Are You and Your Team Lead Seeing the Same Practice?

I talk with dentists who are looking at their growth and thinking, We should be doing better than this.

Meanwhile, their office manager may be looking at a packed schedule, team challenges, outstanding insurance claims, patient concerns and everything that needs to happen before the end of the day.

They're looking at the same practice—but they aren't necessarily seeing the same things.

That's why one of the first relationships I look at in a practice is the relationship between the doctor and office manager.

Alignment doesn't happen between patients

When you're both busy, it's easy for communication to become reactive.

“Do you have a second?”

“What happened with that patient?”

“Did we get that claim taken care of?”

“Can we talk about this later?”

Those conversations may keep the day moving, but they don't create leadership alignment.

Your office manager needs to understand what you're seeing as the business owner. You need to understand what they're seeing in the day-to-day operation of the practice.

That requires dedicated time together.

Create a leadership rhythm

I encourage doctors and office managers to establish a regular cadence for leadership conversations.

Use that time to talk about:

• What are we seeing in the practice?
• Where are our numbers compared with our goals?
• What needs our attention?
• What is the team experiencing?
• What decisions need to be made?
• Who owns the next step?

You don't want to wait for a problem to create the conversation.

When the doctor and office manager communicate consistently, you have an opportunity to identify concerns earlier, clarify expectations and bring a more unified message back to the team.

Before you ask whether your team is aligned, ask a different question:

Are the two people leading them aligned?