A dental office is in fact a small business that you have to know how to manage and run. Being a manager cannot be improvised! Here is a list of 5 qualities of order and method that you will have to develop to succeed in building a viable and lasting professional project.
Quality 1: endure the stress
As dental surgeons, you will be confronted with numerous social, material, fiscal constraints… To face them, intellectual, physical and psychological endurance are the key words of a rewarding and profitable exercise.
Quality # 2: take a step back in problem analysis
One of the intellectual skills inseparable from the overall success of any dentist is the ability to synthesize. Of course ; however, it appears that this strategic competence is not necessarily the prerogative of practicing practitioners.
You must therefore learn to develop it by taking a step back more often from the problematic situations that you have to face on a daily basis.
Quality 3: knowing how to demonstrate diplomacy
Whether it is about relations with your patients or with your assistant, it is essential to comply with a few rules in order to guarantee a good atmosphere within your practice.
Relationship problems within dental teams can have several causes, some linked to the intrinsic personality of the practitioner or conditioned by a harmful work environment and a lack of team cohesion. It is therefore imperative to teach dental teams to plan and carry out all their communication operations (briefings for example or professional interviews) using appropriate management tools and supports and to limit oral, impulsive or untimely acts of communication. .
Quality 4: listening to others
The ability to use active listening techniques during interpersonal relationships (during meetings, interviews or during telephone or physical reception of patients, etc.) is a necessary skill that practitioners must acquire.
It is essential to create a space favorable to exchange, for example by implementing the principle of active listening (which we will develop in a future article).
Do not hesitate to ask to analyze the satisfaction of your patients (thanks to questionnaires in the waiting room, for example, here is a model ) in order to objectively assess the things to improve.
Quality 5: manage your emotions and stress
Work overload, conflicting relationships with patients and staff, administrative harassment, physical and emotional fatigue and above all the near impossibility of stopping work for “sick leave” are some of the stressors surgeons face. dentists have to cope.
To avoid the burnout of the dental surgeon, which unfortunately affects nearly one in two dentists (and of which here is an evaluation questionnaire ), we must overcome this difficulty in bearing the weight of the constraints of management and organization of his practice .