Tuesday Tip from Pride Institute: Strategic performance – Staying on target!

By Wayne D. Pernell, PhD, Director of Organization Development and Senior Consultant

In most of my consulting calls these days, I push my clients, just like I will push you, dear reader, to notice that we are more than halfway through 2013. In a few months, most people I know will be full of fire for starting the New Year right, and they will have great intentions of getting things, whatever those things are, going.

So, we’re more than halfway through this year we’ve been given. The calendar didn’t wait! In my efforts to focus my clients so they can become the high performers I know that they can be, we go back to a basic — planning.

What did you dare to wish for?

What did you put into place as specific action steps with deadlines to make your wish become a reality? Clients of Pride Institute build an annual plan. That means that together we look ahead and create a blueprint for likely expenses. We then look at what is necessary in terms of production to meet those expenses. While doing this, we establish a path with a finish line.

That’s strategy.

RELATED:The 7 deadly sins of a dental staff performance shortfall

But it can’t end there. Tactics must follow strategy.

Specific, step-by-step means in order to attain the desired goals need to be in place. The entire team needs to know what the goals are, what the strategy is to achieve each goal, and what role each person plays in the strategy. So, dear reader and dear leader (because you’re both), what are you doing to ensure clear and authentic communication? That will be the topic of another Tuesday Tip from me. For now, take inventory. Stop planning to plan and take seven minutes right now to break down the big stuff into bite-sized chunks.

RELATED:The secret rules of sharing numbers with your dental team members

Now, get out a notepad:
• Make your list of goals you want to accomplish this year and thinking toward 2014?
• Pick the top three. (You only get to focus on three at a time or your focus will be so diluted that you won’t be able to focus on any.)
• For each goal, create the steps that are necessary to achieve it.
• Include knowledge, skills, or other resources you need to obtain along the way. As an example, I’m adding CEREC to my practice, so my needs include time for training, metrics to track ROI, modifying the schedule to accommodate for a learning curve, building flexibility in the schedule, and more.

The entire team should be involved because the entire team is affected, but they’re only involved if you create that involvement. That is at the core of high performance.

- Know where you’re heading
- Know what steps you need to take to get there
- Know who is involved
- Involve them
- Measure your progress
- Tweak to make things better
- Repeat

Tuesday Tips from Pride Institute are provided weekly on the Pride Institute Facebook page as well as in this column in DentistryIQ. To ensure you don’t miss any of Pride Institute’s proven methods to take your practice to the next level, visit www.prideinstitute.com, and like them on Facebook!