One of things I learned from and most admire about my partner Jack Bayramyan is his ability to connect with people. This is a very important quality in a dental practice owner and, really, any entrepreneur. Being comfortable around people, being comfortable speaking with most anyone, these abilities help create instant connection and really do half the “selling” in your business.
The Importance of Social Capital in Your Dental Practice
Social capital is the positive product of human interaction. It is the cohesion that allows the people within an organization to function together as a whole through trust, and shared identity, norms and values. When a leader invests her or his time in building social capital within their organization that demonstrates an innate understanding of what the human condition needs to flourish, thrive and grow.
Taking seriously your responsibilities as a leader involves putting time and effort into understanding different leadership styles and which fit your personality best, studying your team’s dynamics and being open to feedback around your leadership. When you have mastered the essential leadership qualities you can begin to craft a team that will be with you for the long haul and fight for your vision as hard as you do.
When you have a leader that innately understands those necessities and builds them into the framework of team structures, that is a leader who understands how to grow a successful business. You cannot grow or expand or scale an operation without team buy-in. To gain team buy-in, you can operate in one of two ways. You can intimidate everyone and rule through fear, bullying and belittlement; or you can lead with integrity, compassion and discipline of message. Of course, there are all kinds of leadership styles, but they mostly fall into one of those two categories, generally speaking.
Dental Practice Partnership – Making a Lasting Choice
Before Jack and I made it official, I took a tour of his organization, a chance to “kick the tires” so to speak. We visited one of his practices and the first thing he did wasn’t tell me the revenue of that particular location, or how the systems or operations worked on a daily basis. No. The first thing Jack did was introduce me to all his staff and share with me a little bit about each individual.
At the time, Jack owned 6 locations in Southern California. And he knew the names and backgrounds of every single person that worked for him. That impressed me more than their profit margins, their EBITDA, their monthly overhead or yearly returns. And by the end of that field trip, I knew I had found the person I wanted to partner with. I knew that if this person took team building, social capital and leadership investment, that seriously this would be a person who understood the power all of that had in building an operation to scale.
The Power of Partnership – Part 4
Using Team Cohesion to Grow Your Dental Practice
Growing and scaling your organization is an immense undertaking and you can’t take it on alone. Even if you don’t decide to enter into a partnership, you need to invest in your teams. You need to understand human psychology and what makes people get up out of bed in the morning. You need to understand what will make people fight for your vision every single day. There is a wonderful quote by Theodore Roosevelt,
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
You can hire people who will show up and do their job, no problem. But being a leader means knowing what it takes to inspire people to fight for your vision.
Are you interested in scaling your dental practice? OPS might be the right partner for you. We can assist in helping you scale your practice, but more importantly, we lend you our leadership to help you build robust teams that can take on the challenge of building your vision. Don’t know what your vision is or what you are capable of yet? Take our assessment below to find out where your practice is in real time and what you want on both a professional and personal level. We’d love to speak with you and find out what you want from and for your dental practice.
We believe the future of dentistry belongs with dentists.