Results
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
Winston Churchill
If you're not producing results in your practice, why aren't you? I'm sure you have good reasons: difficulty finding and retaining good staff; bad location; the economy's gone sour; new competition moving into your neighborhood; hoodwinked into a lousy transition; Delta reimbursements suck; there are not enough new patients.
Yes, you probably have very good reasons.
However, in practice as in life, you either have the reasons or the results. Which do you have?
If you're like most dentists, when you aren't producing results, what you automatically do is come up with good reasons for why not. Once you have a good reason, then you proceed to address the reason, thinking if you handle the reason then results will happen, i.e. "I'll drop out of Delta; I'll fire my lazy assistant; I'll open Thursday nights and every other Saturday." But addressing the reason never produces the result. So what do you do next? You come up with another reason and then go about addressing that reason. When are you going to learn? Reasons are not results.
Reasons are those statements that follow your becauses. "I was late because; I didn't make my production goals because; I don't have enough new patients because; My staff isn't committed because; I can't find a good hygienist because." What you don't realize is whatever follows your "because" is false cause.
Reasons are excuses. Reasons are justifications, explanations, defenses, pretexts - which you use to get you off the hook. Reasons are about something outside of you causing interference to you achieving your results. Reasons by their very nature absolve you of responsibility.
Results are a function of integrity and structure. Integrity is based on commitment. Commitment is honoring yourself as your word. Commitment reorganizes your thinking and actions so you are more effective in the face of circumstances and issues. Commitment eliminates excuses. Commitment is beyond reason. Commitment is "unreasonable." Commitment is pure responsibility.
Commitments puts you at-stake, which gives you more character and courage. Commitments are expressed in language as promises and requests. Commitments incite you to take effective actions. Results are a product of effective action. Therefore, results are generated from outcomes promised or goals requested.
Why do you avoid making commitments? Why do you hesitate in making promises? Because you're afraid of failure. Your relationship to failure makes you timid, hesitant and apprehensive in making commitments. Your relationship to failure has you create "reasons" as the way not to fail. If the reason is the cause, not you, then the reason gets you off the hook.
What you don't realize is failure to deliver the result doesn't make you a failure, but that's not the way you see it. The way you see it is "YOU are your results." I suggest if you alter your context to failure, then you'd swing out a lot more, make promises, and increase your results.
What if failures were the best access to the future? What if failures were the best teachers? If you don't have failures, you'll never have successes since you can't have up without down, or in without out. You can't have success without failure.
Hope, expectation, want to, positive thinking, optimism, don't produce results - you do. When you operate as your commitments, your actions become tremendously more effective. If failure didn't mean you are a failure, you'd be willing to make promises about results (goals, objectives, outcomes). Living with and inside a commitment would enable you to take effective action, which would unquestionably increase results.
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert F. Kennedy
Dr Marc B. Cooper
The Mastery Company
Copyright © 2004-2010 Marc B. Cooper & The Mastery Company - All Rights Reserved.
 |
The subject of ‘leadership’ has fascinated me for decades; what constitutes a good leader, are they born, chosen or just wired that way? And I want to start this article with the punch line - that we are ALL leaders in some aspect of our lives, professional and/or personal. So we may as well accept that and learn some skills.
|
 |
Recruiting the right people for your practice can be seen as a daunting and time-consuming task. Dental recruiter, Tracy McLaughlin from DentaFind in London, sheds some light on how putting certain processes in place can help you hire and retain staff members that are ideally suited to their roles and more importantly, your practice.
|
 |
Most practice management programmes are ineffectual. That’s right; useless, a waste of time, not worth a plug nickel. Stop spending your money. Practice management programmes don’t work.
|
 |
Dr Marc Cooper, dental business consultant, shares his thoughts on the recession and its impact on dentistry in his latest e-newsletter.
|
 |
Newly launched city centre dental practice, Ollie and Darsh (Liverpool, UK), shares some tips on how the right combination of business planning, branding, design and vision can lead to success and an an influx of patients. Join dental business coach, Chris Barrow, on a virtual tour through the practice.
