Sally McKenzie

It's interesting the impact that "personality" has on the effectiveness of the practice, but few dentists are willing to acknowledge it. Fewer still consider the fact that when there is conflict and tension among the team, it is some of the worst marketing and patient relations a practice can engage in. Make no mistake, there's no fooling them. Patients can sense it immediately.  

Conflict is a huge source of stress in the workplace. In the dental office, teams go out of their way to avoid confrontation and at an enormous cost. They tell themselves that the "go along to get along" approach is working. The irony is that what doctor and staff want to ignore patients can see plain as day. What's more, patients are already stressed out enough, if they sense more stress in your practice their desire to keep that appointment or schedule the next one falls even further down on their list of priorities.

The good news is that when managed, conflict can be highly beneficial in helping the team to improve systems that directly affect patient opinions of the practice. The greatest cause of conflict in the workplace typically is the fact that individuals fail to really understand one another. Rather, they assign labels to what they don't understand or what they think they see in another's behavior. If Carol doesn't say "good morning," others assume she's "rude." Or if Paula procrastinates on some of her duties she's "lazy." Amanda is "controlling" because she likes certain things done a specific way.

It's easy to feel negatively toward people who exhibit behaviors that we don't like, don't agree with, or simply don't understand. For example, it is common for extroverts to label their introverted colleagues as being "stuck up" or "moody" because extroverts don't understand that introverts simply don't share the same communication style.

The challenge for dental teams is to discard the labels and commit to making the differing personalities a source of creativity and problem solving. That begins with temperament testing. You need to know if your receptionist has a temperament type that is not comfortable talking with people all day long. If your personality style is more direct, it can come across as abrasive to patients, which will affect their willingness to accept treatment and refer others. Personality type is like eye color, we are born with certain characteristics; however, being aware of our temperament strengths and weaknesses allows us to address them and use them to our greatest advantage as well as minimize those aspects that cause others to react negatively toward us.

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Hugh Doherty, DDS, CFP

Your practice undoubtedly has some creative employees. Some of them are easy to pinpoint and many others are brimming with untapped potential that can help your practice thrive in an ever-changing market. Many practices unintentionally hinder creativity, so learning how to motivate creative team members can give you an advantage over your competition. The way you treat creative team members has a snowball effect on the organization as a whole. "Doctors forget that they talk to each other." "The positive and negative effects of a practices response to creativity often spiral, so you want them to spiral in a positive direction.

By creating a culture that inspires creativity, you can motivate team members to offer more ideas. Try these four tips to motivate team members and encourage innovation:

Give feedback on new ideas. Generating new ideas takes time and effort, so team members need to know that their creativity is valued. Why? You are asking your employees to give you feedback and suggestions. That needs to be a reciprocal road.

When you solicit creative ideas, establish a point person to give feedback on each of them. You can also involve the total team by utilizing a live brainstorming session. The more employees understand why their ideas did or did not work, the more motivated they will feel to offer ideas again.

Recognize and reward collaboration. Creativity is typically an iterative process, where one person says the initial idea and others jump in to improve it. The best teams build off each other, so they need to be motivated to work together. Prizes or recognition for the best idea often encourage competition instead of cooperation. Not a good idea / This stifles creativity and upsets those whose contributions go unrecognized. Instead, acknowledge everyone involved. That way, you encourage future teamwork and fuel creativity.

Put creative work in context. When doctors think about innovation, they think five or ten years out, while employees tend to focus on immediate improvements. That discord can lead employees to suggest ideas that get dismissed for being off target -- a missed opportunity that saps motivation. When you solicit creative ideas, tell your team what you hope to accomplish. Put people in a different mindset. The Doctor might say, 'here's how the market seems to be changing, so what can we do now to put us in a good position five years from now?'" That specificity empowers creative employees to succeed.

Celebrate even if well-considered ideas fail. Inspired ideas often fail, even when the idea is well vetted before it's released. Being creative is risky. To motivate creativity, reward well thought out ideas, even though they are not selected .Celebrate the effort and audacity to innovate, that sends a message to the team that you're rewarding the mindset and the willingness to try to improve.

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