Episode : #888: Insider Scoop on What Office Managers Do

Podcast Description

Rereleasing one of DAT’s most popular episodes!

What do office managers even do? Why is it important to have an awesome OM? Kiera is joined by Brit and the two are talking the best parts of having an office manager — and a good one at that. The two hit on the following topics:

• The one trait you need to be a successful OM

• Why your OM needs to be a numbers person

• How to be fair and respected as an OM

• What the ideal OM/doctor relationship looks like

• Plus a ton more!

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:05.806)

Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I’m your host, Kiera Dent, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member’s perspective, because let’s face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I’ve been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don’t just understand you, we are you.

Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A -Teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team Podcast.

The Dental A Team (00:51.352)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and I’ve got Brittany. It’s always weird to call her Brittany because in real life I call her Britt all the time. But Brittany Stone is one of our incredible consultants. If you don’t know her, you must get to know her. Britt is all things goodness. She’s great at listening. She’s great at consulting. She’s great at spotting problems. She’s great at coaching people up. If you haven’t heard her podcast in the past, go listen to them. They are fan -freaking -tastic. So I’m excited to podcast with her today. Britt, how are you today?

I’m doing good. It’s a rainy day in Arizona, which for us is a treat. So I’m enjoying it. That is a unicorn of a day for you in Arizona. remember those days. And people just stop driving. They don’t go anywhere. I remember people didn’t even want to go to the movies when it rained. And I was like, what? It’s just raining. I know. They don’t like to get wet. And they’re like, this is out of the ordinary. It throws them off. They don’t know what to do.

It does. And I will say, I did not believe that Arizona had monsoons. I was like, you guys are ridiculous. No, they have monsoons because the earth does not accept any water. It’s the desert. like hands up in the air. No way Jose not taking this. And gosh, like you can flood those streets real fast. It’s crazy. And Arizona raindrops are different than I also lived on the East Coast in Northern Virginia. That’s like usually like a misty rain and Arizona raindrops are rather large also. So you will get

real stoked real fast. So fast. can calm down. also didn’t know about a Haboob. I thought somebody literally made that term up. I was like, what did you just say? Like those massive dust storms, I’ve been caught in them and you cannot see a thing when you’re in one of those. So that’s when people really shouldn’t drive. I would agree. The Haboob warnings. was like, what? That when you take serious rain, you can still do it. It’s fine. But if a Haboob is coming, stay out the road. It’s just such a weird phrase. It’s funny to me.

But with that said, Britt and I wanted to just pop on and kind of do a riff today on like what a true office manager should do and the importance of hiring an incredible office manager because we gosh, we interview a lot of people for consulting. I put this out there because we are, we are always hiring consultants. So if you know of somebody, and you are a true office manager, you’ve been there, done that, know how to run it. We’ll kind of give you guys a quick overview. we’d love to work with you. We do not hire ever.

The Dental A Team (03:10.805)

an office manager from a practice we’ve worked with no ifs, ands or buts period. Cause then like it’s weird. One, we have a weird reputation and two, who wants to hire us? Nobody. It’s just weird. We don’t do that. So with that said, but if you know of anybody who’s an amazing office manager, then they’re done that that’s we’re always hiring. So please email us [email protected]. we do train people to become consultants. had never consulted prior to working with us, but she had all the skills and all the tools.

necessary to be an incredible consultant. Same thing with Tiffanie, same thing with Dana. And so with that, we found through the interviewing process, there’s a lot of just weird shades of office management. Would you agree, Britt? I would agree. That’s the best way to say it. It’s one of those terms that’s like kind of a catchall sometimes. And unfortunately, then for some doctors, they’re like, well, do I really need an office manager? But I don’t really know what that person does or how valuable they can be. For sure.

And I think it’s also like, I was just talking, I think it was with Tiffany yesterday. And I said, honestly, if I had a business coach come into our company, Shelby’s amazing guys. I’m not going to lie to you. Shelby is a freaking rock star when it comes to operations. However, in that same vein, myself and Shelby have never ever, ever been operations managers in corporate America. I’ve been an office manager in a dental practice. I’ve been a regional manager in a dental practice so I can do dentistry like with my eyes closed, but corporate America, when we’re talking running a virtual company.

