As I travel around the country working with different dental teams, I hear many doctors say to me “If I just had a staff that would only do this” or “If I just could come into work and not have to worry about my team”. On the flip side of that I hear a lot of team members blaming the “front office” or “back office” for the issues in the practices they work in.
I have been in the dental field for many years and have seen the struggles that many offices face first hand from different perspectives and I have come to understand that the struggles in an office and in many dentists careers comes down to their leadership ability. It often does not have anything to do with their staff, location or patient base (as many of them think it does).
Leadership means different things to different people. When we talk about leadership in dentistry and what it means to be a owner/leader of your team I like to remind doctors that transformational leadership comes from someone that can create an inspiring vision of the future of their business, they can motivate their team and inspire their team to engage with that vision, they deliver on their own vision and they coach and build their team to be more effective in achieving the vision.
I believe that teams in dental offices are looking for this kind of leadership to guide them and if there is not a strong leadership presence at the very top you will continue to get the same results you always have had.
Owning your own dental practice in 2017 is an opportunity to to capture great rewards professionally; however, for you to truly capture the best rewards of what dentistry has to offer you must become the transformational leader that your team needs.
I have seen doctors come to the realization that the issues in their business ultimately come down to themselves. I have also seen that when a doctor owns that and make a conscious decision to change it is when you notice they no longer have the concerns of “If I just had a staff that would only do this” or “If I just could come into work and not have to worry about my team”. Not only do those concerns go away the conflict between the “front office” and “back office” tends to be a thing of the past.
I urge all of you that have these similar concerns in your offices to dig deep and consider if you are being the leader you need to be for your team. I think you will be amazed at what can happen in your practice if you take action and change.
