Robert Maguire, DDS, MA, is a dental speaker, coach, practice consultant, and DiSC trainer, passionate about leadership and communication. If you would like more information about Dr Maguire and to learn how he can help you and your team experience more fulfillment, more joy, and more financial success, visit https://www.thefulfillment.coach/ or email him at contact@thefulfillment.coach.

Robert Maguire

Your Dental Team is an Untapped Treasure. Photo courtesy of V&P Photo Studio/stock.adobe.com. 

When you think of the items in a treasure chest, what things come to mind? Perhaps you think of things like gold, or diamonds, or jewels, things that sparkle, are precious, and have great value. If you receive one of these treasures, the only way to find out what beautiful things are inside is to open it.

In your dental practice, you have a similar treasure chest. It’s called your dental team. Your team consists of special and talented individuals who work alongside you, helping you run your dental practice and care for your patients. Some manage the nitty gritty details of scheduling, insurance management, and collections, allowing you to better focus on what you do best, your dentistry. Others, like your hygienists, motivate, educate, and help keep your patients’ mouths healthy.

Thank goodness for our dental teams. While we’re busy concentrating on perfecting our crown margins, our dental assistants, in addition to helping us see better, are observing the comfort level of our patients. They’re able to monitor a patient’s level of anxiety better that we can. While we are focusing intensely on providing excellent dentistry, they are focusing on caring for and comforting our patients with gentleness and empathy.

As dentists, we spend a lot of time and energy focusing on the technical demands of our work like anesthetizing our patients, making sure the esthetics are right, removing decay in a tooth, making sure the crown margins and contacts are exact, adjusting the occlusion, or placing a dental implant. This high level of concentration often keeps us from seeing our patients’ emotions, the things that are going on “outside of the mouth.” How fortunate we are to have a team that helps comfort our patients and monitor their emotional well-being.

Another important aspect of the dental team is that each one of them brings to your dental practice their unique knowledge and skills. Often, they have great ideas that make our practices run more efficiently and productively. Often, our dental assistants are excellent communicators, better able to smooth things over when patients seem upset or have concerns. The new insights and great ideas they bring to our practices are innumerable.

Years ago, my team helped me choose our new dental management software. They helped me streamline my scheduling and work more efficiently. Not only did they help me better manage the practice, but they also helped me with my communication skills, letting me know when I was using too much technical jargon and overwhelming the patients.

Over the years, I’ve seen too many dentists with a “lone ranger” mentality, trying to do it on their own, never asking their team members for their ideas or for their help. For me, not seeking input from your team is like receiving a gift and never opening it.

Here are a few suggestions you can implement to improve your communication and begin to include your team in your day-to-day practice life.

As dentists, we can get so wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of doing dentistry that we neglect to take the time to seek input from our team. Make it a point daily to ask your team questions. “What are your thoughts?” “How could we do this better?” “How could we improve the way we care for our patients?” Make sure that at every morning huddle and every weekly team meeting, you review the previous week or day’s activities, and ask your team for their input and suggestions.

The need to always be in control is a serious detriment to your dental practice. Micromanagement breeds distrust and stifles your team’s creativity. It robs people of their self-esteem rather than encouraging them to be creative or take risks. Furthermore, a “bossamantic” attitude alienates team members, which leads to unhappiness, and an “every man for himself” attitude, fostering a culture of individual competition rather than one of team collaboration.

Research shows that happier teams are more productive teams. Allowing team members to use their gifts and talents creates safety and a more relaxed work environment. As a result, team members will feel more confident and take more ownership of their jobs. Magic happens in a dental practice when everyone is empowered to use their talents to provide the best care for your patients. Want to increase your practice production? Give your team more freedom, seek their input, tap into their strengths, and watch your practice grow.

There is no question that doing great dentistry requires intense focus. Daily, we strive to make sure that our crown margins are closed, that the shade is just right, or that the occlusion is perfectly balanced.

Our dental school training can be a breeding ground for perfectionists as we constantly work to learn and improve our technical skills. In short, perfectionism is a curse that poisons us, poisons our teams, and robs every one of their personal happiness. Perfectionists are never satisfied with their work. Consequently, they place unrealistic expectations on themselves and on their teams. Fear is the emotion that drives this behavior; it’s a fear of failure, a fear of not knowing the answer to a question.

Despite our desire for perfection, we live in an imperfect world, and as human beings, none of us are perfect. From our daily living, we know, firsthand, that “things don’t always go according to plan.” Focusing on excellence rather than perfection gives everyone on the team permission to do their best every day. We know firsthand that “stuff” will happen, and that some days will be better than others. Want a happier and more productive team? Strive for excellence rather than perfection.

In my office, when things didn’t work out as planned, we used After Action Reviews (AARs), to analyze situations, solve problems, and produce better solutions. Most often, we used AARs during our morning huddles and weekly team meetings.

With an AAR, we simply asked ourselves 4 questions: What happened? What was supposed to happen? What was the reason it happened? What will we do differently next time to achieve our desired result? For example, if the lab called to say that they needed a new impression, instead of playing “the blame game,” we used AARs to figure out what happened and what we needed to do differently next time to achieve a good impression.

AARs have 2 main benefits. First, with just 4 simple questions, we can solve problems quickly and easily. Secondly, AARs help you and your team stay focused on the situation rather than on “pointing fingers,” a behavior that alienates people.