|
 |
“The upcoming New Year looks much different than those of the past 10-20 years,” says Dr Marc Cooper, president and chairman of the Mastery Company. He explains that what you ask yourself what really matters to your wellbeing, the recession will not occur as relevant to your answer. He explores the tools and opportunities available to dentists to have a positive and fulfilling 2009.
|
 |
“During the recession, it makes good sense to shift the focus of your practice,” says Dr Marc Cooper from the Master Company. He explains that for many years, growth has been a focus for dental practices. “The way to grow more is with more, more of everything. But the tide has turned. A recession is defined by prolonged negative growth, negative real economic growth. Pursuing practice growth is now going against the tide. And if you continue to go against the tide, it's going to cost you big time,” he says. Read his latest article on how you can manage the new tide and remain afloat.
|
 |
“Regardless of whether the US economy is in a recession or not, you and your practice may be,” says Dr Marc Cooper, president and chairman of the Mastery Company. Ask yourself: Have my practice revenues stayed the same or declined over the last year? Has my personal income stayed the same or even shrunk over the last year? “With energy, food, housing and taxes all on the increase, this combination means that you and your practice are in a recession.” Dr Cooper has developed a 10-step programme to help you make the right decisions for your practice in the current economic climate.
|
 |
“People are a direct reflection of the conditions or circumstances surrounding them. When things are good, they are good. When things are bad, they are bad. In today's economic conditions, it is safe to say that ‘tense, anxious, nervous, stressed, edgy, and apprehensive’ describes most people,” says dental business consultant, Dr Marc Cooper. In the uncertainty of the economy, the constant flood of bad news and doubt about personal economic circumstances, Dr Cooper gives advice on how to take a stand a be a leader.
|
 |
“If your practice results are beginning to swirl down the drain, you need to consider managing yourself and your staff like there's a hole in the bottom of the boat. In a recession, you recalibrate and you reconsider. You look at what you must do to make that bottom-line number.” Dr Marc Cooper from the Mastery Company, explains how to adjust your mindset to survive in an uncertain economic climate.
|
 |
"Most dentists manage by job description. How dumb is that? Well, if you ask me, pretty dumb," says Dr Marc Cooper from the Mastery Company. "Description has no power. Describing how to perform your job and delivering high performance are not the same. But dentists believe that if you accurately describe to staff exactly what you want them to do, how you want them to do it, and why you want it done, it will produce the results. Now that's dumb!"
|
 |
"Once upon a time, in a dental practice far away, there was a young dentist named Doug. Doug knew that anyone who was anyone in dentistry had slaughtered the dragons that imprisoned excellence. The great knights spoke of their many battles and how they were able to take excellence into custody and keep it in their possession. Ah yes, excellence was able to be captured and Doug would not be denied." Dr Marc Cooper from the Mastery Company discusses the goal of excellence in the dental practice.
|
 |
"What kind of leader are you? Do you bore your staff or do you inspire them? Do you generate enthusiasm amongst your staff, or apathy? Does the future shine throughout the practice or is it dulled by business as usual? Is your staff on a mission or are they indifferent? Is your staff charged, revved up, on task? Do they show up early and leave late? Do they do everything they can to be at work, or do they do anything they can to get out of it?" In this article, Dr Marc Cooper from the Mastery Company investigates the role of a leader in the dental practice.
|
 |
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
Winston Churchill
If you're not producing results in your practice, why aren't you? I'm sure you have good reasons: difficulty finding and retaining good staff; bad location; the economy's gone sour; new competition moving into your neighborhood; hoodwinked into a lousy transition; Delta reimbursements suck; there are not enough new patients.
|
 |
Dental practice guru, Dr Marc Cooper, started his career as a periodontist, academic and researcher, and went on to become a practice management consultant and ultimately founded the Mastery Company. He welcomes dentists who have “strong core values, a driving intention to deliver quality care and an intense desire to be successful”. Dental Learning Hub asked him a few questions about his work, approach to life and thoughts on dentistry.
|
 |
Dr Markus Firla, dentist and quality management consultant, provides some insight into the current climate of dentistry in Germany and how it is set to change in the future.
|
.aspx?maxsidesize=50) |
Dental business coach, Chris Barrow, talks to Dental Learning Hub about the predictors and capabilities required for success in the dental practice.
|