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Are You Doing Enough To Motivate Your Team?

Are You Doing Enough To Motivate Your Team?
by Paul Etchison, DDS

How do you feel when you spend a day with your team? Are you all energized and motivated? Do you have a good time and enjoy helping patients together? Do you all start the day on a high note and end it feeling happy and satisfied? Or do you have days where it feels like everyone is dragging, your team only cares about their paychecks, and doing dental work together is like pulling teeth?

If you don’t feel like your practice is a great place to work, it’s time to sit down with the person who sets the tone and makes everyone feel appreciated. So, get out that mirror. Because the hard truth is that as the dentist, you are responsible for making the team feel challenged, appreciated, and energized. You can’t outsource leadership, and a key part of leadership is learning how to motivate your staff by “filling buckets.”

Most People Are Bucket-heads

When my daughter was younger, she was given a book called How Full Is Your Bucket (For Kids) by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer. It explains that everyone has an invisible bucket on their head. Good things fill the bucket with water. Bad things cause water to slosh out. Most people get their buckets filled by compliments, satisfaction from meeting challenges, and little gifts and thoughtful actions. Buckets get emptied by bad luck, harsh words, and the feeling that you don’t matter.

In the practice, you are the main bucket-filler, and often the main bucket-spiller as well. Compliment people when they’ve done a great job, and they glow. Snap at people, even when you’re not angry at them, and watch their bucket empty. When your team’s buckets are overflowing, they fill the buckets of the patients, too. You get the reputation as a fun, people-focused practice. A team with empty buckets passes those bad feelings on, and you’ll get a bad reputation. If you want your practice to thrive, you have got to fill those buckets. But how?

Read full article on Dentistry Today.