{"id":1009,"date":"2022-06-01T08:09:44","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T08:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicesolutionsinc.net\/blog\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2022-06-01T13:24:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T13:24:30","slug":"co-leadership-lead-successfully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicesolutionsinc.net\/blog\/2022\/06\/co-leadership-lead-successfully\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-leadership! How to lead Successfully!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is co-leadership? Co-leadership is two or more people in charge of a team or group. They share ownership of the goals of their team but divide the roles and responsibilities.\u00a0 Co-leadership has many benefits when utilized correctly.\u00a0 The downside is the more leaders the more complex it becomes.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xz1lGlQMSEY\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Co-leadership in a dental office may include doctors, practice administrator, team leads or any team member in a leadership position depending on the size of the practice.<\/p>\n<p>Everything begins and ends with leadership.\u00a0 It is what leaders do, don\u2019t do, or allow in their culture that defines the practice culture.\u00a0 The more leaders the more difficult it becomes to create and sustain a consistent message.\u00a0 Here are 5 principles to build an aligned and cohesive co-leadership team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The first co-leadership principle<\/strong> &#8211; It is necessary to have an aligned vision for the future of the practice\/company.\u00a0 I start the process by having the owner doctors choose 4 core value words and place them in order of priority.\u00a0 All future decisions are based on supporting those values.\u00a0 Everyone on the leadership team must live and lead those core values in words, actions, and attitudes.\u00a0 Apply these core values when making decisions by using the following questions.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What\u2019s in the best interests of the patients, practice, and team that supports our core values? (Specialists also add referring doctors) It can never just benefit one individual.<\/li>\n<li>Is it practical based on time, money, and people that will still support the core values?<\/li>\n<li>Does the precedent we are setting support our core values?<\/li>\n<li>How passionate are we to implement change? It must be a value of 8 or above on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The breakdown happens when a leader decides to opt out of something they don\u2019t agree with entirely.\u00a0 It can never be 100% our way unless we work by ourselves.\u00a0 It is healthy for leaders to discuss and debate behind closed doors.\u00a0 However, they must come to an agreement and support that agreement in front of the team.\u00a0 There will be times leaders need to support decisions even without consensus.\u00a0 I often hear, \u201cI am the doctor, I can do what I want!\u201d\u00a0 Yes, you can but not without consequences.\u00a0 If leaders do not support each other, they will create division in the team and the leadership team.\u00a0 Division leads to confusion, gossip, clicks and lack of accountability.\u00a0 The team will choose the path of least resistance.\u00a0 The bottom line is that when you have a co-leader you no longer have autonomy to make decisions.\u00a0 On a side note, doctors supporting your practice administrator doesn\u2019t mean saying do whatever you want.\u00a0 It means being involved in the decision and solution process.\u00a0 Practice Administrators you will become very frustrated and overwhelmed if you want more for the practice than the owner doctors.\u00a0 Which is why it is so important that you are aligned with the owner doctors\u2019 vision for the practice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The second co-leadership principle<\/strong> &#8211; It is important to place people in the leadership role that shines the light on their strengths and dims their weakness.\u00a0 No one is perfect.\u00a0 We all have strengths as well as weaknesses.\u00a0 We are only as strong as our weakest link.\u00a0 Any weakness in your co-leaders will be a reflection on the entire leadership team.\u00a0 Define the specific tasks for each role.\u00a0 Leaders are responsible for the individual tasks of their role.\u00a0 Each task must be owned by that one person to create accountability.\u00a0 The more people responsible for the same task the less accountability due to assuming the other person is doing the task.\u00a0 Some leaders find it difficult to let go and to not be involved in all tasks.\u00a0 We must trust our co-leader to be accountable.\u00a0 Be open to renegotiating your roles based on changing circumstances, growth, and ambitions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The third co-leadership principle<\/strong> \u2013 Owner doctors and practice administrator(s) must make time to meet on a weekly basis.\u00a0 (I refer to these specific leadership team members as the We Team) This allows for real time conversations to discuss and come to a resolution as a leadership team.\u00a0 All decisions must be discussed at this meeting before implementing except for direct patient care.\u00a0 Document discussion and agreements and save in a meeting journal.\u00a0 Review last week\u2019s meeting notes and confirm if all assigned tasks have been completed.\u00a0 The meeting will create accountability as well as keep everyone in the loop.\u00a0 Schedule the weekly meeting the same time and day of each week.\u00a0 The time is reserved and is to be considered sacred.\u00a0 I can hear all the excuses already.\u00a0 However, it is necessary to commit to a weekly meeting if you want to co-lead successfully to build and sustain a high performing practice.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to put your ownership hat on.\u00a0 Once you make it a priority it will happen.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t meet at least weekly, you will be spending extra time putting out unnecessary fires and fueling disorder, stress, and discord.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The fourth co-leadership principle<\/strong> \u2013 Is don\u2019t break the chain of communication.\u00a0 Here is a simple flow for chain of communication both up and down.\u00a0 Please email me at judykay@practicesolutionsinc.net for a multi-location practice communication flow chart.<\/p>\n<p>Owner Doctors<\/p>\n<p>Practice Administrator<\/p>\n<p>Team Leads and Associate Doctors<\/p>\n<p>Team<\/p>\n<p>The practice administrator has a weekly meeting with all team leads where they share the outcome of their We Team meeting.\u00a0 Team leads are to bring any questions, suggestions, or concerns they have, or their team has for discussion and feedback at this meeting.\u00a0 The practice administrator will take this information to the We Team meeting to discuss and come to a resolution.\u00a0 Then back to the next lead team meeting for implementation.\u00a0 I know this slows things down.\u00a0 However, the end results are an informed, aligned, and cohesive team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The fifth co-leadership principle<\/strong> \u2013 Expect disagreements and differences of opinions.\u00a0 What many people refer to as conflict.\u00a0 If you never disagree chances are someone is not being honest with their opinion.\u00a0 Let go of ego.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about you and what you want.\u00a0 Have a mindset of care and curiosity not judgment and criticism.\u00a0 We will need to make concessions at times to move forward.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Utilize the questions in the first co-leadership principle to come to a decision that supports the core values.<\/li>\n<li>Start with what you can agree on and build from there.<\/li>\n<li>Define the end result.<\/li>\n<li>Discuss in specifics instead of concepts.<\/li>\n<li>Come to an agreement and write it down.<\/li>\n<li>Support the agreement in words, actions, and attitude.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Implementing the five co-leadership principles will help you build an aligned and cohesive team!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is co-leadership? Co-leadership is two or more people in charge of a team or group. They share ownership of the goals of their team but divide the roles and responsibilities.\u00a0 Co-leadership has many benefits when utilized correctly.\u00a0 The downside is the more leaders the more complex it becomes. Co-leadership in a dental office may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4,5,6,186,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,16,215,18,19,22,23,25,26,27,28,204,191,30,32,33,34,35,39,42,192,56,43,44,197,45,46,47,49,50,51,52,53,54,195,196,1,184,185],"tags":[63,68,70,73,76,84,88,89,90,92,93,96,98,107,121,124,126,138,140,141,144,146,149,153,159,160,166,167,170,175],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Co-leadership! 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