Looking for ways to improve your practice, whenever possible, seek input from your team when making decisions for your practice. Frequently ask your team members for their suggestions and opinions. When you do, you’ll be amazed at the creative and new ideas they’ll come up with together. You’ll be astounded as you watch your team connect with their work, feel better about themselves, and have more fun. In the end, because of this synergy and spirit of cooperation, your dental practice will achieve greater financial success.

So, what are you waiting for? Open the treasure chest today.

Articles

Unlocking your dental practice team’s potential hinges on a few important factors, such as communication, collaboration, and willingness to improve. 

Your Dental Team is an Untapped Treasure

The power to transform your practice begins with the “right thinking.” Often, I will meet or hear of dentists who are unhappy with their dental practices, many telling me they feel “stuck.” On numerous occasions, they have tried to make changes to improve their practice production, tried to build a collaborative and happy team, but eventually they have been unsuccessful. They failed because the steps they took were transactional in nature rather than transformational. In this article, I will explain the difference between 

. I will explain why transactions rarely result in long-lasting positive change and why transformational thinking is the key to sustainable happiness and increased practice production. Lastly, I will provide practical steps you can take to experience more profound, significant, and lasting change.

Often, when dentists start to search for ways to improve their dental practices, they look for quick fixes. These quick fixes are essentially transactions that include such things as enacting new systems or policies, or quickly hiring team members based solely on their skills. Additionally, many “impulse buy” and purchase new pieces of equipment, often on credit and often without thinking about how it will be used to improve the lives of their patients and their teams. Other examples of transactional steps include learning new procedures or taking practice management courses to schedule more efficiently, decrease broken appointments, or improve collections.

Transactional steps are an important and necessary part of running an efficient dental practice. However, implementing these things alone, without thinking about the deep-down desires for you and your practice, will rarely lead to more happiness and increased profitability. It is like the steps people often take to lose weight. We know statistically that most diets work for the short term. We also know that most people who have dieted relapse and end up right back where they started. The reason most diets fail over the long haul is that the dieters have not fully envisioned their desired result, or how they want to look and feel once they have lost their weight. Here is the reality. Many weight loss programs only provide the transactions, the steps people need to take to lose their weight. What they do not and cannot provide is a picture of the end result, the 

This vision or desire for a long-lasting result can only come from the individuals themselves.

With regard to your dental practice, if you want more profitability, more happiness, and long-lasting change, focus and think about the transformational steps, or those steps that involve using both your head and your heart. Transactions are steps that involve using only your “head.” Your “heart” is the place where your emotions are found. Transformation

are most effective because they take into consideration our emotions, our deep-down desires, our passions, and our dreams, not only for ourselves but for our patients and our teams. They provide the motivation, the power that sustains us as we strive to build a happier, more productive, and thriving dental practice.

Another way to look at transformations is to think of them as your blueprint, your inspiration, or your vision. For the past several months, I have watched a new house being built in a lot across the street from my home. Before the construction began, the owner had a vision of the house he desired. When I chatted with him, he spoke about it in detail, with excitement in his voice and joy on his face. He told me that 6 months ago, he had hired an architect and together they had worked through and drawn up the blueprints. Once the final plans for his dream house were completed, the owner hired a reputable general contractor, someone he knew did quality work, someone who had a team of excellent workers to help him.

Over the next several months, I observed the whole transformational process, the building of this dream home for my neighbor. Watching this construction was like watching synchronized swimming: each step was coordinated and seemed to seamlessly flow from one step to the next. In a timely fashion, his high-quality home was built just as he had imagined it and just as he had planned out ahead of time.

In this example of the construction project, the transactions included things such as the excavation, the pouring of the foundation, purchasing the building supplies, working with the subcontractors, and using the right equipment to do the job. Every detail had been spelled out ahead of time in the architectural plan. Can you imagine doing all these steps without having blueprints, a vision of the finished result, or the right workers to do the job? This is no different than building the practice of your dreams. Having a vision and formulating a plan are the keys to transforming your practice.

For you and your dental practice, start by asking yourself transformational questions like “What is my current situation?” Think of today’s reality and imagine your dental practice as an empty lot for your new home. What do you want to build on your lot? What is your dream for your dental practice? In other words, what kind of dental home do you want to construct for you, your team, and your patients? Asking yourself these kinds of questions helps you envision your ideal practice.

Other questions might include “What will my practice physically look like and what type of equipment will I purchase? What about my team?” It is especially important to think about the people who will occupy your “dental home” with you. And how about the other occupants, your patients? “Who are the patients I’d like to serve? What procedures would I like to be doing? How about the quality of my dentistry and the quality of my team members’ work? What will my estimated costs be and how much would I like to make? What fees will I need to charge to make my dreams a reality?” The questions listed here are transformational in nature, getting you closer to envisioning your future practice. You may have some of your own questions.

Looking for more happiness, more joy, and more financial fulfillment from your dental practice? Your first step is to stop and begin by drawing up a blueprint for the life you want, for the practice you want, with the team you desire, and the type of patients you want to serve. Some dentists accomplish this on their own. Others reach out to practice coaches or consultants to first, help them first organize their thoughts and second, help them outline a plan to make their dreams a reality.

Whatever route you choose, start with a well thought out blueprint of your heart’s desires and make sure you hire the right team. Remember to think “transformation before transaction.”When you start with transformational questions and a basic idea of your vision, you will end up having a more profitable practice, one you will enjoy, with a team and patients you enjoy, one that will sustain itself for many years to come.

The key to having a thriving practice is changing your way of thinking. 