Lisa Mergens

Your Employee is Underperforming- What Do You Do?

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Ahhh… the life of the dentist. You’ve seen it coming for a while but rather than meet it squarely head on at first notice, you bury your head and hope it self-corrects: your A-player is slipping. When you extended an offer of employment, you were ecstatic at the realization that this time, finally, someone was joining your team that “got it”, and had the personality and experience you really needed to make the practice run at a top level. After the initial learning curve, it was smooth sailing and you found yourselves settled into your daily routines. Fast forward a …

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Moving Through the Cog’s: 5 Steps to Bring Your Dental Team to Complete Cohesion

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There was a model developed by a manager at Proctor and Gamble, George Charrier, called Cog’s Ladder. He studied and noted 5 stages a team must progress through before reaching complete pride and cohesion. While individuals may move through the rungs of the ladder at different paces, in an effort to create a shared sense of pride and camaraderie in work and work product, it falls to the leader to help them along to reach the ultimate level- Esprit de Corps. In a field such as dentistry, little is as important as Esprit de Corps since it also affects patient …

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Let’s Talk Dental Case Acceptance… Treatment Presentation Just Got Easier

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You know the scene all too well: a new patient presents, you do a comprehensive exam, form a treatment plan (and options), and upon presentation to the patient, who you were sure would accept it, instead find that they leave without so much as booking an appointment or a reason WHY they had not committed to move forward. Now, for some of you, it’s a numbers game. If you have enough of these prospective patients coming through your door, chances are you will hit on enough to keep in business. That model, however, is flawed in a myriad of ways: …

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Dentistry and Leadership: Becoming a Better Leader by Keeping a Beginner’s Mind

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There is a word used in Zen Buddhism called “Shoshin” which translates to “beginner’s mind”. I first ran across this concept while studying the development and coaching of emergent leaders. Intrigued, I took a deeper dive into the concept to see if it was, indeed, applicable to dentistry and leadership. Shoshin requires that one approach even advanced study with openness, eagerness and a lack of preconceptions. Very early in my dental hygiene education, a wise professor pointed out how the word “practice” is associated with healthcare: we practice dental hygiene, medical doctors practice medicine, a dentist practices dentistry, and so …

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Dentists, Create A Manifesto: Leaders Make It Personal First

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We know how important it is to have a vision for your business. I’ve spent a lot of time explaining to dentists around the Nation that in order to have a clear vision, you need to step into the future and experience it. Live in the world where your vision is realized by looking around: what does your practice look like? How many operatories? Staff? Technology? Drive down the street: what kind of car are you driving and what do your surroundings look like? What personal activities are you enjoying? You understand my point in that in order to achieve …

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Feeling Overwhelmed?

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There is a law known to many as Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.  You’ve all experienced it- had a paper due at the end of the term but knocked it out the week before; needed to gather documents for your mortgage closing but were scrambling a few days before to compile them…the examples are plentiful. Whether you were caught up in other endeavors or frozen because you didn’t know where to begin, you are rewarded at the end by pulling off the seemingly impossible:  you got it done, just in time. …

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Are You Addicted to Being Right? 5 Reasons Leaders Should Avoid Succumbing To This Habit

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Being Right. It’s a human instinct, and one many fall prey to: feeding our need for confirmation bias, it momentarily floods our brains with a myriad of chemicals that make us feel good- in the moment- such as dopamine and adrenaline. We’ve all seen it in action: from kids on the playground to political debates, and as any athlete will tell you, that rush of adrenaline becomes addictive, causing us to chase it over and over again. It creates an immense sense of power, invincibility and pleasure, yet unless a person is a true narcissist, the let down can be …

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Dentists: What You Need To Know About Managing Expectations

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This weekend, I had the dual pleasure of spending personal time with, as well as taking a course given by, Paul Goodman, DMD. For those of you who are familiar with Paul, for many, he has taken on the moniker of Dr. Nacho. His Facebook group, Dental Nachos, is chock- full of dentists and dental team members from around the world who share, uplift and have some fun along the way. Back in October, I was a guest on the Dental Amigos podcast he hosts with Robert Montgomery, Esquire, an attorney who specializes in practice transitions. (Listen to the podcast …

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Dental Employee Contracts: Is There Something We are Missing?

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The Cleveland Clinic made some radical changes in how they employed people, including the doctors: No longer working in departments but for “institutes” within its system, they are ALL on yearly renewable contracts. The mission of the Clinic is simple: patients first, always. Dental Offices Have Something to Learn So, what was the reasoning behind this model? Well, a lot. One factor though, was taking the work everyone does away from the “me” or “department” mindset and instead turning it into the “we” or “team” model. Patient care is at its center: everyone working towards that common goal, from orderlies …

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