Zoe Close leads a discussion on the topic of leadership – how can dental leaders help their teams to stay engaged?
At a time where recruiting staff can be a trial, it’s more important than ever to retain the good employees you already have. This is why it’s essential to make sure your team is engaged and happy to stay with you. So how should employers go about achieving that?
Practice Plan head of sales Zoe Close is often asked about the topic of staff engagement when she’s out visiting practices so this was a subject she covered on a recent Practice Plan webinar.
‘I think people don’t know where to start with engagement sometimes,’ Zoe says. ‘It’s almost as if it is too big a problem to solve. They feel the time they’d need to invest to find out whether their employees are engaged or not, then delve into what the problem is if they aren’t, and then try to resolve it is too great. Which is why the issue often goes into the “too difficult” pile.’
Create the right conditions
However, according to dental business and sustainability coach and fellow webinar panellist, Mark Topley, there are relatively straightforward ways to assess whether your team is with you or not. To ensure they remain engaged, he believes you need to provide the conditions that ensure your employees are able to agree that some short statements apply to them.
‘If your staff members are able to say “yes, that’s true about me” to these questions and statements, then you’ll know they’re engaged,’ Mark says.
‘The statements are: “I trust my manager, I feel heard, I feel valued.” If all of that is happening, then they’re going to be more engaged. Then there’s “I understand what we’re trying to achieve”. That shows the practice’s mission and purpose is important and people see how they can make a contribution to them. It’s also important that people know what the expectations are of their work and the quality of it. If they know what a good job looks like then they can do it, or not do it.
‘The final thing is recognition. “There is regular recognition and praise.” As well as that there should also be constructive criticism where it’s needed.
‘So, you create the expectation that we are going to talk about things that need to improve as well as those that are going well because this isn’t a social club. We’re not just here for a nice time; we’re here to do great things together and that means that we are going to give feedback.’
Leadership is key
What all this boils down to in Zoe’s opinion is leadership. ‘I believe it’s crucial,’ she asserts. ‘Things have to start from there and then everything else follows.’
Practice owner Polly Bhambra, who also took part in the Practice Plan webinar, agrees.
‘You have to lead by example,’ she says. ‘You have to know your own purpose, what your plan is, and you have to share that. Living by your values and your own behaviour defines the tone of the practice and the business.
‘So, if you think it’s acceptable to come in late, be noisy and gregarious in front of patients when you’re trying to keep calm and professional, other staff may think, “If she can do it, it must be okay to use that kind of behaviour or that tone.” So, you have to be the positive role model.
‘It’s also about holding people to account. You obviously have expectations and you put measures in place to achieve them. However, your expectations won’t be met if you’re not going to follow up and hold people to account as well as set a good example with your own behaviour. You have to show that you’re willing to be humble and demonstrate a little bit of vulnerability. All of that underlines your role as a leader and that’s absolutely imperative.’
‘Ridiculously in charge’
Mark Topley agrees wholeheartedly. ‘As the leader of the business, you are “ridiculously in charge”, as Henry Cloud, the American leadership expert, would say. That means that you need to take that responsibility seriously.
‘If you look at the things that create engagement: building trust, hearing people, defining the mission, setting and enforcing expectations, providing training; all those things are core aspects of leadership. One of the big shifts that I try to get my clients to make is to go from believing “I add value through my dentistry or my administration” to “That’s part of what I do, but where I really add value is by leading this team”.
‘Because when you’re a doer it’s about achieving results yourself. But when you are a leader, it’s about achieving results through others. That brings a very different skillset because your focus can’t be head down on what you are doing all the time. It has to be about, “How can I get the best out of other people?” For that, you need to create engagement.’
‘We’re all just a work in progress when it comes to leadership’
‘I remember when I first became the chief executive at Bridge2Aid,’ Mark continues. ‘Suddenly all of my day-to-day practical responsibilities were carried out by other people. I had a team to do them, and I sat in the office thinking, “Well what do I do now? I’ve got nothing to go and organise.”
‘What I came to realise very early on was that it was me, as a person, setting the example and being the embodiment and the guardian of the culture and the values. That’s where you bring the biggest contribution because you’ve got to create something for people to lead.’
This is something about which Zoe concurs. ‘I think we all look for that beacon of light. As I’ve grown up through the years, I’ve always had someone that I’ve followed and been inspired by. I think I’m very fortunate in that, but everyone’s capable of doing it. It’s about making sure you reflect on your own behaviours. You can always change.
‘You can start to work on this right now if you think that you’ve not done so well, or you’re not having the impact you need. We’re all just a work in progress when it comes to leadership.’
If you are interested in finding out more about how we help practices to become more profitable or are looking to move from another provider, call 01691 684165 or visit switch.practiceplan.co.uk/.
