I am beginning a new blog and will be beginning to contribute to another blog and as soon as that process is complete will set up the links.  I anticipate more on leadership, new thoughts on leaders in transition, baby boomers next steps, and news MBA students who desire to build a business or advance in their current organizations.  Additional topics will be decision making, problem solving, solutions generation, sales leadership and selling!

My website is currently undergoing revision as well with new services being added, a new e-book and a new series on goal setting and visioning.

Hopefully the students from Loma Linda University School of Dentistry   remember the visioning exercise with great joy!

Follow me on Twitter @KathyHoldaway

Have a splendid day!

Kathy

What are some of the things you can do to keep people returning? One of the easiest answers is to create an invigorating environment – one where everyone is treated with respect and authenticity. Create connections – instead of just greeting people, make sure you look at them and notice something about them.  Take a moment with them,  whether to ask about their family or compliment them on something in their appearance.  Be genuine.  It is so easy for people to publish their experience using social media and that could influence your ability to draw new patients.  Why not adopt a policy of giving over the top service?  Ask your patients to talk about their experience and share that with their Facebook friends.  Begin to use social media as a place to attract more patients.

When I am looking for a new doctor or a new dentist I like to ask people who they go to and why.  Make it easy for people to recommend you!  Look around your practice and ask what changes could be made that would enhance everyone’s experience.  When you have a happy dentist and happy workers, that naturally is conveyed to patients as they walk through the door.

Smile loudly,

Kathy

There may be dental leaders who find themselves in a similar position and who want to enter a new era of their practice life.  You may be one of them! You may be in need of some guidance in what the next steps are beyond your practice.  Beyond excellence in your specific dental field you have gathered expertise in other areas that you want to share.  You may wonder how to get started to share your knowledge.

Some thoughts for you…

Are you a “baby boomer” brimming with ideas and expertise that could add value to new dentists?  How can you contribute and make it easier for someone just starting?  When I spoke at the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry I experienced their hunger to do things well from the beginning.  If you are an expert and have capabilities and expertise to share, there are so many ways to market your intelligence today.  Think about what you can do for the new and upcoming professionals in your industry. What are their needs, wants and desires?  Write out how you can help with this in a way that takes them to new levels beyond what school can teach.  What was missing for you that you can convey that isn’t learned only through experience.

Once you recognize that you have something to share, think about the medium to reach your audience.  Would you want to teach, write, conduct workshops, blog, or use other multi-media?  Food for thought…

Think about it, but not too long or you will see someone doing what you have always known was in you to do after you completed this part of your practice.

Have a great day!

Warm Regards,

Kathy

I am shifting my focus to other areas of my business where I can really get conversations going and make contributions that my audience hungers after!  I say thank you to my readers and to those wonderful people who support the dental industry and gave me permission to talk about your services and how you help grow practices and help sell ones ready for their next steps in life, how you keep their HR program intact and current and how much each of you care!  Thank you for reading and for letting me share my thoughts about leadership, change and communication. 

I wish you wonderful practice growth in this time of change!

Thank you.

Kathy

This blog is dedicated to dental students everywhere – I had the unique privilege of speaking to students last evening at the Loma Linda School of Dentistry in Loma Linda, California.  I was very pleased with the professionalism and the dedication of the students to the study of their craft.  I was totally impressed with their knowledge, their participation in the seminar and their understanding of the importance of creating the vision for their ideal practice now.  We had fun with leader techniques and how to apply them to different situations that they may encounter.  I liked their responses – including the one to put the staff member on notice who mishandled a patient.  Great ideas, wonderful visions and with plenty of time to create, change and become who they need to be in order to have the practice of their dreams.

I also learned that they want to learn more about running the business – so many roles to play – leader, teacher, trainer, dentist, student, associate and of course on their own – business owner!  I have helped so many business owners create their visions and put them on a vision board with their photo front and center so they can see themselves right where they want to be; they can change it as their ideas change and bring it into being by focusing on exactly what they want.  I encourage students to begin to gather photos of their ideal locations, people they want to be surrounded with, even the types of patients, from their backgrounds to locations and make a collage of their ideal practice.  Include numbers and emotions, the hours you want to work, your revenue targets and even your exit strategy!  Just have fun with it and let yourself be boundless.

