Team Behaviors

                

Dear Doctor,   
Do you ever wonder if an employees' particular behavior is truly helpful?  Using the list below you can set expectations for your team and then your job of holding them accountable becomes much easier.  Go over the list with your team and give them examples to consider for each area you feel is most important.  Stay tuned for future blogs regarding employee confidentiality and an example of a "full value" contract.
Sincerely, David Milligan

  TEAM BEHAVIORS

Help the Team                                                           Hinder the Team

Be on time                                                                   Lack of accountability

Participate / volunteer                                                 Resist new ideas

Engage in open, honest communication                     Uncooperative. Refuse to communicate

Build on others’ ideas                                                 “Yes, but . . .” talk

Be optimistic / positive about the team                       Being negative and critical

Criticize ideas, not team members                              Attack personality, personally           

Provide leadership when needed                                Selectively interpret ideas, events, and actions

Follow-up when promised                                          Do other distracting work / activities

Pay attention                                                               Keep up side conversations / don’t listen

Take problems seriously                                             Avoid decision making

Be courteous, honest and trusting                              Engage in name calling, being rude, refusing to trust team members.

Use “we” expressions and thoughts                           Use “you” statements

Support each other                                                     Create sub-groups

Show commitment for making it work                      Express resignation or futility

Display a sense of humor                                           Act bored, refuse to pay attention

Unused Dental Benefits

Salt Dental Practice Management

We advise our clients to notify their insured patients about their remaining benefits for the year, and to use effective communication skills to personally explain to them how to fully utilize their remaining benefits. It's called "Use it or lose it".  Those who do not have upcoming appointments, but do have treatment needs and insurance benefits left, should receive a letter and a follow up phone call.  Those who are in the office need to have this explained to them. Why?  Because we take great care of our patients and that includes helping them save money.  Many patients do not understand that if benefits are left unused they are lost.  Sadly, they paid for those benefits and they do not roll over to the next year.  Some dental professionals fear the patient may interpret this attempt to help them as being self-serving.  We think of it as a true win-win and hope you will as well.  The patient doesn't lose out on benefits they've paid for and they complete their treatment before the situation worsens and yes, you the dentist win by performing the services. 

Here are a few ideas, from consultant David Milligan, for communicating this directly to your patient.

“I noticed that you have insurance benefits left for this year.  Since you have already paid for these we can help you maximize your coverage by scheduling an appointment before the end of the year.”

“I see you have benefits remaining this year that you have already paid for.    To help you not lose that money, we should get this done for you before the end of the year.”

“Insurance companies have a “use it or lose it” mentality.  You’ve already paid for the benefits, so let’s get your work done before the end of the year so you don’t lose it.”

 “Let’s get you scheduled right away.  You have insurance benefits left this year that you have already paid for.  I wouldn't want you to lose them.”

 We find when we focus on taking great care of our patients it becomes quite easy to approach them and discuss this.  It helps to have tools such as the dialog David has listed above, as well as other practice building tips, that David has been teaching for over 14 years.  Practice saying it and then when you are comfortable with the message, add your own spin or personality to it.  We recommend you start this process right away to avoid patients waiting until the last minute and then finding your schedule is full. 

We would love to hear how you utilize this information and what your results are.

Who makes change happen?

Sometimes when we are at work and a system fails you may be quick to jump to a new process or procedure. Then a few weeks go by and you walk into your office and the same system is still failing. Don't blame the change, you have to take a look at your people.

Change is carried out by the people that work in your office. It is not possible to assess how change is going without looking the people that are supposed to be carrying out the expected change. When change fails, reflect on why? Is it because of the structure of the policies? Or is it because an individual in the office doesn't want to see the change happen?

If you as the leader focus's too much on the new procedure or policy without looking at the people that are supposed to be making the change you undermine the value of what  you are trying to do. Change is hard and therefore, the more you can support the individuals in your organization the more likely it is that change will be successful.

SALT Dental Practice Management

A consulting company that has what others are missing

Be the catalyst for change

Change can happen for your organization and you can be the catalyst for it. If you're not sure where to start contact one of our consultants today to get your company started.

For more information please visit us at www.saltdpm.com and follow our blog at http://saltdentalpracticemanagement.blogspot.com/

 

Insanity

As we head into the New Year this is a perfect time to look back and decide to try something new.  Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. It is time for you to try something new.

Change a policy that isn’t working for the office or switch around the morning huddle.  Stop, close your eyes and picture the office you want to have. What is everyone doing? How many patients are there? What does the office look like? What do interactions between patients and staff sound like?

You have to picture it to believe.  You can have the office you want but you may also need to reframe the situation. If something is going on that has happened often it has become a habit. It takes time and practice to break out of bad habits. But now is a good time, to stop, reframe and change whatever isn’t working.

Don’t spend this year doing things that don’t work for your business.

G                          Great teams take effort. Take time to work on your practice regularly to build quality 

                       communication and strengthen your results. For more information and to read other articles, please                                                  visit us at www.saltdpm.com.

Down to the wire-Stampede to Calgary

http://www.theiaca.com/sessions/leadership-meetings.html

 

 

Ms. Sherry Blair

As Director of the Dynamic Team Program at the Las Vegas Institute, Sherry shares her more than 37 years of experience managing each and every system within the dental practice.  Sherry has combined her acquired knowledge and personal experience to create an inspired, effective and motivated curriculum that refines the systems surrounding the patient’s total experience in a dental practice.  Sherry’s extensive exposure to most forms of practice management and dental systems, as well as her strong focus on patient satisfaction, make her uniquely qualified to enhance the effects of any dental practice.

 

 

Synopsis: 

Have you ever walked away from a staff meeting and thought " That was a waste of time!"?  Or your morning huddles were just the reading  of the schedule?  Turn those meetings into productive time where everyone becomes a leader.  With a structured system, you will create better implementation and communication that will propel your practice forward.

 

Learning Objectives: 

1.        To improve team to team communication

 

2.       To establish a system that will create a productive meeting.

 

3.       Provide designated time for team training

Great teams take effort. Take time to work on your practice regularly to build teamwork and strengthen your results. For more information and to read other articles, please visit us at www.saltdpm.com.    

What can we learn from a horse?

You have probably heard of the popular tail of the horse Seabiscuit. You have maybe read the book or watched the movie. So, what does that have to do with you and the, "Growth Mindset?" Everything. Here was a team of people with a horse who wasn't supposed to make it yet, they believed in a horse, and they believed in each other as a team.

When you look at your own team and analyze it, you can see individuals who can't pull together. Or you can see a group of people with strengths and weaknesses and begin to rebuild.

Seabiscuit and his team showed America how far someone can push themselves to achieve the unachievable.  Red, the Jockey was blind in one eye. Seabiscuit was undersized and was supposed to be put to sleep. While the owner, Red and trainer Howard Smith complete this group, each one broken in their own way. Their spirit and hard work payed off for this team at a time when America needed something to believe in. 

Now is the time for you to remember this. They were broken but were able to believe in their own success and push themselves. You may not be the winning spot right now, but if you take chances, learn everything you can and constantly push yourself to be better you can become something more than what you ever thought possible.

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Increasing your mindset part II

On Monday we discussed ways to grow your mindset. Here are the other three ways that author, "Carol Dweck, suggests you can grow yours.

3. Close your eyes and think back to your past. Is there a time in your past that you feel defines you or you think, "measured you?" Imagine that moment, and feel all the feelings that you felt when you went through it. The feeling of sadness, rejection and disappointment. It is okay to feel what you felt, they are feelings and they are not wrong. However, flip that switch to a growth mindset. Think about what you learned, how that moment changed your life and changed your future. How did it help you to become a different person and what did you walk away with that you didn't have before.

4. The fourth suggestions asks you to stop and analyze when you feel depressed. Do you give up and give in? Do you decide it's to hard, make an excuse and quit or do you keep moving forward? Well, instead I offer an alternative, imagine yourself jumping that hurdle. Crossing over the finish line and accomplishing whatever it was you were afraid to try. Take a leap of faith that with the right mindset and hard work you can accomplish what you set out to do and even if you fail, you will learn something. It will become a valuable lesson that you can fail and still move forward in life.

5. This next one is a plan for you to try something new that you have always been afraid of. Don't let the feelings of fear hold you back.

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Fixed mindset accomplishments

If you have been following our posts about mindsets you may be asking yourself, "I have a fixed mindset and I'm just fine." However, stop and ask yourself what have you been missing? Or what are you missing out on now. It is the belief of Mindsets author, "Carol S. Dweck, that people with a fixed mindset you are comfortable when you are safe. If things get too hard you may tend to loose interest.

If you are in business this can be an everyday occurence. Things don't tend to be stable. You can enter a meeting where you have to look at the numbers, this may be uncomfortable. Next, you step into a meeting where an employee has an upset patient, you maybe uncomfortable or not have all the answers there either.

How do you know where you stand? Ask yourself, when a puzzle is hard is it fun? When you are presented with a challenge do you thrive or do you run?

Furthermore, when do you feel successful? Do you have to achieve right now or do you achieve when something is hard and you figure it out? Do you have to have, "immediate perfection?" Or can you have flaws?

No worries, because either way you can change your mindset. But first you have to be aware of what mindset you have. To start changing your mindset, when you your not perfect right away, push through and tell yourself, "it is okay, because you are learning."

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Change your title, change the game, what does your title say about you?

When you first start a new job the boss usually assigns you a new title. You may be an administrative secretary or a registered dental assistant. However, you may be the boss. Your title determines a list of responsibilities that you may have to do. But, does it describe who you are or the extra's you complete in the office?

Last weekend when I was at the CDA conference I met a young lady who was a front office receptionist. However, Debra Quarles the consultant that was working with the office, introduced her as the, "office genie." When she heard the consultant introduce using this title,  a smile spread across her face.

She had transformed her job and herself from a front office secretary to someone who makes things happen. She is not someone who just answers phones, or schedules appointments. She is someone who get's the job done. She is energized when she comes to work because she is running a front office and she is moving the office forward.

Who can you change and become today?

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Kelli VRLA's suggestions for how to listen better

Communication is not a one way street and many of us may need to practice our listening skills. Sometimes, I catch myself in conversations coming in and out as I focus on the next point I want to make, not what information the speaker is giving to me. Kelli VRLA this weekend at CDA conference in California suggested four simple things you can do to improve your listening. Better listening equals better communication and stronger teams.

1. Silently repeat speakers words

2. Act as if it's interesting

3. Put both feet on the floor

4. Alert posture, don't lean

You can become an 86% better listener by simply repeating the speaker and not planning your next response. 

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

How to start your day?

This weekend I attended CDA's conference and listened to the keynote speaker Kelli VRLA. Her lecture, "Teamwork Coaching: Getting Your People to Play Nice in the Sandbox and Own their Jobs," was truly uplifting and enjoyable. It was a true reminder of what it means to have fun at work.  Although, not everyone has the same approach, it is important to bring humor to your office.

So, if you aren't the comedian find someone in your office who is and I have to suggest to stop, and just get up and dance sometimes.

Here are some quick and easy moves that Kelli had us do. This way no one has to feel silly because you are all doing the same thing.

1. 15 fist bumps
2. 10 hand flicks
3. 5 lasso's
4. 2 gun pulls

Continue learning by subscribing to our posts.  Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.

Stretching, What can you accomplish?

It is easy to look at your ability as a dentist and believe you have learned it all or seen it all. You may go to a conference and think, "I can't learn anything more." However, stretching is an important part of the growth mindset. Subsequently the book devotes an entire chapter to discussing the one place where people seem to stretch themselves the most, "sports." How many line backers or quarter backs have accomplished the unreachable. Or how many swimmers have pushed themselves beyond where they thought they would ever go?

This mindset isn't something only for our athletes it's for dentists, your co-workers and your family as well. The book, "Mindset, The New Psychology of Success," talks about Mia Hamm, ""All my life, I've been playing up, meaning I've challenged myself with players older, bigger, more skillful, more experienced-in short, better than me.""

This is an amazing story. A young girl who early on saw if she wanted to be great in her field she would need to constantly challenge herself. You will also need to find people in your field that are better than you, have a greater technique and are willing to share this information with you. The people you chose to have around you, not only should they want to help you grow but you should also help them.

At some point you have to stop though, analyze where you are at in your life and ask if you are stretching yourself. If you are, great job. And if you aren't it's time to figure out why and how you can change it?

 Stop! Are you where you want to be in your life? 

We don't have to make big drastic changes to stretch ourselves, we can eat fruit for breakfast everyday. You can subscribe to a new organization and read an article every morning or we can ask the people around us. However, you chose to do it. Make sure it is something that works for you, otherwise it is easy to let it go to the waste side and not go beyond what you thought you were capable of.

Continue learning from the book, Mindsets next week by following our blog. Check out updated positive quotes for your life on Facebook and Twitter And in need of something more, check out our website for speaking engagements, books and freebies for you office.