You have never have done that. So although I think that Shelby does amazing at what she does, I promise you, if I brought in a business coach, they’d probably look at our company and be like, Whoa, you guys need to put a few more systems into play. If you did this, this, and this, it’d probably be a lot easier. And Shelby and I would probably look at each other and giggle and high five and be like, well, sweet, now we know. Because we don’t know even what that looks like. And I think that that’s where so many doctors might think their office manager is like killer and amazing.

But it might be because you’ve never really worked with a true office manager that would literally like blow your mind. Same thing with office managers. You may never have even known what it should be like to be a true office manager or what things you should be doing. And I think that that’s sometimes unfair for office managers too, because like Britt said, you’re kind of thrown into the position, catch all be all. You now are office manager. Good luck. No training book out there for you. So here we go. So Britt, let’s kind of dive into like you went from hygienist, clinical hygiene.

The Dental A Team (05:30.955)

to office manager. So I feel like you really had a good learning curve and can really relate to this of like, what do office managers even do? Why is it important to have them, especially coming from a clinical side as well? For sure. And I think the biggest thing when it comes to office managers, because it is quite a catchall term, if I think about like, what’s the thing that you really need to be successful as an office manager? And I think

being a problem solver is probably like way up there on the list because ultimately I need to learn how pretty much everything runs. I need to understand even if I don’t know how to do dentistry, I need to kind of have an idea of what that doctor is doing so I can make sure things are running smoothly. And there’s no way anyone’s going to know all of that information from the get go.

So being able to really like gather information, problem solve, figure out what needs to be done, and then like systematize it so that things are getting done are huge. For sure. And I think it’s like to do it simply as well, because so many office managers might see the problem, but then they might not actually solve it or alternatively, they’re the solver for everything, which means the whole practice is rely on that one person. And then that person never gets anything done.

And it’s like always a bottleneck around that one office manager. So I agree with you, Britt. You’ve got to, as an office manager, be able to solve problems quickly and empower a team and know what even needs to be done. What system could you put into play? And it’s either you’ve been there, you worked with a lot of practices, you hire a coach, or it’s like the school of hard knocks trying to figure it out on your own and hashtag Shelby and I are in the school of hard knocks right now. it’s tricky. like

And we were looking, I literally have interviewed two different people for business coaches on operations just to help us out for the exact reason that we’re talking about this, because we’ve never done it. We don’t know. And so I love what you said, Britt. You’ve got to be a good problem solver. And I think building a plan that you can roll it out to the team. Shelby does a really great job of that. She’s really fantastic at like, hey, here’s the problem. I’m going to create a protocol, roll it out to the team. So it’s very simple and then hold them accountable to it as well.

The Dental A Team (07:48.513)

And your managers are often like your, your implementers, right? And that’s Shelby does really well with is like, all right, once we’ve got an idea, we’ve got a solution. Like how do we actually put it into practice and make sure it’s workable? Yeah. So I think it’s like around problem solving is what they should be doing. And doctors, this doesn’t mean you create the solutions for them and then they go implement. You can do it together, but oftentimes it should be, you can go, here’s the problem.

Managers should be able to like, thank you, fantastic, I’ll have an answer to you by Friday. And they’ve got a whole plan worked up of how they can solve it, who’s going to be responsible. Here’s the protocol and go and implement it from A to Z. Also think managers have to be really great communicators. And I would say fair and respected is a key, two key attributes of managers of being fair and being respected in the practice. So holding those accountability lines, holding your team to the standards and not playing favorites.

