Terminating an employee is never easy. Whether it’s the first time or the 50th, every case is difficult, emotional and stressful. But no matter how difficult it is for you, it’s obviously more difficult for the individual losing their job. Loss of employment is high on the list of tragedies in a person’s life that results in extremely high levels of stress. With stakes so high, it is critical – no, it’s an obligation – that you ensure the termination be done with a high degree of professionalism, and most importantly, with as high a degree of compassion as possible. If you follow the Progres ..read more

At our recent Cruise and Learn Conference in Hawaii, one of the burning questions the Doctors asked me in our ‘Proximity of Power’ MasterMind Sessions was how they could get people to accept dental treatment right now with all the prevailing gloom, doom and loss of net worth among our patients. My answer revolves around the issue that it has to be in your patients’ best interests for them to proceed; you can’t ‘sell’ them or somehow use clever wording to convince them. They need to see a true legitimate benefit to them. In most developed countries there is a large percentage of so called ‘B ..read more

The best dental management principle that I have come across this month is the following: People (including dentists!) often fear making changes. And with good reason. Change is difficult, risky, uncertain and many things could go wrong. So why would someone make a change? It may be worth the risk in most cases, but in some cases it won’t be. What you need to determine is whether the Cost of the Status Quo is actually greater than the Risk of Change. In other words, sometimes what we are doing is working so poorly that the cost of doing nothing is far greater than the risk of something g ..read more

Hi Last week I sent a blog that highlighted the new program we are using to truly lower overhead, get a grip on the practice results in real time and once and for all to organize your management functions and stay organized forever. In fact, with this program you can literally do payroll from your iPad on the beach in Mexico. Or check any of your office’s key result areas. Anyway, I neglected to mention that we are doing personal one on one demonstrations to show you for yourself how it works. I also neglected to mention how to get hold of my dental office manager Craig to get more info ..read more

This may seem like a strange question. Everyone knows that dentists make their money when they are chairside. Right? Wrong! I believe that when a dentist is chair-side, it is not the time to be thinking about money, profit, overhead, etc. We should only be thinking about what is best for that patient. And sometimes the best thing for that patient is little or no treatment due to their financial situation or a host of other possible reasons. Dentists make their money when they are NOT chair-side. That is when we should be thinking about ways to make ourselves more profitable. This is what d ..read more

This is a touchy subject because a lot of dental offices have spouses working in their practice. The question is; is this a good idea or a bad idea? I have certainly seen it work. I have seen spouses totally take charge and run the office very effectively and profitably. After all, they have a lot at stake and really care more than a hired gun would likely ever have. However, I have also seen a lot of disasters. Why do these disasters occur? Several reasons. First, often their only qualification is that they are the dentist’s spouse. In other words they are not qualified to do the job ..read more

If you have been reading my stuff for a while then you know how I love goals. There is no way your practice is going to go from 60 per month to 80 per month (or whatever is relevant) unless you TRY to get it to improve like that. Major improvements don’t happen on their own. Major improvements are the result of a deliberate decision and a plan to make it happen; in other words a goal. So make this the year you break through. As a belated Christmas present I am inserting a few of the principles from my Dental Productivity Secrets Program to help get you started. You can get the entire program ..read more

The proper way to do a recall exam Last month I was gearing up for a period of time away from the office for over a month. I was doing a recall exam when one of our hygienists mentioned that she was not happy that I was going away for so long because I was the only one that did recalls properly. I know that was a bit of an exaggeration, but I think what she meant was that I do it right all the time so she can count on me, and therefore knows how her day will go. In other words, when I am working she could on staying on time and the day going smoothly for her. Now I was surprised to hear ..read more

Have you ever terminated an employee and they were shocked? If so, the situation was not handled correctly. If someone is not up to scratch, it should have been pointed out to them earlier. You need to decide if it is an issue of a poor fit for the position, inability to do the job, a lack of training or a refusal to do it. This last one also includes the general area of bad attitude overall. Most people who are genuinely trying to do their best should be given more chances and more training or a reassignment to a new role, and this usually can solve the problem. The ones that should get ..read more

A Mailman, or Mailwoman for that matter, is shown how to do their work, and basically goes about their work for the next 25 years doing exactly the same thing every day. It reminds me of a dentist I know who have been practicing 30 years, but he does not have 30 years experience. He has one year of experience repeated 30 times. Kind of like a mailman. If you had cancer, who would you like to treat you? Someone 90 years old who still believes in leeches and bloodletting? Or someone who learned one way to treat cancer 30 years ago and still works that way because ‘I have had some good result ..read more