Becoming a Co-Leader with Your Doctor

Becoming a co-leader with your doctor is essential. The relationship should be open, honest, and transparent. Your leadership depends on it as if you’re two business partners working together.

A well-run practice is not a one-person effort.

It is of utmost importance to have self-awareness and high emotional intelligence as leaders. Working together is the key to translating our vision into reality.

For me, my integrity for my doctor and the team is what is at stake. For the doctor, her professional work ethics as an orthodontist, leader, and employer is primordial in a manner suitable for a seasoned and renowned provider.

Our teamwork establishes the tone for our team. We must remember that exhibiting and attaining cohesion of core values is fundamental in “solidifying” our relationship.

How to be a co-leader with your doctor

Certain core values are needed to establish the framework of being a co-leader with your doctor. They keep us grounded in our goals and objectives. Some of these cores include:

Showing genuine care

The patient is our purpose. We will be respectful, friendly, helpful, and compassionate to our patients and team members. Kindness towards one another makes both your team and patients smile and builds rapport.

Having a standard for excellence

We provide outstanding service for every patient. We strive for excellence in all our interactions with our patients and in carrying out their treatment.

Valuing teamwork

It takes a village to treat our patients. It is an honor to be trusted with their care. To achieve our united goal of patient-focused dentistry, we focus on teamwork.

Trust in a dental office fosters dependability creating valuable and meaningful relationships. Compatibility thrives on fundamentals like:

• Listen to the needs of the team with no judgment
• Do not be too strict or too lenient
• Walk your talk
• Be punctual
• Do not have favorites
• Be consistent
• Do not criticize one another
• Be punctual
• Be accountable
• Be honest
• Speak up when it is required
• Be polite
• Do not gossip

Devotion to education and philanthropy

We collaborate with colleges, universities, and individuals with an interest in dentistry, welcoming them into our office so that they can experience a day in the life of our TRIBE. Our contribution to other philanthropic causes enables us to, in turn, give back to our community. Service to others can change lives; it can create better colleagues, and most of all, satisfied clients.

Becoming a unified voice

It must be clear to everyone that when a dental office manager makes a request or proposition, the team has confidence and trust that the instructions are coming from the doctor. Especially in the absence of the dentist. Employees should see that there is a shared relationship and that it is both collaborative and robust.

As a unified voice, the manager and dentist are fair, appropriate, and respectful when they communicate with the team or one another.

However, ultimately the doctor is the one to have the final word, especially if there is a disagreement with the office manager.

When these instances arise – and they will – we as office managers must look at the given situation as objectively as possible and then remove our opinions and emotions. The rhetoric of “respectfully agreeing to disagree” is appropriate.

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Meet the Author

Rosa has been in the dental field since 1980. Since 1998, Rosa has dedicated her professional life to helping create and perfect “The TGO Way.” Rosa is the Business Manager for TGO Orthodontics.

She began her career as a dental assistant but soon found that the administrative area of the dental office is her true passion. She received her certification from Concordia University in Administration and Human Resource Management. She obtained her FAADOM in 2018. In this same year, she was nominated for Office Manager of the Year, and she was one of seven recipients of the award of distinction from AADOM.

She is passionate about her work in dentistry and is looking forward to mentoring and coaching the next generation that is ready for a career in dentistry.

In 2019, she founded an AADOM Chapter in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

She enjoys getting to know people from every walk of life.