Your dental team is your greatest asset. 

Running a dental practice is a team effort that requires everyone to work together to provide excellent care. However, that task isn’t always easy, but it is achievable with some focus and consistency. You can implement these steps to keep your dental team motivated and ensure that your practice runs as smoothly as possible.

1. Show Confidence in Your Team.

Your dental team needs to know that you trust them. The best way to let them know that is to show it every day. By praising, validating, and affirming your staff, you can create a much more positive work environment.

Avoiding micromanagement is another important aspect of showing confidence in your team. They won’t feel respected if they think you don’t trust them to carry out their roles at the practice. By showing your confidence in your team, you’ll inspire them to take the initiative and demonstrate their leadership to the people around them—and that’s a win-win.

2. Define Clear Goals

Having defined goals for your team can help them have a clearer understanding of your expectations and see them make progress more effectively. Defining goals is a key part of improving in any field, and dental teams are no exception.

Setting goals and tracking them encourages your staff to continually improve, which in turn can help to keep your practice moving forward.

3. Maintain Open Communication

Clear communication is an absolute must when it comes to keeping your dental team on track. You should make yourself available for your team so that issues can be resolved quickly and effectively.

Having brief, regular meetings is one of the best ways to ensure proper communication. Your team will be more likely to bring things up instead of keeping quiet if there is a dedicated time to speak openly. It also ensures issues are addressed promptly, rather than waiting for a weekly or monthly team meeting. 

4. Get Feedback from Your Team

Every dental team is different, so the way you manage your people also needs to be carefully thought out to suit their unique needs. One of the best ways to find out what works and what doesn’t is to simply ask for feedback.

Feedback from your team can be obtained in a variety of ways. Anonymous employee satisfaction surveys can be very effective because they allow your staff to bring up points they might not feel comfortable discussing face-to-face.

5. Support Your Team in Continued Education

A sense of continued progression is a major motivating factor in any profession. You can keep your team moving forward with continued education opportunities such as orthodontic training courses.

Orthodontic training courses provide dentists and their team with the necessary knowledge and skills to provide more treatment options. With versatile course schedules available, this option is incredibly practical.

6. Encourage Your Team to Join Dental Associations and Groups

There are many dental associations and groups that you can encourage your team to join. These groups offer a wide range of benefits, from fostering a sense of community to access to continued education options like orthodontic training courses.

There are associations for both general dentistry and those centered around specific roles. In general, staff members are often eligible for membership in multiple associations at both the national and state levels.

7. Recognize Positive Patient Feedback

Your team plays a vital role in providing quality care for your patients. For example, they play an important part in dental procedures and create a welcoming environment for patients. Therefore, it’s important to recognize positive feedback from patients so you can keep abreast of the overall success of your team.

If a patient singles out a team member as having provided exceptional service or care, then you should let them know. In many cases, some kind of reward may be in order, and some practices even have incentives tied to patient feedback.

8. Celebrate Accomplishments and Milestones

It’s important to make your team members feel valued. One way to do that is to make sure that you celebrate accomplishments and milestones. If a team member completes continued education like orthodontic training courses or reaches a major anniversary with the practice, take a little time to celebrate and make their accomplishment known.

9. Build Your Team Carefully

Maintaining a functioning dental team isn’t easy. This challenge can make itself most apparent when it comes time to hire a new team member. At this stage, you should make sure that you’re finding someone who will work well with the existing team. A healthy team dynamic isn’t something you want to ruin with rushed hiring practices.

10. Realizing Your Team’s Potential

Investing in the continued development of your team is always a great idea. Many options are available, such as orthodontic training courses for both dentists and other team members. This can provide a real sense that the practice is helping them build value and can help your team deliver even more effective care.

Orthodontic Training Courses for Your Team

If you want to maintain a sense of motivation and continued progress in your team, then you should consider orthodontic training courses with Synergy Orthodontic Seminars. We provide comprehensive orthodontic training courses that can let you and your staff expand your treatment options. You can reach out today to find out more.