But really being able to see what every person should do and where, like what are the KPIs they should be held to and where is the gap in their skillset? And can that be coached up? Can that be trained? That way they can actually be operating at the highest level and they know what that level is so you can keep coaching them towards that. Mm -hmm, agreed. And I think along with that, it comes with KPIs and team members. You’re the ultimate, like you need to kind of have

eyes on everything. doesn’t mean you’re in everything, but you’ve got either a KPI, a measurement, check -ins, like you’ve got your touch points to be able to know what’s going on in the practice and be able to identify issues. And if you don’t know what a KPI is and you’re an office manager like I was, a KPI is a key performance indicator. And I’ve kind of coined it as like the vitals of the practice. So what’s actually going to move your practice forward in the most simple vital pieces. So for example,

You better know your AR. If you don’t know what AR is, AR is aging report. So how much money is sitting in unpaid either claims or patient balances? To me, that’s a vital KPI of your billing because if we don’t have strong collections, which is going to tell me about our AR, if we’re not sitting at about a 98 % collection rate, guess what? We are not going to be able to pay bills. So we need to absolutely watch that. It doesn’t mean the office manager has to be your biller. It just means office manager needs to have eyes over that.

The Dental A Team (10:11.885)

and be able to know what the standards are and then help the team achieve that on a consistent basis, rather being like some months were low, some months were high, having more of that constant feed and understanding how those KPI dials are turned for every position and what they really need to do to get them to move forward. For sure. And that’s where your problem solver hat comes on where it’s like, all right, if this should be at 98 % and it’s not happening,

then we need to dig in and find out what’s going on. And then be okay to have the conversation with your team member. If the team members know this is going to tie back to office managers also have to be great at setting clear expectations that are held consistently. So if your collection ratio should be 98%, you need to be able to have those conversations with your billing team and find out why are we not at 98%. What are the problems there? And for me, I feel like as a manager,

Let’s come in with a curious mindset, not a blaming mindset. I actually don’t care why our collections are at 90%. I don’t care whose fault it is. That’s irrelevant to me. What I care about is this is the problem. We’re at 90 % when we should be at 98%. Let’s figure out what the root cause of that is. Let’s create a system and a solution. My hunch is if you were sitting in a 98 % or a 90 % collection ratio, it’s either we’re not collecting over the counter.

We’re not processing our claims cleanly. So they’re coming back and I’m having to resubmit a bunch of them. Or this is usually the number one is that that biller is not actually taking the time to work the AR consistently. So some days they’ll like get in there, work it, and then they’ll go for two or three weeks and then they’ll get back in there and work it. And we don’t have a set process and pattern set up to ensure that our collections are always staying high. But that’s what we’re talking about. Like knowing the KPI, diving deep into it, creating a solution.

and then following back on it. And I think that that’s so key of office managers. And to like loop from there, I think another key piece that office managers should do and know are practice numbers. Like you’ve got to have a little business savviness to you, which Britt, I’m super curious. How did you get your business like savviness within, we’re talking like knowing overhead, knowing AR, knowing how you, like what you should be spending on supplies and labs. Like how did you learn that Britt from your?

The Dental A Team (12:31.821)

It was a combination of two things. So one on the job and two, I did study healthcare administration. So I did hygiene school and then I studied healthcare administration. So I learned some of the business side and then my dental, dental specific metrics, I learned on the job from learning from other people and just really wanting to watch those numbers and know where I should be. because I like to know what I’m trying to achieve. I don’t like to feel like I’m just wandering, even if I might be doing well.

So I wanted to find out where should I be at, what should I be meeting, what should I be reaching, what’s healthy so that I could be confident in the job that I’m doing. Which I think is brilliant because for me, remember feeling as I had my first office management job, I always felt like I was seven days behind. Like I felt like no matter how fast I was running, no matter how hard I was running, I could never catch up. Like it just felt like a drowning.

like downward spiral I was constantly in. And honestly, the reason why I feel like I was always there is because I didn’t know what numbers I should be watching. I didn’t know the business metrics whatsoever. And had I known those, I could have easily been proactively solving problems versus reactively doing it. Like I was like, shoot, we don’t have a team member. I should place an ad. And I always felt like I was in this shoot moment of like, I didn’t check in with a hygienist. Now I’ve got two ticked off hygienists because I didn’t talk to them.

we aren’t even having team meetings, so we’re not hitting our goals. we haven’t even been doing insurance verification. It was just always reactive problems because I didn’t even know the numbers to be watching to proactively be solving those problems. Yep. And then there’s also the net like overhanging stress. I know a lot of our doctors that are learning more the business size or newer to practice ownership, they just feel like so stressed because they don’t know what they don’t know. And they just don’t know what numbers to look at to feel confident or not.

