Overwhelmed by Your Dental Practice? (Part 1)
THE SITUATION: As a dentist operating a practice, why is it that you’ve done everything that you think you should this week–
- you continued to empower your team;
- you focused on getting just a few things accomplished
- you even had a major success performing a new procedure that your office has not previously offered, and
- you met your daily production goals except for one day.
Yet at the end of the week you go home feeling tired, alone, and frustrated?
Was it simply that a staff member failed to do something that you’ve repeatedly asked her to do or that another came to work almost an hour later than normal (but in time for the morning huddle)?
Why did all the good things that happened in your practice this past week get overshadowed by a few things that were less than perfect?
THE PROBLEM: You are frustrated because you want your staff to do EVERYTHING AT ONCE that you think should be done and it must be done your way. You are not satisfied when only the agreed-to highest priorities are done. You have such high standards for yourself and for your practice that anything less than 100% perfection in all areas simultaneously strikes you as “not good enough.” What I’ve observed is that perfectionist managers are chronically unhappy with their staff and with their own personal performance.
THE SOLUTION: Excellent leaders learn to focus on a few priority items at a time and help the staff perfect those first few. Outstanding CEO’s “prioritize their issues” and are satisfied with incremental mastery of a few essential items before moving on to the next issues. This approach is called “continuous improvement.”
And excellent leaders empower their staff by “letting go.” Effective leaders hire the right people, train them, and allow them to do their job. If you insist on controlling “every little thing” then you have not given up control of the jobs that your staff performs. It is no wonder you feel overworked. You are doing your job and you are doing their jobs too, if not physically, at least mentally when you feel like you must remind, scold, coerce, prod, etc. The paradox is–the tighter you attempt to control everything, the less control you have. What’s the result? The staff sees that they’ve disappointed you and everyone feels frustrated and exhausted. But excellent leaders convey a high level of trust that staff can do an excellent job, without micromanagement.
Focus on these characteristics of outstanding CEOs and you, as a leader, can rejoice in celebrating your “wins” instead of lamenting the less important issues.
Next, in Part 2, we’ll discuss the Critical 4 Steps that effective leaders follow