There are exciting years ahead with opportunities to break the molds and have practices that cater to patients working different shifts and making it work for both patients, staff and themselves so they can play when they want and be the fun and creative person in and out of the office.  You design it and they will come!

It doesn’t matter if you are a first year student or a fourth – beginning with a vision can pull you through school and help you become strategic in choosing where to apply to be an associate.  Making it dynamic allows you to change it as you change and as your ideas about the kind of practice you want to have changes.  Nothing is static – everything flows and forms according to the thoughts you have and the pictures you create about your practice and how you see yourself in it.

I also learned from the buzz in the hallways that this dynamic atmosphere was fun and electric with learning and sharing.  I am grateful to have been there and feel enriched for my experience!  Go dental students!

Best of Success,

Kathy

My Office!

You opened your doors several years ago, you have the latest equipment, a great staff, your patients refer their families and their friends - and everything has gone according to plan.  You have achieved the numbers you wanted to reach, you have dental students and associates working and you work only the days and hours you want  – your ideal is complete – what’s next for you? 

In my conversations with dental brokers and dental practice builders I have learned that the art of running the business isn’t always the strength of the owner of the practice.  Exit strategies and financial long term goals with investment strategies are often non-existent.  If you are one of the ones who has achieved success and has all this in place – congratulations!  You deserve high praise. 

If you find yourself a great success and don’t know your next steps and don’t have these things in place, it is not too late to sit down and create a strategy for the next few years and have an investment advisor help you prepare for your next steps.  It could be retirement.  It could be that you want to own a few more practices, but not work in them.  It could be that you want to do something you have never done before.  Maybe you want to make some major contributions to the industry from the political side. Perhaps you want a major change in your life and you don’t know where to begin to discover what that might be or how to go about exploring the possibilities.  How do you begin?  How do you prepare before you enter a state of stasis and the success you once enjoyed begins to fall because you didn’t plan for this? One resource is a coach, another is an investment counselor and another is your intuition. 

And for the dentists who are just beginning – make sure you include these things in your business plan and know and understand that it is a dynamic plan – one that you use continually to measure your goals, targets and results. You do this so you can change it as you flex and change and to keep up with the challenges and changes in the economy and your specialty.  Post your Vision and you Goals and get buy in from your team.  See how achieving your vision helps them achieve their goals and watch what happens to your success plan – and how quickly you begin to accomplish every goal!

Now back to you who have it all – what’s next?  What if you knew?

If you want to know more, let me know!

Best of Success,

Kathy

Leading Your Team!

Making It Happen During Uncertainty -

How you think about and talk about things is how things will happen in your business, your practice.  Where is your current focus?  What actions are you taking to keep yourself as a leader in a mindset that speaks success?  Change happens – and how you communicate what is happening affects the outcome.  Have you joined the ranks of millions talking about the “devastating affects” of the recent economic news?  Or have you as leader of your organization, your business, your practice begun to create a plan that will keep you level and growing during this time of uncertainty?  What are the key issues facing you that without constant vigilance and support could result in loss of revenues?  Having someone on your team to guide you through the most critical aspects of your strategy to grow your business NOW will keep you ahead of your competition.

DON’T PROCRASTINATE- If you would like an accountability partner to help you create and execute a strategy for success that includes keeping your team inspired and motivated to do their best, don’t procrastinate, call your coach, consultant, practice manager, or financial advisor and see what solutions they can offer for you to stay ahead at this time.

How coaching helps -

Coaching has proven to be one of the most effective methods for RAPIDLY advancing an organization, medical or dental practice through individual and collective effort.  A coach can help you clearly see the gaps and help you identify the solutions needed to bridge or close them.  If you are baffled by how to handle change, are confused about how to communicate critical changes or need leadership help for yourself or people on your team, coaching is one way to stay ahead and make progress.  You get to choose what is right for now – coaching, consulting, management services?

Make it happen -

Who do you have to be during this time?  What do you have to do to make things continue to flow and grow?  Have you thought about the resources you have, how to use them, re-task them, or stimulate and influence outcomes from a different perspective?  Would you like to?  It’s your business, your vision and it’s up to you to keep your team motivated, your patients returning and referring and yourself mentally “dressed” for success.

Now is the time to focus.  Prepare, communicate well, and execute on the success tactics that have worked and will keep on working.