And so learning those numbers, either taking courses, like reach out to us, know, getting the resources you need to know what you should be watching, even just to diminish your overall stress. Cause I’ll say, if I’m stressing about an unknown, like that stress is going to continue. But if I know what the issue is and I know how to fix it, I’m actually going to stress less about that thing. For sure. Even if it’s a bad number, because you know, if it’s a bad number. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (14:51.309)

So Britt, what are some of those like, let’s dive into as an office manager, I feel like it’s super important. We’ll kind of just do a rift. have no, I have nothing in front of me. You might have something. This is just like off the top of my head. as an office manager, I think it’s super important to one know your overhead because your overhead is going to you know the profitability of your practice. And if you’re not profitable, doctor is going to be freaking out of their mind because they don’t know if they have money or not.

I actually don’t care what your revenue number is. I actually care about what your profitability of the practices, because that’s going to tell me, do you have positive cashflow or negative cashflow? I also think it’s important to know. So we’re going to overhead, then we’re going to go into our collections. So your collection should be at 98%. And so within that overhead, we strive in the Dental A Team to have our practices sitting at least a 50 % overhead, excluding doctor salaries. So that means everything that it takes.

to get a practice running. we’re talking payroll, utilities, rent, supplies, labs, overtime, all of those things that should be 50 % or less every month. So if your practice that produces a hundred thousand a month, you should be $50 ,000 or less a month on those, all the things that take to operate a business. Then we try to have our doctor salaries around a 30%. So meaning if it’s a hundred thousand, 30 ,000 is going out for doctor salaries.

which then should leave us with about a $20 ,000 if it’s a hundred thousand, 20 % should be sitting as quote unquote profit. Now that profit’s also going to pay things like our debts. So if we have a comb beam and we’re paying on that, but for me, I don’t really love to have that. I like that comb beam debt to actually go in my overhead. And that’s how I actually operate as a business. I know I’m not like a financial guru guys, but I will tell you it’s very stressful if I don’t put that comb beam expense into my overhead expense and I’m pulling it out of my profit.

Because for me, I don’t like to see that. like to have actually profit leftover at the end of the month with no more bills needing to be paid. Again, I’m no, no business guru, but for me, I hate the stress of like, great, we did so good, but I have all these extra bills that I didn’t calculate in there, like student loans and things like that. I get that that might not be part of the office manager’s thing, but as doctors, I personally like to have that in there and strive to have at least a 50 to 60 % overhead, including those. Britt, what about for you? Anything you want to add, change?

The Dental A Team (17:08.016)

It’s okay if we have differing opinions on it, because I like people to know all viewpoints of whatever works best. No, I think you hit some great points. I’m going to tag along to that because you said, right, doctors may know some of these numbers, office managers may not know all these numbers. That can be, I feel like kind of like a funky zone sometimes on what information is going to be shared. I would really encourage doctors to give their office managers access to the numbers that they impact.

which would be, think, your payroll, 100%. I should know what percent of my overhead is in my payroll for my team, because I’m usually managing hours. I’m managing overtime and making decisions that are gonna impact that number. Dental supplies, for sure, because whoever’s ordering, I should be making sure they’ve got a budget, and if they’re not in budget, then we should definitely be problem solving that. Office supplies, for sure, I’ve got direct control over that to see how we’re using things, whether we’re in budget or not.

