Our Mission Is...

As part of our ongoing coaching of doctor CEO’s to help fine-tune and grow their practices we discuss stating the practice mission. This discussion is not the tired old format that many doctors think of, namely, ‘our mission is to be good dentists and do good dentistry for our patients’. Rather we encourage doctor CEO’s to clearly state their vision for the defined period of time under discussion and then produce their "marching orders" i.e., the statement of mission that helps achieve the vision. Here’s one excerpt of a recent mission statement that helped to transform an organization. "Our Mission is to be a practice that provides dental care carefully matched to the patients needs, providing a thorough explanation of the benefits that will inure to the future health of each patient...." In this portion of the statement you can feel the whole dental team joining together to focus on the dental health of their patients. It stresses matching care, not just scheduling another procedure, to improve the patient’s health. My view is that powerful mission statements are one of the best initiatives a CEO can take to lead and unify any team.