Effective Communication With Your Dental Staff
Posted by Administrator at 5:17 PM on Aug 15, 2016
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One of the most important parts of creating a successful and enjoyable dental practice is having good communication between staff and dentist. In fact, the main employee complaint is poor communication! When a lack of communication exists in any type of workplace setting you can expect high turnover rates, frequent errors, and frustration abounding!
How To Develop Communication Skills With Your Staff
As an owner dentist, the first thing you need to do is sit down with your staff and ask them for input. Ask them to be candid about your communication skills and where you can use some work.
Below are a few key areas to improve upon when working on communication skills:
Openness
This means making yourself more approachable and easy to talk to. Institute an open door policy and encourage your employees to come to you with anything they need. Share personal stories or discuss hobbies and interests to allow your employees to better relate to you.
Supportiveness
Be an understanding boss instead of a taskmaster. Praise your employees when they do their jobs well. If your employees constantly feel criticized, they’ll be less likely to come to you with problems or discussions.
Empathy
It’s so important as a boss to have the ability to put yourself in others’ shoes. This will help you to better understand your employees and their mind-set and rationale.
Listening
Listening is perhaps the most important part of effective communication. If you can’t truly listen to your employees, you can’t expect them to truly listen to you. We spend 30% of our time speaking and over 45% of our time listening! If you can’t master this skill, your communication skills will suffer.
Positivity
If you’re constantly a grouch, your employees will feel intimidated by you and much less likely to want to communicate with you. Keep a positive attitude and let your employees know how much you appreciate their hard work for your practice!
When you improve the communications skills in your dental practice, you’ll see less turnover, happier employees and a more organized and harmonious practice!
Please contact Dental Bookkeeping for any of your dental bookkeeping needs! And don’t forget to check our website often for more tips on how to improve your dental practice!