Coaching your managers

Yesterday I met (for the first time) with Zoltan Mate, the new business development manager at Premier Orthodontics in Bromley.

It will be the first of a series of meetings in which I ensure that he is doing “the right things right” to help grow the business, in close liaison with owners Yaz and Lydia Nafa.

I’m working with 26 full coaching clients right now and with 14 of them I am part way through the training and coaching process with recently appointed business, clinic and marketing managers.

It has become a big part of what I do.

I help owners to

1. decide that their business is ready for the hire

2. help compose a suitable recruitment advert

3. identify key channels to place the advert (including my own extensive network)

4. review and select from CV’s

5. assist with interviews (either 1:1 or Skype)

6. vote in the final selection process

That, of course, is when the real work begins.

The work of integrating the new manager into your core values, your existing team and your business protocols without upsetting the apple carts that can often appear at that point.

A dental practice owner (like a business coach) is as good as their management team.

In dentistry, up to £500,000 in sales, the owner (and/or a long-suffering spouse) will try to do everything themselves.

The journey from £500,000 to £1.2m requires acceptance that management help is needed – as does the journey from £1.2m to £2.5m – and beyond.

A fundamental break-through in thinking takes places when the owner(s) realise that the horse is the manager and the cart is the growth in their business – not the other way around.

I really love recruiting, training and coaching managers and I’m pleased and proud to say that the 14 new managers I’m working with right now are all championship quality.

Thus, of course, making the owners businesses and lives so much better.