The issue of lateness is a hot topic in HR leadership and one that isn’t generational.
The good news is that people usually step up to what we expect of them and the lateness issue is no different. Meaning if we set high expectations for our team members they typically meet them.
The important thing is that you realize that as a practice leader this may be an uncomfortable conversation, but what you do that first time… that second time… can make all the difference.
Where to start?
Start with setting an intention.
Setting an intention for how you deal with lateness will generate more confidence. You’ll feel more confident knowing that when you address the issue appropriately you are really standing up for all of your team members. We all deserve to have each other’s backs. That’s what makes for a wonderful practice culture and that’s what leads us all to step up to our best selves.
Where do you go from there? Watch the video below for the full details.
Congratulations! You’ve selected your new hire and today is day one of what you hope will be a long, mutually rewarding relationship.What’s your onboarding plan?
First impressions are powerful and lasting. The prospects for achieving success with a new hire will depend to a great extent on what you have planned for this new hire’s first day at the office. Putting your best foot forward matters, considering these statistics:
Healthcare is tied with banking and finance in having the second highest turnover rate of 15% in 2016, behind hospitality (20%), according to Compensation Force, a workforce blog produced by Altura Consulting Group in Wayzata, Minnesota
40% of employees who have quit a job voluntarily did so within six months of starting the position, according to ClearCompany, the inventor of a software/service talent management system. The cost of replacing an entry-level employee is 30-50% of their annual salary, according to ClearCompany.
Do the math, it’s eye-opening.
What is your onboarding plan?
This the question is often met by a surprised, deer-in-the-headlights look.
“What do you mean, onboarding strategy? We hired an experienced dental assistant, she knows what to do, right?”
The reality is this dental assistant does know what to do in her previous practice. She doesn’t have any experience in how to best support your philosophy of care and protocols. She doesn’t know your perspective on the practice culture or the nuances of everyday life in your practice. Without this knowledge, there is a steep, stressful learning curve ahead of all of you.
“Hmm, I guess I don’t have an onboarding strategy.” This doctor does have a strategy; unfortunately, it’s not a good one. There’s a long-standing tradition in dentistry of introducing new hires through a process known as the “sink or swim.” For the uninitiated, this consists of basically throwing the new hire into the deep end of the pool and hoping they learn how to save themselves. Some will thrive, some will struggle; others will simply choose to get out of the pool and go home. It doesn’t have to be this way.
I like to step outside of dentistry into the corporate world for my mastermind meetings and continuing education. During my recent travels, I met up with a Fortune 500 business consultant and we had a brilliant conversation about the concept that success isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. We both agreed that situational success can sometimes get in the way of long-term, predictable success. Let me explain…
THE GROUNDHOG DAY SUCCESS STRATEGY
We talked about the challenges of developing cross-functional teams, those who perform different functional roles within an organization but must all come together to achieve a common goal. The corporate version of this brings marketing, human resources, and accounting together, for example, while dental teams bring the administrative, clinical assisting and hygienists together to achieve successful outcomes for patients and the practice. Independent expertise is just as critical as the skill of successfully passing the baton to the next department.
While the goal is to ultimately establish a seamless flow from one department to the next, the process can be downright messy at times. I spent a dozen years in the dental practice prior to starting my company, so I know, just as you do, that some days it seems like Murphy’s Law is having a field day at our expense. Then, out of nowhere the puzzle pieces start to fall into place and before you know it, the case works out, the openings in the schedule fill up and the team comes together to rock a successful day. Bravo Team! Everyone goes home happy and we come back the next day to start all over again, business as usual.
STOP RIGHT THERE
This is precisely where your success can get in your way. You and your team struck gold yesterday and it’s critical that you take the time to create the treasure map that will lead you to strike gold again. Rather than feeling like you got lucky, take the time to figure out exactly how you set yourself up for success, exactly how the seeds you planted sprouted, how the proactive tracking process you put in place paid off and/or how the relationships you nurture all contributed to your team’s ability to re-create a successful day on the fly. The insights you discover will enable you to re-create this awesome turnaround success the next time. Success leaves clues … mine the nuggets, capture the gold and reap the rewards of turning Murphy’s Law on its head. Your situational success will morph into creating a more predictable process.
Eye of the Tiger energy leading you into the office.
It’s going to be an awesome day!
The team is all on time, prepared for your huddle, the day is well-scheduled, productive and you’re excited about the good people you’ll see today and the great work you’re privileged to do. Zip a dee doo dah! I love dentistry!
How do we bottle this positive energy, mindset and can-do attitude so it’s there for us as we start each new day?
How do we make this predictable?
What do we do when ‘life happens’ and we have challenges that threaten to derail us?
How can we maintain this positive attitude when the schedule is falling apart or the unexpected happens that extends an appointment causing you to run late?
Let’s dig deeper for some answers.
A Fable and a Frog
Fables are short stories intended to teach us some moral lessons. Most of us are introduced to these stories as children, notably The Tortoise and the Hare, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Ugly Duckling.
There’s another popular fable about a frog that instantly leaps out when placed in a pot of boiling water, immediately aware of the danger. That same frog can be placed in a pot of cool water that is slowly heated to the boiling point and the frog will not sense the gradual change in temperature until it’s too late and the frog meets its demise.
Perspective based on stories we tell ourselves…
I’ve asked hundreds of dental teams what they think the lessons in the Boiled Frog fable are for dentists and their teams. The two most common answers are interestingly at odds with each other.
