Encouraging Your Dental Team During Busy Seasons
Any thriving dental practice is bound to have busy seasons, and though a bustling practice is a good thing, instances in which it seems that there simply aren’t enough hours in the workday to get everything done can also lead to burnout without the proper preventive steps.
Luckily, packed schedules don’t have to lead to poor relations among your dental practice team. Keeping your team motivated, energetic, and enthusiastic will ensure they remain efficient under pressure.
Here are a handful of ways you can amp up your team motivation:
Communicate the “why” behind the work.
It’s much easier for dental teams to accept an uptick in scheduled appointments or new procedures if they understand their importance. Help your team find their “why” and communicate that clearly.
After all, clarity leads to buy-in; patients and team members alike can sense when everyone has a strong motivator or “why” factor. Compare that atmosphere to one in which a team appears to slog through the day, and it’s clear that the “why” behind your work matters a lot.
Finding your team’s “why” doesn’t always require a big seminar or mandatory meeting, though. In fact, it’s often found in the smaller things, like posting leadership quotes and patient testimonials around the office.
All facets of dentistry rely on compassion for patients. Your team will likely respond better to innovative new procedures or larger patient volumes if they know it’s helping improve someone’s quality of life. A simple, same day restorative treatment can give someone the smile they’ve always wanted. That’s a very strong “why” that will fuel your team for years to come.
Celebrate small wins.
Big milestones are wonderful, but a large part of employee retention and positive morale is simple recognition of the small stuff: the day-to-day successes that your team members regularly pull off. In fact, every “small win” is crucial for career development in each of your team members.
Offering a simple “great job” at a tired, busy team member can turn their whole day around. In fact, spontaneous verbal praise often means more than lavish gifts or large milestone celebrations. Your celebration of your team members’ work shows them that it all matters and nothing goes unnoticed.
Keep breaks sacred.
One surefire way to maintain team motivation is to give your workers plenty of time to rest and recharge. Frequent breaks are shown to improve employee productivity in nearly every industry, including dentistry.
Your team should not only be able to count on their lunch breaks or five-minute decompression periods, but you should encourage them to take those moments away. If you notice someone becoming overwhelmed, offer to take over so they can have a bit of time to themselves.
Ask for input—and use it.
Nothing kills team motivation more than feeling uninvolved in the daily workflow and higher-up administrative decisions, so it’s important to let your team help solve challenges and brainstorm solutions for sticking points in the practice. Indeed, you’ll want to put pride aside and let your team lead if necessary. They may have stronger ideas for improving their daily workflows than an administrative professional; they’re on the ground doing the work every day, after all.
Once you’ve received their input, put it to good use. Team motivation thrives on both ownership and engagement, both of which require diverse opinions and inputs from all employees. As you build enough rapport and show that your team’s input is valuable, you can enjoy greater collaboration and cooperation within your practice.
Don’t let fun fall off the schedule.
Dentistry is nothing if not a busy profession. It’s easy to get caught up in high-volume scheduling, but that shouldn’t mean letting fun and recreation fall to the wayside. Make sure you schedule time for leisure, even if it’s just one team lunch a month or a surprise gift for each team member. You can even book external events for team building, like a bowling night or an escape room experience.
Busy seasons shouldn’t crowd out all the fun in your practice. Maintaining a consistent, enjoyable culture beats the occasional reward every time, and you can show your team the importance of relaxation and casual bonding by infusing it into your practice regularly.
Williams GP Orthodontic Seminars: Refresh your practice with new skills.
A motivated team doesn’t simply come together by accident. It’s built through consistent, thoughtful leadership, which includes adding new skills and procedures to your practice. Even in the busiest seasons, a strong team culture will carry your practice forward.
Williams GP Orthodontic Seminars can introduce orthodontic practices to your team. Browse our courses today, and help your team members let their career development shine as they engage in new procedures and skills, helping beat burnout and make the workday exciting again!