Daily Doctor Responsibilities Part 1 – Motivate The Team (Continued)

The point of motivating the team begins with the understanding of reality, that the practice is your life and not theirs.  Yes, once in a while there will be a team member that has just the perfect life scenario and they can literally go all in with you, as if the practice is their own.  That’s certainly wonderful, but just too few and far between to rely on.

Now, motivating the team doesn’t mean trying to force them to do their jobs, we certainly hope everyone shows up wanting to do well.  Although we know that is not always the case.  You can’t afford to have weak links on the team because you know the saying.

The bottom line is knowing your role as the Quarterback in the Huddle to orchestrate the Team Plays so that you have the best chance to score.  I can’t come up with a better analogy than this one.  You chose to be the Quarterback – so be it.  Run onto the field, lead the Huddle and call the plays to win.

The Quarterbacks take responsibility for knowing how to win because they are the highest paid players on the field.  Own that responsibility or put your success and outcomes into the hands of others and be completely at the mercy of the day instead of in control over it.

To do this right, you don’t have to do it all, you just have know how to inspire your team to want to own their responsibilities and to go above and beyond with their actions for the day.

This always begins by setting the tone for the day but before that you must follow what I outlined in last week’s Report about expectations.  This is critical because most people want to do well they just need to know what well is.  It is seldom defined other than haphazardly and left up to their perception.

Assuming everyone knows how they fit into the play and what their role are in securing the victory and helping the team win.

What I didn’t say is “what patients they are going to see” or “take care of patients” or anything with the word patient in it.

Not because it’s not about the patients.  It is.  It’s because we already know they are going to be seeing the patients and we know what the basic objective is whether hygiene, doctor’s side, new patients or whatever – what we don’t know is what is each individual team member going to do to help make something happen today so that Team (not just the individual) does well and achieves their goals.

And while we measure in financial success, that first comes from patient success, which happens to come from effective team work and having the awareness of how everyone fits together throughout every single visit.

Let’s get down to business here.

With your team, you want winners.  Winners are people that have it inside of them innately to want to do well, to care about outcomes, to have character, to think beyond just themselves and, most importantly, they have some personal pride of contribution.

Not all people care to do well.  We’re not here to judge them.  Still, they have no place on your team.  People must appreciate the opportunity to be in your practice and to be a part of something that is more than just a “job.”  Those are the only kind of people that we can accept.

On the flip side, you must create a place that cultivates and nurtures those kinds of people.  That means having an environment that is a place they want to be in, feeds professional growth, drives good energy, and inspires them to want to do great.

This is vitally important.  It is always so strange to me why there are not more patients being referred by team members month in and month out.  The most obvious and immediate question every person is asked in social settings is, “What do you do?”  If Team Members were truly passionate about what was going on in your practice, they would be talking about and proudly referring more patients.

I want to restate the fact that most Team Members thrive and want challenged.  They want to pursue their own ambitions in their lives outside of dentistry and we want this to be a vehicle for them to do so.  This is what ‘leadership’ really is about.

My question to you is: do you know who your team members are?  Do you really know them?  Do you understand their personalities and what drives them?

Do you know that most team members don’t leave because of things going on in the office but things going on out of the office?  In order to reduce turnover, you want to have people who are committed to your practice, not just committed to a job and a paycheck so that you can weather the things that will inevitably go on in their life.

Next question: what are you doing to inspire your team to do well?

Bonuses and incentives are a part of it.  Aren’t they for you?  If you were capped at what you could earn every month, would you work as hard?  Most would meet the goal and stop.  How can you expect others to do or act any differently?

On top of that, it’s fun to have contests and to compete against your best records.  Having fun can drive performance.

Yes, it’s work and it should be work.  I’m the biggest preacher of reality regarding what it takes to be successful.  You are paid for a reason – not to be happy – to perform.

Still, the theme is that winning should be fun, acknowledged, and celebrated.

I have said it before and I will say it again: your Team Members are your first patients.  The more you take care of them, the more they will take care of your Patients.  Everyone will thrive and take initiative to perform at a high level in order to create results.

Okay, so let’s review.  The first step to motivating your team is having the right people – people that respond to motivation and who want to do well.

Second, you must have clear expectations of the results that they are responsible for and they have to have the tools, understanding, training and resources to be able to achieve them.

Third, you must make it personal for your team by attaching the practice success to their success.  This requires grasping the reality that they have a life outside of the practice.  You can use that to your advantage or you can let it be the most significant detriment to you.

Fourth, you want to have ways for your team to win (money, holidays, whatever you want).  Everyone asks me “what bonus is the best,” and there is no “best bonus.”  There is the most appropriate and effective bonus structure for you and your team.  This is why I customize everything and don’t believe in cookie-cutter approaches.  They simply don’t work.

Fifth, remember the point and the purpose of the Huddle (and any meeting for that matter) is that every person has clarity for how they are going to help your team win.  This goes beyond just completing their tasks.  They must have awareness for how they are helping each other and working together with to achieve the goals for the day.

I could keep going but that’s enough to think about.  The last thing I would say is this: be a leader, doctor, owner that your team wants to win for.  Nothing will create more motivation in your team than you leading by example.

Here’s my challenge to you, if you want to make this easier on yourself, sit down with your team and write out your own Practice Performance Standards of Excellence.

Everything from showing up early to being helpful to each other and so on and so forth.  Work together to document it, if you don’t have it already.  The more everyone collaborates, the more everyone will respond to it.

Next week we move on to Educating Patients… the most powerful responsibility of every practice, doctor and team.