#1 Change has to be gradual in order for it to be accepted (placing frog in cold water) #2 Change won’t happen without a proper sense of urgency (placing frog in hot water)
Which is the real lesson, the best one? That’s a matter of perspective, based on the stories we tell ourselves.
Whatever you believe will become your reality, as you prove yourself right. For example, you may believe that change won’t happen without a proper sense of urgency and yet how many times have you gone shopping and bought something you didn’t need? There was no urgency for the VitaMix Blender, but it is awesome and you wanted it. You’ll wake up to smoothies and make hot soup because now you can, all the while still believing that there has to be a proper sense of urgency for change to occur. I’m always fascinated that as humans we can hold two seemingly opposite beliefs at one time.
It’s important to realize that our subconscious brain believes what we tell it. This is the root of the limiting beliefs we have that hold us back. I believe our greatest opportunities lie in challenging those limiting beliefs, those stories we tell ourselves at a conscious level with an open mind.
There is a third option…
Back to the boiled frog fable. Here’s a third option that has a pivot point for breaking through many limiting beliefs. It’s most common to see ourselves and our patients as the frog and craft our stories based on which of the two most common choices listed above.
What happens when we approach the question of the best lesson in the story with a totally different perspective: are we the boiled or the boiler? Each of us, as a practice leader, provides the framework for our reality (the pan). We create the culture (the water) and we provide the heat source (the flame).
Eureka! This can change everything.
How does your perspective change when you realize you have the power to determine your outcome? What happens when you start telling yourselves a new story with possibilities you had not previously believed to be possible? Take a look around, if someone else is doing it, there’s a better than average chance you can do it, too. If it’s not being done, who’s to say you can’t be the one to break the barrier and create the freedom to practice the way you want to?
There are 10 top limiting beliefs I see in dental practices
1. Patients only want what insurance covers 2. Ideal day scheduling is a pipe dream 3. There’s just not enough time
My challenge for you this week is to come together as a team and identify your limiting beliefs and then bust them wide open to create your new reality and that Eye of the Tiger energy that will propel your team to even greater impact and success.
While for many this seems like a rhetorical question, it’s a valid reality check that determines both your level of happiness at work, the results you can achieve and the degree to which your patients will recommend you to their family and friends. The emotion you lead with makes a difference. Let me explain my recent experience.
My mother was in the emergency room with a developing situation requiring her to be hospitalized. I think it’s safe to say that anyone who has visited an emergency room with a loved one knows the whirl of emotions that both the patient and family members are feeling. The urgency of the experience is palpable and the faces of those waiting in the ER show the concern and anxiety in play.
Adding to this apprehension, the ER can often be bursting with patients seeking treatment, creating a situation that presents a challenge to the team of medical professionals at hand. Like all challenges in life, the ER team can see this reality as a burden or an opportunity. That choice determines the experience for doctor and patient.
Imagine this scene:
Your Mom is in the ER, a nurse is in the process of placing an IV and a doctor storms into the room. Oblivious to the nurse, he places his hand on your Mom’s back forcing her forward so he could listen to her breathing while asking a series of questions in a staccato rhythm.
Now consider two questions in that moment:
1. What emotions do you think the patient is feeling? 2. What emotions do you think the doctor is feeling?
A few minutes later, the ER team changed shifts and a second doctor entered the room. He smiled, introduced himself to your Mom then knelt by her side asking, “How are you feeling?” He took a moment to listen to her answer. He then asked all the same questions the first doctor had asked.
Consider the same two questions:
1. What emotions do you think the patient is feeling? 2. What emotions do you think the doctor is feeling?
Here’s an actual rhetorical question: Which experience do you want for yourself and for your patients?
With that in mind, how well are you delivering the best experience on a consistent basis? Not just when it’s easy, but when you are running behind, stressed or understaffed? Have you talked about purpose with your team? There may be a great opportunity here for you to talk with your team and help them come together to see their primary purpose at work and how they can support each other in this purpose.
As my Mom’s staunch advocates, we reported the first doctor’s behavior to the nursing supervisor who genuinely understood our concern and offered her apology. Turns out the nurse had also reported the doctor’s behavior. The first doctor returned to the room, stood in the corner and said, “I’m sorry that you were upset. I am very busy and was just trying to do my job.” A classic non-apology, apology. I reached out to him to explain that a more empathetic approach would benefit him as well as the patient, may only have taken an additional 30 seconds and would have been rewarding for him. He didn’t get it. He left as harried as he entered, maybe even a little more. I was sad for him.
“Let’s do things not only to create progress… but to create purpose. Purpose is that sense that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, that we are needed, that we have something better ahead to work for. Purpose is what creates true happiness.”
~ Mark Zuckuerberg, CEO of Facebook
Thankfully, my Mom is home and well, with this experience behind her. This was a cautionary tale demonstrating the power that purpose brings to our ability to create happiness in our daily lives. We all face challenges; how we respond to these challenges is the difference between fulfillment and frustration.
We all have stressors in our life. Have you noticed that some people can keep an even keel and move gracefully through the process, while others get caught up in the urgency, losing themselves in the process? I believe the most destructive impact of stress is that it can blind us from the freedom we have to choose our next steps and move forward on our own terms, creating a culture that embraces joy, gratitude, empathy and respect.
Your practice culture can’t simply be announced, it must be earned one day at a time.
Here’s a challenge for the coming week:
Talk with your team about the freedom of choice you have to choose the emotions you will lead with and to determine where your focus will be at work. Identify potential stressors in the day at your morning huddle and set an intentional plan of action that will build the culture you all want to live and work in. Proactive planning will be a powerful tool for your team.