Marketing is another one. How much are we spending on marketing? That’s something I could impact, right? And that might be a doctor office manager that we team up on it. But I’m going to watch all of those invoices from my lab a lot closer and any remakes or issues that we deal with and really fight for that money if I know I’m having an impact and especially if I know that we’re over budget on it. Right. Because I think so many doctors are scared to give office managers access to the numbers. But reality is, I’m going to just pivot this. If an office manager doesn’t know what

they can or should like what they can and what they should be overseeing. How do you expect them to change it? They don’t know. And if they don’t understand, like you can give them pieces of, Britt, marketing needs to be $5 ,000 or less. Well, what if you have a really down month? Britt’s going to target on that $5 ,000 because that’s what you told her to spend. But if you told her like, hey, company standards and industry standards are that we spend 2 % on marketing.

So you can look at this every single month of whatever we collected and build 2 % off of that and get a budget. I personally think people are savvier than we think they are. They might not understand the entire picture, but the more you give them pieces, instantly light bulbs will click for them. And they’ll be like, I get it now. I understand marketing can only be 2 % because I’m paying 35 % in payroll. That means we’re not going to be at 50 % if I add all these percentages up.

The Dental A Team (19:27.396)

So it really helps people. And I think it’s important, office managers, if you’re not a numbers person, you must learn to become a numbers person. Like bottom line period, you have to, you are technically running a business. Yes, you are managing the staff and the morale as well, but you’re managing a business and usually it’s in the multi -millions, which means you got to be a pretty savvy business owner as well. So thinking like that, thinking like an owner and doctors, it’s okay to expect that because then they’re working hand in hand with you.

versus working against you or you’re having to create all the solutions when if you gave them the numbers and the information that they can impact, they could actually create solutions that you may never have met. And I will tell you coming with Shelby, Shelby had zero business background to her. We’ve taught her how to look at the PNL and what those numbers mean. I’ve taught her how to review it to see any extra expenses. I’ve taught her what our overhead should be. So she literally looks at it and today she caught, she’s like, Hey,

We have two people that are supposed to be podcasting with you, but they’re sponsors and they haven’t paid their sponsorships to help us with our summit. Should we have them on the podcast? Guys, I had no idea these people hadn’t paid, but because Shelby knew the numbers and she knew the areas she should be managing, she caught those errors that I probably would never have seen delivering free services. That’s not a super good business. So I think having managers who are on your side, working hand in hand with you really can help you also have a much like easier stress fee practice and knowing those numbers can

eliminate a lot of that stress for doctors and office managers. For sure. And I think that it also just improves morale and communication because it can be a disconnect real easy. And office managers, members, right? All we want to do is help our doctor, right? And we want to help you succeed. But if we don’t know how to help you, it can be more frustrating. So just sharing that information really can make a big difference. I agree. And to the point of like, don’t be afraid.

of sharing the numbers with your team, like Britt said, and I love that she’s a second, like, you know, backing me on this. Honestly, I didn’t care what my doctor’s goals were. I never once have cared what their goals were, what the profitability was. Like I truly did not care. Never once did I think like, this doctor is spending so much money and they want to buy a boat. Like guys, literally those thoughts never once crossed my mind because at the end of the day, I loved my job. I loved my doctor and I loved my patients. And that’s why I was working. I didn’t care.

The Dental A Team (21:50.916)

What the goal was, just tell me what your goal is and I’ll figure it out and how we can hit it. So that’s where I feel like so many people are so scared because they have preconceived notions of judgment that really isn’t being passed. so realize your team’s here to help you. So give them the tools to help them out and then expect them to help you. Like doctors and office manager will literally change your life. They will make your life so much easier if you have a true office manager. Office managers listening to this, kind of do a quick check list and see, you creating solutions to the problems?

Are you taking that stress off of your doctors? Are you proactively finding the problems and creating solutions to them before your doctor comes to you? If your doctor comes to you and asks you a question, don’t take that as a negative. Take that as like, Ooh, I should put that in my monthly review. So I don’t forget to look at these items so I can proactively look for these things. Constantly be refining yourself of how can you do more and more and more to alleviate your doctor’s stress? At the end of the day, it would be a dreamy world if doctors could walk in, prep teeth,

do exams and take off and give you the vision of what they want their practice to do. And office managers being able to manage everything, have a profitable practice, have happy team members. Like that to me is the ideal office manager. Britt, what about for you? What would your ideal office manager be in your best case scenario? Yeah, I think that ultimately, like you said, the office manager really keeps things moving, keeps things running.

