When was the last time you took a vacation, doc? You probably think that this piece is going to be about how a mental break will do you wonders and that is why you should go on vacation, but you’re wrong! While that’s a relevant point, I’d instead like to explain how a dentist taking a vacation can translate into more practice productivity even when they’re gone!
An exaggeration, you say? Not quite. Not only may a vacation be just what the doctor ordered to pump a little profit into your practice, but I’ve actually seen some dentists set personal records while they weren’t home!
If that sounds too good to be true, allow me to explain how it can happen and how you can replicate that success.
The Tragedy of Life Is in Our Complacency
When the consultants of Sunrise Dental Solutions evaluate practice operations, we often encounter complacency. From the minute processes of billing or scheduling to the strategy of your marketing campaign, progress stagnates when innovation is stifled. What may have been a winning formula five years ago is now outdated. Even if what you’re doing works, doing something a different way could be better.
Furthermore, team members might have untapped potential or ideas, never showing what they are capable of because they haven’t received the chance or the challenge. Encourage them to take responsibility for the practice, and to take pride in their successes. They (and you) should also be allowed to try something and fail—because that is how we all learn and improve. You don’t become a raging success by playing it safe.
If complacency is stifling your team’s creativity and motivation, sometimes all they need is a little push.
Push Those Baby Birds Out of the Nest
Leaving the practice in the capable hands of an associate and your dental team is one great way to give your team room to grow, but it’s not the only way. A “push” can also come when a valuable team member leaves, passing their responsibilities to someone else who reevaluates them from a new perspective.
In fact, the more pressure team members are under, the more creative they can get. A client recently lost a manager of many years, and it sent them into full panic mode. This manager had been doing everything up front. Yet when the team was forced to adapt or fail, they quickly found strategies they could have been using all along, increasing efficiency enough that they didn’t even need to bring someone new on board!
In retrospect, these types of improvements seem obvious. We often wonder why we didn’t improve our processes years ago, but the simple answer is a lack of motivation. Whether it’s the doctor going on vacation, a valued team member leaving the practice, or a new competitor down the road, sometimes we need a little push to rise to our potential.
–Sunrise Dental Solutions