I think you’ll agree that many dentists hold on to a difficult employee much longer than we need to.

The problem with this is we waste far too much time and resources settling for mediocrity when managing dental staff. In the past I’ve held on to more than one employee out of fear, but now I know we don’t have to settle. We’ve all done that. We’ve all found excuses for why we should keep the wrong person around. The good news is we can learn how to do it better the next time around.

How can we make the right move sooner for the sake of the whole team?

I recently saw a post about this topic on a Facebook dentist group. The dentist asked for advice regarding her challenge managing her dental assistant. It’s a common story: her assistant is excellent with the patients, but she constantly creates drama in the office. The dentist wanted some validation that she is handling it properly.

Most people had the same advice: get rid of her.

We were so overwhelmingly confident with that advice because we’ve all been there, and we’ve all learned from these learning experiences.

I’ve fallen victim to this thinking more than once. In my first associate position, I worked with a wonderful hygienist. She was professional, patients loved her, and she was a very nice person. She did her job well. As time went on, though, she started to get grumpy. She began to complain a lot, and there seemed to always be some drama swirling around her.

In general it was a rough place to work, so it was easy to see her side.

After a while, though, her attitude became kind of annoying. It started to affect the whole energy of the office, but I didn’t realize it. I liked her and was so comfortable working with her that I feared that she would quit. If she were to quit, who knows how much worse things would get in the office.

That fear not only prevented me from seeing what was really happening,  but also from seeing how things could get so much better.

Eventually she quit. At first I was disappointed, but almost immediately the office drama disappeared. I realized how her negative energy was taking over the entire office.

It wasn’t until she left that I could finally see the shift.

You know the outcome here because it’s happened to you too: we found someone better. We found someone who not only offered the great qualities we admired in the first hygienist, but she also brought with her a fresh, positive attitude.

That was when I questioned why I was holding on for so long.

Every time we have had a team member leave the office, we have always found other great people. Every time!

Where else are we settling in our lives?

While we’ve all experienced the Jekyll/Hyde employee, I wonder… where else do we allow fear of change to keep us stuck in our lives?

What is one thing you wish you could change, and what is stopping you from changing it?

It might be the actual job itself. Or maybe it’s just a slight annoyance with the job that would take some extra effort to change. Are you miserable making a long commute because you fear there are no opportunities closer to home? Maybe you’re keeping a job you hate because the pay is great.

Whether your boss is always making you work with the temp when an assistant calls in sick, your experienced front office staff doesn’t follow through on your requests, or your trusted hygienist is sabotaging your office, ignoring it won’t make it go away.

Giving in to the fear that it can’t improve will only keep us stuck.

Why put off the inevitable?

It might take effort, but things can always get better.

What can we do to get into action?

As the leader of the dental team, we face a double-edged sword. On the one hand we get the responsibility to change, and on the other hand we get the responsibility to change. It’s nice that we can take control when we see something is not working, but it’s also hard work. If we don’t handle it, it will not improve.

We can start by developing our own, individualized leadership skills that will help us better communicate with the challenging employees. If we ask ourselves how we are contributing to the situation, we can find our best way to solve it. We can then feel confident with whatever our decision is to move forward.

We also can reach out to others in the community. Dentistry can be a very lonely job. We often work alone in our private practices, and it’s helpful to get feedback just as this woman did in the Facebook group. Having a trusted community helps us gain the confidence we need to inspire action.

We can remember the last time we faced a similar problem that ended up working out for the best. What can we pull from that experience into this one? We can have faith that there are great people and great options out there. We will find someone or something better! Eventually we always do.