Yesterday I took my mom out for Mother’s Day.  To start our day we went to brunch at the little local breakfast place that I frequent virtually every Sunday when I’m in Indianapolis.  I know almost the entire staff and often feel more like family than a customer while I’m there.  They have amazingly good food and great customer service.  It doesn’t hurt that I’m also very fond of their clean, contemporary décor.  My mom had never been there so I was really looking forward to sharing one of my favorite places with her.

As yesterday was Mother’s Day, I expected the restaurant to be busy.  Well, it is always busy on Sunday mornings, but busier than normal.  What I didn’t expect was for none of the regular staff to be working.  Chris, the manager, is a really nice guy, but there have incidents in the past that made me question his decision-making skills.  While I can appreciate wanting to reward some of one’s best people with a holiday off with their mom’s, I question the wisdom of having the entire, regular Sunday crew absent.  After all, Mother’s Day is a really big deal in the restaurant biz, and often times the only opportunity a restaurant has to make a good impression.

Now, I’m not saying the replacements did a poor job.  They didn’t.  Actually, if I hadn’t known better I would have said they did a good job.  Unfortunately, I know how spectacular of job the regular crew can do and the replacements haven’t had years of working together to generate that seamless flow that propels one’s performance to World-Class status.  Not their fault, but I was disappointed in the experience Mom received yesterday.  She didn’t get this establishment’s A Game.

In a dental office what is the equivalent of a really high-profile, Mother’s Day holiday event?  Off hand, I can’t think of anything.  The closest is when a new patient comes into your practice for the first time.  Undoubtedly, you and your team want to make a good impression so this new patient will tell all his family and friends about his amazing new dentist and will not find an excuse to cancel his next appointment.  To me a dental office team needs to bring their A Game each and every day.  This is hard.  It is a difficult thing to always be “up” and firing smoothly on all cylinders, but that doesn’t reduce its importance.  So, what do you do, as the team leader to help the staff always put their best game face on?  One thing is to provide a work environment in the form of the dental office design that is conducive to a positive work experience.  Make sure the front office is efficiently laid-out and ergonomically designed to reduce work-place fatigue, frustrations, and bottle-necks.  Make sure there is a clean and comfortable place for staff to escape from the rigors of the day occasionally and vent frustrations away from where patients can see or hear.  There will always be challenging patients and giving staff a place to regroup build camaraderie is critical.  Lastly, make sure the operatories themselves are efficiently and ergonomically designed.  Again, this will reduce fatigue, frustrations, and the likelihood of work-place injuries.

One’s dental office design cannot ensure that one’s dental team always brings their A Game to their job each and every day, leadership and coaching play a big role in that, too. However, having a great place to work certainly helps.  If you question this, just think about the demand for newer and better stadiums and arenas at all levels across the country.