Dental Unscripted | Getting into Ownership and Practice Management Insights

Welcome to Dental Unscripted for Mike Dinzio and Paul the Quinn

Break down the practice ownership journey one episode at a time starting up buying and running a successful dental practice

Alright alright guys welcome back to another episode of Dental Unscripted

We're keeping it hot today

This is our second episode live so the socials are gonna be annoyed of Michael and Paula's face today but that's just how it's gonna be

Uh it's good to see you again Paula nice to see you and thanks for joining as always good morning good morning

Today is all about culture

We're gonna talk we're gonna break culture down

I think culture is um I think culture is a great topic because um lately I've been feeling like burnout and I know burnouts kind of like a buzz thing

I mean we've been talking about burnout since and I feel like a couple years after Covid everybody was burned out

I'd go to dental conferences and there'd be speakers on burned out

There there was a lot of burnout stuff out there and I feel like the better the culture you have your culture and your stress um can um well a good culture can help you have less stress in the situation but you're burned out

Um no I'm I'm not burned out

I thought you said you were no I'm not burned out

Um I have been burned out but I'm not burned out

But I feel like if you have a great team and you have great culture you're excited about going into work you're not as stressed you've got like minded people around you and you just can do you know it's it's just better

Um if you have like not such a great culture I think um I think you can get burnout quick

So I think it's a great topic it's very relevant for this moment in time and um that's what we're gonna break down today

Just a little uh housekeeping

If you're listening to this on startup unscripted or dental acquisition unscripted please join us on just uh the the channel dental unscripted

It's our new channel we're breaking down practice management stuff

We're still doing a ton of start up and acquisition stuff um lots of different topics but we're consolidating into one channel

So dental unscripted um Paula when I um talk about culture even at next level or our clients like what do you think

Where does your head go

Because it's such a consultant thing to discuss

Um but I I kinda wanna just have a really real conversation about why it's important and the benefits of it why should be important to our listeners and clients

Well you kind of just defined it right

It's a difference of wanting to be at work and not wanting to be at work or being around those you work with versus not you know if if there's not a good culture good vibe a good feel it's kind of like you know yeah we you know they we joke all the time and industry that we spend more time at work than we do home

And it's kind of our dental family

And if if it's if it doesn't feel good you know or there's clicks and and things like that

It can just it can actually you know run your mojo

Yeah I mean how how do you how do you even digest culture

Where do you even start in your mind start fixing culture or to start paying attention to it

I I was thinking uh about a client that we had before this episode here in Washington

And I asked him I'm like hey like do do you feel like your employees are partners like or are they like stakeholders

Like did did they want to come in or do they see this as a J o b right and I felt like he had a decent culture and he said they're all j o bers

And I made me sad because um I felt like that office had good culture

And so like it's not you have no hope so that there's no hope exactly

No I just feel like it's something that constantly needs nurture

Like you just you related it to a relationship

If if you don't nurture your relationship it's just not gonna it's not gonna take off

Right

And so where do you even start with culture in your mind because it's such a beast it's such a beast

Well I think just getting something here because it's where I would start what is that

Um I think you know one of the things we did recently was our core values oh whipping up blocks the cubes

And I do think that if everyone doesn't understand the why um behind the work it's not gonna build unity and accountability

So I think that really um I think you and I doven you know when we wanted to strengthen our our culture and we decided to really think about you

And I went to a a little event or not an event

We worked with someone and they had said that um they implemented some stuff for us

And one of the things they said is you know you should higher and fire to your core values you know because of someone's not on the train then it's it's somewhere along the line I mean it may not be direct sabotage but it's gonna sabotage what you're trying to do

Because the the passion the care the direction that you're trying to go

It's gonna be hard if you're dragging somebody uphill or downhill or cross the field um other than you know them being a part of it and believing and what you're doing

Yeah I know I I'm glad I'm glad you brought up values because I I think that probably is the foundation of any any culture um and values

