What kind of dentist do you want to be? How do you want your patients to view you? What kind of business do you want to run? What are your personal goals? What are the goals for your practice?
Too often we get trapped in the mediocrity of the day to day tasks and duties which obstruct our ability to step back and reflect about the big picture. Keeping up with patient flow, billing insurance, staffing your practice, and collecting from patients are all vital parts of running a dental practice. Although they should all be the means to an end. In other words, they should not be the reason you open your doors every day.
A good way to satisfy all of the above questions would be to ask “What do you want your practice to look like 5 years from now?” Most would be able to list off a few general characteristics on the type of patients they would like, how big their staff is, how much revenue they want to bring in, etc. But very rarely would you find someone that has this vision written down on paper. Even rarer still would be someone that has the steps needed to achieve these goals established.
More often than not, if there is a vision, it remains the closely guarded secret of the owner. Another great question would be “If we asked your employees what you want the practice to look like 5 years from now would they give the same answer as you?” If progress is to be made towards a common vision, then you as the owner cannot do it alone. It can only be achieved through the teamwork of an organization. And that organization can only work towards that vision if they know about it. Better yet, if they have the opportunity to help choose it.