Bringing “Balance” to Create a Successful Team

Sometimes it’s difficult to determine where the “strength” in a team originates.  Not everyone is assertive or would necessarily be considered a “groundbreaker”, but that doesn’t mean that a great dental team can’t maintain a healthy balance of the “doers” and the “ followers”.

The key to the success of a team is that everyone recognizes the strengths and challenges we all have.  They don’t look down upon those that may struggle in certain areas, but instead celebrate the talents that do shine in all of us.  It’s a matter of being able to support each other and pick up the slack for those on the team that lack the abilities that others might possess.   A well-rounded, efficient team learns how to work effectively by utilizing the gifts in each other.

Examples might be:

• One of the clinical dental assistants is extremely proficient in fabricating temporary crowns while the other is exceptionally patient with children that are less than cooperative while in the chair.
• It’s about Suzie at the front desk who really understands the challenges when dealing with insurance companies, while her co-partner Janie reigns supreme when it comes to  maintaining a well constructed schedule.

Granted, the ideal dental team is interchangeable in many ways, but recognizing areas of proficiency should not be overlooked.  Whenever possible the “personal” acumens we all have should be pushed to the forefront and taken advantage of.

Traditionally the business office team is responsible for everything related to the management of the practice itself. But who’s to say that Jennie, one of the clinical dental assistants, can’t occasionally make recare calls knowing that she is so in tune with the patients and has always maintained great long-term relationships with most of them?  I call this “Creatively Utilizing Team Strengths”.  As an acronym, this process “CUTS” to the chase.

I wrote a previous article entitled  “Trying to Force a Square Peg into a Round Hole”.  I’m not looking to contradict myself here, but in some cases we can make some slight changes to our job descriptions. It’s the complete shift of roles that I do not endorse.

So what I am saying is to be innovative with the job descriptions you develop and consider the strong points and advantages we each display.  Work with this and don’t be afraid to build unique responsibility lists for your teams.  You will truly be working toward the Dream Team everyone is seeking!

**All of your team’s individual strengths can be documented and accredited with ourdentalteam.com, the new sensation for discovering and rewarding your team’s contributions.