You know we went through that and defined it and what was really interesting is like if the owner of the business or leader whatever you're doing

If you're a leader or an owner if you're not super clear about your values and the the things that are really important to your business um or what you're trying to do then you can't really hold people accountable to that

So defining the values what's gonna guide your team um it it that starts with that

And so Paul held up our cubes if you're watching on YouTube those were our our values and we defined them

And what was interesting even within our business is the minute you define them then you could quickly see even within ourselves as the owners or with the folks that help us do everything we do

You could quickly see like when we were out of alignment just simply defining it right

So integrity I know is one of your favorite values that you brought to the table and the minute it's on a cube or a poster or on the on your desktop background and you see it every day and you witness when someone's not being full of integrity then then then it's an issue and if someone consistently isn't doesn't have integrity then to to your point um might not be a good fit for the business

And so values uh I think are are huge

I I like you said that you start recognizing it like you know what you want but you you allow things to happen

But once you define it and you live it and you you know constantly like you said remind it starts eating away at you

If it's missing in somebody or something doing for sure yeah it it just brings it right to the top and it and it puts it right right in front of you

And I think I think values is probably a great place to start

Um you know the the other thing is is once you kind of have those values declared and and identified and agreed upon cause we went through a whole exercise getting our team to agree on the values and they even came up with some themselves

And so it was kind of like a document a constitution so to speak

But then Paula I think one of the best things you do for our clients is helping them with handling conflict and having hard discussions conversations

You've been a team member for 35 years in a dental office and now as a consultant and now you have hard conversations with even our team member sometimes even with me your partner

And so like okay so now we have values defined and you now you gotta have a hard conversation

It's that accountability piece just having the poster on the wall isn't it

Once someone's breaking one of the values consistently and it's their intention to to break those values then you gotta have a hard conversation

So how do you where do you even begin with construction or constructive communication

Cause I think having guys is one thing but then having the accountability piece to it and having hard conversations is another

Well I I would say for me I think that's jumping ahead a little bit

Because I I think that the other thing with just creating values is the expectations around that

So like especially when I go back to a dental job or a dental office

If we don't know our job or constantly gonna fail other people like if we don't know the expectations we don't know I mean super clear expectation so it's not just you answer the phone you answer the phone before the third ring

Um it's not just you know go get a patient

It's go out and get the patient and call them Paula or Miss Quinn

Um it's really defining you know to me the the expectations of both their job description and kind of you know I hate to say it cause you you always say it's overused

But that that clear vision clarity of where we're where we are

And it's not the vision that the FUFU vision that you see on the wall for the patient mission statement mission statement

It's not the mission statement yeah oh it is like truly where do we wanna be in one year two year three year four year

We relate it back to to teams sports teams a lot

It's like you know if if the football if the quarterback isn't calling the play could you imagine all the the team running around with their own intentions on how how that plays gonna go

You know I've seen those football teams

They're not very good yeah the Cleveland Browns for yeah so it's uh it's that it's that um it's a combo of things

It's setting those clear clear expectations

You know we we do a lot of startups Michael

And they'll say to me like oh you know we don't need a morning cuddle

You know we've got one patient today and three team members we talk all day long

Um and I and my answer to them is my response I should say to them is always like yeah but what happens when you have eight patients

And what when you have eight patients three days a week all of a sudden yeah that communication it isn't able to happen

So even if it doesn't mean just because you you don't have a ton of patients on schedule you don't have to come in 20 minutes early you can do it you know an hour into the day if you don't have an 8:00am patient

But I think it still needs the expectations still need to be set every day or everybody clear concise so that we win something fails

Those conversation that communication becomes easier

If I say to you hey show up tomorrow morning and you do but you don't bring anything is that on me or is that on you

So it's it's once I set those clear communications Michael show up tomorrow 8 a

M bring a pencil and no book and whatever and then you don't now we have something to talk about

I feel more empowered and confident in and having that conversation with you because I set the the expectations