doctor like, yep, there may be chiming in on some high level decisions, we’re touching base so they’re aware of what’s going on, but really the manager is keeping things moving, which does mean, yeah, you’re running a business, you’re HR, you’re kind of everything all in one. It’s one thing that I loved about the job is because my days were always different and I got to do a variety of things so that I didn’t get bored. And so just…

embrace that. Don’t kind of hunker down in your office and just, you know, try to stick to doing like one simple thing. Be out amongst your team, make sure things are running, really make sure you are that leader that’s keeping things moving forward and supporting your doctor so that they can, you know, do the dentistry, really be there for our patients and not have to be distracted by other things going on in the office. Amen. I think it’s just like this is what an office manager doctor relationship should be. And I would say

The Dental A Team (24:08.962)

Know thyself and be free. I think that there are some people who should not be office managers and I say that with the absolute most respect. I will be completely frank. I don’t think I was the best office manager. I don’t think I was. And the reason why is I was climbing the totem pole thinking office management was the end all be all like that’s the top of my chain of where I can go. Guys, I wasn’t the best manager. I, Britt will attest to this. I don’t actually care for details. I do not care for managing people. Liz, thank heavens bless her soul.

She will literally email candidates that I don’t want to hire and tell them that we’re not interested. Like, thank you, Liz, for doing that. I hate having those hard conversations. That’s just not my world. The world I love to live in. I love business. love vision. I love creating ideas and having a team execute them for me. I do not like the minutia of like, okay, let me set up this system. So I would say like, doctors, if you’re looking to see who to hire, you want to hire somebody who loves to implement.

They don’t need to create all the big vision ideas. Doctors, should most likely be you. You create the vision for the practice. You want a manager who loves to implement. They love to see the processes of how can I implement this very simply. The day I brought a Shelby in was a game changing day in my life because I didn’t have to do it anymore. So I’d say like office managers check yourself. Like, do you enjoy doing that? Britt, I think you’re a fantastic manager. Like tell us like as we paint a picture of

an ideal manager, what are some of the skillsets that you feel like you have or ones that you’ve seen in other great managers that you feel is really important for an office manager personality that really thrives in management versus just surviving because it’s the title that they have? Yeah. And I think you’re hitting on a key point already, which is I did not care for a title.

I am aware enough to know that anyone in a management or leadership role puts more blood, sweat and tears into any job or company than anyone else on the team. Right. And that’s just an expectation as a leader and it’s going to happen. And so that’s a requirement. I went into management because I knew that I could do more good. I hope people heard that. Like as a manager, you will put in more hours and more blood, sweat and tears than any other person on the team.

The Dental A Team (26:24.772)

period. And so many managers are like, I want to pay raise. I want to be the one who makes the decisions. Like there are success taxes to being in that position. And it is not all glory. There is a lot of hard work. And if that’s not what you want to do, don’t become a manager. keep going. agree. Yeah. And so it’s really those people who get more fulfillment about having an impact and seeing other people grow. think that succeed the most as managers and just as leaders. Cause ultimately

I think my success as a manager is dependent on my ability to lead my team members, which is to be able to get movement, get change, encourage them and to help them become their best. If I can do those things, then I’m going to be successful as a manager. And so I think for me, like those are some of the things that like our top qualities and really understanding what it takes to be a manager. And if you’re doing it just for like the role or the title.

I think both you and your team are going to be really unhappy. For sure. And that’s why I say like, know thyself and be free. And there’s a great book by Patrick Lanziani called The Motive. Check to see if your motives for being in leadership are true leadership. Because I think so often we believe like, well, this is, this is great. I can say that I’m a manager of these practices, but honestly guys, I freaking hate managing. If you want to like, torture me, make me manage people. I do not enjoy it.

Do I enjoy being a leader of a business and having the vision and growing and inspiring a team that way? Absolutely yes. But the day in day out, no, thank you. And I had to realize that is not my natural born skillset of my zone of genius. And that’s okay. There are other positions. For example, running a consulting company, I never would have guessed would be at my alley, but I realized I don’t want to be a manager. That’s not something I enjoy doing, even though I liked the title and potentially the pay of it. Like guys.

