Coaching, 1,2,3

 

 

These are the stages of coaching expect to see them in each session and throughout your coaching programme

 

Awareness                   Discover more about yourself, your strengths, beliefs, identity, where you want to go and why. Gain clarity on your goals, culture, mission, and purpose.

Growth                        Implement of new insights, understandings, and approaches, you can develop personally and professionally to reach your goals and dreams.

Reflection                     Consolidation and integration of the growth phase enables you to evaluate your progress, plan your future steps, ensuring that you make time to celebrate and plan your next steps.

If you would like to start creating awareness, use our practice and personal balance wheels.

 

To book a FREE CALL FRIDAY or BESPOKE COACHING SESSION use the BOOK NOW button at www.theinstituteofdentalbusiness.co.uk

 

Balance Wheels

This exercise is about the balance in your life and practice. For each segment, ask yourself, “How satisfied am I in this area of my life right now?”   The centre of each segment represents 0 and the outer edge 10 give each segment a number from zero to ten and indicating that by creating a new outer edge as shown in the Example below

 

Examples the range of evaluations you may choose to use.

 

0              Failure                                      Ignorant

1              Unacceptable                           Beginner                      

2              Incompetent                             Novices

3              Ineffective                                Apprentice

4              Inadequate                               Probationer

5              Complacent                             Intern

6              Satisfactory                               Experienced

7              Competent                              Practiced

8              Commendable                          Proficient

9              High quality                              Specialist

10           Excellent                                  Master

 

 

Notice two distinctions in the questions. 

 

“How satisfied am I…” This is a subjective assessment.  It is not about how your family or colleagues or neighbours see you; it is not about success; it is about personal satisfaction.  Also notice “right now”.  This wheel is a snapshot.  Scores will change weekly, daily – even hourly as circumstances change.  Do not look for ultimate truth; just check in with how you feel in this moment.

Dental Practice  Balance Wheel

Life Balance Wheel

 

• If the new perimeter of the circles represents your experience, how accurate is the representation?

•  How bumpy is the ride?

• Where would you like to start?

 

At the institute of dental business we know you want to be a successful dentist.

In order to do that you need a personalised step by step plan. The problem is you are too busy which makes you feel overwhelmed.

 

We believe you have worked hard and deserve to reap the rewards.

 

I understand the challenges you are experiencing, as a dentist I have been there too, and over the last 15 years we have worked with hundreds of dentists world-wide, supporting them in improving their practices and career.

 

Here is how we do it

CALL

Let’s talk. Tell me what your challenges are, and we’ll work out a clear plan 

to make dentistry work for you.

TRANSFORM

   Get the support you need to overcome your challenges. We’ll get to the core 

of the issues so together we can resolve them.

SMILE

        Enjoy dentistry again, feeling back in control, with a clear vision and confidence

for your future.

 

So, book a call with Jane, use the BOOK NOW Button at www.theinstituteofdentalbusiness.co.uk

In the meantime, you can  create more awareness by evaluating your practice using our Brilliant Practice Evaluation (BPE) tool

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Brilliant-Practice-Evaluation-BPE

 

Now you can stop stressing and instead become the dentist everyone loves to recommend.

 

 

I have recently had several conversations with dentists worried about their clinical notes some of them are staying many hours after surgery to write their notes, causing mental stress and anguish not to mention the damage it causes to family relationships and physical heath.

Your notes need to be CLEAR

CLEAR NOTES

C = Contemporaneous

L = Legible

E =Easy to understand

A = Accurate

R = Respectful

Contemporaneous,

This means occurring at the same time. For many young dentists this they find the most difficult because of time pressures. It is essential that your notes are written at the same time as the patient’s appointment, not at the end of the day. For an unbreakable habit that your next patient is not brought in until you have fully written the notes.

Using templates can be useful and they must be edited for each patient

Your nurse is also vital. Spend time with them designing your consultations, what you want them to writ, as you are speaking with the patient.

