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30 Years of Dentistry: Lessons Learned
Lesson #2 Developing a $1,000,000 Team - Part 1 Dr. Joe Steven, Jr.

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Last month, I started this series with the number-one lesson on how to win over your patients. The next very important lesson that I wish to discuss is how to develop that $1,000,000 team who will help accomplish that goal!

“You’re a lucky man, Doc! These ladies in your office are making you a lot of money – more than you think!” This compliment about my staff came from a cantankerous 80-year-old patient who has been in business for himself most of those years. I acted curious as to why he felt that way (I knew all along why it’s true). He said every time he visited our office, they all made him feel important and extremely welcomed. He said, “In business you cannot put a dollar figure on the value of excellent customer service.”

I realized long ago, just as some of you already have, that if you want a highly productive dental practice, then the doctor has to stay in the operatories producing dentistry and allow the staff to run the office with efficient teamwork and excellent public relations. Of course, we all want the ideal dental staff but yet so few of us really attain it. Over the past 20 years of presenting this message in our seminars to dental offices across the country, Dr. Mark Troilo and I are always asked how to go about obtaining a $1,000,000 staff.

Naturally, we are going to recommend that entire offices attend continuing education meetings such as ours or Cathy Jameson’s or Linda Miles’. Such seminars are invaluable for providing dental auxiliaries with the important skills and motivation needed to excel in their professional careers. But, let’s back up a little bit and put the responsibility where it really belongs and that is with you, the employer. It would be nice if all you had to do was to send your staff to a few good dental meetings and presto, you’ve got a great staff. We all know that’s not how it works; otherwise, we would all have million-dollar teams. It’s a great place to start but we have to do our part also.

We, as employers, need to have personal goals and objectives in dealing with all our staff members, the same way we strive to do with our patients. A thought-out and decided management philosophy in dealing with our employees needs to be implemented and carried out with each staff member.

I would like to share a management philosophy that, if done properly, works extremely well in developing a $1,000,000 team. This philosophy has allowed me to enjoy the benefits of good staff retention and working with people I enjoy. Five of my staff members have been with me more than 20 years! It is always so much more enjoyable to achieve success when working with friends on my dental staff. Hold it right there... I know right now many of you are shaking your heads thinking that I’m on the wrong track. Many of you could possibly give explicit examples recalling how becoming “friends” with your “employees” caused management nightmares and financial disaster. I’ll be the first to admit that this philosophy might not be suited for all dentists and if done incorrectly, will fail in gaining the tremendous results and benefits that are possible.

The whole premise behind this management philosophy is that you can be much more productive as a team if you’re working with people who regard you not just as a “boss,” but also as a friend. In last month’s article, I stressed the importance of the doctor and the entire staff winning their patients over and doing so by treating our patients as friends. We all agree about the benefits that come from treating our patients that way. They refer other patients, they more readily accept our treatment proposals, they pay their bills, etc. Why shouldn’t we expect comparable benefits by doing the same with our staff members: loyalty, honesty, longevity, and most importantly, sharing with the doctor the enthusiasm and desire in developing a successful practice. That last one is the single most difficult management goal there is to achieve. It really all comes down to the personality and management style of the doctor.

Hopefully, I can knock down some of those barriers that I feel are prohibiting doctors from developing a million-dollar team and share with you a different approach in dealing with your staff. Let’s start with the initial interview of a prospective employee. One of the main things that I look for in that interview is simply to see if I can like this person as a good friend and imagine how well she or he would fit into our practice. I actually try to visualize this person going on an out-of-town meeting with the whole office, or going on an office ski trip, or joining us for our staff birthday lunch parties. Now keep in mind this is not the deciding fact, but I do weigh it fairly heavily, because I think it is so important that the staff gets along both inside and outside the office.

Seldom have I done this but, I’ve made the mistake before of ignoring this important aspect of the applicant and hired someone because of their excellent qualifications, only to have it result in a short-term relationship and another staff turnover. Granted, this employee could still do a good job and not really cause any harm to the practice, but wait a minute! This article is about the $1,000,000 team; we can’t afford to compromise with too many of our employees. We want the best we can find, and the best is who will fit in and get along with the entire staff.

Now that we have hired our staff, let’s discuss the rapport we will develop with them. I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, which is home to several aircraft companies. Therefore, I am very familiar with the ongoing, less than harmonious, relationships of management and labor unions. I’ve never really understood how you can expect a company to be extremely efficient and productive when the two parties that make up this business are often at each others’ throats. It has always amazed me to see them resolve a very bitter dispute, make peace and assume that, since everyone is back to work, the company is going to be highly productive again. It goes against all laws of human nature. I have visited with many of these aircraft employees who insist that they would never fly on many of the planes they manufacture because they know about some of the flaws that are overlooked due to employee apathy and/or lack of pride for their work. Now, don’t you feel good about your next flight?

After World War I, we taught the Japanese all about the manufacturing industry. Now we are learning from them about how to manage employees. Japanese business owners and managers take pride in the fact that they really take care of their employees and many times get down on their level working side by side with them developing a long lasting loyal rapport.

These are big companies with major management difficulties. Our dental offices should be simple to manage effectively if we just apply a few basic human relation principles when dealing with our staff. I feel most employers, in any business, not just dentistry, make a big mistake in dealing with employees with an attitude that says, “I am the boss, you’re just an employee; I’m right, do as I say.” That attitude is guaranteed to prohibit a doctor from developing an ideal employee. I agree that you can properly manage a very profitable business with hard and rigid policies. But, I believe with a more personal and softer approach in dealing with our staffs, dentistry is both more enjoyable and more profitable.

See part 2 in next month’s issue.
Author’s Bio
Joe Steven Jr., DDS, was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, and graduated from Creighton Dental School in 1978. He is a member of the ADA, the Kansas Dental Association, and the Mid America Dental Study Club. Dr. Steven is a part-time instructor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City Dental School and is a nationally recognized speaker who lectures to dental groups all over the country. He is also president of KISCO, a dental products marketing company in which he has invented and developed various innovations for dentistry. Dr. Steven is also the editor of the KISCO Perspective Newsletter.
 

This story, originally published in the KISCO Perspective Newsletter, is reprinted with permission.
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