Owning a dental practice can become stressful when clinical production leaves little time for leadership, planning, and business development. In this episode, Kirk Behrendt speaks with Ariel Sigel, dental practice coach, about three strategic shifts that help owners build more profitable, sustainable practices.
You will learn how to create time to work on the business, use data to make intentional decisions, and establish communication rhythms that give your team greater clarity and accountability. For practical steps to become a more effective owner and leader, listen to Episode 1073 of The Best Practices Show!
Main Takeaways:
- Practice owners must allocate dedicated time to function as entrepreneurs rather than spending all of their time producing dentistry.
- Consistent administrative time and weekly team meetings can improve efficiency without reducing overall production.
- Practice decisions should be guided by reliable data rather than emotions, isolated complaints, or short-term fluctuations.
- Teams can use a small number of key metrics and an issues list to identify, discuss, and solve important problems.
- Regular huddles, team meetings, leadership check-ins, and quarterly planning sessions create predictable communication rhythms.
- Clear expectations and repeated communication reduce assumptions, improve accountability, and strengthen team alignment.
- Owners should implement these shifts gradually and build consistent habits instead of introducing every change at once.
Episode Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:07 The three roles of clinician, leader, and entrepreneur.
05:24 Why owners need dedicated time to work on the business.
09:10 How consistent leadership and team meeting time improves efficiency.
16:10 Moving from reactive decisions to intentional decisions through data.
18:00 Using habit stacking, key metrics, and quarterly priorities.
20:58 Moving from chaos to clarity through communication rhythms.
24:00 How consistency and proactive communication create alignment.
26:36 Preventing meetings from becoming complaint sessions.
28:00 Using a structured meeting format to improve effectiveness.
29:08 Implementing the three strategic shifts one step at a time.
31:00 Resources for KPIs, communication rhythms, and practice improvement.
Guest Bio/Guest Resources:
Ariel has a master’s in healthcare administration and several years of dental experience in all aspects of the administrative roles within the dental office. Her passion is to work with dental teams to empower team members to realize their full potential in order to better serve patients, improve office systems to ensure a well-functioning team/office, and to help everyone have fun in the process!
Episode Resources:
https://www.actdental.com/free-resources/
Atomic Habits by James Clear:
https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
Traction by Gino Wickman: https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837
To the Top study club: https://www.actdental.com/ttt/
https://www.actdental.com/free-resources/
More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:
