Recently one of my bootcamp group members was having a problem. One of her best team members was thinking of taking a position with another practice. Losing that team member would have presented a big challenge for her practice, so I quickly jumped in to see how we could help.
My first question to her was, “What’s the issue?” Team members leave for many reasons. They might want more money. They might want more flexibility. They might just be bored. They might want better advancement opportunities. They might want a shorter commute. The list goes on.
Until we knew why her team member was thinking of leaving, we couldn’t do much to help. Some things, such as shorter commutes, are tough to overcome. And employee turnover is common. But building a Delivering WOW practice helps reduce turnover by finding motivated team members who are aligned with your practice goals. As you implement the Delivering WOW system into your practice, you’ll find team members with the right skills and turn your team into a productivity machine. That naturally reduces turnover by positioning employees to succeed. When employees are successful, they’re less likely to become unsatisfied and want to leave.
That said, even the best practices experience turnover and not all of it is avoidable. Also, when you start building a Delivering WOW practice, you may naturally experience some turnover if some existing employees aren’t a good fit for the new direction of your practice. But you don’t want your best team members leaving.
In this case, the main reason for the person leaving was to seek advancement in her career. She felt stuck in the practice and thought she could find new opportunities somewhere else.
This happens all the time. Sometimes, the lack of advancement opportunities is true. A small practice that doesn’t want to grow might not have advancement opportunities in the near future. Other times, advancement opportunities do exist but the doctor might not know the employee wants more responsibilities. Some dentists have amazing team members who want to become leaders but the dentists don’t know it.
Team members frequently feel stuck for many reasons. I’ve felt that way before, too. Most dentists I work with have felt that way at some point, too. With me, I got bored with the practice of dentistry. I got bored doing fillings all day. They weren’t challenging. They didn’t make any meaningful impact on patients’ lives. They just filled a cavity.
When I started focusing on more complex dentistry, I found my passion again. I now enjoy the fillings more than I ever used to because they’re only a small part of a diverse practice.
The same thing happens with our team members. A lot of times, there’s a lot more in them they can contribute if we just give them an opportunity to become the best version of themselves. When we do that, they’ll be much less likely to want to leave.
Here are five steps you can take to help your team members advance in your practice by taking on more responsibilities.
1. Talk with your team about how their goals align with your practice vision.
One of the most important parts of building a Delivering WOW practice is establishing a vision for your practice. When you develop and share your vision for your practice, your team will know exactly where you want to go. Take this one step further, and talk with your team about their goals and how they can align with your practice vision.
2. Write down what you want to accomplish.
Writing down what you want to do as a practice. This will give you something to show every team member what you want to achieve together. This will put some context to their work. It will make seemingly routine tasks part of something bigger.
3. Communicate your vision to your team.
Once you’ve written down what you want to accomplish together, communicate that vision to your team. Talk with them about why you want to achieve that. Tell them about how it will help them do their best work, advance in their career, and serve your patients and the community. This will pull your best team members together and build excitement.
4. Create processes.
Writing down what you want to accomplish helps everyone get on the same page. Communicating it to your team builds excitement and pulls everyone together. Creating processes to achieve your goals will help your team visualize how you’ll get there together.
5. Delegate or outsource tasks to implement the process.
After creating processes to achieve your practice vision, delegate activities to each team member. If you don’t have a team member with the skills or capacity to do some task, outsource it. Put the process in action, and you’ll build momentum and excitement.
Are you helping your team members do their best work and achieve their personal goals?
You can reduce the risk of losing your best team members by working together to set and achieve common goals. When you write down what you want to accomplish, communicate it with your team, create a process, and delegate or outsource it, amazing things happen.
If you want help pulling your team together, defining a vision, designing and implementing processes, delegating, or outsourcing, check out Dental Profit Academy. You will get my best systems and strategies to build, grow, and market a dental practice. You’ll also get exclusive deals and discounts from the best dental product and service providers.
You can also join my free Dental Marketing and Profits Facebook group, where thousands of dentists and I help each other build better practices.
Finally, if you want even more personalized help, sign up for my next business bootcamp session, where I work directly with you and a small group of other dentists to improve your dental practice.
This article originally appeared on DeliveringWow.com.