Blog

The Importance of Delegation Dentists have heard the word “delegate” over and over, yet many still do not believe it can actually work for their practice.  However, delegation with proper planning creates a team of skilled, responsible professionals. The key is skill.  Skill results from training and hands-on experience.  The energy and ...

Bonus Plans to Incentivize Staff Ownership This is one of those topics that I have written about many times but is still one area that doctors seem to struggle implementing successfully.  It seems that most doctors consider a “bonus” system as a need to have, check the box, I haven’t arrived, must do system to feel that they are ...

Paying the Employee Doctor and Partner I will admit I will get a little long winded in this portion of the journey, but I would have to say that over 80% of the offices that start down the road to associates and partners are ill prepared and usually end up regretting their transition.  That said, associates and partnerships, when done correctly, ...

How to Find and Pay a Hygienist As we progress with how to hire and pay various members of our team, one thing to remember is that you must discover the best way to find the top candidates.  While Facebook, online ads, Indeed.com, Dentalworkers.com, etc., are certainly where most people start, there is a little-known secret that might just help ...

When to Hire and How to Pay an Office Manager If we truly look at this title as a starting point, I would first ask, “Do you really need an office manager”?  Again, even though office managers are “common place” in the dental industry, I find this to not be “common sense”.  Many of the things we accept as foundational originated ...

How Much Should I Pay an Employee? I would like to revisit and go into detail on how you should pay your employees and do this in a way that allows us to look at an office manager, assistants, front desk, hygienists, and associates.  I was having a conversation with my business partner about some materials that needed to be ordered for a ...

Embracing the Change “Cargo Cults” is an interesting term.   During World War II, on the islands of the South Pacific, both the American and Japanese struggled to clear landing fields for their respective troops and supplies where only jungle existed.  Shortly thereafter planes would begin to land bringing all the necessary goods to ...

The Art of the One Minute and Leadership from Both Sides Tried and true.  Ken Blanchard’s book The One Minute Manager summarizes the essence of management in two easy lessons. The One Minute Praising: Help people fulfill their potential by catching them doing something right.  Let people know you are going to tell them how they are doing ...

THE A,B,Cs, OF STAFF COMMUNICATION The 180 Degree Journey tends to push doctors to ask the difficult questions.  The phone keeps ringing, and for the last 6 months, every question posed by the caller has centered on the fact that it is hard to keep or find good staff members.  It started from the day we reopened from COVID in mid-2020 and the ...

BACK to the FUTURE I remember a time when successful doctors shared their knowledge without any expectation of payment or fear of competition.  I still remember the mentors that gladly spent the time to help a “nobody” from a small town in Texas to scrape out a living and grow as a clinician and businessman.  I am tired of being sold to for ...