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The Power of the Right Talent Force by Jay Geier

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by Jay Geier

One of the greatest challenges I see most orthodontists facing today is running their practice like a business and being able to get productive things done beyond just seeing patients. Whether it has to do with getting marketing in place, implementing a patient referral system or building a new office, it’s important to have the right people in the right positions (doing the right things) in order to really make things happen.

I’m going to share with you five areas of talent that you should have in your own practice to ensure it runs like a welloiled machine that can get productive things done!

I call this “The Talent Force” and it’s comprised of the following categories. This is the structure we follow at the Scheduling Institute. Each of your employees should fall into one of these categories: Vision, Lead, Build, Manage, Do. And you should have the right mix of each type of talent.

Vision (Visionaries)
As the owner of the business, it is your job to create the vision. It’s not enough to have a vague idea of what you want for your practice. In life, you get what you deserve. So having a vague vision will bring you vague results. Your vision must be very clear and specific and planned a minimum of five years out. A vision should be designed for significant growth, not incremental growth.

Once you have a strong vision you must constantly communicate it to your entire team. We have close to 100 employees at the Scheduling Institute and I meet with our entire team once a month to refresh their minds with our vision and get them refocused on moving toward it.

If you don’t already have a clear vision, are not the type of person who can create one, or if you’re just not satisfied with the vision you have (you want something bigger than you can create on your own), use outside resources to help form the vision. Look at great companies and ask how you can apply their ideas to your practice. Get outside of your niche. Read books on great business leaders and find inspiration that you can adapt and use to bring your vision into reality. At the Scheduling Institute, our most exclusive group of clients are in our 5X vision program, which is designed to take their practices five times over what it currently does. A large portion of this program is about creating a great vision. We started this less than one year ago and many of those clients are already half way there.

Lead (Leaders)
A leader’s job is to execute the vision with the rest of the team on a daily basis. To be able to effectively pursue the vision, a leader must understand and believe in the vision. Leaders can’t be on the fence in any way. They have to be “all in.” If you don’t already have leaders and you’re trying to figure out who this is, start by identifying people who you really trust who have also produced tangible results as a leader in your practice already.

To really develop great leaders, you must give them complete authority and opportunity. You should no longer delegate just tasks. Let your leaders be true leaders and take on big things. Let them take chances and allow them to fail. You must give them full control in order to really learn and grow. This will also free up your own time. You need time to focus on the details of the vision because you must be constantly refreshing it. You cannot do that if other things bog you down. Your job is to be the visionary. Your leaders’ jobs are to find ways to bring the vision into reality.

You will need several leaders. You might have a clinical team leader and a front desk leader. You must also have people assigned as leaders for the three basic business functions: finance, operations and sales/marketing.

To ensure your leaders stay on track, you need to commit to a meeting structure with them. You do not need to meet every day, but you do have to communicate with them often enough so they know what to do. I meet with my team leaders once a week for one hour and quarterly for one to two full days.

Build (Builders)
A builder is a person who can create things related to executing the vision. Builders are good at taking projects, getting them off the ground and setting up systems and processes that they can pass off to someone else who can then manage them.

Without a builder on your team it is physically impossible for you to complete all the growth projects for your practice and do everything else you need to be doing: create vision, treat patients, stay current with orthodontic practices/technology, continuing education, etc.

A builder does not need to do every element of every project, but should be the point person for your growth projects. You should be able to give him/her parameters on a growth project and turn them loose to get it done. Their purpose is to handle all the day-to-day and only involve you on the big decisions. If your practice is ever going to become exceptionally profitable, you must be able to do many things at once. In order to do that, you must have a builder. For example, adding two operatories to your practice to increase capacity is a growth project. Just think, if a builder owned that instead of you, you could literally be seeing patients all day and simultaneously your builder could manage building the two new ops.

If you give a builder clearly defined parameters and expectations at the start of a project, you shouldn’t have to meet too often unless the scope of the project changes. A good builder will be empowered to make decisions and keep things moving. If you have to help with every detail or talk about the project on a daily basis, you don’t have the right builders.

Manage (Managers)
In The Talent Force model, manage doesn’t mean managing people, but rather managing a process that’s already been created (usually by the builder). A good manager will be great at keeping a process going and maintaining consistency. There are a lot of things in your office that are repeat processes – handling the phones, processing patients when they walk in, filing insurance, calling patients to remind them of appointments, etc. Everything in your practice is about creating a process and repeating it. A person that can oversee processes and make sure they are followed on a consistent basis is a manager.

Do (Doers)
Doers are people who do things. As the doctor, you fall into both the visionary and doer categories because when you’re seeing patients all day, you’re doing. I’m the visionary at the Scheduling Institute, but when I’m in front of a group of clients teaching, I’m doing. Because you fall into both categories, you have to be intentional about creating a balance so that the vision gets taken care of no matter what. Doers are also people who handle the ins and outs of the processes in your practice. Like sterilizing the equipment, getting the mail, ordering supplies, etc.

What talent areas is your practice weak in? What kind of people are you missing? A successful practice should have some of each type of talent.

Evaluate your staff and put them in one of these categories based on their body of work so far. Really be honest with yourself about what each person is good at. Be cautious not to make people something they’re not and if someone’s in the wrong spot, move him or her to the right spot immediately and realign responsibilities. Having a team member in a position which does not utilize strengths could obscure true value.

Author's Bio
Jay M. Geier is a speaker, consultant and the president and founder of the Scheduling Institute. He helps his clients reach new levels of success and create a lifestyle they dream of using their practice as the vehicle. He has a unique ability for getting results in a practice by leveraging its current resources with a primary focus on getting the staff to take more ownership, more responsibility and teaching them how to produce results. For more information on the Scheduling Institute programs available for orthodontists, call 877-215-8225 or e-mail info@schedulinginstitute.com.
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September 2025
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