The Rocky Horror Practice Show
Recently a client staff person asked me an interesting question: What is the worst thing a practice can do when it comes to attracting new patients?
That’s an easy one.
I googled the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show for this article and found this quote: “I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey”. Orthodontic practices will give visitors that ‘strange journey’ feeling whenever a public, negative verbal exchange between team members takes place in front of patients in a practice. Irrespective of the reasons for it – after all, nobody visiting your practice cares a whit about the reasons for it – the result will be the same: to mortify all visitors within earshot. It permanently changes the perception of the practice, and nothing that you or your staff does afterward will likely overcome it.
Whether between two staff members or a doctor and staff member, there is absolutely nothing to be gained, and everything to lose, by public discord in the practice. There’s no place for it, under any circumstances, at any time.
In the book The Millionaire Next Door, essentially a research study of career success, authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko asked 700 super-achievers to rank, in order of importance, the traits that they felt were most important to their success in life.
“Being well-disciplined” and “getting along well with others” were ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively. (Being honest was #1).
To staff, the message is this: having self-control, and avoiding interpersonal conflicts at work, are key traits of successful, productive people in any business. In my corporate career, I supervised several otherwise talented people who short-circuited their careers because of a simple inability to be cooperative and pleasant in the workplace. (One was the top-performing sales person in our region – until they lost their job because of it). Within orthodontics, this manifests itself on occasion as well; and the outcome is the same: the problem person leaves, either voluntarily or involuntarily, much to the relief of the rest of the staff.
So a word to the wise: make being a team player a top priority at work; it will pay dividends daily. Learn to control your emotions and your temper; it’s not worth the collateral damage.
As natural perfectionists, there are also going to be occasions where doctors lose patience with staff members. The key lies not in the problems that occur – they are going to happen – but rather in the way that problems are addressed. A wise leadership adage that you have probably heard before is “praise in public; criticize in private.” Having a confidential discussion with the employee later is always the best way to deal with a performance issue, and is much more likely to achieve the desired improvement. One ‘pearl’ that I learned in my management career is the importance of waiting 24 hours to address a concern; if you are in a leadership role, you won’t believe how much better things will go if you will wait a day to have the discussion. (A corollary – follow the same rule of thumb with email; never write correspondence when you are angry. After all, once you send it, you can never take it back – and you will likely regret what you said later).
So what’s the penalty for a public outburst at the practice? The dinner conversation with other parents will not be what it should be: “Dr. _____ does excellent work” or “they have an outstanding team at Dr. _____’s office.” All of the quality care that you and your team members provided will be superseded by the remembered incident. Instead, the conversation will now be, “you should see how Dr. _______ talks to his/her staff” or “you should hear how the staff at Dr. _____’s office argues with one another”.
Nobody needs that kind of word-of-mouth marketing. Ever.
As a junior sales person, I once worked for an Executive VP, a talented and genuinely good guy who had a tendency, once in a very great while, to lose his temper in front of the office. Today, he and I talk regularly on LinkedIn and on the phone and are good friends. However, when I think back, the one lasting memory that I have of that time under his leadership is of those rare outbursts of his.
Yes, I still remember them vividly. And we haven’t worked together in twenty-two years.
