Attitudes of your team – getting the right people on board

Laura_ Horton_ by_ Catchlight_Art_Photography (6)

I am always being asked by dentists “how do I get my team on board? I tell them what I want and they don’t do it. Why do they not care, I once had a team with totally different attitudes so why is this team different?”

My answer is because your attitude is different now. Which brings me on nicely to this:

Recently I have been witness to the two types of attitude that dental nurses own. One attitude I witnessed at a study day where I was speaking. I saw pure negativity and disinterest in any of the speakers – they were only there for their CPD and rather than even opening their minds to develop in their career path they preferred to pull faces and spread their negativity.

The other attitude I witnessed also on the study day and  on Saturday at the dental nurse symposium. These dental nurses love their jobs and they want to grow. They want to develop their career and take on extended duties too. They are positive and the group on Saturday gave up their sunny hot day of shopping and sunbathing to be there. Not one person failed to attend even though the weather was fabulous.

So what is the difference between each group and what is the reason they have these attitudes? The answer is their leader. The negative people would probably describe themselves as “just” a dental nurse – because this is the respect they are given at work. Where as the positive nurses wouldn’t use the word “just” in describing their role – because their principals value them as professionals and rely on them  as vital team members.

So if you have team members that don’t care about their jobs unfortunately you have to start at the top and address your attitude to your team, are they empowered?

Another factor besides leadership is that you may have a bad apple in your practice who brings everybody down with their negativity and that needs to be dealt with too!

Laura Horton

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