Don’t rely on your memory. If it is easier to use an ipad or pen and paper to record notes, as you are sitting along side your patient, please do. Never turn you back to a patient or sit at a computer terminal behind them, our research show that your patient will divulge less information when you do.

If you feel you don’t have enough time in your consultations do some self-reflection, get a mentor / coach to come and spend time with you in the surgery, together come up with new solutions and never compromise your standards.

Legible

This is easier now most of us use computers. Remember to write in English if you are practicing in UK and not an overseas native tongue.

Easy to understand,

At some point someone else may read your notes and they need to make sense.

Whilst you don’t need to use full sentences and paragraphs, they do need to make sense.

If you are using abbreviations, make sure they are commonly used, and you have a glossary of meanings to refer to.

Accurate.

It goes without saying that your notes need to be a true reflection of a clinical situation, or conversation. Whilst it is not encouraged for clinicians to record consultations, remember your patients probably are.

A picture paints a thousand words, so although hey use a lot of computer memory, photos are a really useful adjunct to your notes.

Spending time training your nurse, so you have shared understanding about what should be recorded is essential. Your nurse can be recording conversations in the notes, making notes of exact phases used.

Respectful

Because someone else may read your notes in the future, please use respectful language. Your patient, may have used foul language, been a bully, or a racist record that accurately and never use defamatory language in your notes, keep them fact based free of emotive opinion or insult.

If you would like to discuss anything about CLEAR note taking, you can book a FREE CALL FRIDAY or TASTER coaching session at www.theinstituteofdentalbusiness.co.uk

What is your off switch?

 

What is your off switch?

Do you use it? 

 

 During the pandemic, many dentists have been reporting anxiety, loneliness, panic, wanting to leave, or just give up.

 

I have been working as a therapeutic coach for over 15 years and not surprisingly extremely busy since March 2020.   Through the hundreds of conversations, I have noticed several patterns of behaviour and thought in the people who are struggling.

Responding to the pandemic as a threat with either a freeze, flight or fight response.

Distorting reality using one of the following five disempowering strategies.

Catastrophising – making every mole hill into a mountain. In their self-talk using words like, always, never, every-time.

Me, Me, Me – making everything your fault and your responsibility.

Them, Them, Them Interpretation every situation as the fault or the responsibility of someone else, eliminating any possible control, influence or power for themselves.

Mind reading. Deciding what is or isn’t in the thoughts of someone else without any evidence to support it. invariably, the manifested thoughts are negative, and unsupportive.

Helpless, Hopeless, Worthless. Using internal self-talk that results in the feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, or worthlessness.

 

And yet many people are surviving and event thriving physically, psychologically, emotionally, even financially, in the pandemic.

I have noticed in conversations with people who are doing well psychologically since March there are patterns in how they are thinking, believing and behaving.

Common patterns of those who are thriving include,

o   Control / influence. – noticing where they have control and influence and where they don’t and focus on where they do.

o   Forward focused and optimistic

o   Physically active

o   Spend time outside.

o   Aware – notice things in their environment, their thoughts, their feelings, changes in others.

o   Have a sense of purpose.

o   Use gratitude, meditation, or prayer.

o   Creative writing or journaling

o   Spend little time looking at a screen.

o   Have a creative hobby.

 

In the past few week, the importance of having a creative hobby is what has really stood out for me as an important tool for mental well being. I have noticed how few people have either never had or have given up hobbies that don’t rely on a screen. It seems, for many, that hobbies have been squeezed out, given up, cast aside during university, not to be picked up again. Those that have retained their hobbies, re-engaged with them, or found new ones, them tell me how valuable their hobbies are, giving them time to turn off, and recharge. For some they have found lockdown an opportunity to try new skills, maybe out of boredom, to discover pleasure and a sense of achievement.

