How to Build a High-Performance Team for Your Practice: A Complete Guide

In this article, we’ll look at how to build a high-performance team for your dental practice. We’ll also look at the best practices for managing your high-performance teams and keeping them motivated and performing to the best of their ability.

Dedication to the Team

Similar to being complementary to each other regarding skill sets, team members must also be committed to a “team first” attitude. Whatever the goals are, that is the primary driver of action.

Sometimes that means putting aside individual goals or directions and instead focusing on what’s best to achieve the organization’s overall goals.

Results Oriented

Regardless of what actions are taken, there must be a commitment to measurable metrics being the goal of improvements. If you want to build high-performing teams, results matter.

On top of metrics, there must also be an overall strategy in place that gives the team something to strive for. This combination of measurable metrics and constant improvement helps drive excellence.

Responsibility

This means accepting both success and failure. A high-performance team doesn’t begin to point fingers when goals or metrics are not met. Instead, they reexamine their strategy and look to improve based on the current results.

The same can be said for successes. They are shared as a team, and the individuals each contribute their unique skills to help the team succeed.

This thinking also helps promote adaptability, as a team that points fingers or makes excuses is often unable to adapt.

In the next section, we’ll look at how to build a high-performing team for your practice.

Make sure team members know exactly where to turn with questions or other issues. Also, periodic team meetings to help refocus everyone are helpful and a perfect way to bring everyone back on the same page.

Access to Training and Materials

You can’t expect your team to know everything, especially when things change quickly, such as with new technology in the office.

Make sure your team has access to training materials if needed to deal with any changes or initiatives that are set in place.

For example, if new billing software is introduced at the office, the team needs access to the proper training or, at the very least, the materials required for training.

Often, a dental practice will bring in new software, then assign one person to learn it independently. That person is then responsible for teaching it to others in the office.

This is not the best way and often puts too much strain on one team member. Instead, reach out to the new software vendor and ask what training materials are available.

Then, set aside time for each team member who will be using the new software to access the training.

This can be applied to any recent changes in the office, from new administration tools to new medical equipment.

Set SMART Goals

As outlined earlier, a high-performance team needs to be focused on measurable results.

A way to look at setting up these goals and metrics is to use a system known as SMART goals. The acronym SMART stands for the following:

Specific

Measurable

Actionable

Relevant

Time Bound

Using these criteria for the goals and metrics set out for a team makes it easier to decide how to measure the success of each initiative.

It also helps to provide clear goals for the team. By setting specific and measurable goals, team members know exactly what their role is and how they can contribute.

This is far more helpful than more general goals like “increase patient retention.” Goals like that need to be broken down into smaller, specific tasks that team members can address.

For example, what issues are causing patients to leave, and how can that be addressed? If it’s scheduling issues, the team must work on ways to improve patient scheduling options.

The team can set up a goal of introducing one new scheduling option for patients within a 2-week time frame. This may include a period of researching new scheduling options. Then have a meeting to decide which option will address the most issues your office is dealing with.

These very specific goals, each with a clearly defined time frame, are much easier to achieve and take action on.

Setting up SMART goals helps everyone in the office more easily work towards specific tasks, which improves the overall business. It also helps keep team members motivated as their work is always rewarded as they accomplish new goals and move on to new tasks.

Automate Repetitive Work

Nothing saps the energy from a team like repetitive tasks that take up a majority of their schedule. This drains resources and makes an office inefficient.

Look where automation can play a role in your dental practice and look for ways to implement it.

This can be as simple as using a new administration software like Cloud 9, which automatically deals with patient reminders and texting. Freeing your staff from tasks like this opens up opportunities for them to work on more growth-oriented tasks to help the office improve and expand.

Using the building blocks outlined above should make it easier when it comes to developing high-performance teams for your business or organization.

This role requires a certain degree of maturity, personally and professionally. It can be difficult, but it helps build trust when the team recognizes the leader is both objective and even-handed.

For most dental practices, you likely already have a manager who is essentially the team leader. Make sure they are both comfortable with this position and understand what is expected of them now that you want to transform your staff into a high-performance team.