If I don't now I'm probably just gonna let things slide because I'm thinking well I didn't really tell them yeah of course he didn't know

Now I'm frustrated with you I'm having my own internal battle

Yeah I mean does that make sense

No it makes total sense because I'm thinking about next level like 1.0

Um that might be an internal uh code word but you're gonna know what I'm talking about

When we first started and we grabbed folks to to even work for next level

Um I don't know if we were really ready but it made sense

And so we onboarded some coach or a few coaches and we didn't set any expectations

It was just kind of like hey you know you know what consultants all about you've been doing it for years yeah sure let's do it right

And and then when that those folks just didn't do it our way or or or or um didn't have the same kind of outcome that we would would like

It's hard to have a conversation about what like how they did wrong because we never set those expectations on them from from day 1

So I I think it's a beautiful example because the start up has nothing going on nothing they're sitting around picking their nose

There's nothing going on and so what a beautiful time well at least just use gloves

Haha you beat me to it

Uh just just that's a perfect time to establish all the agreements expectations um and job descriptions

Yeah even when you're acquiring a practice right it's like yeah these these folks you know whether you're a startup and acquisition or even even just general practice management most of these folks have experience

Uh huh they're gonna bring their experience from another office right or what they were taught from

What do you use Nancy Joe you know earlier

It doesn't mean it's horrible or wrong it's just not the way that we want

And some dogs don't even know they don't write phones being answered and they'll walk out and it's like uh good afternoon hold please

You know what I mean

And that's the way they did it the other arm and they've been doing it you know you've owned this practice and they may have been doing this for five or 10 years

You don't even know it till you hear it and you're like totally wait is that how you're answering the phone

Yeah not always you know and it's like holy crap haha so you wanna just you know whether you've owned for a long time and it starts today whether you've acquired a practice and it starts today or your startup

I think really honing in on your your expectate your your vision your core values and then even deeper just again like those job descriptions you know job descriptions are hey you answer the phone you answer emails you do this you this

But it even gets you know more nitty gritty and how how and why how and why

Yeah I love that you said that

So we're we're covering in really broad strokes here but I think these are really good things for every owner to go through so that we cover values expectations job descriptions but then taking it one layer one one layer deeper to Paula's point is like why are we doing these things

Because I think people treat their work their jobs as jobs until you explain to them what we're trying to do here or and why

It makes it more of an owner mentality

When I am training somebody uh at next level for example and I'm like yeah do this do this do this

And and there are people pleasers are like okay yeah I'll do that I'll do that I'll do that all day

That's no problem until you attach up

Well we do this because the consequences of not doing it is this and if that happens then that and that and that and that happens right and and now they're like oh like this isn't just a duty now like this affects if I don't do this thing it affects my team my owners my patient whatever like there is there's a consequence a ripple effect of not doing that thing

And if they don't attach the y behind it it just isn't as meaningful

It's just a job description a J O b yeah um okay so now now can we go to hard conversations

So so I love that Paul and I'm glad you had a step back because um you do have to define it and the leader has to drive it

And and all of that needs to get written out

Is that what you would suggest while is writing all this out and then kind of having all that as part of like a an onboarding process or at least a conversation

How would you implement values and expectations and agreements and we do agreements and offices all the time like how would you do that

Yeah I mean like if you're starting today it's it's almost like you know a check in you could either do it in a team meeting you could do a one on one

But I I think it's you know maybe even falling on your sword like hey maybe I didn't do this right from the beginning you know it's it's I I was a new owner or hey I've been doing this so long and you're new to the team or you know and I think it's just like first obviously getting clear yourself and then doing that

It's it's both through um you know to me like I said explaining your core value and your vision and then yeah absolutely job descriptions

I think everyone needs one

It I think we crave how can we please others

What what can we do to help

What can we do to make it happy

And how do I know if I'm doing a good job

And so I think you know the job description and the measurables behind it at at what point do I know that this is satisfying to you

