When team members lose purpose, practices feel it. Here’s how orthodontic leaders can respond without sacrificing culture or profitability.
By Roger P. Levin, DDS
According to a 2024 Gallup survey, 69% of U.S. employees are not engaged in their jobs. And a fair number of them hate their job. Odds are you have one or two employees who fall within that spectrum, which means they’re working for a paycheck and (if you’re lucky) not disrupting the rest of the team or providing poor customer service to your patients. In an era where orthodontics has more competition for parents and patients, it is essential that the practice culture be one of positivity that is felt and appreciated by everyone.
Why Some Thrive in Their Roles
Many people never take the time to think about what they really want in life. It is not only tech entrepreneurs like Elon Musk that know what they want at an early age, take large risks, go for it, and succeed or fail. People do that at all levels of society, from low to astronomical income. Orthodontic team members are no different.
Team members love working in the orthodontic practice for different reasons. For example, one team member might love working in a professional office and feeling important and appreciated. Another might enjoy the challenge of learning and getting better at clinical skills. Another may see it as a steppingstone to future jobs or better employment. Hopefully, you have some of these types of people working on your team.
The “Paycheck-Only” Employee
But there is another type of team member who simply wants a job and a paycheck. These employees can still be valuable. They can come to work every day, contribute to the practice, and create satisfied patients. Fifty or sixty years ago, this was more common—people appreciated having a job and a paycheck and worked hard. They were generally nice, well-mannered, and upbeat when dealing with patients and co-workers.
Are Dedicated Employees Harder to Find Today?
Do we have fewer of these people today? Although there is no data on this, the odds are that we do. Life is more chaotic and people encounter more negativity in their lives. This negativity can impact more than just day-to-day life, it can affect loyalty to an employer and the job. When loyalty goes out the window, the job is merely a paycheck. If you are lucky, that team member will continue to work hard, contribute, be positive, and represent the orthodontic practice properly.
Paycheck Versus Purpose
Before we go any further, let’s acknowledge that orthodontic team members do need their paycheck. The ideal scenario, however, is when team members find purpose and meaning in their job that goes beyond just collecting a paycheck.
Why This Matters for Orthodontic Practices
Team members often become disengaged or even hate their jobs because they don’t know what else to do. So they stay, while the better team members leave because of low morale or disruption in the practice. We refer to this as the dumbing down of the orthodontic practice, and eventually it will affect production and profitability.
Leadership in the Face of Disengagement
One way to address the issue of a team member’s disengagement is through excellent leadership. Few books on leadership focus on how to manage team members who are disengaged or even truly hate their job. In such a situation, I find that what you want to do is not so much change the fact that they hate their jobs, but help them to do a good job for as long as they are in the practice. This may sound counterproductive because no orthodontist or owner really wants a team member that hates the practice, but in reality many practices have had team members who fit this description.
So how do you lead them? My advice: meet with the disengaged employee and help them set one to three job-related goals that they can work to achieve. When you give people goals, you give them purpose. In addition, you might encourage team members to set goals for their personal lives. By doing so, it is possible you may be accelerating that team member’s departure from the practice as they identify what they really want to do. When dealing with someone who is not fully engaged in their job that might be the best outcome for everyone.
When Leadership Means Letting Go
I recognize this is not the type of article you may expect from me. Normally I focus on teambuilding, culture, positivity, and excellent leadership. In an ideal world, effective leadership would transform any individual—cultivating dedication to the practice, loyalty, and consistently strong performance. But I would argue that it is also excellent leadership to help a team member who really does not want to be in the practice to move on even though it can be temporarily disruptive. OP
Roger P. Levin, DDS, is the CEO and founder of Levin Group, a leading practice management consulting firm that has worked with over 30,000 practices to increase production. A recognized expert on orthodontic practice management and marketing, he has written 67 books and over 4,000 articles and regularly presents seminars in the U.S. and around the world. To contact Levin or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit levingroup.com or email [email protected].
