Episode 716: Allow Yourself to Be YOU!

 There’s a line between being authentic and professional, and in today’s episode Kiera talks about blending the two in your dental practice. She encourages listeners to bring some of themselves into the workplace, even just 1% to 2% more of who they are, to ramp up the human-to-human element. 

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Transcript:

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0:00:05.8 Kiera Dent: Hey, everyone. Welcome to The Dental A Team Podcast. I'm your host Kiera Dent and I have this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep, we don't just understand you. We are you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A teams. Welcome to The Dental A Team Podcast.

0:00:50.6 Kiera Dent: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. Believe it or not, I know I look like Princess Leia today for those of you who might be watching this, and honest to convince you guys, I had to record a podcast dressed like this. Do I feel absolutely and utterly ridiculous? The answer is 100% yes, but at the same time, I ended up wearing this. So I'll just kinda take you on a little journey as to why I'm even dressed like Princess Leia. I don't 100% know a lot about Star Wars. I know there were some gasp in the audience, I know some of you are diehard Star Wars fans or Star Trek fans, but what happened was I have a really fun friend. She's a huge fan of the podcast and she is a big Disney fan just like I am, and Disney World has this really awesome galactic star cruiser adventure, and they're actually closing it down in September.

0:01:39.2 Kiera Dent: So this friend and I definitely got together and decided that we would surprise my husband, who is a diehard Star Wars fan and surprise him on this three-day adventure where you go and I'm super excited and we haven't gone. So today I got in costume to record his birthday invitation for this. And I feel like number one, I definitely cannot let this costume go to waste, but number two, today is podcast day and I'm like, oh my gosh, I've got these Leia buttons going on and I gotta go get prim to impress. And I thought, how often do we do that in business? How often do we not allow ourselves to be our real selves and to be seen for who we are as the playful fun behind the scenes? Now of course, we've gotta maintain a level of professionalism, 100% yes.

0:02:23.1 Kiera Dent: But I just started thinking like, I'm gonna go on the podcast today as Princess Leia, and I'm sure they're gonna use these as some fun clips. And do I feel a little embarrassed with you guys scrolling through? However, these ones might be some of our most watched things. Why? Because it's authenticity. And so today I really wanted to just chat about do we have authenticity? I think about when we go into offices, so as consultants, we fly to practices, we consult your offices, and I've learned I need to be real raw and authentic, and that's when I actually have better consulting with our clients. Think about it. I'm asking you guys to share your problems, the problems with your practice, but if I'm not willing to share my life, if I'm not willing to be a real person on the other side, it feels like a very jaded relationship.

0:03:06.3 Kiera Dent: It doesn't feel as authentic as it could. And I know I've got quite a few clients like this one who I'm going to Star Wars with is actually a client. And you would think, how do these people become this close? Well, consulting is a lot about our real lives. Consulting is your real life. I don't believe it's business without your personal life. I don't believe that we can separate those items, but yet I also feel that there's not many places where we can be our real selves, where we can just have fun while still being professional. And so I thought, what better way than to get on the podcast and talk about how can we actually incorporate this into our daily lives and into our practices? So when we're consulting a practice, what that looks like is we get to know you, we get to know you personally, we get to know you professionally, we get to know your kids, your spouse, your family, because all those factors, all those pieces that make up who you are are what actually drive your business.

0:04:00.8 Kiera Dent: And so many people I feel are like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde not in like a pro and con and like a scary and an evil and a happy. It's more there's two pieces, two sides. Like you're two different pieces of a coin as this business owner. You're this real person at home with your family and your spouse and you've got real feelings and then you pop into the office and you become this other person. Same thing with team members. Now I just wanna be super clear. There is an onstage/offstage, right? In front of patients, we do wanna maintain a level of professionalism, but I still feel in that professionalism, you can still be you. I can still deliver an incredible podcast with incredible value. If you're watching these clips, you might be distracted by these insanely ridiculous buns on my head, but you might be realizing I can still be playful Kiera. This is who I am. You guys, I FaceTimed this morning, Tiffany and Shelby because I was laughing so hard. Can you just imagine if your boss FaceTimes you and you're expecting to see them as one and they're showing up as Princess Leia on the other side. Well, one that just is fused as humor, and two, that's who I am. And I think growing through the company, growing as we've evolved, I realized I don't allow people to see my real self. And I wondered how many other people listening feel like who you are at work and who you are at home are two radically different people. And could we just add a few sprinkles?

