Managing the Dental Team: Guidelines for Practice Success. American Dental Association

       Your staff is able to dedicate itself to providing quality patient care when its time, energy and resources aren’t needed to fill vacant positions or resolve conflicts.

       Managing the Dental Team: What It Means and Why It Matters

      In many ways, the dentist has responsibilities similar to those of a manager of a successful sports team. Both professionals need to consistently demonstrate strong leadership that’s fair and empathetic. At the same time, they must assess the strengths of each individual and understanding the best way to motivate each team member. Your patients will see a caring, precise and well-coordinated operation where everyone is highly professional and committed to their oral health.

      The Managing the Dental Team module of the American Dental Association’s Guidelines for Practice Success™ (GPS™) details much of what you need to know in order to assemble, and keep, a strong dental team operating in your practice.

      Managing the Dental Team is about more than hiring the “right” person. This module will help guide you through different aspects of managing the team, including the hiring process, training, coaching, motivating, compensating, and more. The guide will provide information and resources that can help you:

      • Manage the processes of recruiting, screening and hiring staff

      • Design an orientation program that successfully onboards new employees

      • Conduct meaningful performance evaluations

      • Maximize the value and appreciation of the staff compensation package

      • Develop a staff policy manual

      • Decide which benefits to offer your team

      The content contained in the Managing the Dental Team module of the American Dental Association’s Guidelines for Practice Success^TM (GPS^TM) provides information on four major topics that offer suggestions for building — and retaining — an efficient and effective team. It also includes original resources, such as checklists and tip sheets, which were created specifically for this project and designed to help ADA members develop and lead teams that consistently deliver quality patient care.

Leadership

       The Dentist Is the Leader of the Team

      Certain members of the dental team might manage specific day-to-day responsibilities, but ultimately you’re in charge. The staff looks to you for guidance, decisions, motivation and recognition, and answers. Yet the ability to lead doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Few, if any, dental school curricula focus on what it takes to manage the clinical, business and interpersonal aspects of running a successful practice.

      In many cases, and in many industries, leaders learn to lead through experience and at their own pace. For most people, it takes practice, patience and years of education and training, in addition to reflecting on one’s leadership successes and failures. Even those who feel comfortable in their leadership roles continually hone their abilities.

       In many cases, and in many industries, leaders learn to lead through experience and at their own pace.

      Leadership can be behind the scenes or out in front. Regardless of the approach, the leader sets the tone for the way the practice operates. Much of your leadership will be by example. If you want your employees to be on time, you need to be on time, or even a little early. If you don’t want staff to use their personal cell phones, you should leave yours in your desk in the morning. If you want staff to demonstrate sincere concern for every patient, and for each other, it’s up to you to model that behavior.

      As a leader, it’s important that you have — and communicate and abide by — office policies and rules that set the standards for how to take care of patients and that define standards and protocols to be followed. It’s equally important to be fair and consistent.

      You also have to surround yourself with a strong team. Good team building requires you to identify each staff person’s strengths and weaknesses. You must also find ways for different people to unite behind the shared goal of delivering the level of patient care that you want to provide. While it’s important that you find ways for people to work together every day, it’s essential when you need to fill a vacant position or expand staff.

      Motivating, coaching and rewarding staff should be a top priority for every leader. Over time, you’ll become more skilled at giving balanced and constructive feedback. Two ways to achieve this are to provide more positive than negative feedback and to be timely, specific and authentic in your communications.

       Motivating, coaching and rewarding staff should be a top priority for every leader.

      It’s up to you, as the leader of the practice, to recognize when someone on staff does a good job or has achieved a significant milestone. Likewise, it’s up to you to address negative situations before a festering issue makes the atmosphere unpleasant and counterproductive since patients may sense any underlying tensions.

      Strong leaders see mistakes as opportunities for growth rather than as negative situations. They recognize that mistakes frequently stem from simple miscommunication or a flawed thought process. Use these teachable moments to educate staff members so similar mistakes can be avoided in the future.

Preventing Drama

      Dental practices, like any business, experience some level of drama among staff. The way you handle that drama will have a significant impact on the culture, or tone, of the practice. Leaders who engage their staff and encourage open communications are often able to reduce staff conflict by noticing the warning signs of underlying tension and then addressing it openly and immediately. On the other hand, leaders who distance themselves from their teams may find their practices more vulnerable to drama and dysfunction. Office culture can be highly influenced by negative

Скачать книгу