A practice manager, a reception list and the four-word structure that turns a telling off into an agreement. Mark Topley explains how to maintain accountability and morale in the dental practice.
Transparency and understanding
A recent in-person visit to a client highlighted an all too common problem. The practice manager had handed her reception team a list of daily jobs on Monday, and by Friday several hadn’t been done, a few were half done, and she was clearing the backlog herself so it didn’t spill into the following week.
She wasn’t angry, she was tired, and when I asked why she hadn’t said anything to the team she gave the answer most people give, which is that she didn’t want to make a thing of it.
That sentence is where most accountability problems actually live. Not in laziness or bad attitudes, but in a leader who has decided that holding someone to a standard will cost more in atmosphere than it’s worth.
