Have you been watching the Beckham documentary on Netflix?
I am not a football fan, yet I am in awe of people who show technical prowess in their field. I have been watching Beckham out of curiosity. It was the influence that Sir Alex Ferguson had on DB and the rest of the squad that really spoke to me.
Ferguson took on youngsters, created an environment where they were safe, had an environment to learn, become highly skilled, the over-arching ethos was that the team had each-others back. Sir Alex had a very clear culture that the team came first. As a football numbskull, my perception from the series is the culture; developing players from youth, focusing on team ethics is what created great players for his team, and great players when they played for other teams as careers progressed. This was in contrast to other teams who bought in skilled players whose ethics did not align, and did not do so well in competitions.
As I was watching I began thinking what does this teach us about dentistry?
The profession is a recruitment and retention crisis, with a strategy that is bring in new people and if things are not going well, change the team.
Is it a wonder that there is low morale in the profession when our people feel disposable. Why should they work hard when they are not appreciated.
What difference would it make if we as a profession and individual practices spent time,
- defining and building cultures that brought on young talent, clinicians, and support teams.
- created career paths within or practices.
- built true high performing teams using the foundations of ethics and values.
I can remember when I owned by practice, I spent a lot of time investing in my team. We had a comfortable bus, everyone wanted to go in the same direction, we had the right people on the bus in the correct seats. It worked so well. Someone left because a change in personal circumstances and I was able to wish them well. A few years later I realised how well I had built my team.
We recruited a receptionist who went rogue, without my input she decided that she didn’t want the practice to provide cover between Christmas and New year and on her own started ringing round practices trying to find cover. The first practice she rang the phone was answered by my former nurse who challenged her on the validity of the request and that it came from me. The rogue receptionist said yes, I had asked her to do that. My former nurse challenged her three times in total. Eventually she revealed that she had worked with me and knew that I would not expect another practice to pick up our patients. The rogue receptionist backed down and admitted she didn’t want to work at Christmas.
What do you need to do to build a team that has your back even when they work for someone else?
For over 17 years I have been working with dental practices helping them build reliable teams that make running the practice simple and enjoyable.
If you would like to know more, book a SPEAK WITH JANE appointment using our online booking system. www.iodb.co.uk