 

If you are struggling with boredom, anxiety, insomnia, especially in the dark evenings of lockdown, I would invite you to, turn off the screen, experiment and try a creative hobby. Popular hobbies seem to include;

• baking,
• knitting,
• crocheting,
• dress making and other needlecrafts,
• painting, including painting by numbers,
• card making,
• playing a musical instrument
• creative writing and journaling
• jigsaws

You may think the list of hobbies sounds old fashioned, boring, or uncool, please don’t knock it until you have tried it, they seem to be a very common strategies for those people who are coping well.

 

What are your hobbies how have they helped you in the pandemic?

If you don’t have a hobby, what interests you and what will you take up?

 

Please share your thoughts and your pictures.

 

 

Stay safe, Stay healthy, Stay happy

 

We work with aspirational, Dentists who are stressed, having difficulties, want to take their practice to the next level. 

We create a personalised step by step programme so that you can have the career, the practice, the life you have always wanted.

Conventional to exceptional

You have worked hard now reap the rewards.

Become the dentist everyone loves to recommend.

 

 

Are your exam fees too low?

 

Have you set your exam fees too low that you can’t cover your costs?

 

Over the last couple of months, I have had lots of conversations with associates and principals who are concerned that they have not been covering their costs.

Covid has made the situation very difficult, and in most cases it has served to highlight pre-existing problems.

 

One of the most common insights clients have had, during our discussions, is that their exam fees are too low.

 Let’s describe a very common scenario.

 Practice  A is a long established, stable practice with a significant proportion of well-maintained patients, who require little treatment beyond examinations and hygiene.  The associates have been told they must achieve an hourly rate of £240 / hour and the exam fee is set at £30, and are scheduled for 20 minutes. The associates are prevented from making any variations to time or costings of examinations. 

Now the maths.

In one hour, 3 exams can be completed generating an hourly rate of £90, with surgery sunnig costs of £240 / hour, thats a loss of £150 per hour: £50 per examination.

In a patient population where each patient attending for an examination  requires treatment, it may possible to recoup the losses by increasing the  treatment fees to cover the £50 loss per exam.

In a well-maintained patient base, where very little treatment is indicated, how do you propose to cover your losses?

 Set the exam fee  correctly, Practice A must have an examination fee of £80 to achieve their hourly rate.

 “My patients won’t pay that!!!” I hear you cry. In my experience , with practices all over the country in wealthy and deprived areas, is yes, they definitely will,  provided everyone in the team knows and communicates the value of the examination. As soon as you focus on value not cost, everything changes.  To achieve this effectively you may wish your team to join us at The Ultimate Examination workshop, or Patient Centred -BEST CHOICES.

Others of you will say, the practice down the road is only charging £25.00 I can't compete. when your only distinguishing feature is cheaper than your competitiors it is a fast race to bankrupcy. 

Do you really want to join in?

If others haven't done thier calculations, and are plucking numbers from the air, going broke through ignorance, or are very cheap because they are cutting corners, do you want to be the same or different?

Be like Stella Artois - Reassuringly expensive

 

Questions I would like you to answer today.

 

What is your hourly rate?

What is your exam fee?

How long are your exams?

What hourly rate are you achieving on your exams?

What should your exam fee be?

Where is the value, how do we communicate it?

How are you communicating this information with everyone?

Should I just move on to a membership / maintenance plan that is easier isn't it??

 Great idea.

What long-term impact will it have on your practice if you set up your plan based on the wrong hygiene and exam  fees that prevent you from covering your hourly rate?

I actively encourage you to move on to a payment plan, only after you have set your hourly rates, exam and hygiene fees correctly.

 

Need help setting fees?

 

I work with aspirational, Dentists and Practice  Managers who are stressed, having financial difficulties, who want to make their practice profitable.

 

We create a personalised step by step programme so that you can have the career, the practice, the life you have always wanted.

 

You have worked hard now reap the rewards.

 

Become the dentist everyone loves to recommend.

 

• Book a 45-minute FREE CALL FRIDAY 1-2-1  coaching session today

Or

• Book a  free 30-minute Discovery call and find out  how we can help you and your practice. 07989 757 884 call today

 

The quest to save money can be costly

 

The quest to save money can be costly

 

I have recently started coaching a dentist in wales who bought their practice 2 years ago.