As I’ve been saying, Change Happens, and this is what the change program helps with; it contains everything you need to prepare, implement and execute!

Best of Success,

Kathy

I’ve been preparing for a talk on “Visionary Leadership” for 4^th year dental students and as I began doing some research to add to my body of wisdom and call upon others who have offered insights on how

I was amazed to learn how many people follow a leader who is unwilling to change and who adopts the attitude that “this is the way we have always done it and it seems to be working” so why introduce something new and upset everyone? (And with the proper change process upset doesn’t have to happen!) The greatest ideas come from the people who work with you who are in the trenches, who meet the clients, the vendors, and the customers’ everyday.  They are the ones who see what is brewing and who hear through social media and their friends new trends and things to be alert about. I understand some of that “things are working well” philosophy however change is a given and if you don’t grow and prepare for what might happen, if you aren’t ready to shift to a different model you could suffer at the hands of a competitor who is on the cutting edge and aware of what is drawing new patients and keeping staff.

People like to be where the action is and where things are happening and they like to be part of a growing organization.  It doesn’t mean that you have to keep changing the services that you offer; it does mean that you can be attentive to the suggestions that come to you and see if they have validity and if it might be time to change and look at what you are doing.  Taking people’s suggestions and using them at staff meetings is one way to keep people on your team and demonstrate a different leader style.  It shows you care, you listen and you are ready to have some strategies for when the tide changes.  It also shows that you can flex your leader style – every style is a good style, just not in every circumstance.  As you learn the leader dance you get to decide what works according to the situation and the outcome you desire.  Have fun!  Play with it and get lots of feedback.

As I reflect on some of the attributes of great leaders, listening is still one of the greatest examples cited by happy employees.  They love being heard – an environment that encourages sharing ideas, possibilities and ways to improve processes, patient handling, even the colors in your office, or the background music can make a difference both to your practice and to your rank as a leader.  Think about it!

Here’s a little piece of trivia on “doing things the same way” that I found fascinating!  (Do you have any of these ruts in your practice?)

Enjoy,

Kathy

Need to Say It Right the First Time?

First I want to share my interview with Carolyn Craft who is a Vice President and a Relationship Banker at California Bank & Trust in Laguna Hills.  (located at 24012 Cale de la Plata #140, Laguna Hills, CA 92653, 949 830-7440)   Carolyn has been in the banking business for 21 years and has helped in the medical and dental profession for the last three to four years.

I wanted to know how her services serve the dentist’s needs and how she believes they are unique in the banking world. What I learned is that they base everything on service - Carolyn actually comes to your place of business and gets to learn who you are and meets you to learn about your practice, your personal and professional needs and goals of your practice.    What I really liked about Carolyn is how genuine she is in her interest in making sure she is the right person to service your needs - needs like working capital lines and short term financing as well as personal banking needs for you and your team.  What really appealed to me is a new service they offer that saves time and gas – no more waiting in lines, you can make your deposits right from your office!  There are certainly many advantages to this service and the many more that she offers.  Discover the power of relationships, give her a call soon!

Selling Soon? – If you are thinking of selling your practice and want to be well represented, then I highly recommend that you contact Kerri McCullough at Practice Transition Partners.

I asked Kerri what makes her unique in the broker industry and she shared that she cares about the doctors she works with and that she has their best interests at heart.  I asked her how she found the dental practices wanting to sell that are right for her – and I loved this – “we find each other”.  She attracts the best and then goes to work! She also properly introduces the buyers to the sellers she represents and she makes sure ahead of time based on the information she receives that there seems to be a good fit.  This maximizes the opportunity for a good match and happy and satisfied clients.  She educates her seller’s and takes good care of them.  She also has a team of people that she refers her clients to for the areas of expertise that are also critical elements for the seller.  I learned that having the right Dental CPA and the right Dental Attorney are critical components and that it is important that everyone has the same set of standards and ethics.  Kerri is a high integrity person and I would highly recommend that you speak with her if you are thinking about selling your practice and want to be well represented!

Speaking of education, if you want to attend a program that will help with your communication skills so that you can say it right the first time, every time – check out Communication Skills for Small Business.

I know that these are services and people who can help you grow your practice and achieve your dreams!

Thank you.

Kathy