Dental dream team or staffing nightmare? [VIDEO]

As part of our new Morning Huddle e-newsletter, DPR partnered with notable practice management consultants to provide quick video tips to get your team talking.

Here, Kathleen O'Donnell of Jameson Consulting shares 8 steps to building the ideal dental team.

Do you ever wonder if you will ever have the “dental dream team” or do you think that getting that team together and keeping it together may be just that, a dream?

Many doctors wish they could come into the office in the morning, go to the chair and do dentistry. Some dentists think that going into dentistry didn’t mean being a personnel manager or a leader of a team. But, you do wear two coats at all times. One is a lab coat and the other is a business suit. In one, your clinical expertise and your patient care is of the utmost importance. In the other, gathering, training, managing and motivating your team is of utmost importance.

Being an effective leader may be one of the most challenging roles in your practice. You provide leadership on several different levels: you are leading patients to make decisions that are good for them and you are leading your team members to places of personal growth and development. You lead by seeing your team members as people who deserve and who want to be seen as valuable individuals.

Without a well functioning team, you know that your practice will be held back and that you will waste a great deal of your energy.  When a team is coordinated; when they are working cohesively toward a common set of goals; when team members feel a sense of co-ownership of the practice, the practice can’t help but thrive.

And so, here are a few steps to creating your practice’s dream team:

STEP ONE

Get the right people.

STEP TWO

Develop a strategic plan for practice enhancement.

STEP THREE

Create specific descriptions of the position responsibilities.

STEP FOUR

Work on opening the lines of communication and keeping them open.

STEP FIVE

Have safe and effective ways to identify and overcome conflict.

STEP SIX

Establish a strategic system for problem solving.

STEP SEVEN

Hold powerful, productive, and fun team meetings.

STEP EIGHT

Celebrate the victories along the way.

Visit the Jameson Community for an exclusive article on The Dental Dream Team.

Get the right team in place no matter how hard that may be. It’s much smarter to take a while to hire and hire right. Then, spend quality time orienting the new person into the team and practice, making sure that your training system is second to none.

Having a well organized team and practice is the single most powerful stress control system you can access.  Reflect on your team’s strengths and weaknesses as you make this a great week.