For maximum dental practice growth, you must be able to truly motivate every employee on your team.
That leads us to a simple question: What does it mean to motivate someone? Webster’s defines motivate as “to provide someone with a motive, impel.”
How Do You Motivate Your Team For Dental Practice Growth?
What motive truly impels each of your staff? Do you know what really gets them up every morning?
Of course, money is usually considered the main motivator, and usually that is a large part of an employee’s motivation. Top-tier dental offices are discovering, two things, however: (1) Engaging the WHOLE PERSON unleashes tremendous potential for dental practice growth and (2) Providing a person with what they REALLY want inspires an organic loyalty that glues staff to a practice in ways a high salary alone won’t match.
Although these top-tier dental practices necessarily offer competitive wages, they rarely find themselves forced to continually raise wages in order to keep their staff. Being part of a growing, thriving dental practice that truly cares about them as a person represents tremendous value to dental employees.
How Do You Motivate Millennials for Dental Practice Growth?
Besides, as many employers are learning from working with Millennials and Gen Z’ers, money is not the primary currency (or motivator) of everyone. Even in spite of rising inflation, many younger staff members see a paycheck as important, but ultimately secondary.
Here are some of the primary motivators of younger employees:
- Making a difference in the world.
- Maximizing personal fulfillment.
- Being part of a cause they believe in.
As you can see, Millennials not only have a different purpose themselves, they will also want to know YOUR goals. Attracting and retaining Millennials forces a dentist to, first of all, make certain that he/she knows what the purpose of his/her practice truly is.
Are you about “Creating total health for all patients” or “Providing first-class smiles every time,” or something else? First, identify it, flesh it out, and then wrap your dental practice in this truly transformative purpose in a way that all employees can tap into. This process will unite and focus your team on dental practice growth in ways that will amaze you.
Once you have identified your practice purpose and thought hard about each individual staff member might fit into that purpose, how can you incorporate visible, viable motivators into your office culture?
- Set daily production goals with clear rewards for dental practice growth above and beyond that level.
- Set up regular employee awards/perks/shout-outs for innovative breakthroughs and exceptional performance.
- Truly listen to staff suggestions about improvements and changes to your office and routine. Knowing that management values their contributions is incredibly motivating to staff.
- Don’t neglect small things like regular break room maintenance, drinks, snacks, etc. These things, small as they are, represent in tangible form your interest in them as a whole person.
- Provide new, up-to-date equipment for employees and make sure they understand exactly how to use it to do their jobs better.
- Provide and encourage CE for every employee in your office
- Incorporate some questions specifically about individual motivation into annual review sessions and use them to learn more about each employee’s primary motivators.
Learning to truly motivate your employees, especially your younger employees, is one of the most powerful things you can do to encourage dental practice growth. You will see what George Patton, Jr., meant when he said
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
When your employees are truly motivated, prepare to be amazed!
For more help with dental practice growth, reach out to Client Connection Group today! Our proven strategies for social media implant advertising will fill your calendar with more cases than even your motivated employees can keep up with! Contact us today!