Kenny Dalglish was one of the greatest players ever produced through the ranks of Celtic Football Club, perhaps the greatest footballer ever to grace a Scotland shirt. Following his phenomenal exploits as a Celtic player, though he was then allowed by Celtic to make a cameo appearance in the latter part of his career with Liverpool Football Club going on to win multiple awards including the European Cup.
At the very end of his career he took over the post of player manager at Liverpool and won the title in that role, playing as a striker at the front of the pitch at the spearhead but managing all the football matters for the club. This is a rare thing indeed and something probably inconceivable now in modern football, particularly in the elite leagues. It was incidentally a role which was mastered by Graham Souness when he arrived at Rangers Football Club and transitioned through into management through the player management role to then provide one of the most successful times in Rangers football history.
But times have changed since those days (Souness was the manager in the 90’s and Dalglish in the 80’s) The complexity of life and management and business and organisations has multiplied exponentially so the role of player manager has become almost obsolete. The funny thing is though that it’s wide spread in dentistry through almost every independent dental practice in the UK. To this day, the majority of people who own and run an independent dental practice are the ‘star strikers’. They are the Lionel Messi of their practice, the Kenny Dalglish or the Graham Souness. They turn up day after day or week after week providing record attendances for their ‘club’ and providing the most impact on their performance only to go away and manage all the rest of the affairs separately.
There is of course a significant difference here. In general in the days of the player manager, footballers trained 2 – 3 hours a day and played for 90 minutes on a Saturday and once during the week if they were busy. The star player in a dental practice tends to work a great deal more than that. This was presented on our business course recently by my friend and Managing Director of Straumann Stephen Booth who explained the concept in terms of an architect and a bricklayer - how it was impossible to be both and how the building industry would think that ridiculous.
It’s clear though from where I sit that the superstars are struggling and almost everybody I speak to who holds that position is struggling to hold it any more.
Each year it gets more complicated not less. Each year it gets harder to be the manager and the player not easier. None of us who try to straddle this great divide ever want to detach ourselves from the day-to-day contact we have with patients but of course, in order to secure and protect our organisations, that is a must. This is a balance which must be struck, it is a paradox, a riddle which must be unraveled. Only by discussion, discourse, sharing ideas and stealing other people’s art will we ever reach a point where we can survive as independent practitioners leading our organisations (for they are now organisations) to a place where everyone, including the patients and the staff are looked after properly but at least as important is that we are looked after properly too.
Blog Post Number: 1231
Leave a comment