“Doc, when you get a moment can I speak with you?”
I remember when I used to hate these moments. It’s not like the employee wants to tell me she likes my tie or how wonderful of an implant I just placed. She clearly wants more money or has something going on that will cause her to temporarily or permanently leave the office. Either way it’s going to cause me to lose some of my income or get a temp replacement or find/train and deal with a new employee. None of which is appealing to me.
In this particular case it was about more money. Nowadays I look at these situations as potential opportunities rather than inconveniences. Here is my rule for giving a raise: the employee has to present specific revenue driving reasons why a raise is warranted and must be willing to take on more responsibility. This employee’s reason for wanting a raise was she has been working for me for 1.5 years and when I first hired her I promised her extra money the day her training was over. She waited until now to ask because in her mind she is performing at the level an employee should perform at that has had proper training. So long story short she said can I have more money? I said “yes” I think you are certainly worth the extra money you are asking for but…
She is in charge of hygiene so I asked her how the recall program is going. She said she is really trying to do well with her recalls and she’s doing the best she can.
Is that good enough??? Hmmmmm…
I told her I need her to own the hygiene recall program. Of course she looked at me like I was crazy.
“What do you mean own the hygiene program?”
I asked her “who owns this practice?”
With zero doubt in her gaze she looked at me and said “you!”
“Do you think I take responsibility for everything in the office?”
Again she said undoubtedly “yes!”
“Yet do you see me doing every little thing in this office to make it run?”
“Of course not Doc. You delegate everything you can.”
I told her that’s what ownership is - taking accountability for something while delegating as much as possible to make sure it gets done.
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