Develop a No Whining Policy for You and Your Team

Whining. Everybody does it from time to time, but your dental practice is no place to complain.

Whining won’t win you any awards. In fact, if you keep whining your team may decide to go elsewhere. What you have to remember is that most of your patients aren’t looking forward to their time in the chair, and this shouldn’t be a surprise!

Let’s face it; some of your patients don’t look forward to their time with you. For whatever reason, a visit to the dentist will always bring a laugh, almost like a comedy routine. To alleviate the apprehensiveness you must stop whining.

You and your team need to develop a practice culture, which embraces your patients fears and brings them comfort and value. When you work together as a team in a positive environment, your patients will be more relaxed and more willing to see you on a regular basis. By instilling positivity into your dental practice, you will be able to help your patients relax.

A positive practice culture will only happen by intention. It starts with the leader. We are all like a pack of dogs, looking at the leader as to the path to run. If you are grumpy, you create the opening for your team to follow. Your whining then is the atmosphere into which your patients will enter and you have now unintentionally created a practice culture of grumpiness! Blatchford Solutions realizes a negative environment will affect your profitability.

Whining is a habit we all need to curb. It can be small like, “I really could use a cup of coffee,” or a deliberate weary sigh when asked to perform. Whining can become a practice culture with every team member contributing, even within hearing of patients.

When your patients are already in a heightened emotional state in a dental setting, they see and hear everything. They are praying for a successful outcome for this appointment. They hear the whining, and will make a decision that this is a day of whining. That means your team is not working well together.

Blatchford Coaching works with teams to imagine the mental conversation a patient could gather if a team pledged and practiced, “No Whining.” They might hear, “Wow, we are going to make this happen,” or, “We are quite a team, thank you, Karen.” This then becomes the new practice culture in what we say, what we do, and how we think.

Whining and responding negatively is a habit, a real waste of time and a real waste of brainpower. Whining is a choice response. The leader can take a stand for positivity and change the practice culture to achieve a conversation with your team, which calms a highly emotionally charged patient.

Unloading on a team member, or worse yet, a patient may make you feel like you are solving a problem, when it fact, you are probably making it worse. Even if you are trying to make some sense of the situation, you really aren’t getting any clarity. Blatchford Coaching explains that the more whiny you are, the more doomed you will be.

What will invariably happen is that the problems will always be there unless you stop whining.

Believe it or not, adults are far worse when it comes to complaining and whining. Blatchford Coaching explains that there are three reasons people whine and complain:

1. They are distressed about something and feel powerless when it comes to change

2. They feel sad and angry about a certain situation blaming themselves

3. They don’t know how or aren’t capable of soothing themselves.

You can help your team by acknowledging their feelings. You could say something such as, “I know how you are feeling, but what’s worse is there really isn’t anything we can do about it at the moment.”

When you recognize that you can’t change your feelings, or the feelings of your team, it’s important to adopt a no whining policy, and that includes the doctor.

Allowing your team to let off steam is important, but whining isn’t the way to do it. Work together and develop a no whining policy that your team will stick to.

If you would like more information regarding dental coaching for your practice, call or click and schedule an appointment with Blatchford Solutions.

With Blatchford Solutions, you and your team really can stop whining for the last time. Call or click today.