Team members seek to use their skills, connect with colleagues, and steer their own contributions. Regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, culture, or life experiences, everyone shares three fundamental psychological needs: Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy. These psychological needs are internally motivated and, therefore, more sustainable than external motivators such as gaining a reward or avoiding punishment.

Dental leaders must understand how to cultivate work environments that fulfill these internal needs. The ultimate objective is sustained performance and results driven by internally motivated individuals. Leaders adept at harnessing these principles can attract top talent, enhance productivity, and achieve higher team satisfaction and retention rates.

The good news is that the skills needed to craft work environments that honor and respect each team member are relatively easy to learn. They include:

• Adopting employee perspective
• Communicate in an informational way
• Generate opportunities for choice.

Adopting employee perspective begins with active listening. Put aside multitasking or politely waiting your turn to make your points. Learning to be curious and acknowledge to the employees that their point of view is valid, even if you disagree. Creating open dialog allows you to see deeper into each employee's motivations and emotional needs.

Communicating in an informative way prevents conversations from spiraling into personal attacks. Share facts, data, and knowledge and avoid controlling or judgmental statements that include words like "should," "ought," or "have to."  Helping others understand the "why" behind your decisions often brings everyone to new understandings.

Generating opportunities for choice allows employees to personalize their work experience. Employees crave autonomy and the ability to have agency over their jobs. In every organization, there are three types of rules: red, blue, or purple. Certain rules, such as OSHA or HIPPA regulations, are fixed and non-negotiable (red rules). Blue rules, on the other hand, are flexible. These may include how employees decorate their locker area or allow the team to choose uniform colors/styles. Purple rules can be thought of as red rules that are accomplished in creative ways. For example: (red rule) greet each patient when they enter the reception area. Receptionists can personalize this by standing up, going into the reception area to greet the patient and provide paperwork, or offering coffee/tea or other amenities. There are many ways to customize customer service to accomplish the mandated task of 'greeting the patient.'

To dive deeper in this topic, join Dr. Adrienne Reynolds, CHRO, and Brent Hogan, VP of Client Services, in this Dental Economics Webinar:  Psychological insights for dental practice staffing success.