What does it mean to be “successful”? Are you successful when you graduate from dental school? Certainly, that is a significant achievement. How about when you open your own practice? That too is no easy undertaking. Is your definition of success making it through an entire 12 months without staff turnover or a full day without a cancellation or no-show? Are you successful when you have a fully funded retirement account? Obviously, your own sense of “success” may take many forms, depending on your individual circumstances and the desired outcomes.
Every achievement - be it completing dental school, opening a new practice, or choosing to pursue a higher level of success - requires tremendous work and dedication. It doesn’t just happen, as you well know. Consider the question I posed in the first sentence. What does it mean to be “successful”? For some, it’s reducing stress, for others it’s having more free time, and for many, it’s those as well as improving their financial standing.
When we sit down with doctors who are frustrated and believe their practices could be and should be more successful, there are several common factors that we find. Although these doctors are very good dentists, they do not have adequate knowledge of the business side of their profession. They tend to be stressed and generally unhappy with their teams, their practices, and, in some cases, even their patients. The rigors of running a small business have become all consuming. Often they are overextended and don’t have the time to educate themselves. They hire employees with “previous dental experience” because they hope that the employees will know what to do, will instinctively know what the doctor wants, and will solve the business problems facing the practice. Yet the practice continues to spin its wheels.
It is also common to find struggling practices led by dentists who have a very strong need to be intimately involved in the minute details. They struggle to let staff take ownership of practice systems that could reduce stress and improve productivity. These doctors have difficulty trusting others. They believe “success” lies in control, but this control often excerates their frustrations because they cannot focus on leading their teams to achieve larger practice goals.
As any practice owner knows all too well, being solely responsible for ensuring that every aspect of the business is running as it should be is a job of Herculean proportions. Moreover, dentists who are not achieving the level of success that they desire are oftentimes routinely placing want ads because “good help is hard to find.” These doctors struggle with determining what they expect of their employees. They just want them to “do their job” but they can’t articulate specifically what that job is. They dislike the human resources aspects of running the practice. Consequently, those systems are weak and cost the practice tens of thousands of dollars in inefficiency and lost productivity. These are among the major factors that interfere with a dentist’s ability to achieve the level of success that s/he desires.
Conversely, those that are the most successful make specific choices. They surround themselves with a team of trusted advisors to help them shore up the areas in which the practice struggles. They are open to creating specific systems of checks and balances where responsibilities are delegated to well-trained employees and practice owners are informed to the degree they desire to be and need to be. When a client tells us, “My employees now think like CEOs” it represents a significant step for the practice because it demonstrates that employees have taken ownership for their individual practice systems.
Additionally, the most successful practices with the most satisfied doctors and staff also have stable teams. The employees are well trained, happy, and productive. They perform at a much higher level, delivering an infinitely better quality product - be it customer service, hygiene, collections, treatment presentation, etc.
When employees are engaged, they are excited and energized. That alone pays huge dividends in productivity. But when they are actively problem solving and looking for better and more efficient ways to carry out their responsibilities, you are on your way to building a truly “successful practice.”
성공하고 싶은가? 그럼 주목하라!
성공의 의미란 무엇인가? 각자의 환경과 기대치에 따라 ‘성공’은 다양한 모습을 갖고 있다.
좌절을 느끼며 아직 성공에 다가가지 못했다고 느끼는 원장들이 갖는 공통 요소가 있다. 치과의사로서는 훌륭하지만 원장으로서 비즈니스(경영)면에서는 부족한 듯 보이는 점이다. 이들은 자신의 직원이나 치과 그리고 환자와의 관계에서 별로 행복함을 못 느낀다.
특히 아주 사소한 일까지 간섭하는 경우가 대부분이다. 이들은 통제속에 ‘성공’이 있다고 믿는 사람들로 조직이 더 높은 목표를 달성하지 못할 때 통제는 오히려 좌절감을 더 느끼게 만들뿐이다.
이들은 직원들이 ‘그저 일만 하기’를 원할 뿐 그 일이 구체적으로 어떤 일인지는 잘 알지 못한다. 또한 조직을 효율적으로 운영하는 면에서 시스템은 약하고 비용은 많이 들며, 생산성이 떨어진다.
반대로, 가장 성공을 거두고 있는 이들을 살펴보자. 성공하는 이들은 병원이 힘들어하는 분야를 더 강화시킬 수 있고 믿을 수 있는 조력자들로 팀이 구성되어 있다. 스탭들도 수익과 지출간의 시스템을 명확히 파악하고 있으며, 원장도 병원이 달성해야 할 목표와 꼭 도달해야 할 정도를 명확히 전달한다. 직원들이 모두 CEO와 같은 마인드인 것이다.
즉, 주인의식으로 똘똘 뭉친 조직은 안정적인 팀웍으로 교육훈련이 잘 되어 있고, 행복하며, 업무능률이 높아진다. 더 높은 차원의 고품질 서비스-환자에 대한 서비스, 위생, 수금, 상담 등이 이루어진다.
직원 입장에서도 신나고 에너지 넘치는 순간이 될 때 그 자체만으로도 생산성은 매우 높아진다.
직원들이 스스로 문제 해결법을 찾고, 더 좋고 효율적인 방법을 찾아나선다는 것은 바로 ‘성공’의 길로 들어섰다는 것을 의미한다.
