You can also read yesterday's blog here!
There are many ways in which the world has changed in dentistry since I became an associate back in 1997 (after three years of hospital service), but one of the biggest ways it's changed is with the emergence of the 'super' associate.
The super associate is often better trained than the average associate, the super associate often has much more charisma than the average associate, and the super associate has a much different attitude to risk than the average associate; the super associate often has an ego greater than any other associate.
The super associate knows their 'worth', and they're at least a 50% associate. They have no interest in the finances of the practice itself, the team, or the future of the practice; they are there as parasites to take as much as they can from the practice and then move along to the next one.
The Super Associate is often peripatetic; they will travel around different practices, and they have high demands for the limited time they spend in practices.
They're often associated with implant dentistry, but not exclusively, sometimes to do with orthodontics, sometimes to do with cosmetic or aesthetic dentistry, often to do with all of these things.
They usually travel to practices where there is no one else in the practice like them, and they seem to be the stars of the show. They're often very charismatic in front of the team, and the team think that they're essential, but they undermine the leadership, the culture, and the whole ethos of the practice that they enter.
They're usually brought into a practice where the principal is struggling to make the numbers or struggling to make the living that they thought they would make out of dentistry, and because the super associate is one of a kind, then they're able to demand whatever they want and usually get it and because the principal is often someone who doesn't count the numbers properly, they don't realise quite what they're giving away.
The classic example of the super associate which has emerged in recent years is the super associate who has their own website/Instagram page/TikTok channel/whatever social media you like. They come into a practice that is not theirs and they photograph the patients that they treat and then they put the photographs on their own Insta page.
At its very heart at present, that is pretty much illegal (unless they have really carefully produced a consent process), but what they don't realise is that the photographs they've taken of the property of the practice and the GDPR risk sits with the practice even if they are self-employed (that's a whole another blog) they still consider themselves to be above the law.
I was chatting to one such super associate recently, who could not understand in any way why it might be a bad thing for them to photograph the patients of the practice and then to put the photographs on their own Instagram page to promote themselves as a great practitioner as they travelled from practice to practice.
I was trying to explain the principles of GDPR and the risk to the practice of what could happen if there was a problem with non-consented photographs being released, but they didn't care, wouldn't listen, and were not interested. It was all about the super associate.
We know that the best functioning organisations are close-knit teams; we know that it's teams who share values, to share a vision or a goal and who want to make an impact in the broader world.
The truth is the super associate does not fit into that model.
And so, for the guy who owns the practice, it's time to choose, right?
Which type of organisation did you really want? And are you prepared to lose it if you can't get what you want, or will you do anything and sell your soul to any devil to get it?
Time to choose.
The Campbell Academy helps principals and practice managers (and budding principals) learn about business and the business of dentistry.
Next week, we start our Digital Dental Entrepreneurial Program, and this month, we start our face-to-face Bootcamp.
Blog Post Number - 4109
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