The most important driver of value and growth for a group dental practice is leadership from the top. The CEO is the cornerstone of the organization and sets the culture of the entire enterprise and the people who work in it.
Are You Operating as More of a Dentist or a CEO?
The success of your practice begins when you make the mindset shift from “dentist who works in the practice” to “CEO of a dental healthcare company.”
If you feel stuck in the role of “dentist” and not sure where to start, you’re not alone. It’s not your fault if you don’t know how to grow your practice to the next level. That’s not something they teach in preparing you for your vocation. The good news is, you don’t have to figure it all out by yourself.
Other people have been in your shoes before and are more than willing to share how they overcame the same struggles you are facing right now.
All you have to do is find the right tools and strategies that are working and implement them in your own office. With the right mix of technology, tips, and tricks you can get your practice to grow.
The Role of CEO Begins with Vision
If you are a dentist and would like to grow a highly valuable group dental practice, then it is vitally important to have an ideal vision of the future. You need to define the vision for your company. Without a vision nothing can be decided, measured, or agreed upon. It is easy to get distracted and lose focus when potential business-growing activities lack greater context.
What are your goals?
What would you like to be able to do with your practice in ten or twenty years?
Your vision as a leader is the standard that all future results will be measured against. If your goals are not clear, how can it be possible to know if you are being successful in achieving them? When objectives are clearly defined, you can begin to steer the organization towards achieving them.
Effective leadership comes from a balance of setting high expectations coupled with high support for those doctors, managers, and employees you put in charge.
This allows the team the opportunity to take on more responsibility and will increase the group’s capabilities. As a result, you will have more free time to improve the processes and systems of the business as a whole. Your personal life will also improve as the business becomes more self-sufficient.
The Vision Determines the Strategy
Having a vision is essential, but vision is nothing without strategy and execution. Strategic thinking is having the capability of choosing tactics based on how useful they are towards achieving a result that is in line with the greater vision of the company.
If the decision-making process in your business feels like an endless stream of “putting fires out” and emergencies, it can be a symptom of a lack of strategic planning and execution. Strategic thinking gives you a “bird’s eye” view on the business activities as a whole. This can help you avoid costly mistakes as well as know precisely when to take massive action.
Not taking action can be just as dangerous as taking the wrong action. Being unable to decipher the two is why many doctors remain stuck in analysis paralysis while opportunities for growth and success pass them by.
Meanwhile, competitors and patients are moving on to better opportunities. If an organization is not actively improving, then it is getting worse simply because the market and economic conditions are always changing.
Avoid Distractions and Focus on Results
Leaders have limited time and resources to dedicate to their organization. Therefore, it is important to know what deserves your attention versus what is a mere distraction.
Having clear goals allows you to block out distractions and avoid “shiny object syndrome.” Clarity makes it possible to have an objective way to know if an activity or project will directly contribute to achieving them. If it does not fit, you can feel confident ignoring the distraction.
The activities most deserving of your attention will get the attention and resources they need and that will accelerate your growth.
A successful CEO knows which metrics and numbers to look at and which to ignore. Measuring the wrong things does not serve you if those metrics are not connected to the results you would like to achieve. Making a clear distinction between the two is very important.
Build Successful Teams
A CEO can’t run an entire business alone. Having an ideal vision for your organization will allow you to recruit and train an effective team.
When you can share your goals and objectives, you will be able to attract the right people and garner buy-in from the people who work for you.
Having the most engaged team in the world will not serve you if the vision and expectations required of them is not clear. In fact, having unclear expectations and little support is the reason why many teams suffer and languish in mediocrity.
If you’ve ever struggled with productivity challenges, it was because the team was either not willing or not equipped with the tools and techniques needed to execute at the level required.
It will become possible to delegate more responsibility to your team once they are clearly aware of what is expected of them and the support they can expect to have from you, as their leader.
“What needs to get done” will always get done when you have an effective team who is on board with your vision for the company.
Management tasks can be successfully delegated and allow you, as the business owner, more freedom to do what you prefer to do. You can focus on what you do best and even take time to relax instead of being caught up in the day-to-day details of running the business.
