Wednesday this week sees the start of our Campbell Clinic Management training programme.
This is not a course we're offering externally, not an introduction to people to come and learn, but a system and a training package for our own management team at The Clinic.
I've watched business and practice management education for many years and devoured as much of it as I could get my hands on, paying for both coaching, external advice and formal level seven education experiences.
There is a fundamental difference between directorship and management, and there is a fundamental difference between business education and practice management education.
Directors direct, and managers manage risk.
That is how a well-structured, well-governed, stable business works. However, for the management team to manage the risk of the processes and procedures for which they are responsible, they must also understand all of these philosophical approaches, the vision of the business, the values of the business, and how everyone in the business understands that they speak to each other and take care of each other.
It's a well-established fact in business circles that you can only manage seven reports (seven people who report to me for whom you are responsible).
When you get above that level, it's impossible to spin all the plates and keep everything at a high level. Therefore, if your business has more than eight people in it and you are in charge, you need to separate the reports, and you're starting to create a management structure.
One of the most important philosophical principles I've ever encountered in management is that there is a difference between delegation and abdication.
If you become a manager and are given the privilege and responsibility to lead more people than yourself, then some of your time must be dedicated to leading and managing.
If you don't give up some of the time for that and you're expected to do your normal 9-5 five days a week, then your management role falls out of that. You do it worse; you're unavailable and resent the fact that you get interrupted doing the tasks you're supposed to do in your normal non-management role.
These things are difficult to reconcile and understand; they take a considerable amount of consideration and development, so, it's important for us not ever to assume in the Campbell Clinic that the managers know how to manage.
No one was born being able to do this, all of us have to learn and had to learn and had to be taught by someone else.
When I stepped into the practice, which became The Campbell Clinic, there were four of us.
It was very easy to understand everyone's needs and requirements and the direction that we were going in.
Soon enough, there will be 60 of us in The Campbell Clinic.
Six people are in senior leadership (10%), with one person externally advising senior leadership and then 10 or 12 in management supporting everyone else within the business and encouraging anyone who wants to move towards a management role.
Most people, when they're working, would like progression.
Most people, when they're working, would like advancement.
Most people, when they're working, would like recognition.
Structuring things this way allows you to steer people towards the right spaces for their skills and enthusiasm.
I hope that we are able to offer the management training scheme that we are going to deliver to our own team externally from here. I hope some of our managers will be able to help with that.
Watch the space.
Very soon, we'll be releasing our specific dental business blog to go with the big package related to our business education.
Much more of this stuff will be discussed there.
Blog Post Number - 3794
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