We are completing The Mastery Company's core values over the next couple weeks. First, you'll read our definition of the core value which is followed by one of Dr. Cooper's internal emails about the core value.
These core values are where we come from. They are what we base our decisions on. These values frame how we relate to our clients, our vendors, and ourselves. They form our culture and shape our relationships and our work with clients. These core values are 'who' we are.
PARTNERSHIP
The Mastery Company considers itself a partner in our client's business. A partner is unconditionally committed to the other's success. A partner puts 'you' before 'me.' A partner is willing to stand with you when times are tough, when things aren't working, or when the situation looks impossible. A partner will empower you to succeed no matter what. A partner doesn't give up on you.
By providing this partnership, The Mastery Company supplies what most dentists don't have in their practice, a professional committed to their success.
ON PARTNERSHIP [From an e-mail by Marc Cooper]
Dentists fail as partners eighty percent of the time. The associate to partnership process, until very recently, has been a death spiral. An ADA survey reveals that over the last 25 years 87% of dentists practice solo, and that percentage has stayed pretty constant.Will that number change? Yes. It's getting too expensive for dentists to go it alone. But unless they learn how to be partners, it's going to be a rough, upsetting and a costly path.
Our job is to be our client's partners. Sixty to seventy percent of the clients we work with don't have a partner, although a small percentage of them have associates. The other thirty to forty percent of our clients are in various stages of their partnership life cycle, but these partnerships were usually unhealthy when we began.
In my experience, given the opportunity, dentists make great partners. They respond well to partnership. In fact, they are far more effective when operating with and inside a true partnership. The problem is they're blind on how to generate partnerships. To win in the future, dentists need to learn how to 'partner-up,' and that's another part of our job. And so far, we're pretty good at this job, nearly all our partnerships are working.
By being a good partner, we in effect train them to be a good partner. We understand the roll of partner. Someone who will share the down side risks. Someone who believes in you. Someone who won't abandon you. Someone who is committed to your commitments. Someone who hears your voice. Someone who appreciates you. Someone who acknowledges you.Someone who makes you great.
To be a good partner you have to learn to communicate as a partner. So, some of our time with clients is spent on coaching them how to communicate difficult conversations. Partners need to be straight with each other.
We do the same thing with our existing partnered practices. We also coach these clients around setting up partnership structures; bimonthly meetings, a running agenda for those meetings, keeping their word about what will occur in these meetings. And we make sure they are in good communication.
To keep a partnership strong, you need to have full open and honest communication - and that's not easy for our clients. It's not easy for people in general. It's our job to develop and coach clients to be able to communicate at this level of honesty and directness. Because when they do, they'll use it in every area of their life. And that is one of the amazing things we do. We don't just impact dental practices; we impact our clients' lives and the lives of everyone around them.
Dr. Marc B. Cooper, CEO
The Mastery Company
