You want to show appreciation to your team. So you grab a generic gift card, sign up for that sock-of-the-month club, or maybe splurge on a pizza party. But here’s the problem: you’re guessing. Your hygienist might hate pizza. Your assistant might already have 47 Starbucks cards she hasn’t used. Your front desk coordinator might be rolling her eyes at another pair of novelty socks.
A strong practice culture is crucial to a successful practice, but there are seven habits that threaten to destroy it. These habits won’t collapse it overnight, but rather erode it slowly by weakening trust, communication, and accountability. In fact, you may not even realize you’re being silently sabotaged!
Remember Dr. Evil in Austin Powers, sitting in his swivel chair with his pinky raised, casually dropping his signature line: "How about no?" He had it figured out. No justification. No over- explaining. Just a clean, unapologetic no. Meanwhile, you’re drowning in yeses: • Yes to the last-minute emergency add-on • Yes to covering another shift • Yes to the CE course you don’t need • Yes to everything except the one thing that actually matters—your sanity.
Your Production Per Day is fairly simple: it’s the total dollar value of treatment completed and posted in a single day. You can measure it for the entire office or for specific providers, and it’s incredibly useful.
You know the type. The clipboard-carrying, motivational-quote-posting, trying too hard to be “punny” boss. You worked for one once. Maybe you worked for several. You swore you’d never become that person. Then you opened your own practice.
Your Core Values are so much more than words — they’re the heartbeat of your culture. They shape every aspect of your practice, and when you keep them alive, they become a powerful filter for hiring, accountability, and team alignment. Kirk says it all the time, and it’s so true: “All roads lead back to Core
It’s 2:30pm, and you just watched your hygienist snap at a patient over something minor. You know exactly what happened—she skipped lunch, and now she’s running on caffeine and frustration. You need to address this, but should you pull her aside right now while she’s clearly hangry? Absolutely not.
Thinking better about your future is key to building a Better Practice and a Better Life, and tracking your Scheduled Production will help you accomplish it. This is your total dollar amount of treatment scheduled to be completed for a specific period of time. It can be for a specific day, week, or month, but in
You just spent an hour washing and waxing your car. It’s gleaming in the driveway, and you’re admiring your work when a seagull swoops down out of nowhere and leaves a fresh white mess right on your hood. You’re left standing there wondering what just happened, holding a dirty rag and dealing with the chaos. Now picture your Monday morning team huddle. You burst through the door, fired up about a new patient experience idea you heard at a conference. You spend five minutes explaining your vision, tell everyone “we’re starting this next week,” then rush off to your first appointment.
Dentistry is an amazing profession, but that also means that many other people want to obtain the life that it offers. As a result, the market is crowded, so it’s more important than ever to stand out above the rest. Many choose flashy gimmicks, but the truth is you don’t need more ads or billboards to
