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44 Dental Tribune Middle East & Africa Edition | January-February 2016 practice management Team Building Dr. Ehab Heikal BDS.FICD.MBA.DBA (Practice Management consultant) eheikal@gmail.com Contact Information By Dr. Ehab Heikal, Egypt T eam building begins with leadership. As the clinic owner, the dentist is viewed by the team as the leader. The team looks to the dentist as a role model in every area, including quality care of patients, attitude, customer service and desire for change. The dentist sets the tone for the clinic, whether by choice or not. Effective leaders give their team members the tools and opportunities necessary to enhance their performance. TEAM BUILDING STEP BY STEP In terms of building a superior team, there are several things you can do that can pay back now and in the future. Monthly staff meetings Monthly staff meetings are a critical element of team build- ing. These should be approxi- mately two hours in length and include an agenda that is fol- lowed strictly. Areas to be dis- cussed should include clinic goals, customer service, office improvements and necessary training. The dentist should be particularly attentive to com- ments made at the meeting by staff members, as the dentist will learn a number of things that often are seen only by the team. For example, many patients share information at the front desk that they do not share with the dentist or the clinical team. It must be made clear that full participation by all team mem- bers is necessary for success- ful staff meetings. The dentist should ask team members for their opinions, encourage them to participate and make it clear that the meeting is about the entire office. To ac- complish this, a “safe” envi- ronment must be established so that staff members partici- pate fully. Starting each meet- ing with team members and reporting something that has happened in the office opens everyone’s mind to better ideas and positive interactions. Daily meetings Every clinic should have 10-minute morning meetings. These should center primarily on that specific day. The bene- fit of morning meetings is that they organize the day, send a clear message to the team that this is an organized office, cre- ate an opportunity to discuss any potential problems and provide a calm and focused beginning to each day. Even the best-run dental offices at times tend to be hectic, and this should be the 10 minutes during which everyone is able to communicate. Finally, since they focus only on that particu- lar day, the morning meetings are not run by the dentist but by the scheduling coordinator. Job descriptions The dentist should establish a job description for every team member in the practice. The dentist should take time to develop these carefully or to identify another source that can help create accurate job descriptions. A job description is not as simple as a mere state- ment of what the candidate is to do. It also should include a philosophy statement; a list of required skills; a list of other job activities; and a list of re- sponsibilities, accountabilities and other information about how job performance will be evaluated. When each team member un- derstands his or her job de- scription, he or she has the opportunity to live up to it. A practice that never clearly identifies what the job is and what is required of the team member in that position will have a higher level of conflict. Owing to the hectic pace of most dental clinics, new em- ployees often must learn as they go, which can lead to mis- understanding and poor per- formance if the right systems are not in place. Performance reviews Every clinic should have regu- lar performance reviews for each dental team member. I suggest that these occur twice a year. Performance reviews should reflect the job descrip- tion and cover four key topics: – What has gone right in the last six months? – What does the team member need to improve during the next six months? – How can the office perform better overall? – How can the dentist or office manager do a better job? These four topics will focus the discussion on the concept of continuous cyclical improve- ment, as identified in the man- agement science known as “to- tal quality management.” The goal is not to criticize the team member, but rather to focus on how the team member, office manager and dentist all can do a better job in working to- gether. This approach focuses on how to build a better team rather than strictly on the team member. If the team member is not doing an acceptable job, the dentist or office manager must step in and work with the person to improve perfor- mance. When each team member un- derstands his or her job de- scription, he or she has the op- portunity to live up to it. Social activity Another way to build a supe- rior team is to have at least one quarterly social activity outside the office for the entire team. This is not a reward for excellent performance, but a team-building opportunity. For that reason, continuing education (though important) would not count as the social, out-of-office activity. Ideas for this activity include a dinner with the entire team, a trip to a sporting event or an all-day meeting at a separate location to talk about the future of the clinic. These types of activi- ties provide an excellent op- portunity for team members to step out of their office roles and work together. It has been observed that practices that do this tend to be higher-per- forming offices. Dentists often have little time to focus on team building dur- ing productive patient days. Communication and encour- agement are keys to building a strong team. By taking the steps described above, dentists can eliminate many gray areas that can lead to misinterpreta- tion and derail team building. The result is a happy dentist and an even happier office team focused on the goals and direction necessary for clinic success.