Do you strengthen your dental team with encouraging words and helpful coaching? Does your team know you trust them?
Or do you undermine your team and the success of your dental practice with the words you choose?
A recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek entitled “Ten Things Only Bad Managers Say” outlines a disastrous approach to management. One of the first mistakes the author, Liz Ryan, points out is bad leaders manage by intimidation, saying things such as, “If you don’t want this job, I’ll find someone who does.”
Good leaders, on the other hand, understand that paychecks do not define the employee relationship, and great employees excel when they own their jobs. This is especially true in dental practices. The best teams own their role in creating memorable patient experiences, and dentists who are effective leaders know how to nurture this.
Bad leaders rarely offer praise, and instead provide plenty of criticism, often with a twist indicating “everyone here feels the same way.” This has a disastrous effect on an individual’s morale, and it tears apart team unity.
Effective leaders know when to offer praise and how to address conflict. Dentists who are strong managers address behavioral issues in appropriate settings—away from patients—and they stick to resolving the challenges without letting emotion get the best of them.
Finally, bad leaders repeatedly put their team in crisis mode, demanding they “drop everything and do this now.” I’ve seen rattled and grossly ineffective dental front office teams rushing from one emergency project to the next while vital tasks such as recall and billing get pushed aside. A good manager knows how to manage time and deadlines and how to properly communicate when certain tasks take priority.
Strong leadership skills and dental practice success go hand-in-hand. If you want to fine-tune your leadership skills, pay careful attention to the words you use. I encourage you to choose them wisely.
Learn more about how our dental practice consulting helps build stronger leadership skills.