Yesterday was what we call a “call-in day” – which means that we use www.appointmentquest.com as an on-line appointment manager that clients’ use to book themselves a 15-minute coaching call with me (I call them).
They are amongst my favourite professional days as the cut and thrust of so many conversations:
- keeps me very sharp;
- lets me put an ear to the ground and listen to what’s going on and
- exhausts me by the end of the day!
I randomly decided to keep a note of the questions asked on the 13 calls booked yesterday – here is what I dealt with:
- How do I set bonus targets that my team can relate to?
- How do I enrol my team in the process of writing a practice mission statement?
- What questions should I ask Isoplan before we instruct them to start working for us?
- How do I measure associate profitability?
- How do I measure hygienist profitability?
- What external marketing ideas would you recommend for National Smile Month?
- How should I approach an associate who doesn’t seem to care or want to be a part of our team?
- Should I bring my associates on your leadership retreat?
- What should I do – I have bought a Denplan practice and I am living in a world of inherited supervised neglect and litigation!
- I have allocated the time for your business planning retreat – what preparation do I need to do?
- I am depressed and have no motivation – help.
- I have just joined The Dental Business School – what next?
- I am struggling to complete the sale of my practice because the purchasers are dragging their feet – can you suggest tactics to move the sale forwards.
Phew!
So that was a day in the coaching life of Chris Barrow.
Most of these questions were answerable in the 15 minutes – some will require follow through – especially “9” as this client is in deep trouble and I intend to visit his practice with a potential new accountant and a lawyer – he is in great danger.
After all of that, at 6.00pm about 10 of us joined a conference call to discuss further issues, notably:
- Associate remuneration under nGDS and
- Provision of services for children under nGDS.
A really enjoyable day of coaching.