Um so you know hmm you know I'm just I'm just trying to think like scheduling to goal you know if I know if I put$5,000 a day on the on the schedule or 3,000 I did a good job

Otherwise I'm just scheduling doctors frustrated doesn't know what's happening up there until finally someone comes up and says why is our month so crappy

You know what what happened

And I'm like what what do you mean

What's BI

You know what I mean

Yeah exactly you know there was something all day long or or whatever

So I think it's you know setting all those expectations and absolutely writing it down and and we get nitty gritty you know when we do it even to breaking up time management because it's you know if you're spending from eight to 9 in the morning or 8 to 10 in the morning trying to get all your confirmations done you know it set you up for success for the next day then you then you you know 10 to 12 year whatever and then and and you sure you're gonna get kidnapped you know the role window of the day is gonna kidnap you

But you know hey I've got to get this done before 10

So it's it's what what I wanted to make sure that we really I love that because I love that you're adding a lot of contextual context to to this conversation because it's going to make me as an owner happy and it's I know you as an employee happy

It's it's it's perfect because you can write it down you could have the team all agree on it you can create job descriptions and that's all setting everybody up for success but you took it to another level so instead of the bullet point on your front I'll make this very tangible instead of on the job description you have schedule to goal a bullet point to the front office person right so you're hiring a front office person and part of the job description might say schedule and fill the schedule that's the task

Well Paula just said is instead of saying that it should say schedule 2 a 5,000 per day goal

It's very specific it's not just kind of yeah yeah I got a schedule no schedule it's yeah fill the schedule

No it's fill the schedule to 5,000 per day and it's the the more granular and the more results driven you you can get your team aligned on

Then the more success that you'll have the happier the owner will be and you create that owner owner mentality so I I love that

So the the first part of this whole conversation was really just getting it documented getting it super clear understanding what you're trying to get out of your team what's important to you as the owner so on and so forth then just getting it down and being super clear

Then I guess the next part is as if you have done all of that then you get to have some accountability but too many times our clients wanna have accountability conversations and they haven't done that whole front end of this episode

There's gonna do there's gonna be a culture breakdown without clarity

That's just it's it's gonna happen yeah exactly and then to your point now how do I have that conversation and I can't put somebody's feet to the fire that's right

They don't have clarity

It's kind of on me

Communication starts with me and with you whoever you is and trickles down from there

So yes how I can be like I feel as an owner or even as a teammate that I can now go and have what would normally be an uncomfortable conversation

It's never gonna be fully comfortable but I can feel confident

It it's just like we teach cancellation and no show policies all the time

If if we're writing it we're walking the walk everyone speaking the language it's it's super transparent to our patients

It's a lot easier conversation to say you owe me money

Then if it's somewhere hidden in our office policy I've never reminded anyone it's not in our tax it's not

Now I feel bad for the patient

I'm like I don't wanna charge this patient like they did

No or maybe we didn't make it clear enough

Maybe we should give him a couple chances

You know it's that same thing but when you have confidence that you've done everything in your power to to have clarity clear communication define the things the why the how

Now it's like hey you're just messing with me now right

Or exactly which is fine if you forgot but I can feel confident in reminding you hey remember when we talked about that what's going on here

Yeah I I think that's great

Um I I'm thinking like there's a lot of conflict that happens within an office

I don't know how to say this in another way but there's a lot of ladies and can be some drama at times

I know I'm not supposed to say that but but it's true right

And so you just like you said in the beginning this episode it's family right

And and things happen and I think a huge part of culture is having great communication um having safety within an office

So it's not just having hard conversations about what you did or didn't do but it's probably also about how to break down upsets

And you know it does anything like that trigger you with say that can you say that again upsets having upsets it just there's a lot of upsets that happen in a dental office as you know and it's how you handle those upsets that can really bond um folks together

I know personally when I've had hard conversations with clients and team members my relationship usually elevates after that conversation

I have absolutely have had situations where I haven't handled it right and guess what