As they transitioned from an associate to a principal the figures were overwhelming.

Against sound advice, they cut costs as much as possible, refused to invest in a specialist dental accountant, used a high street solicitor and chose not to work with an experienced Dental Business Coach and trainer.

 

Two years on, he contacted me in a panic, he realised that the in-house capitation plan was flawed, there was significant supervised neglect, he had been paying his associates and hygienists incorrectly and he needed help. The first analysis showed that he had been losing at least 5k a month on how the plan was being operated, at over £120,000 over the last two years. By his own admission, the young principal thinks his losses are probably much larger because he had not been looking at the numbers.

 

If this dentist had paid for professional advice these errors would have been predicted, prevented, the practice would have been profitable.

 

Unfortunately, having ignored the situation, what would have been simple has become more complex, because other threads from the practice are intertwined.

 

By his own admission, the dentist told me that he didn’t know what he was doing, running a practice was much more difficult than he thought and rather than ask for help, he put his head down and worked harder. He told me that his quest to save money was a costly mistake.

Over a couple of coaching calls we have redesigned the membership plan, got the team on board and are looking at the remuneration packages so they are fair and equitable. “The coaching and training I am doing with Jane is the best investment I have ever made, no one should ever become a principal without the support of a business coach. Since working with Jane I have saved myself so much, money, time, and stress. I can now sleep at night. Thank you  Jane for getting me out of my dark hole.”

 

Transitioning from an associate to a principal is in exciting adventure, where you are in control of your career, the care and treatment you provide. You get to choose your equipment, materials, and team. Being a principal is very different from being and associate and your blind spots can destroy your dream.

 

There are 4 stages to mastery

1.     Unconscious incompetence (UC-IC) – blind spots you don’t know what you don’t know.

2.     Conscious incompetence – (C-IC) You must become aware of what you don’t know. This can be scary admitting that you have knowledge, skills and attitude gaps. Unless you know what the 12-facets of a successful practice are you can’t master them. Conscious incompetence often occurs through a crisis, financial breakdown, staff leaving, patient complaints etc. Alternatively, working with an experienced specialist Dental Business Coach and Trainer, they can supportively and encouragingly shine a light on your blind spots.

3.     Conscious competence (C-C)– with training you learn what to do and how to do it. You will be able to answer questions such as why, what, how, what is. At this stage, your skills are growing require you to consciously think and implement. This stage of learning how to run a successful practice can feel slow and hard work and some get frustrated and disillusioned. It is essential you learn what you need to learn, practice, home and embed your new skills as a practice owner.

4.     Unconscious competence  (UC-C)– Before long you will find what was previously impossible or difficult as effortless. You have built the structure, systems, processes, physical and mental muscle memory. You will have structured your days and your mindset so that success is inevitable. Your coach keeps you on track and enables you to hone your skills.

 

Before you get complacent and undermine all your great efforts, the next step if to become aware of your residual blind spot(s) and start the process again.

 

Being principal of a successful practice is not a destination, it is a continuous journey.

Invest your time, and money wisely.

 

In the words of Benjamin Franklin

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”

  

If you would like to know more about how we can assist you in making you and your practice more successfulful, saving you time, money and stress e mail Jane@IODB.co.uk

Balance Wheel – Dental Practice

 

This exercise is about the balance in your practice. For each segment, ask yourself, “How satisfied am I in this area of my practice right now?”   The centre of each segment represents 0 and the outer edge 10 give each segment a number from zero to ten and indicating that by creating a new outer.

 

 

0              Failure                                     Ignorant

1              Unacceptable                          Beginner                     

2              Incompetent                            Novices

3              Ineffective                               Apprentice

4              Inadequate                              Probationer

5              Complacent                            Intern

6              Satisfactory                              Experienced

7              Competent                              Practiced

8              Commendable                        Proficient

9              High quality                             Specialist

10           Excellent                                 Master

 

Notice two distinctions in the questions.