Don’t worry, I will never be your office manager because I would never like, you could not pay me enough to come back in and manage your practice. Could I do it very well? The answer is yes. Can I have those hard conversations? The answer is yes, but that’s not my natural go -to. So find a manager who their natural go -to is more around Brittany’s personality and her style because Britt loved to lead and guide. Britt, I feel like you ran a very successful practice. I watch you even with your teams and you’re able to guide and navigate so well. And I would say that’s what a manager should be able to do.

The Dental A Team (28:49.474)

A manager is going to put in that effort. Like Britt, you went and took extra classes because you were gleaning and looking for ways to grow to the next level. And you genuinely find pleasure in organizing things into simple processes. Like that is what you like. If you could do it, I feel like you would just do that all day long. Like, perfect. Let’s take this problem, organize it, create a go to the next one. Like, here we go. Next one, next one, next one. And I think that’s really what you should look for with a manager. So those are my two cents. Britt, any other things you want to add on to?

a practice looking for a manager or why they should have a manager or any other pieces around office management you want to add on to this? Yep. I’m going to put a little like personal plug in for the quieter, because I would be one of those that probably some people who knew me, depending on what practice I was in, would be like, no, she wouldn’t be a manager. Or like, yeah, she’s a great employee and super reliable, but probably not leadership. Sometimes you never know until you try.

So if you’re one of those people that like you can communicate really well and you have the passion and the care for leading others and for solving problems and maybe just that confidence or not being as outspoken is kind of the struggle, try it out because I, in my opinion, and I’m a little partial, those are some great leaders. They’re just hidden and you just need to cultivate the leaders a little bit and give them some confidence and you’ll be amazed at what they can do.

I would agree. And guys, we at the Dental A Team work with hundreds of managers and I will tell you, there are some practices that have great managers and some practices who do not have them. And I will say the manager really is going to guide and lead your ship. so make sure you put somebody who’s a really good leader in there. It’s crazy. Like even Southwest, they have a new CEO and I will tell you, you can tell that there’s somebody different in leadership based on the experience you have there. So you can always tell, and it’s a hundred percent directive of that leader. So,

Reach out to us. We’re happy to help you. We’re happy to help you. I’ve helped plenty of offices hire managers. I’ve helped lots of doctors know how to work with their managers. And I will say doctors, one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give you is give the expectations and then get out of their way. So often we think because we are the boss or the leader or the owner that our job is to always give the direction, always give the focus. And we’re very afraid of giving up control.

The Dental A Team (31:07.45)

That is the number one way to destroy a manager’s confidence and also to make your life a living hell. So just give them the expectations, get out of their way and communicate with them consistently on, yep, this is great. No, want this changed and have a really open dialogue with your manager and watch to see how much less stressed you are, how much more freedom you have and how much they blossom as a leader as well, because you got out of their way to allow them to be great. Agreed.

That’s all we got guys. So if you want help email us [email protected]. If you want to pick Britt’s brain on how to be an awesome office manager, fantastic. If you want to pick my brain on how I could utilize my skills and maximize them, but also some of the things that I didn’t enjoy as a manager and to look out for, we’re always here to help. So anyway, we can help you please reach out to us. [email protected]. think Britt and I bring a really solid, like doctor office manager duo.

Britt and I will always, she’ll call me up and say, care. I’ve got a doctor who’s a so like a total visionary. What would you do? And I’ll say, Hey Britt, I’ve got a manager. What would you do? So I think we’re a good, like two sides to the coin here as well. So please like reach out if we can help you guys. and also if you have that quieter office manager, Britt has trained up a lot of fantastic managers in her time working with us. So reach out. We’re always here to help you and Britt, thanks for your insights today. It was a, it was a great podcast. love doing it with you today. Yeah, this is a fun one.

All right, guys, as always, thank you for listening and we’ll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast. And that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we’ll talk to you next time.