Featured Article In the first part of this series, I discussed the importance of becoming the CEO of your practice. This is the First Pillar of what I call the “Five Pillars of Dental Leadership.” In that article, I presented the importance of moving from just being the practice owner, to gaining skills and implementing systems that will allow you to move into the Chief Executive position. Once you do this, your practice will meet its goals and positively impact your finances, your team, and the community. In many ways equally important is the Second Pillar, “Building a World Class Team.” One of the main reasons that dentists are selling their practices is that they are tired of dealing with the stress and hassle of running the team. If you concentrate on the Second Pillar, you can develop a practice that runs without you even having to be there. Everyone will be aligned and excited around a vision and common goals.
Five Pillars of Dental Leadership: A Four-Part Series Part 2
by Eric Morin, MBA
Pillar Two: Build A World Class Team The concept of building a world class team might sound daunting. Of ten, trying to find the right team members is an ongoing process with constant challenges. You might even ask, How do you define a world class team? My answer would be, a world class team is a group of high-performing members who are so commit ted to the mission that each inspires the nex t to raise his or her performance to a new level. I believe at Tower Leadership we have just that. I was recently in a meeting, and each person in the room was discussing Second Quarter 2018
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Featured Article personal successes. The performance level was so high that even I asked myself, as the CEO, if I could be doing more. When will you know when you have reached this level? The day you walk into your practice and the team is so commit ted to impact and grow th that they handle almost every problem, project, and initiative before it even comes to you.
Build a world class team, and your day-to-day practice life will change dramatically.
Where to Begin
You might think the first place to start is the hiring process. The first place to start, if you want to build a world class team, is actually with your VISION.
I discussed this in an earlier article, and it is such an important leadership concept. Does your team know why they come to work every day? Is it simply for a paycheck? The problem with this is that someone can always pay them more. Also, if you start asking them to do more for the same pay, they will become discouraged, and quite honestly if monetary compensation were your only motivation, so would you.
I encourage you to sit down and come up with a clear and defined vision. Where will you
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be in the nex t 5 years, 3 years, and even the nex t year? You can’t establish strong goals until you know where you are going. Once you know this, share it with your team, then ask for their input. When was the last time you asked your team to give input on the direction of the practice? When you ask them, you might be surprised at the response.
I was recently taking a practice through this exercise, and the lead hygienist asked: if she helped the doctor reach their vision, could the practice sponsor an orphanage in Haiti? That is what motivated her. When you share your common vision, and everyone is aligned, your team will show up for work understanding their “WHY.”
Ask Your Team Members What They Want
This might seem like an intimidating exercise, and I know you might be scared of what comes back when you ask people what they want. However, this is such a key component to building a world class team. I recently had a doctor walk his team through this process, and when he asked his associate what he wanted, the associate responded that he
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Featured Article wanted to retire within the nex t 90 days. It was a surprise, but now it’s a surprise that he can manage.
If someone asks for something that you cannot provide, then at least you can inform that person why this cannot happen and move forward set ting realistic expectations. It has been said, to get what you want in this world you need to help other people get what they want. I can tell you as someone who practices this every day, it’s true. Work hard to help your team reach their own goals and vision. When you do this, and they know how much you care, you will be surprised at just how hard they will work to assist the practice.
to become part of us. This is our team. Let your whole team become integral in the hiring process.
Also, work to spot potential conflicts before they happen. Prior to hiring someone for a position, make sure that he or she has not just the knowledge, but also a working style that will allow a successful fit.
You Attract What You Create
When you create a high-performing team and a team-centered atmosphere, you will at tract additional world class team members. Dentistry, as you know, is a closeknit community. If you create the environment that I am describing, the top performers, “Call them your whether associates, hygienists, TEAM. The truth is, Practice Intentional front of fice or other personnel, you all are a team. You Leadership will know about your of fice. will all succeed or fail The best of the best will do Your words and actions together, just like any every thing they can to work mat ter. Stop calling your other team.” there, and the low performers team employees or staf f. will not even try, because your Definitely do not call them standards will discourage them. human capital. Call them your TEAM. The truth is, you all are a team. I recently worked with a doctor who went You will all succeed or fail together, just like through this process. He told me about the any other team. Let them know you value great grow th his practice has had, but his them and that although you each have favorite part is that his success is “team dif ferent roles, you are all driving toward the driven” and it has “made dentistry fun again.” practice’s vision and goals together. Create a world class team, invest in them, and you will be surprised just how much grow th Create a World Class and impact you and your practice can have!
Hiring Process
Protect your walls. Have you ever allowed someone whom you knew was not a good fit to join your team just to fill a position? How does that typically work out?
At Tower Leadership, we have an in-depth hiring process that makes joining our team ex tremely dif ficult – and so should you. The most important part of the process is that everyone already on the team has a say in whether an interviewee should be allowed
Eric J. Morin, MBA, specializes in business and financial consulting for dentists. He has been in the industry for over a decade and also assisted his wife in establishing a thriving multi-doctor practice.
Second Quarter 2018
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