For dental office managers: Top 5 tips for keeping your New Year's Resolutions in your dental practice

2014 rolled in and we have heard from our American Association of Dental Office Managers (AADOM) members that they are busy! The New Year typically comes with new resolutions. Now comes the hard part … keeping them! I’d like to offer some tips on how to see them through.

If you raised your practice goal, be sure it’s realistic. Increasing your production goal by 10% may be hard to achieve if you’ve been flat the last few years. Start slow and raise your goal mid-year if you’re achieving success.

Set up calendar checkpoints. Evaluate where you are in two months with your resolutions, and then again in four months. If you don’t put these in the calendar, the dates will pass and so will the momentum.

Ask for help from your team. Share the goals and let them know that you’ll need support from them. Encourage them to set similar goals in their own areas of the practice … and support them as well!

Create systems as often as possible. Our members have a number of tasks to perform every day. Our most successful managers know that they have to either automate these tasks or burn out doing the “little things.” If you find yourself performing a task more than once, seek to automate it. This will leave you valuable time to concentrate on improving your practice (and keeping your resolutions).

Celebrate your achievements! When you are able to tick off a goal or noticed that you are doing well with a continued new habit, take the time to pat yourself on the back. It’s hard to keep New Year’s resolutions so enjoy your success! Be sure to point out other’s accomplishments as well – pay it forward is always a good motto.

I wish you luck with your practice in 2014. AADOM is here to help you with your managerial goals. AADOM’s team members routinely send encouraging emails to each other – it’s part of our culture. It was easy to implement as we set the intention that a cohesive, happy team will always succeed together. I know this is possible for your team as well. We’d like to take this opportunity to wish you luck in the New Year!
 

About AADOM:The American Association of Dental Office Managers (AADOM) is an organization of professional office managers, practice administrators, patient coordinators, insurance and financial coordinators, and treatment coordinators of general and specialized dental practices.  AADOM is the nation's largest education and networking association dedicated to serving dental practice management professionals. For more information, please call (732) 842-9977 or email info@dentalmanagers.com.