That's not a great I don't have I lost an opportunity

And I and I think that culture I think you can create as the owner and environment where open communication and healthy conflict resolution can make an office thrive or struggle

I mean I'm sure you felt that in dental offices your entire career Paula

Yeah and I think all those things lead up to that you know all those things lead up to that

And you even mention safety safety is another

So if you think about it clear expectations you know clarity on where we're going all of this stuff safety and communication um I think we feel supported we understand the expectations which is gonna create high performing cultures

And if you feel confident in going to your teammate and you feel safety in your teammate coming to you especially if you go with the intent you know we always say with with one problem come with three solutions

If your intent when you go to someone is to fix uh become have a better outcome and move forward in a in a constructive way and not in it assume that the other person had good intentions to that they may not have been aware

Um when you attack somebody no matter what they're gonna be defensive

I think everybody comes out punching when so there's two things that are happening there either the person being talked to doesn't feel safe with you or you came at them in a an aggressive way

Um because if you come with the intent to fix you're assuming hey what's going on

This is so unlike you you know we you're usually really good at whatever putting your tray away

We always use the the tray that's always the fun you know the hygiene is leaving the tray in the sterilization room is always the fun um topic

Um you know if we have all that going for us if you come to me and say hey what happened to that

You know why was that tray left in their lunch

I would be like oh my gosh I'm so sorry I totally forgot

If you come at me and say you always do this and especially if I don't always do it guess what's coming back at you

So I think it goes on both people

I think I have to have safety with the person that's coming at me which means our communication is in the past has been them coming and attacking me their safety there

And then I think it's that person still even if there's trust and safety has to come with the intent to want to fix something and and not accusatory

Um you know I think that that communication will always thrive

I think that's a really hard thing to do let's be honest is being that bigger person and the leader and the owner has to has to be that like as the owner as the leader we have to step back take a deep breath and try to understand first

And if you do that consistently within your organization or whatever you're doing as a leader or owner people will feel safe with you

And if you can create an environment where people feel safe holy crap like if everybody feels safe in your organization then you can go right up to that person and say yo you're not being good you're not you're not doing the best you can you're not treating patients the way I know you can and yet there's safety there and that person levels up because you have that safety but if you don't then you gotta dance around this weird like thing

But if you can work on that just like you could work on that with your relationships at home

Any relationship you're in safe creating that safety is really huge

I wanted to actually pivot well I wanted to say one more thing so we're putting to worry

Well I was gonna I was gonna pivot to having a clarity about what we're trying to do as far as like results and goals cause I think that also glues culture

But let's not move on and unless you have something else to to

Well I I was gonna say the how behind it

And I and I think the how you know we talked we talked we started with a how but I think the last piece is investing in your team

You know it's it's it's not even just investing money investing in coaches

It's also investing time

So I mentioned earlier about those check ins

I think having um the one on ones I think celebrating big and small wins I think recognition we we do a we do a workshop where where we discuss recognition

We do actually a lot of workshops on you know I think team culture we like we like sprinkle those in

And I think it's super important the morning huddle helps the team meetings help the check ins help um the evaluations help recognition celebrating you know when when someone has a win sometimes I even implement what I call the kudos box you know just just recognizing even each other as teammates

So I I just don't think you can underestimate the power of you know recognizing something good that somebody did or just how the team won even with a even with a great review of like you know that that's a privilege when a patient stops and leaves us a review it takes time

And so celebrating those wins with your team you know how no matter how big or how small I think is important

Well you talked about like all those workshops that we do and I'm glad you did the clients Paul I want you to think I I have some examples if you have some too let's let's have them but oh yes you do

Um I'm thinking about the offices that embody culture and culture matters um they just do better

It's fact like it's and it's not just better it's like they're on another level

I think about a lot of our young practice owners who are a little younger in their career and haven't felt the pain of managing people yet

And they there's a clear difference in folks that like really care about this stuff

