In every sporting event there are always things that create a competitive edge. Something the other competitors don’t have access to. A short cut, a bit of wisdom, even a mindset that puts the competition at a disadvantage. The foundation for this competitive edge is understanding the game we play. What are the rules, what does the playing field look like, who is really good at this game, where can I find a mentor or coach to train me?
What follows are a list of fundamental truths each of us should learn in our journey of building a great dental practice. The neat thing here is that if you will internalize an embrace these competitive truths you could jump ahead 5 years in experience and financial success.
- Every practice is a “General Dentistry Practice”. I’m not sure where this came from, but it is a normal human nature attitude. Everyone needs someone to look down on. Real or imaginary, we want to be better than someone else. This was never so true as practices that like to claim to be “cosmetic, implant, comprehensive, all-on-four, quasi specialists that have elevated themselves above the common dentist. While it certainly includes these, there might be others that are FFS elite, aesthetic, graduates of various “institutes”, etc. You get the idea. But you need to realize that we are all general dental practices. We may do more of one thing or another, but we still have the same ops, staff, and challenges we had the day we started dentistry. Every practice evolves and hopefully when you reach your “use before date”, you will be able to say that you are better at dentistry today than you were yesterday. Just accept the fact that we are general dentists.
- Every practice is working at capacity. As much as you would like to believe you are something you are not, every practice is working at capacity. In this hour, this day, our results are the capacity we live under. If you have 20 new patients a month, you are not a 30 new patient a month practice. That 33% change from 20 to 30 is light years ahead of where you are if you only overage 2 new patients a month. The gulf between these two results is a huge challenge and an unlikely goal for many practices. If you ever want to change, you must actually know where you are now. Few do. You need to know where that puts you in the realm of overall results of dental practices. No one does. Self-diagnosis, a treatment plan for what ails us, and action on treatment is rare indeed. When the patient is our practice, are often times too close to the problem to actually see it. Start by understanding the shackles that working at capacity with help you break free from and make substantive improvements.
- Each practice has a “range” of patients it can inspire. The strength of your practice systems will ultimately determine the “range” of patients that you can “inspire”. In almost every practice management software there is a collated report that details the demographics of your practice. Dentrix has the Practice Statistics Report, Eaglesoft has the Patient Analysis Report. They detail the number of active patients, male to female ratio, insurance or not, number of patients by age, number of patients by zip code, etc. You get the idea. We can do the same thing for your area or zip code by going to www.zipwho.com and it will give you the demographics of those people in your zip code. If we compare the office’s demographics to the demographics of the area, you will nearly always see a difference. This “difference” can spell success or mediocrity. There is a reason that they don’t match and within that reason you can find why you are not growing by 15% to 20% every year. Leaving demographic denial behind and embracing the truth of its simplicity and inexecrable hold will change your practice completely.
- The only limits to practice growth are those you have consciously or unconsciously imposed on yourself. As much as I hate to mention this, doctors tend to always limit their own success. They drive with a foot on the gas and a foot on the brakes. These limiting beliefs prevent each of us from excelling at everything we do. It is not so much what you can achieve, but what you believe. You are the number one reason you do well, and the number one reason you struggle. Yep, add this “Michaelism” to your quiver of success arrows. Embrace accountability while embracing the fact that you have unlimited potential. Don’t by omission (what don’t do) or commission (what you know you do), limit your future. Any time we make changes, we must first tip up a mirror and take a long hard look at ourselves. It is in that moment of acceptance and acknowledgement that we lose our self-imposed limits. Anything is possible if you believe and act. Walt Kelly’s funny animal comic strip Pogo provided a surprising, but effective, setting for his incisive political satire when he wrote: “We have met the enemy, and he is us”.
- There is no learning without application. I have done it, you have done it, and we know better than to have not acted on new information. Read a book, an article, listen to a lecture, watch a video, it doesn’t matter where the information comes from. If we don’t act, there is no learning. Listening is not hearing, hearing is not understanding, understanding is not acting. Without the application of what you study or hear, there is not learning.
- Common place vs Common sense: For me this is a scary Michaelism. I have seen it all around me for my entire career, and you have too. We all see systems, protocols, and doctors doing things a particular way with little or no success. We even see others watching these same doctors do the exact thing, and never take a moment to grasp that “common place”, is usually a 180-degree action in the wrong direction. Like sheep, we become sheeple. If one sheep were to leap over some imaginary barrier, the entire herd following that one foolish leaping lamb will all do the same thing. Far too many dentists have a herd mentality. Stop thinking like a dentist and start using your common sense to craft a successful dental office. Have we gotten so lethargic that we have stopped thinking for ourselves? Perhaps so. Consider the line from Frank Sinatra’s famous song: I Did It My Way. Embrace common sense and leave the herd behind. Forge your own path and reap the benefits of common sense.
- Competence & Confidence: Two words linking inextricably, forge a key to success. Successful doctors, by any metric you want to use, chase never ending learning. They strive for competence by investing in education that reaps at least a 10X return on the time and money spent. They never actually arrive at any level that can’t be improved on by more practice and study.
The payoff with a huge return is a competent doctor that reeks of confidence. This type of confidence isn’t a know-it-all attitude, but a soothing, comforting charisma that mesmerizes any patient that seeks out their office. Patients say yes, every time. They follow through with your suggestions and become raving fans for your practice. It’s almost like these two words are inseparable. While they are not arrogant, they also don’t have a great self-image for no apparent reason. The doctors that do this right take competence and confidence and create a new word: “comp-fidence”.
That might have been too many “Michaelisms” to swallow at one sitting. Time is moving on, and now is the time each of you should embrace accountability by taking a hard look at your results, and temper some of your day with the application of one or a hundred Michaelisms. These statements can literally rewrite your future. What you decide and act on today, will ensure your success for the future.
Michael Abernathy DDS
972.523.4660 cell
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