The end of last week was the opportunity to take stock a little bit as we ran the leadership days of the business course which gave me the opportunity to see the business course delegates into the clinic and the academy but to not have to speak for a whole day.
This is at odds with the teaching that I did on Wednesday to the Year Two Implant group which was me in front of the group for the whole day including live surgery.
The time to reflect is fascinating but also the time to speak to colleagues in a safe environment where everybody knows that nothing will be shared or attributed to individuals.
One thing seems to be clear here though from the experiences of people who have worked their way through the pandemic in dentistry and who are all making it work one way or another at this stage.
While it was terrible to work through the pandemic for many of us (for some of us it seemed easy because they had plenty of money coming in) but many of us felt a terrible stress and strain through the whole of the lockdown, it was much easier to start if you were already working.
What we found for team members that we've brought back after we started back and team members who didn’t work through lockdown is that they’re finding it increasingly more difficult.
Clearly this is a massive leadership issue and the ability to keep your team together in the best form for the continuity of your business is a real skill and art and one which will become more and more important through the winter and into next year.
Teams in all industries but particularly for us in dentistry; will be utterly blown apart.
The race for other staff and for loyal and well trained staff will become harder and faster and more and more expensive.
Failure to secure the team means failure to be able to secure your business.
The other side of this though is that the guys who worked like a dog throughout lockdown are now working like a dog through post lockdown and they’re going to break.
And so as always in these circumstances the safe space is in the middle ground not at either end.
There’s going to be a whole new world of business in dentistry starting round about now but really kicking forwards through the winter.
If you don’t know your numbers and you don’t know your strategic team management and you haven’t got a clear handle on exactly what to spend your marketing budget on (because you will spend less and it will need to be targeted) and you really have no idea why you’re turning up to work then perhaps now is the time to reassess exactly what it’s all about and which direction you would want to go in now.
So I thought that following this module of the business course it’s perhaps the time now to put a shout out for anybody who wants to join next year on a 2021 journey to make their practice better than it’s been before.
Last week on the business course I read out a thank you card that I received last year about how it had changed a life of an individual and they have learnt more than they had in the previous 26 years of dentistry and how it had changed them personally and professionally.
That wasn’t a dentist or a principle, it was a practice manager who was able to go back and lead the practice into much greater success through a crazy year.
Clearly we limit the spaces on this course quite dramatically but if you’re interested about it and would like to come and bring a member of your team to learn how to make your practice a bit better we’ll see you soon. Click here to find out more!
Blog Post Number - 2499
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