It is a scene repeated in thousands of practices every day. Dentists are overworked and stressed. They realize there is a problem but are unable to pinpoint precisely why they are being stretched to the limit.
What these dentists do not understand is that the problem is not really about what happens chairside. It is when they step away from patients that issues arise.
Dentists need to recognize that they often are performing many tasks in the practice that can and should be done by others. Dentists do this because they feel it is easier than taking the time to train team members to do these particular jobs. It is important to keep in mind that delegating responsibilities is critical for a growing practice.
How can tasks be delegated properly? The first step is for the dentist to identify all of the potential jobs that he or she is performing that legally and technically can be done by team members. The goal is to move these specific tasks, one at a time, to team members. The difficult part is not allowing the tasks to be slowly handed back to the dentist across time.
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GROWING THE TEAM
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Delegating is not a simple process of merely informing team members that they now are going to inherit additional responsibilities. It requires that the team stretch beyond its present mind-set and limitations. For example, a dentist may have 10 things he or she wants the team to begin performing in the next 12 months. These must be introduced one at a time with a complete explanation, training, an overview, delegation steps, establishment of checks and balances, and follow-up. As each new task is mastered, the dentist can move on to the next one. It is better to seek slow, gradual change than to aim for radical overnight change (which does not work). Gradual change allows team members to expand beyond their current abilities and comfort zones.
Growing the team will help dentists move the practice forward. Team members have incredible potential to grow, and they actually enjoy the process if it is laid out in the following manner:
- – Identify changes to be made and the best person to handle those changes.
- – Follow the standard delegation protocols of explanation, questions and answers, establishing checks and balances, and follow-up.
- – Understand that there will be mistakes. Encourage team members to come to you when these occur. Be aware that mistakes also may be perceived by team members as opportunities to give tasks back to you, and that, therefore, you constantly must be on guard about reabsorbing specific job functions from the team.
- – Grow team members. Give them new responsibilities that they may not master quickly, but that they can master gradually. They eventually will master the tasks and probably will enjoy doing it.
Offices that follow these protocols tend to grow and develop more successfully than those that do not.
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WHEN DELEGATION FAILS
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Unfortunately, in many practices, delegated responsibilities still wind up being performed by the doctor. This happens for a number of reasons.
Dentists do not feel team members do the tasks properly.
This outcome often is a function of the dentist’s not having properly trained the team members and having little tolerance for mistakes. Most business managers fully understand that it takes people time to gain experience and expertise and that inevitably they will make mistakes. Team members who do not make mistakes are not stretching and, therefore, are not growing. Mistakes are an inevitable part of any delegation process. The key is to delegate the task to the correct team member, establish checks and balances to monitor his or her progress and then retrain when there are mistakes.
Dentists often will reacquire tasks because team members are resistant to taking on more work.
Resistance is not necessarily a manifestation of a poor attitude on the part of a team member but is more a manifestation of human nature. For team members who have had the same job routine for many years, the idea of new tasks basically just represents more work. Should team members attempt to return tasks that have been delegated to them, simply continue to demonstrate that the tasks are the responsibility of those team members and demand accountability for completing the tasks. At the same time, make certain that the training, checks and balances, and follow-up all have been established.
Some team members may have difficulty acclimating to new tasks.
Although this difficulty generally is more of a rarity, some people simply cannot perform new tasks that the dentist or office manager asks them to perform. Often, additional training will rectify the situation. However, if the systems, training, checks and balances, and follow-through all are in place and a team member still cannot absorb new tasks, it then is up to the dentist to make the difficult decision about whether to retain that team member.
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SUMMARY
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The phenomenon of a chief executive officer’s (CEO’s) performing administrative tasks is arguably unique to dentistry. Although most CEOs would not even consider tolerating this situation, dentists do so routinely. Why? Because they are often so far "in the trenches" that it is easier to do someone else’s job than to take the steps necessary to change the situation. The steps outlined in this article allow any dentist gradually to operate at the highest level of a practitioner’s capacity—diagnosing and treating patients throughout the day—while allowing the team to handle the administrative and support functions necessary for practice success.
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GROWING THE TEAM
WHEN DELEGATION FAILS
