Reading Gallup’s 2021 book Well Being at Work: How to Build Resilient and Thriving Teams by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter, has challenged me to think about:

How do we develop a dental practice in which all team members thrive?

The things that immediately come to my mind for improving front office and clinical team morale are respect, appreciation, having a voice, genuinely fair compensation, and workplace flexibility to manage true personal urgencies such as illness and maternity leave–without feeling you are letting down the team. To reduce stress and enable all team members to do their best work and experience connection with patients, dentists can improve block scheduling to focus on doing more procedures in a single appointment while seeing fewer patients in a day.

Perhaps, more things will come to your mind.

5 Elements of Net Thriving Teams

Through millions of interviews worldwide, Gallup has found there are five universal elements of well being. Gallup says they are the five things that count most and that we need to focus on to develop “net thriving teams.”

Career well being: You like what you do every day.

Every day, you and your team members have opportunity to do the type of work that you individually do best and have unpressured time to do your personal best. As dentists, we often talk about doing more of the dental procedures we love doing most. What does each of your employees do best and want the opportunity to do more?

Social well being: You have meaningful friendships in your life.

For dentists, a meaningful friend is apt to be a like-minded colleague or mentor. Your best friends might be a “mental Board of Directors” — the voices of influencers you trust running through your head. But do all your team members have a meaningful friendship at work? Collaborating around a central philosophy of care helps build meaningful relationships.

Financial well being: You manage your money well.

As dentists, we talk at The Pankey Institute about defining for ourselves what is enough money to lead a balanced work life and personal life. It is also appropriate to talk about what is enough to maintain a practice in which every team member can financially thrive. As small, private employers, what changes and team buy-in might be required to wisely stay on track?

Physical well being: You have energy to get things done.

Eat properly, get healthy sleep, and exercise daily. Foster a spirit of health within the practice. Live it. Celebrate it. This will become part of the team culture that enhances the well being of everyone.

Community well being: You like where you live.

Humans innately strive to be part of something bigger than themselves and to support the social environment in which they work. Our practices are communities that often feel like large families. We can create and foster a practice vision that includes “being a thriving, supportive, well being community.” We can “write that on the wall” in our team meetings and in how we interact with each other and the patients we serve.

Closing Thought

A culture of well being puts overall well being upper most.

I encourage you to think and journal a bit about the actions you can take to support the five universal elements of well being…the five universal elements of a thriving life.

Why is well-being at work so important now?

In the latest Gallup organization interviews, one in four Americans reported feeling a lot of sadness the previous day. During the pandemic, a mental health crisis has impacted employee and patient sense of wellbeing. A large 28% of U.S. employees reported feeling burnout on the job very often or always. One-third of Americans have shown signs of clinical anxiety or depression, and the current state of suffering globally has risen significantly to seven in ten people worldwide.

The authors of Gallup’s 2021 book Well Being at Work: How to Build Resilient and Thriving Teams, Jim Clifton and Jim Harter, say “The right place to start reversing this trend is in the workplace. People want a good job with a good manager where they can use their strengths every day,” and this book empowers leaders and managers to create thriving cultures that involve (emphasize) employee participation and focus on the wellbeing of everyone involved.

Of course, when I read this book, I found it immensely applicable to dental practice. I was energized to communicate with you the basic Gallup findings and add my personal push for dental practice owners, leaders, and managers (in most cases, private dentists) to focus on building resilient, thriving teams. And Mary Osborne and I offered to start a Pankey Virtual Study Club centered on just this, titled “Ignite Your Team.”

Currently in our world, when the overlapping demands of work and life are greater than ever, maximizing employee wellbeing takes on urgency.

Flexibility within a framework is the future of work

Clifton and Harter state that “Organizations have the power and responsibility to improve their employees’ wellbeing. When leaders and managers cultivate the whole person at work — not just the employee — they promote the success of every individual in the organization.”

To maximize your team’s wellbeing, Gallup’s leadership experts encourage us to regularly gather feedback from employee about their opinions, needs, and experiences, then make decisions based on not only this feedback but also our experience, foresight, and understanding of the business (dental practice) and its goals. In a dental practice, this means placing high value on a culture that is positive, supportive, and focused on the overall wellbeing of yourself first and team members next, so together you can focus on the wellbeing of your patients.

I am reminded of two “Rich-isms” or teachings that Richard A. Green promotes within the Pankey community.

1. Always recognize that the team that co-develops a framework of structure and systems, embodies and operationalizes these systems. “If they help form it, they own it and support it.”
2. Make your office look more like an educational organization by creating a developmental, coaching, counseling, and consulting culture. Listen to the team. Involve team members, while considering your values and life-long vision supporting your mission and purpose.

What adds up to a thriving life?

In this new book, we learn that Gallup’s 100 million interviews worldwide have resulted in five universal elements that “add up to a thriving life.”

1. Career wellbeing: You like what you do every day.
2. Social wellbeing: You have meaningful friendships in your life.
3. Financial wellbeing: You manage your money well.
4. Physical wellbeing: You have energy to get things done.
5. Community wellbeing: You like where you live.

To develop a “Net Thriving Team,” start with reflecting on and journaling about these five stages of wellbeing. I’ll be back with “Zeroing in on Wellbeing at Work (Part 2)” next month.