An OM should maintain a high level of competence and integrity that sets a good example for the rest of the staff. If employees find themselves working for someone whose work ethic is lower than their own they will eventually leave or  lower their own standards.

Most office managers never received a business degree. Typically they just found themselves with more responsibilities than other staff and at some point were give the “Office Manager” title. In most cases, they did not receive an increase in pay or bonus to accompany this new responsibility. The truth is that until a practice has 8-10 staff there is no real need for an OM as what a real OM does is hire, train, apprentice, correct and manage the other staff.

A real OM is not answering the phone, scheduling, doing financial arrangements, etc. However an OM should be able to do all these jobs better than anyone else otherwise how can she properly train, correct and manage the other staff? A vital skill for of an OM is having the expertise to train other staff.

The truth is when you have willing staff who have been trained on proven systems then they require almost no supervision or management. In essence they become executives of their own areas. When this occurs you will have a staff driven practice instead of a doctor driven practice which is a beautiful thing.