Ask any dental practice leader about their biggest concerns, and they almost always boil down to team dynamics. Whether the challenge manifests as missed production goals, staffing shortages, patient retention issues, or billing delays, the root cause is often internal problems.
The front desk team isn’t making or following up on collection calls. One of the hygienists is disengaged from their work and patients. Staff members are reluctant to adopt new front-office technology. An assistant and office manager simply can’t see eye to eye. While the challenges appear personal and unfixable, they often have clear reasons and actionable solutions.
Team issues don’t simply cause office friction. They strain patient care, profits, and morale. But when you know how to diagnose and address team issues, you can help everyone succeed.
Individual Talent Isn’t the Have-All, End-All
McKinsey’s workplace research debunks a common myth that a team’s success depends on hiring only “the best” talent. That’s like expecting the world’s fastest runners to win Olympic gold in a relay without knowing one another or regularly practicing handoffs. They might be amazing individually, but without familiarity and communication, they can still botch a baton exchange.
It’s no different in a dental setting. It’s simply not enough for your dentists, hygienists, and office staff to be highly skilled and experienced. They need to trust each other, clearly know their roles, be aligned on the practice’s goals, and have the ability to communicate effectively with one another.
Here are four ways to build team connections to solve your practice’s most pressing challenges:
No. 1: Issuing Clarity on Expectations
Every team member’s success depends on role clarity. In other words, in addition to possessing the skills to do a job successfully, they must know exactly what their responsibilities are and what’s expected of them. Take a financial coordinator, for example. They are well organized, focused, and connect with your patients. When working your e-claims system, they’re successful, but avoid making collection calls. This may be a task that doesn’t come naturally to them, making it vital for you to provide precise guidelines, instructions, and resources, such as talking points for making calls and sample emails for sending digital pay notices.
No. 2: Ensuring Alignment on Goals
One source of missed production goals and staff disengagement is team misalignment. Let’s think of your staff as a marching band. If everyone isn’t moving in sync to the same music, then chaos ensues. That’s a problem, especially at a time when Gallup reports global employee engagement has declined to 21%, with manager engagement falling from 30% to 27% in just one year. Some 70% of team engagement is attributable to a manager, meaning if they’re disengaged their teams are too. It’s been shown that engaged and aligned teams deliver better business outcomes. Without clear, shared priorities and goals, however, individuals may default to comfortable, self-contained tasks rather than interconnected ones that move practices forward. Shift this reality by involving your entire team in the goal-setting process, having team members help identify priorities, and encouraging them to lean on one another to meet goals.
No. 3: Providing Effective Communication
Clear communication is the foundation of every strong team. Without open and honest dialogue, even the best-intentioned managers and staff members can drift apart and encounter obstacles. As Forbes reports, for nearly 40% of workers, poor communication lessens trust in leadership and teams. Furthermore, 50% of workers report that ineffective communication has negatively impacted their job satisfaction, while 42% report that it has affected their stress levels. That’s why leaders need to create an environment rooted in trust and psychological safety where team members feel comfortable sharing their concerns, celebrating wins, and navigating difficult challenges. Let’s look back at the above staff member’s reticence to have difficult patient conversations. To overcome both real and perceived team obstacles, you have to provide supportive dialogue.
No. 4: Giving Constructive Feedback
Giving and receiving feedback can be intimidating for anyone, but it’s ultimately how teams and individuals grow and succeed. It’s essential to remember that feedback is most effective when it is timely, specific, and shared on a regular basis. When sharing insights on a shortcoming or failure, avoid being overly empathetic. That is softening your criticism to the point where it becomes meaningless and prevents change or growth. Also, beware of rewarding failure, say by taking tasks away from a struggling team member and placing them to another. Instead, the goal is to catch small wins early, give timely feedback, and foster a culture of ongoing, constructive feedback that motivates members of your team to make lasting improvements both for themselves and for your practice.
Most practice challenges rooted in internal team struggles aren’t unmanageable. In fact, they are solvable with thoughtful, and intentional, leadership that fosters clear communication and a healthy team culture. It starts with diagnosing your practice’s unique challenges, then being purposeful in building up your team’s clarity, alignment, communication, and trust.
Amy Morgan
Amy Morgan is a member of Spear Resident Faculty and former CEO of Pride Institute.
