If you want your clinic to run smoothly, it should go without saying that you need to put a focus on the wellbeing of your employees. That means taking a few extra steps to become a better leader, one that's truly insightful and emotionally intelligent.
Your team is crucial to your business. But many dentists don’t spend enough time to develop a healthy and productive team since it takes away time from seeing patients, and thus results in lost production. While anyone has the capability to be a good leader these six tips can help you go above and beyond!
Adopt a “we” mentality
It’s your clinic and no one’s denying it, but switching from a “me” or “my” mentality to a team-based “we” mentality will help turn your team into a cohesive unit that achieves goals and handles challenges together.
Focusing on the “we” of your team can help to motivate your team. It takes them out of the idea that they’re working for you and reiterates the fact that you’re actually all working together to achieve a common goal. Research has shown that members of your team will be more motivated if they feel they have a specific purpose instead of simply filling a role.
A great way to adopt this mentality is to put more focus on your clinic’s why. Why is it really that you do what you do? Most organizations tackle this topic in the beginning when they build their branding materials, but the mentality drops off when the business is up and running.
But instead of throwing your mission statement up on the wall and calling it a day, truly walk the talk. Start off your meetings by going over different ways that you and your team thinks they’re hitting the mark on that mission, and areas that you think improvement could be seen.
Celebrate progress and honour setbacks together
Motivation doesn’t stop at the mission statement though, that will only get you so far. Having a purpose means achieving goals and your team will be much more motivated if you achieve those goals together, instead of just reporting back at the end of the day.
In fact, where possible, involving your team in the goal planning process can help to instill just that little bit more of an investment which can go a long way towards achieving your goals.
But it doesn’t end at goal setting and progress sharing, setbacks happen too. If you want to build a strong and motivated team, you need to take particular care to talk about setbacks when they happen.
Setbacks aren’t always the devastating end-all that many make them out to be. When it comes to building a team that works like a well-oiled machine a crucial component is not only acknowledging but talking about setbacks. There is a ton that you and your team can learn from these setbacks, and chances are that someone on your team could have a great solution to get you back on track.
Conduct regular check-ins with your team
Checking in with your team is a small but meaningful thing that you can do to build those team relationships, and make sure you’re in touch with the well-being of your team members.
And while it’s great to do this in a group setting, like at the beginning of a meeting, it is also crucial that you do this on a one-on-one basis. Checking in with each of your team members can help make sure they have a chance to share something they might not want to with the whole group, and let them know that you’ve got their back.
A check-in can be as simple as asking if someone is OK, checking that they’re not feeling overwhelmed or particularly stressed out, and even asking if there’s anything you can do to lend them a hand. One great way to do this is to take a staff member for a coffee check-in when you have a break in your schedule. This not only gives you a chance to talk, but it takes you out of the formal office setting to help make the conversation more casual. This will help ensure everyone has the support they need to get their job done.
Get up on your feet
Physical exercise encourages positive mental health. It helps to reduce stress, improve concentration and gives you a little boost in your energy.
Why is this important to how your team works? Because as the team leader, you can help encourage this increased physical activity. Try holding a standing meetings when appropriate to help get people on their feet and out of their seats.
Encourage your team members to move, walk and adopt a healthy lifestyle can really help with the clinic’s overall productivity. In fact, adding a fitness incentive to your health plan, like covering the cost for a gym membership for team members can be a great way to encourage physical activity both in and out of the office.
Focus on output
Does it really matter how much you put into something, especially in a work scenario? No, it really doesn’t But focusing on input can be very demotivating. Instead, shift your focus to output because that’s truly what counts.
What does focusing on output means? It means taking a look at the results of your teams work, instead of tallying up how much work they did to get there.
It’s not that that’s not important, it’s great to know for planning purposes, but when it comes to placing input over output you risk demotivating your team and even undertaking the timely task of micromanaging.
Respect time and manage it wisely
There is not much that’s more annoying than someone wasting your time. If you want your staff to be motivated and hard working, then managing time wisely is a must.
Managing time wisely includes many things from making sure your meetings are on track and don’t take more time than necessary to ensuring that your team isn’t pulling late nights every night.
When it comes down to it, many employees report time being more important than money—so if you want to keep your team running top-notch, make sure time is managed wisely!