Practice Management is not the Answer

Being a good practice manager is not the answer.
In fact most dentists don’t even think much about practice management. Or practice leadership.
I searched the few dental message boards on the internet for some signs of activity in these areas. It seems dentists aren’t too interested in these areas. There is some interest in practice management but no searches or sites for leadership for dentists.

We like to read about things like bonding, and great cases we have done or that someone else has done that we can learn from.

We like teeth.
Management is something we think we need to work on when our month end numbers are not what we wish they were. But if an article on a beautiful veneer case catches our eye, practice management goes onto the back burner again.

Is someone is very successful (very profitable) in their practice, we think they must have a handle on their practice management. And they probably do. But success comes from practice leadership not management.

What do I mean?
I had a real lesson in practice management this past week. I have always thought of myself as a good practice manager because I was happy with my practice results. A lot of things have to be done right for this to happen.

But this week my office manager resigned. So I had to be the office manager while I searched for a new one. It soon became very clear to me that I was not a great manager. Not only that but I really didn’t like practice management.

This is when it occurred to me that management and leadership are actually at odds with each other! In the past I had always kind of rolled the two together in the broad category of the business side of things. And although they are both useful and necessary, they are definitely not the same thing.

For example, as a leader, I am always trying to build relationship with my staff. I want to be nice to them. I want to get them on side and help me. I want to grow the practice so I can pay them more and reward them more so they are even happier to work with me.

Then I read the office manual for new hires. You can’t do this. We don’t pay you for that. We will fire you if you do this, etc, etc. It was all negative. But I suppose it all needs to be covered. You see, the role of management is getting things done. It is also about controlling costs. It is not about growing the practice.

Growing the practice is a leadership issue. Why do we need to do to grow? How can we get more patients? What new services can we learn to perform? What do patients want? How can we keep our patients from leaving? How can we add another hygienist even if we are going to have 3 months with openings in their schedule?

The leader wants to grow and add the hygiene and is willing to pay the price that it takes. The manager wants to be efficient with 0% downtime and no wasted hygiene salaries.

The good thing for us dentists is that there are people out there who love to manage. This is good because it frees us up to lead.

I never realized how far I had gone from managing until I was forced back into it. Managing is necessary. A good manager gets it all done while still keeping everyone happy. But it is not my calling. I want to lead the practice to the next level. I want to see where we can learn something so we can get better. I want the cost of doing this to be recorded as an investment not an expense because a year from now we will be earning way more than the cost of the learning. I want to find ways to make our practice the best of the best.

If you are an owner start to think of ways to lead. Hire a manager to manage the details. You develop the big picture of where you want to get to. If you get there, you will be better off in every way even if some of your manager’s numbers are 10% over what they should be.

Better to be doing the right thing a little inefficiently than the wrong thing to perfection.

Dr. Dave Robertson

You can learn more about practice management and leadership by visiting his web-site at www.DentalManagementSecrets.com.
He also has a free newsletter and tutorial on his site available to all dentists. He only works 2 days a week, and his practice produces and collects over $7 million per year.