And um and then there's a there's a there's a lot more people that don't and I'm just gonna tell you that the folks that really do embody this idea crush they crush and their teams are better and they don't burn out and they're not as stressed that it's just a beautiful thing

And when folks hire us sometimes they think we're just gonna come in and fix their culture forum

We cannot fix your culture because it's driven it's driven by the owners and do they actually take these workshops and do the things and live these things and create the posters and buy the cubes with the values and and hold people accountable and they they they actually buy into it

If you're just doing the culture things once a year at your retreat you don't have good culture and you're not gonna you're not gonna have the huge wins that Paul and I are talking about

Well think about your family right

Like I mean when you have kids they don't really appreciate very much

I mean that's just kids they're not very yet maturity wise

But imagine walking into your home every day after work and your kids and your significant everyone just like you're the greatest everything's great you know you would be like I love coming home right

Or I hate leaving this is so good

Um people walk into your house and they're like holy crap I wanna I wanna go there every Friday night

Like think about that dynamic I mean that's a little bit of you know wishful thinking exaggeration there but yeah if you had that at work where we're using please and thank yous we're saying good morning and goodbyes

We're jumping in where we're needed we're appreciating we're thanking every time someone helps us we're appreciating you know that the small things even if it's something that they should do and you know using words like absolutely I'm happy to help

Where can I help you even though I'm busy

Like could you imagine you would want you'd be like wow it's the best freaking place ever like that's right place

I love the people I work with

I you know and and I do think Michael it starts with the owner because of course it does everything does yeah um I I really do

So you know anyone out there all you dentist listening um you know but it doesn't have to be you know one person can change an office

Maybe maybe the dentist the owner needs you know they don't recognize it

And you know it's the front office it's the hygienist the done it or the the assistant

That's right

They can also turn a culture around

That's right

And you got to get those culture suckers out of there

There's a book that I read and like it's called um it's the bus one

Paula help me

Bus bus the Energy Bus Energy Bus by John Gordon or something like that

And he talks about energy vampires and that's basically a culture vampire

Um if you get a culture vampire that's sucking all the culture out of your business and your organization get rid of them

They are killing you inside and out

Paula you talked about like the pleasant trees

It's sad that we even have to say what you just said the please and the thank yous

And it's sad that we even have to say that

I think you mean sad that I need to say thank you to people or so

It's sad that we need to highlight that we should do it it should just happen and I know it doesn't just happen

No you're you know you're busy

It's you you've not worked in a dental practice but it it's I'm just as busy as you

Well and even in our our business right where I'm just as busy as you

Yeah I don't think about thanking you every time you bring a new client into our our culture

I don't thank you every time yeah you know you get off a call with me in front of a dentist

It it's it kind of goes without saying

I it's true you and I appreciate everything you do and I know that you know that

But but you know if you constantly heard it not just from me but everyone's hard team members

And and it's in front of a doctor and they're thinking wow like they love each other

Yeah holy shit this is like these people are weird and but I like it you know you know no it isn't sad

I think we just get very busy we're very busy with the thing

We're busy

America is a very busy culture

Anyway yeah and even after like you mentioned Covid earlier I think we got even more busy

Yeah um we're all in it what's in it for us and you know my job is just as hard as yours and I got my own stuff to worry about

So you're right I mean it is sad in a way but I think it's much more common than not

Yeah um but for sure so so I think that's beautiful

Paula talked about the pleasantries and just slowing down and taking the time

That's so Paul if you know Paula I'm the conflict guy

And and I think holy crap there's such an opportunity with conflict

I'm telling you if you could lean into conflict I hate it

It's against all of my nature to have any conflict in my life

But but you're just folks you're just gonna have a lot of conflict in your life especially if you own a business

There's gonna be a lot of conflict in your life

I've Learned over the years as as a business owner whatever throughout this journey life that conflict if you lean into it your outcome it's just next level

If you can if you can handle conflict situation I feel like it has a 10 fold effect

Um the pleasantries absolutely do but when when you handle something that's just icky and you come out you just have this like this safety this another another respect for that person

