Having an Excellent Dental Team
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What makes a good team versus a bad team? At a recent training with over 30 consultants from many industries and 3 different countries, we brainstormed this question. Here are the results for you and your team to discuss. You can take the Good Team list, (substitute “practice” for “company”), and ask each team member to grade your own team on each item. If they give a score of less that a 10 on a 1-10 scale, than ask them to offer one or two actions that the team can take to move the team up to a score of 10. Taking action on the ideas is the way to move your team up a level or two.
Good Team Traits
• The team supports the vision and values of the company.
• There is high trust among team members.
• The team works together in alignment with the company purpose and goals.
• The company leader’s vision is clearly stated and understood.
• There are systems to follow with a training and feedback procedure to keep performance at a clear standard.
• Team members have well defined roles and are cross-trained to support each other during peak times, vacations and sick days.
• There is cooperation and support among the team.
• Team members are productive.
• Team members see the big picture and stay out of the brambles of gossip.
• Team members and managers have courageous feedback conversations.
• The team has fun.
• Team members want to keep abreast of industry, technology and procedure advances.
• The team is empowered and energized.
• Leaders and managers practice what they preach.
• Team members, managers and leaders share a passion for the work they do.
• Team members collaborate to solve problems and to reach goals and do not compete with each other.
Our consultants’ brainstorming generated another list which contains traits that tear a team down and keep it from performing at top levels. Here is the list of Bad Team traits. Again, change “company” to “practice” and let your team see if anything on the list is dragging the team down. Find a way to change the team’s negative traits to infuse your team with more energy and higher performance.
Bad Team Traits
• Toxic team members are not dismissed, put on probation or held accountable.
• Skill proficiency is glorified over building relationships with team members and customers.
• Managers use FEAR tactics.
• Managers micromanage.
• Conflict is avoided so problems go underground and cause additional problems.
• There is indirect communication, rather than courageous and honest conversations.
• Team members play “gotcha” looking for mistakes made by others and go to “the boss” to tattle and “look good.”
• Team members blame others for the lack of success or mistakes; no one admits and takes responsibility for mistakes.
• Team members gossip about the managers, leadership, each other and customers.
• Team members compete with each other for management’s attention and favors.
• Favoritism is shown by management.
• There is a lack of accountability.
• Team meetings are time-wasters or are monologues.
• The company works top down without input or feedback from the frontline.
There-you now have two excellent lists to give you and your team a Check-Up. Management experts tell us that excellent team work results in approximately 20% higher profitability for companies. The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team® is the class I attended along with a certification for all of the updated Everything DiSC® products including Workplace, Management, and Leadership Profiles. Call me 800.242.7648 or email me if you would like to discuss bringing this training to your practice.
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