Never underestimate the power of a great team leader. As the owner and operator of a dental clinic, you are a team leader. Although it’s easy to get bogged down in the business of running the clinic and focusing on patient care, you should make every effort to cultivate your team so that your ship will sail smoothly, so to speak.
Dental management is no walk in the park. However, these tips are something every dentist’s team needs in order to be successful.
Schedule Daily Team Huddle and Weekly Meetings
Kirk Behrendt from Act Dental recommends team huddles or communication rhythms, which are “regularly established sessions where team members are brought together on the same page.” Start the day off on the same page by giving your team time to prepare for the day before the first patient comes through the door. Daily huddles shouldn’t take more than 10-15 minutes, and it goes a long way toward improved communication with your team.
A weekly meeting is more structured and informative. These meetings take longer, about two hours, and are more about setting goals, going over numbers, review systems that you have in place, and strengthen the team bond by going over values.
Provide Intentional Leadership
Communication is the key to every strong relationship and that includes the relationship you have with your clinical team. Being a great leader is more than doling out verbal communications. It includes prioritizing written communication, whether praises or important information that should not be heard by word of mouth.
For example, when you are conducting structured meetings, think about what you are communicating, what you need to communicate and if you are communicating expectations and vital information clearly. Behrendt says that he likes to keep a checklist for each meeting regardless of the topic being covered. And even though it’s important to discuss issues within your practice, it’s just as important to celebrate your clinic’s accomplishments and how your team is working to improve various problems.
Schedule Structured Meetings
Having structured meetings is a key component of dental management establishing and maintaining boundaries and ensuring meetings go smoothly and do not get off track. The purpose of having structured meetings is to address problems and come up with solutions to those problems. That can be difficult if the meetings keep turning into grievance sessions where nothing is resolved.
Communicate with your team your expectations and the goals of each meeting. For weekly meetings, have each department put together a presentation, list issues that need to be resolved and what they are doing to resolve them. Keep meetings as positive as possible. But do not be afraid to address difficult issues, concerns, requirements and expectations. And do not single out anyone if they made a mistake. That should be handled in private. The purpose of the meetings is to continue to build a great dental management team—to be a unit.
Of course, there will be disruptions during your meetings. It happens. But having structured meetings eliminates most of the causes for disruption. Follow these tips to ensure better team leadership and better team meetings.