It really can take things to another level

So owners leaders when you see conflict and I'm talking to myself right now

When you see conflict lean into it handle it in a healthy way

You're gonna have an incredible an incredible impact to your business and organization

And when you say that you don't mean it doesn't always have to be two people fighting conflict

It's it's something is broken in the in the system yeah watching it happen and you have to have those difficult conversations whether it's a person well it's always a person doing it but whether it's like just skipping a stab or right not showing up um for the organization

Right but I do yeah it's it's James I hit it hat on because usually it makes or breaks the relationship

It does it makes it and everything gets amazing and it takes the whole practice to another level or it breaks it and you get that energy

I I looked over here I think I have it um that that energy sucker out of there you know and yeah they'll probably be happier for it too

It probably wasn't it may not even be them it just might not be the right place for them as well

That's right but I will say that like you're right

Like smaller conflicts or things like absolutely great lean into that but the bigger the bigger the issue people screaming contention ugly stuff like the bigger the issue the bigger the conflict the better the opportunity

If you could lean into opportunity like that I'm talking to my younger self

Uh I've had business partners and friends over the years that's like oh don't pull a Dinzio

And I'm like what what's that mean

Like what did I do before where I burned some bridges and stuff

Right and I I look at I look at my younger self and say shit I could have handled that way better and maybe that would have been a relationship that would be like so fruitful

How'd I handled that

But instead I was a hot head about it

I had my opinion

I didn't understand their opinion their perspective

And and although to me it felt super clear that I was right boy I dug in and it and it man I could have had such a better relationship with that person so I'm I'm talking to my younger self I'm talking to you younger younger younger

Here she goes

I talking to my today self apparently specifically my business partner and all the problems she has with me but I but I but I have handled things as a hothead before

Let's let's bring in a question

Um I think it came through Next Level Consultants YouTube uh channel

If you're watching on YouTube uh today folks are as loyal

Here's the question

Today folks aren't as loyal as they and always looking for the next best thing

I think that's so true how do you hedge against that

And it's such a good question because I I think loyalty feels sometimes like it's dying although I look at some of our team members and I don't think we could have more loyal team members today

And I'm not patting not me and you on the back too hard but a little bit

And I I think it's everything that we talked about today that's LED up to this moment and I didn't even know some of those things we were doing in the beginning

Now we've defined them on this show and books that we've read and trainings that we've had consultants that we've brought in to our own business

And oh yeah we oh we did that

We didn't do it

We didn't know we were doing that but we did that

And I think creating safety is to me safety is probably one of the biggest things that I feel like our employees feel and therefore they are loyal cause they know they can screw up and they're not gonna get fired

I don't know

Paul how would you answer that

How would you hedge against not being or how would you hedge against having employees that aren't loyal to to your organization

Why would agree with you all the things we said 100 for sure

It's very rare to you find super strong cultures you know docs feel like they have it because usually nobody's communicating and talking

We're all this doing our job treating like a job

So you know when you start sometimes the more you start digging in the more you realize that there's actual problems

Sometimes there's no problems until we walk in and then all because the employees feel safe you know in the dental practice is talking to us about issues that are having and the dentist or the owner didn't even know it

So just because you don't have riffs in your culture doesn't mean that there's not a culture issue

Um so you know just be aware of that

But I I think a couple things you know I'm not I'm not gonna leave this

So you know uh you know just frou frou I wanna answer this way that I feel that could get some substance

And I think you got to dig in and find what's most important to your employees how they how they feel recognized and what can you do

And so sometimes in an instant program people wanna know that they're appreciated and everybody feels appreciated in a different way

So the loyalty I feel like comes from I don't I don't feel appreciated

Um one of the workshops we do is you know people don't typically lose leap or money they feel they leap or feeling unappreciated and is shown in so many different ways to different people or I should say they receive it

And so I would dig in and really find out what kind of recognition or appreciation that your team members need

