Many of the problems you face in practice or any business are predictable. How predictable are they?

Let's take the big four of practice: personnel, profitability, promotion and presentation. All are predictable problems. All have different contexts. All have different time frames. Nevertheless, all four have shared characteristics.

What are the shared characteristics?

Rather than me spouting them off, I'll let you arrive at your own conclusions.

Personnel:

This one is so predictable and yet the most ignored of all problems that you know are to eventually come. This is the one issue that sinks many practices because the leader Dr fails on so many counts when it comes to handling people.

Staff have to be recruited, selected, hired, trained and monitored. Ninety percent plus dentists consider this a royal pain in the backside – because it can be. Still, one cannot run from it. One should not tolerate poor performance because of the difficulty of hiring, training and getting new personnel onto their jobs and doing well. Everyone who does is merely delaying the inevitable. Worse yet, the leader Dr who delays the decision to help a poor performer "find a new economic opportunity" outside the practice ends up suffering a different, worse pain – unhappy team members and failed profits.

Any practice problem that you are unwilling to face will, in time, extract its pain on you.

There is no viable method of handling personnel other than setting up systems for every component of the personnel success equation.

The stark truth is that team members like it when you operate from these systems. It removes uncertainty and gives them prediction. It is human nature to prefer this.

No matter how much you want to keep your team, dream it, hope for it, you will lose team members. Gone are the days when employees stayed at companies for 20-30 years. Now the norm is three years! And most dental practices less than that.

Often the best members leave first because of the unwillingness of the leader Dr to make the changes necessary to make the practice as successful as it could be. This includes firing of non-performers, those that upset team harmony and those who have different personal and business values than what you as practice leader has. Myriad other reasons lead your people to leave: move, pregnancies, change in spouse's work. There are lots of them.

These problems of personnel are coming to a practice near you – your own.

Wouldn't it make sense to plan for these eventualities?

The obvious answer is yes, yet most dentists do not!

What are the five major reasons that people leave any position? The answers may surprise you, but after a moment of thought it makes sense.

Here they are:

1. My job really wasn't very important
2. I wasn't making a difference
3. I wasn't trained for what I did
4. I did not get support from management and co-workers
5. I didn't get paid enough.

Money was fifth on the list. That makes sense because most employers are paying a competitive wage. The other four reasons are quite revealing wouldn't you say.

What about the Dr that has a hard time keeping staff for any duration in general? This is generally a different problem. What is the common denominator in this situation? The Dr. Ouch!

Every single reason for personnel problems I have lived, including me being the problem as the common denominator! So I don't hold myself in a superior, holier-than-thou position.

I have learned my lessons on personnel through the heated crucible of everyday practice. I have certainly paid the price for this hard won knowledge.

Here are some principles that I have found useful:

1. Always check references. Past performance is the best indicator of future performance. There are many things you can't ask prior employers, and you can ask this question: If given the opportunity, would you hire this person again? If the answer is yes, that is a pretty solid rock to base your decision. Multiple yes's from prior employers is even better.
2. Interviews are unreliable. We all have to do them, yet so many courses and books abound on how to give the "best audition" that you can get fooled. Often the best solution is to hire if you like what you hear and then being willing to fire QUICKLY if they do not deliver. Testing, working interviews, lunch with existing staff are all viable methods to improve your chances
3. Once hired, set a schedule of training. Most new staff need a lot of time and help learning to do their jobs, even if experienced. Give the training yourself or have staff do it. Follow up with the newbie often, especially early on. Find ways to help them feel good about what they do. Remember the reasons that people leave and do the opposite.
4. Measure performance. That which gets measured improves. This is one of the oldest of all principles, yet commonly not done. Beware any staff member who says you can't measure her work. That is just BS. All performance can be measured. It might take a little figuring out to do so, but it all can. Why would you pay for performance that you had no assurance of actually happening?!
5. Reward top performers. They know they are good. They know when they get results. Reward them and you'll get more. Rewards can be extra attention, public commendations, thank you 's delivered in front of patients and other staff, additional training, time off, one time monetary awards, certificates and plaques. And when warranted, a permanent increase in pay.
6. Give your team your time and energy. They need it. Just as you work with me to keep your axe sharp; you, too, need to work with them to keep their axes sharp. This just might be one of the biggest of omissions that dentists do.
7. Work on your leadership and management skills. Unfortunately, this is an area of neglect for most dentists. It is also one reason that practices never really grow, that referrals are lackluster and recruiting new staff can be so daunting. Read books on leadership. Practice new skills. Apply some time and energy to this role.
8. Do not expect your team to always agree with your decisions. There is a time when you need to command the group. Likewise there is a time when other modes of leadership are best. Sometimes it is coaching them; sometimes it is about creating consensus, sometimes it is about just being a friend. Your certainty about your roles gives them a sort of mental assurance that all is well.
9. Find places to praise and use liberally. Far too few of us ever get the praise we deserve. Your words can make someone's day. When you give praise that is deserved, you build up a sort of bank account in the minds of your team. Sometimes you need to withdraw from that bank. Make sure you have made enough deposits so you don't become overdrawn. Overdrawn accounts are one of the reasons that staff leave you.
10. Schedule and hold team meetings. These are the times for coordination, collaboration, coaching, correction and celebration. Make them as fun as possible, not the dreaded, boring where they do not get to make a point or have a say. Spend three quarters of the time on the above with one quarter dedicated to decisions, projects, and who is doing what by when. FYI, make sure you give do-able targets to staff for these projects! And give them enough time, responsibility and training to get them done successfully.
11. 11.          Make decisions. Once you have all the information you need, go ahead and decide. Fire the ones that aren't getting it done after you have given them sufficient time to correct performance and behavior. You'll do yourself and your family an enormous favor by acting on what you know to be right. Yes, you will make an error occasionally, but the larger error is the error of omission – problems not acted on that do far more damage.

 


Predicable problems beg for a predicable system that meets the issues head on. What's yours?

Best,

             Charley

Copyright 2010 Charles W Martin