pocket. Tom’s method is not only effective, but it serves as a reminder all day long.
Once you’re able to alter your mindset and focus on your team’s positive efforts, you MUST make sure you’re being sincere, honest, and timely with your acknowledgments. Say, for example, your Dental Assistant is helping you with a patient and anticipates which instrument you need before you even ask for it. In that moment, you should stop and praise him or her for being so detail-oriented and for making your job easier. Praise, especially in front of the patient, will be most appreciated. Catching your team in the act of doing the RIGHT thing will facilitate a more positive and enjoyable practice for both your team and your patients, which will prevent/ combat high turnover rates and keep your team wanting to help the practice and patients in any way they can. It will also help you recognize each of your team members’ strengths. This will allow you to better see if everyone is the right fit for their role and make adjustments if necessary. In the end, you’ll have a far better idea of how your practice operates — down to every last cog in the entire system! Lastly, the implementation of this approach at work will undoubtedly bleed into your home life as well. You’ll find yourself noticing and acknowledging all the great efforts put forth by your spouse, kids, and friends. That’s really the best aspect of being a part of the Gems Family: Everything you learn to help your practice has a REAL and DIRECT effect on your personal life as well. If you want more direction, be sure to walk through the process with your GG12 Coach!
Catching Your Team in the Act of Doing the RIGHT Thing!
By Ira Hirsch, Certified GG12 Coach
I want you to imagine for a second that you are a parent (if you already are, then you’re ahead of the game) … and you’re driving down the road with your two kids in the backseat. For once, your kids are playing with each other politely and quietly. While their usual M.O. is to scream or throw toys at each other, on this drive, they are sitting there like perfect angels. Rather than acknowledge or compliment them for their good behavior, you just continue driving. Isn’t that strange?! If they were back there fighting, you’d surely have something to say about it. But when they are behaving, you don’t say anything. If this story resonates with you, you’re not alone! The tendency to only acknowledge kids’ wrongdoing — or the “Gotcha!” mentality — doesn’t just exist among parents. It runs rampant in the workplace for any business! Throughout my career, I recall having two types of bosses: ones who would seek out opportunities to praise their employees when they did a great job and ones who would look for opportunities to constantly criticize when a mistake was made. While there were major differences between their leadership methods, the biggest effect their approaches had on their teams was that, with the first boss, we wanted to do anything she asked of us. With the second boss, we rarely wanted to go out of our way to do anything exceptional for his sake.
While it may not seem like it, when it comes to running a dental practice, you really have two types of people you are serving: your patients and your team. Just as it’s of the utmost importance for you to make sure patients are receiving the best care you can offer, it’s equally important for your team to feel appreciated for their work by having you catch them in the act of doing the RIGHT thing! Still, actually setting aside time to recognize each team member’s efforts is far easier said than done … especially if you’re a perfectionist like me! It’s just human nature to focus on mistakes rather than acknowledge competence. Luckily, Tom “The Gems Guy” Orent has a handy and helpful trick to help us remind ourselves to seek out our team’s exceptional work. Start your morning with five marbles in your left coat pocket. Throughout the day, if you acknowledge a team member for a job well done, transfer one marble over to your right
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