LEADERSHIP - How to Get Out of Being Overwhelmed

"Every day there are patients to treat and treatment plans to do and, oh yeah, there's that staff person I need to talk to and the dentist I need to call.  And then there’s payroll to get out, supplies to order, a new chairside assistant to train and, yes, I must do something about marketing because New Patients are down, and I'm worried about the economy."

 There’s just too much to do and not enough time!

But the problem is not that we have too much to do; the real problem is that we’re trying to do it all.  We’re wearing way too many “hats”!  And because we're so busy, we rarely take the time to reflect on what we SHOULD be doing and what others could be doing instead.

“There’s got to be a way out!”

But to find a way out, we need a new perspective and a plan – a clearer understanding of our essential roles in the practice and a reliable way to reduce all these overwhelming demands?

Getting a better perspective

We’re always juggling three essential roles in our practice - that of the business owner, the practice manager and the leading clinician.  So, let’s imagine for a moment that we are wearing only one of these “hats” instead of all three.  How would we view our responsibilities differently?

1. The first “hat” or perspective is that of the Owner. And for this discussion, let’s say that as the Owner of our practice, we don’t have a clinical license and must hire an orthodontist and staff to run the practice and deliver the care. As the Owner, our only responsibility is to make all the decisions necessary to run a successful business.

2. Switching “hats”, the next viewpoint is that of the Practice Manager, who was hired by the Owner and is charged with managing the clinical and business team, creating financial and clinical systems that allow the practice to run smoothly and providing an exceptional experience for the patients.

3. The third “hat” is that of the Clinician, who, in this scenario, has no equity in the practice but was hired by the Owner as an associate and works under the supervision of the Manager.  We're there to deliver care to the patients.

 With this in mind, let’s ask a few questions:

If you were the Owner of this orthodontic practice and was not an orthodontist, would you want the Clinician you hired:

• To spend his/her time doing payroll, ordering supplies, and doing other technical work that you could hire a competent staff person to do?

• To be too busy with patients, charts, and treatment plans to train the chairside assistants, develop better ways to treat each patient in less time or have enough time to effectively communicate with patients, parents, and referring dentists?

• To run late for the appointments, treat the staff poorly at times out of frustration, or otherwise undermine the harmony of the doctor-staff relationship?

Also, as the Owner, would you want your Practice Manager:

• Fail to organize the office with more effective clinical & business systems which would reduce the stress on everyone and give the patients a better experience?

• Not to take the time to work with the staff, helping them to become more productive and more harmonious?

• Not to develop any staff leaders who would be examples for the rest of the team and perform some managerial tasks?

• Not to consistently market the practice and keep it organized and running smoothly?

Now for a moment, shift your perspective to being just the Practice Manager.

If you were the Practice Manager, would you want the Owner of the practice:

• Not to give you the training or resources you need to run the practice more efficiently and effectively?

• Not to give you clear directions on what were the key improvements you needed to make to the practice?

• Not to let you know what the highest priorities were for making the practice more successful?

Also, as the Manager of the clinical and business team, would you want the Clinician and your team members:

• Struggling with frustrating systems that decrease their effectiveness and reduce the chance of delivering exceptional service and excellent patient care?

• Always coming to you for answers to every time a problem arises?

• Asking you to be the peacemaker to settle interpersonal conflicts between each other?

• Constantly interrupting you for the day-to-day decisions in the practice?

And finally, if you were the Clinician, an associate who was hired to work in this practice.  Would you want the Manager and Owner of this practice to expect you to:

• Spend your time doing unnecessary paperwork, ordering supplies, paying the staff and other work that your Practice Manager could do?

• Work in an office in which there were frequent interruptions while treating the patients to handle crises or occasional frustrations like lab work not available or running out of needed supplies?

• Work with under-trained chairside assistants, unmotivated staff and poor management systems while trying to deliver excellent patient care and spend quality time with the patients and parents?

Of course not!  We wouldn’t want any of this! 

And because WE are doing many of these things in addition to treating patients, we're overwhelmed so:

• Some important things are not getting done well; other important things are not getting done at all,

• There’s often little time to plan significant improvements or explore new opportunities, and,

• The responsibilities of our practice may be intruding on our personal life or family time.

So, if we were to “hire ourselves” now to fill these three positions, how would we write OUR job description differently?  How would we reorganize OUR duties and responsibilities? How would we more clearly define OUR role in the practice?

In the article below, you’ll discover three specific strategies to answer these questions and eliminate these overwhelming demands.  The article clarifies which roles and responsibilities are exclusively ours and which can be delegated to competent staff. 

Then by gradually delegating all our non-essential tasks, we can do more with less effort, freeing up time for ourselves and our loved ones.

The 3 Hats We Wear in Practice - Getting Out of "Overwhelm"