Every Relationship within your dental office requires an Emotional Bank Account.  Once recognized, you will begin to understand the importance of carefully establishing accounts for every individual within your life.  This includes your dental team and dental patients.  Preparation for each account is imperative.  The giving of time and thoughtfulness will effectively enhance learning, build achievement, and allow healthy change to occur.  Once prepared, move forward by making deposits of trust, thoughtfulness, and a willingness to understand.  So that over time, when you make withdrawals, by asking someone to change something, you won't deplete the account too much.  It is important to make deposits first, build healthy relationships, etc… before allowing any withdrawals to occur.

Whether you are seeking to understand a Team Member in the Dental Practice, a Patient, or even someone very close to you; remove your egocentric viewpoint.  Our mind must understand their thought process and then take a walk in their shoes to fully comprehend their feelings.  Try to completely LISTEN to the other person.  When we gather our next thought; the tendency to fire off a response explodes.  You must learn to listen and genuinely concentrate on the conversation taking place. 

Another deposit is made by keeping your commitments.  This holds true for all aspects of your life.  Breaking a promise is a huge withdrawal for anyone.  Some examples might be a patient who breaks an appointment.  Every Team Member feels that withdrawal from the patient.  Another might be the Team Member who is always running late, the forgotten promise of a bonus, and so many more.  The message is to keep your commitments!  An impeccable way to build those deposits in a healthy manner is to set clear, concise expectations in the beginning.  There is nothing more frustrating in any relationship than not understanding what is expected of you.  The illusion of reading another’s mind can be misinterpreted and cause a huge withdrawal as an outcome.  Every Team Member within your practice will view life differently.  Most likely have a different background and set of life experiences.  Therefore, expecting someone to just “know” is not only unfair but completely unrealistic.  Focus on setting those expectations. Once the expectations are established, begin paying attention to the little things.  Whether it is a compliment to another Team Member, the Smile that you gave Mr. Jones when he walked in this morning, or listening attentively during the Morning Huddle.  Those little things will become the bigger things as time passes.  Your Emotional Bank Account is secure now.  However, remember that it must be built on Trust.  If you are doing all of the other steps but lack Integrity, the account is EMPTY.

You must also pay close attention to the deposits made into the accounts of your patients.  This begins at the time of their appointment.  Be certain that everyone is making deposits throughout the duration of their visit. The entire Team should be making deposits.  This includes within the Team as well as in your account.  Remind yourself as well as the Dental Team to choose responses wisely and with integrity.  When you have built up a positive balance in your "bank account," then misunderstandings and mistakes along the way seem like minor obstacles.  By making a commitment to seek first to understand, the consistency to follow through with deposits on a regular basis is inevitable.  This will allow you to achieve a HEALTHY Emotional Bank Account(s).

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