongoing training program should be part of every dental professional’s career. Training and professional growth are not a “one and done” activity. Rather, the dentist should make a commitment to support steady development and refinement of skills for their staff.
4. Accountability
Consider that there needs to be some different feedback mechanisms such that progress, and specific needs, can be monitored. Make time in monthly staff meetings to evaluate team progress, and establish that professional growth is a part of every staff member’s job requirements. Performance reviews should incorporate evaluations of day to day effectiveness, as well as efforts to progress through a training system.
5. Support
No training system will be effective without the business owner or dentist’s direct and consistent involvement. Support your team with continuous educational opportunities, and offer emotional support when necessary. Reward your team for their efforts with recognition, and consider a bonus program that is directly tied to training and putting new skills to work in the practice.
No dental practice will be successful without a solid and effective team in place. Every team and every practice has the potential to be All-Stars. It all begins with the right mindset and the systems to support the practice’s ambitions.
To learn more about the power of training to enhance team performance, please join us at Dentiva, where we discuss the many benefits of an engaged and high-performing team. We will also discuss the role of phone verbal skills and broken appointments in your strategy for success.
Over Alex Nottingham
Alex is een gerenommeerde praktijkmanagement coach en consultant voor tandartsen in de Verenigde Staten. Zijn programma in maart is in nauwe samenwerking met Dentiva specifek aangepast voor de tandartspraktijk in Nederland.
Hij geeft heldere inzichten en doordachte stappenplannen voor uw praktijk, gebaseerd op zijn werkzaamheden in het bedrijfsleven en honderden tandartspraktijken.
Alex is schrijver van het boek ‘Dental Practice Excellence’ en was co-auteur van het boek ‘the E-Myth revisted’ en internationaal spreker. Alex Nottingham is gelieerd met de American Academy of Implant Dentistry, de Academy of General Dentistry en de Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry.
