Written by: Roger P. Levin, DDS
The secret to success for many practices is actually the office manager. Although dentists are the ones who are ultimately responsible for practice success, it is the office manager who makes things happen day to day. In the television show MASH*, the military leaders were positioned as bumbling people.
However, they enjoyed high levels of success because of one character named Radar, who constantly cleaned up behind them to make everything work and make the leaders look good. Many good office managers can relate to Radar’s role.
Here are three traits of high-performing office managers.
- The high-performing office manager has a complete understanding of human resources and people development.
The office manager needs to understand basic human resources protocols, policies, regulations, and legalities. They need to be the ones doing the recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and training of new team members. Dentists simply do not have the time!
The high-performing office manager is also the one who manages the staff day to day—and we mean completely manages the staff. Dentists should not be spending time on day-to-day staff management. The office manager is the one who sets out the systems, protocols, habits, culture, work behavior, and numerous other factors that all contribute to building a world-class team. When the office manager knows what to do, amazing things can happen. The challenge is that most office managers do not have any management education or previous management experience. This makes it difficult for managers to rise to higher levels, and if they don’t rise to higher levels, neither does the team.
- High-performing office managers track the numbers.
Every practice should have specific goals and targets to achieve each year. It is then the responsibility of the high-performing office manager to track the numbers and make course corrections as needed. All of your numbers will not be on target every month, but it is important to know which ones are on target, which are off target, and how to move forward.
- High-performing office managers improve the practice every day.
Although this might sound like pie in the sky or utopia, it is real. A major part of the office manager’s job is not just to get through the day, but to improve the practice every single day. Levin Group consultants remind their clients to find one thing to improve every single day. Improvement is beneficial to the practice and increases doctor income. Many office managers work to get through the day and do their jobs (and sometimes do other staff members’ jobs) rather than spending time every day thinking about improvement. If the goal is one improvement per day, then the high-performing office manager will have a focus on finding improvements daily and a culture of improving the practice.
SUMMARY
Your best office managers are high-performing office managers. The truth is that most office managers do not fall into this category because they do not have the education or background to allow them to move into high performance. Comprehensive training of office managers can literally revolutionize a practice and increase dentist income. In other words, a high-performance office manager is worth his or her weight in gold.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roger P. Levin, DDS, is the CEO and Founder of Levin Group, a leading practice management consulting firm that has worked with over 30,000 clients to increase production. A recognized expert on dental practice management and marketing, he has written more than 60 books and over 4,000 articles and regularly presents seminars in the U.S. and around the world.
To contact Dr. Levin or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit levingroup.com.
FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Aathif Aarifeen from Pixabay.
