Today, I begin this month with the first of a special 4-part progressive series of Monday Huddles. Each Monday in June, these huddles will give you a singular and specific focus to assess, talk about and go to work on in your practice.
Everything will relate to the real secret of making magic happen inside of your practice – the people.
We start by deciding that we want to have leaders for team members and this becomes the basis for everything we do and every type of structure in communication and training that exists within.
To have Leaders is to have people who take responsibility, who own their own decisions and who are trusted by doctor and fellow team members alike.
This idea of Leaders must become more than an idea and move into an expectation.
Anything short of this are employees who go through the motions as time ticks off of the clock just to earn the paycheck instead of driving results.
A good friend of mine has always said that professional athletes ought to get paid less when they lose (and they should). Some do of course get paid more when they win, but at the beginning of the season, win or lose, they have a contract to basically just show up. Depending on season to season performance they command higher money or they struggle to find a job and all of that is just fine; yet game to game they are paid no matter what happens.
Luckily, there is a pride factor in athletics where it is not enough to just play, they want to win and that is how leaders act inside of a practice.
To have leaders make sure your team has…
1. Clear objectives and personal performance benchmarks
2. Good communication and consistent training and development
3. Strict self-accountability and a timely feedback loop
The other key is making sure you have people who can develop real skill, talent and expertise in their positions (unless you want to be in the McDonald’s of dentistry where your people are interchangeable and no one here wants that). You must groom your people to be the best at what they do.
If they don’t want that, if they don’t have it in them, if they aren’t up to it – then they must not take up space in your practice and fill positions with their bodies but not with their performances and abilities.
Have all of the team members talk about what they have improved on and what they believe they do well. Then go to work on the opposite of that: what they know is the next personal breakthrough that’s yet to be developed.
Rate yourselves and your team on the three critical pieces of developing leaders and then get ready for next week where I’ll share the special secret sauce of the best recipes for successful leadership and leader development.
