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 If you are looking to be hired as a dental office manager then you should know what an employer is looking for. 

 

There's a lot you can pull from just watching your own dental office manager, but it might do you well to know specifically what an employer might be looking for during an interview.

 

 Here are our top three attributes and things that an employer is looking for during an interview, or may even ask you about. 

 

Someone Who Prioritises Organization

 If you have ever walked into a dental office then you know the office manager is always looking for ways to optimize and perfect the organizational system within the office. This is due to the fact that organization is a must for every well-oiled and efficient dental office.

 

Organization is really useful for everything as a pertains to a dental office. From patient records to insurance documentation and everything in between. All of this needs to be documented, written down, and easily found when needed.

 

Yet these organizational methods and procedures need to also be able to easily be understood and transferable to other team members. This is so you can teach it to the rest of the team or any new incoming team members.  This also applies to when temps come into the office to assist. Organizational methods need to be uniform no matter who is working.

 

If you would like more information about temps you can always feel free to check out our website and see what temps we have available near you with office manager experience. 

 

Someone Who Has Leadership Skills

There is a lot that goes into leading a team, and one of the most basic things is different kinds of leadership styles that you may possess. Many employers will be trying to determine your leadership style throughout the initial interview and conversation.

 

 They may even go as far as to ask you your leadership style outright.

 

 Every employer knows that you will try to answer the best way possible, even if it involves bending the truth a little bit.

 

 However…

 

They will be able to tell right away whether or not this aligns with what you have told them, and they may be unhappy if they decide to move forward with you and your leadership style does not align with what you have previously mentioned.

 

 So no matter what be honest.

 

Overall there are three main leadership styles you should be aware of. It is important to note that there are subsets within each of these Styles, but we will not be delving into those in this article.

 

 The first is the autocratic style of management.

This management style is one where almost all of the decisions will come from a specific individual. The easiest way to consider this is the standard boss archetype.

 

In this style of management, employees are told what to do and when to do them, but their input is not overly valued or taken into consideration by the management team.

 

 The pros to this style of management are that there will be a uniform direction that is set that the company will move towards, and there will be a reduced chance of miscommunication because there will not be multiple authority figures providing direction.

 

 One of the biggest cons is that this may lead to your team feeling undervalued, underheard, and possibly even burnt out. If this management style is done incorrectly it may lead to a higher turnover than other management styles.

 

 The second is the democratic style of management.

This style of management takes into account the opinions of the staff and their teams. While it does not resemble a true democracy where the staff ends up finalizing the decisions due to a form of vote or general opinion, it is where the staff is at least heard out and listened to. This style of management will heavily take into account the opinions of their team when making decisions. While they may not always side with their team, their decision should be influenced by the team.

 

The pros to this style of management are that your team members will feel heard out and understood when their opinions are solved, or put into action before them in your policies. This may also lead to management being able to improve issues that they may not have been aware of if they had not listened and heard out their team.

 

 The cons of this leadership style is that team members may feel very negatively when they do not have their opinions actually acted upon or decided against. They may end up feeling as if being asked their opinion was just a box check and not actually valuable to management.  It may end up feeling like management is constantly trying to defend themselves to their own staff.

 

 The third is the laissez-faire style of management.

 This style of management prioritize as being relatively hands-off from its staff.  there are even many traditionalists when it comes to management styles that would consider this a lazy approach.

 

 Ultimately we're this management style flourishes is when you have a team that you feel you can rely on. This style of management leaves your team to accomplish their own tasks and come to you as a resource for any questions or needs they may have.

 

 This style of leadership works best when it comes to project-focused tasks.

 

This style of management is the opposite of micromanagement and requires a significant amount of trust in your team and their abilities.

 

Someone Who Is Technologically Savy

 This is important as it contributes to the authority of the office manager. The office manager needs to be the authority figure when it comes to the management software that the dental practice is using. They should be considered a master of this software.

 

 They should have a relatively complete understanding of the finances of the dental office and the implications of any situation that may arise that will require your guidance. Being the office manager means you are going to be the person individuals will come to when they have questions.

 

 You also need to be technologically savvy enough to come up with new procedures If the previous method is not as effective. You need to be able to document these procedures in an easy-to-understand way where anybody can understand them that comes into the office.

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