Four staff Rules

Finding and keeping the right staff is key to your dental success. Staff
can make or break a practice. An OK staff will have OK results, while
a superior staff will help you achieve superior results. Because an
excellent staff is such an important key, establish rules to ensure
success. As a result, when transitions do occur, new staff members
will walk into a successful environment. What follows are some
simple and important rules that every staff member should agree to
uphold:

• Allow no subgrouping, which is the official name for gossiping
  or speaking poorly of others when they are not present.
  Subgrouping drains productivity. When staff members talk
  about other staff, vendors, or patients, teamwork and trust are
  destroyed. The rule is, “Never initiate a conversation about
  someone that would stop if he or she walked into the room.” Do
  not accept information that is destructive or trashy. Your staff
  should not have time to gossip. Business gurus say, “Work is
  never noisy.”

• Become 100 percent accountable for your actions. This means
  knowing your office numbers and creating a different plan if the
  numbers are slipping. If your new patient flow is under 10 a
  month, what is your reputation in the community that is keeping
  people away? How can you change that image? If you are
  below the national average of 7 percent in laboratory work,
  what can you do to increase it? If you make a mistake with a
  guest, be accountable and create an action plan to ensure the
  mistake will not be repeated. Accountability means stepping up
  your focus and energy at work.

• Upgrade the dress code. Guests make quick judgments about
  your dentistry based on appearances. Bag the scrubs. Go with
  black pants and colorful blouses with long white lab coats. Successful staffs are now cross-trained and need to appear
  competent in both business and clinical areas.

Dress for the position. Matching sweaters or blazers with
embroidered names and logos will catch a guest’s attention in the
office and that of other diners when you lunch as a team. Male
doctors should wear bright long- sleeved laundered shirts and
stunning ties, pressed pants, polished shoes, and a white doctor’s
jacket. Female dentists impress guests with good-looking pressed
pants, bright tops, and long white lab coats. Another idea is for staff
and doctor to wear matching sweaters.

• Learn the important skills of listening and speaking. In sales,
  the person who truly listens with empathy and places himself or
  herself in the guest’s shoes is the winner. The competition is
  constantly studying sales, upgrading their skills, and practicing.
  Join Toastmasters to learn to speak well and use proper
  grammar. Practice manners and protocol.

Doctors need to create an atmosphere of accountability and praise to
encourage staff success. Together with the team, doctors should
create no more than 10 covenants as guiding staff principles. If, after
several months on the job, the doctor has doubts about a new team
member, his or her gut instinct is probably right, and the sooner the
leader acts upon it, the higher the team will reach. Brian Tracy, noted
business motivator, said, “We hold onto staff about a year after we
know the right decision.”

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