And I do think making them part owners and the practice and I don't mean sell off your portions of the practice but I think instead of bonus systems profit sharing um opportunities you know hey if the practice does better you get to read the rewards

I mean what better way you know if if it's not just your income it's my income too

And so patient cancels or we don't have that 5,000 dollar day I don't I don't get I don't win either

And so I think when we're all in it together and then the second thing I would say is um you know sweep the floor

Isn't that a book or a I don't know or a motivational speaker you know get get in there and and sweep the floor with them

You know no one is above anybody

And you know when the doctor when the dentist when the owner takes off right at 4:00 every day and the whole team you know is is stock doing things

I'm not saying you you gotta you know get on the floor and clean the operataries too but I think showing that you're willing you know to jump in when times are tough um speaks volumes for team members as well

I think that they appreciate that

And then we talk about all the time you know and you know one of our one of my teammates or one of our employees has said this you know there there's nothing worse than owners entertaining bad behavior

And so when you're allowing somebody to run a mock everyone sitting here thinking you know I'm I'm sitting here you know practically a star employee doing everything you've ever asked me and this person gets to show up late uh leave early uh not do instruments whatever

You know what I mean

So I think those things but there is no easy answer

Well I love that you said that because someone made a comment this is like the most the busiest like I'm watching kind of some of the threads on Facebook and stuff and we've got the most watches we got interaction going

Oh it's cool

I know this is getting weird but I like it

I what you said is is is exactly what Miss Burnett saying is that some of the less experienced staff members may not have Learned these skills anywhere and it is the responsibility of the owner to teach them and set the expectations

I think that sums up everything that as a leader owner you have to lean in like we've been talking about and teach these younger inexperienced staff members

Now when you're the inexperienced owner that's the question get yourself some help uh from maybe some consultants like us or mentors whatever

But like you have to teach these these team members these skills

It's not just like in a work environment skill it's also family and relationship environment

And and yeah um you gotta teach them tools give them tools to to manage through these these conflicts and stuff

So um boy we've gone a little further and a little longer on this episode just because we were driving and anything that you would love to kind of put an endcap on this this program before we shut it down

Paula boy I I think you know real quick right before we got on we were talking about you know culture eat strategy for breakfast

And um one of the things I just wanna say on that that what that actually means is you're not gonna succeed if the team is not aligned and engaged to execute that strategy

So 3 if you have a strategy you have to have someone to execute it

And and the stronger your team is the more aligned your team is the more engaged they are with with everything you got going on

That's when the execution happens and I love that yeah just just remember that because you you got these sops you got these

Well we don't usually have that either

But when we do you know we've got to do all those things that Michael and I've been talking about for the last 50 minutes 45 minutes or else it's just gonna be an sop in a book or a pipe dream

I love that exactly right um boy um lots of things that we cover today

I I I can honestly say that um you can I I love that you talked about strategy because where I was gonna go earlier on the episodes

Talk about your goals talk about where you wanna be in one year three year five year declare goals get everybody thinking the same

I think that is so important

However you could talk about numbers and where you wanna go all day long and have all the strategies and how you're gonna do it

But if people don't like working for you and you don't have a good culture none of it's gonna work

So there's a lot there and needless to say um you gotta work on the people and that's the hardest thing about this business

It's why we have a job and we're blessed to do it and um and uh lean into to to this discussion with your organization and and uh practice

So I guess without further ado um let's shut this program down

Thanks so much for all the activity online and following us subscribing liking all the things

Um tune in to the next episodes

Um

If anyone has any you know I don't know Michael I don't know if you've ever done this but if anyone has any input um you know hit us up on Facebook or Instagram and let us know some things out there that you'd like to hear more about

That can really help you know drive your practice

We try to hit on lots of different things but we're always open you know two things like that so great idea good way to end that

Okay guys thanks so much for your time

We know it's a big deal to give people time

Thank you we appreciate it until the next episode

We'll see you later

Thanks for listening

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