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Leadership skills dentists need

Trying to do everything yourself is a recipe for disaster. Burnout, stagnant growth and high staff turnover can result from lack of professional development. If you don’t learn to lead, you can soon learn to hate running your own show.

Here are four leaderships skills you can work on today to help lighten your load and run your practice like a well-oiled machine.

Delegation leads to elevation

Just as you’ll never learn to ride a bike without taking off the training wheels, your team can’t improve their abilities if you never offer them the chance.

Learning to delegate is tough, especially if you’re a perfectionist, which some dentists are. Trust that your team wants to succeed and advance. They want to come to work and feel as though they’re making a difference. While delegating can sometimes be a bumpy road, it will relieve stress and elevate your staff and practice to new levels.

System building

An efficient practice is one where important processes are completed in the same way every single time. It’s up to you as the leader to identify these processes, document how you’d like them done and train your staff to follow your systems. You don’t need a 200-page manual outlining every single task that is completed in your office, but the more things you systemize, the more smoothly your practice will operate.

Project and predict

No one can predict the future, particularly when it comes to business. But focusing too much on today and making no plans can be a ticket to stagnation.

Do you know where your next batch of patients will come from? How will your fee schedule look next year and beyond? What about competition in your area? Do you need any major equipment purchases or practice upgrades? How does the overall economy look?

The better you learn to make projections, the better equipped you’ll be to lead your practice forward and prioritize where to put your time, efforts and money.

Simplify communication

Dentistry may be complex, but your communications should never be. Make a habit of delivering instructions and expectations as simply as possible to achieve more consistent results

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