“How satisfied am I…” This is a subjective assessment.  It is not about how your family colleagues or friends see you; it is not about success; it is about personal satisfaction.

 

Also notice “right now”.  This wheel is a snapshot.  Scores will change weekly, daily – even hourly as circumstances change.  Do not look for ultimate truth; just check in with how you feel in this moment

Before you start bonding you need to bond

 Before you start bonding you need to bond

 

Adhesive dentistry and minimally invasive techniques have changed the way we do dentistry.

35 years ago, when I was a dental student the only composite that we had was occlusion, and it really did not look that great, and didn’t bond that well either.

Minimally invasive techniques combined with modern day composites look incredible, they have the potential to be practice builders, little if any drilling, fabulous aesthetics, and function restored in one visit what is there not for your patients to love?

Before you get a chance to do modern day bonding you will need to do old fashioned bonding to build rapport with your patients. Experience shows that until your patients know you, like you, and trust you, they are unlikely to invest their precious time or money with you.

The great news is that old fashioned bonding, or as we call it rapport takes very little time it can be done using a video platform, over the telephone as well as face to face. In the current way of working you can create deep trust and rapport with your patients irrespective of the PPE or social distancing.

 

Our goal in building patient relationships is rapport, a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well.

When you have this, you will understand your patients and they will understand you. Other benefits of establishing rapport, include less stress, less conflict, fewer complaints, patients experience less discomfort or post op problems, happier patients, treatment is easier to deliver.

Think about it for a moment, If you are in an area where there are people gathered, you intuitively know who gets on and who does not, don’t you? What is it that you are unconsciously aware of to be so accurate? The psychologists have demonstrated that it is a result of how closely with match another person. Those people that get along well, walk in step, are in harmony and see things from the same viewpoint, that is people are really connected and bonded, naturally become an echo or mirror of one another.

Accepted wisdom is that 55% of our communication is through body language, gestures, and posture, 38% is through vocal tonality, volume, rhythm, harmony and 7% the words we use.

If we assume that this is true, what is our most powerful modality of communication?

That is correct, your body language.

 

It therefore follows, when we decide that we want to establish rapport, we actively choose to do what people who get along do naturally, we become as much like our patients as possible, because people like people like them.

I am going to invite you to match and mirror as closely as possible

1)   Body language including

      i.        Head position

     ii.        Part-body postures

    iii.        Half-body postures

    iv.        Limb position and movement

     v.        Hand position and movement

    vi.        Gestures

  vii.        Facial expressions

 viii.        Eye movements, eye contact, blink rates

   ix.        Habits and ticks

    x.        Energy

   xi.        Breathing, location, rate                                                                                                        

2)   Non-verbal vocal qualities: including

      i.        Speed of speech

     ii.        Volume

    iii.        Timbre

    iv.        Tempo                                                                                                                                                                

3)   Verbal qualities

      i.        Words

     ii.        Verbal syntax

    iii.        Representational systems

    iv.        Meta programmes

What we discover in our workshops that when delegates match one another more closely, they become more engaged, more interested, remember the conversation, feel more connected and listened to. What impact would it have on your patient relationships if your patients felt that way too?

Your patients are unlikely to remember what you do, they are unlikely to remember what you say and they will always remember how you made them feel.

 

Mirroring has been tested and proved to be effective in lab research and please don’t believe what I say, try it out for yourself, match and mirror people and notice what happens to your connection, depth of communication and trust as a result.

Here are some examples of people matching, do you think it is natural or active, with the intent to build rapport? Does it matter? does the ends justify the means?

Examples of mis matching that breaks rapport and that you can sense that lack of rapport, lack of engagement, lack of trus, and even dislike.

t

By way of a comparison

Notice the smiles with the matching and the frowns with the mis matching.

What do you want for your patients, team, family and friends?

Let me know what happens when you experiement with bonding techniques.

Jane@IODB.co.uk