While we are on the topic of Ideal Team Members; let’s talk about daily execution. How do you know when someone is a great team member?
It is really not that difficult. There are three things every team member wants from others and therefore they should require from themselves.
1st – Preparation and Competence
These are linked together as any professional knows. If you are going to get and stay competent and proficient at what you do you have to prepare.
These means leaving nothing halfway done at the end of the day and it means always showing up ready for tomorrow by being dialed in for the patients you are going to be seeing that day or for whatever your responsibilities are.
If every team member is prepared, then nothing gets missed and everything gets taken care of, and above all else you maximize opportunity.
Preparation is everything from rooms cleaned, set up in advance, charts reviewed, a tidy and well kept office, no insurance issues left open ended and of course no surprises for the doctor or anyone else.
You can expand on my list no doubt. Each person has their own.
2nd – Communication and Reliability
Now, I cover this every single week and I can never stop talking about it because this is all there is to team engagement and relationships. Every person must do their part to continue dialogue with each other. Regardless of whether it is negative or positive, you have to express yourself and be a true partner in success and a professional at your position.
Reliability is obvious. Team members have to trust each other to be there every time. It is as simple as that. Trust each other with patients, trust each other to perform, trust each other to communicate.
There should be no communication problems in an office of a dozen people or even more, a few thousand square feet or even more. Make time to communicate and hold each other to a higher standard.
3rd – Self-Sufficiency and Follow-Through
Okay, so this summarizes and brings together the first two, but they are different.
When team members are self-sufficient, it means they are going to perform and complete whatever their core responsibilities are and they are going to do them effectively without help, oversight or inefficiencies.
Each team member is dependent on the next to perform which mandates absolute self-sufficiency in each position. Just like on a sports team, every thing goes wrong when one player has to step up and play two positions to compensate for a weak link. Team work is one thing, doing others’ work is another entirely.
Follow-through also self explanatory. Doing a task, a job or an action is not enough; you have to complete something to a point of achievement and not settle for going through the motions.
Great team members follow-through until they get the result that the rest of the team was expecting.
We call these three keys to success, as a team member in your daily responsibilities: positional ownership. And that is what it takes to win consistently, daily, again and again.
Next week we’ll talk about training and growing together as a team. This week, two things you should be doing if you have not already:
1. Register for this week’s powerful and advanced team training event…
http://TeamSportDentistry.com
2. Talk with your team members and do a self-assessment around the room sharing what each person feels they could do better, personally, to accomplish the 3 keys to daily execution and success as an ideal team member.