0:05:17.9 Kiera Dent: Again, I'm trying to like emphasize this heavily. We've gotta maintain that level of professionalism because there is a boundary line. We are in a healthcare setting, we are in a professional setting, and we don't wanna be slouches or whatever we do at home. I know I definitely have some different behaviors at home that are not appropriate for the workspace, but in general, your personality, who you are is what I'm trying to highlight. Do we allow that person to be there? I love to have a good time, guys. I truly, truly, truly enjoy a fun time and so can we add that personality of whoever you are? So think about it. Just to do a quick little exercise and make this tangible for you, if we were sitting with your best friend, okay, someone that you are like, let loose, hang out, have the best time, who are you?

0:06:00.5 Kiera Dent: What would be like one or two or three attributes? I'll think about truly my best friend, the person that I feel like I can be the most open with that's not family would be Tiff Trader. This spiffy Tiffy that you guys all know and love. Tiff and I have grown a ton. Sometimes it is work friends, sometimes they're our best friends. Tiff is truly one of my best friends and who I am when it's just me and her versus who I am in the company are a little bit different. So when I'm with Tiff, I feel like I can be very silly, I feel like I can be real, I think would probably be the phrase that I would say, and I feel like I can also be honest. So those would be three attributes. So silly, real and... What did I say? Silly, real and honest were my three words.

0:06:44.6 Kiera Dent: So for you, just think about who your best friend is, who is the person that you feel most like you in front of? And I chose a best friend, not a family member because I still feel like with best friends, we might hold back a couple of things, maybe not. Maybe you're more open with your best friend than you are family. So choose one that's maybe not 100% all open, but what are you? For me, it was silly, real and honest. Now can I bring some of that into the workspace and be more of who I am? The reason I bring this up is because how hard is it to be something that we're not? You guys for a really, really, really, really long time and even still to this day, I like to present myself in a specific way, which is not false.

0:07:21.2 Kiera Dent: It's not false. And I'm not saying that who we are at work is not true to who you are. What I'm saying is can we still add more of who we really want to be into the space of where we're working day in and day out just to make it easier, just to have more fun, just to remind ourselves that, hey, life is meant to be fun. It's not meant to be a hard stressful world. So with that, how can I bring silly, real, and honest in a professional way into the business? Well, one, I love to play pranks, guys. I truly love it. I cannot wait. So our retreats are where I can be silly and have fun. I'm doing Dental A Team Survivor this year for our team and I cannot wait. I was definitely gonna have them vote each other out and I realized I might lose some team members.

0:08:03.5 Kiera Dent: So I'm gonna keep it a little higher level, a little more up to chance, but that's where I can bring that silly side of me into it. How can I bring the silly Kiera while still being professional to consulting with a client so they feel like I am who I really am? Well, we can just laugh about the fact that I didn't know what OG stood for. I thought OG was oldie but goodie. That is not true. It's original gangster, but that's just me being really who I am. And I'll tell you, a long time ago, not a long time ago, recently when I was in college, which thankfully is not too long ago, but still feels like it's getting further and further away, I remember being in a public speaking class where I had to introduce this guy and he spoke Vietnamese and I literally said, he speaks Vietnamese.

0:08:48.0 Kiera Dent: The whole class erupted. I was embarrassed and I almost dropped that because I wasn't comfortable being me. Now I would just laugh and be like, that was ridiculous, high five. I'd still feel a little embarrassed, but I wouldn't be as concerned. And so what I'm trying to pull out with all of this in the podcast today is how can we let our hair down? How can we have a little bit more fun? How can we be more true and authentic to ourselves? So going back to those three attributes that I had you guys think about, that's how I could bring a little more silly into consulting and also into being a boss while still maintaining a level of professionalism. Now what about the real and honest? I think those are interesting. That wasn't planned. It wasn't scripted. It's on the fly here of that's how I feel like I am.

0:09:26.3 Kiera Dent: How could I be more real in front of my team? And I think one of the ways for me just thinking about this would be let me tell them when I'm really struggling or I don't know how to fix something or I don't know how to solve something. Let me become a real human in front of them. And what would that do for my team? Well, one, I'm gonna feel better because I'm real and I'm not saying I don't know everything when I really don't know. But two, I think it allows my team to have that same privilege to say they don't know. Now, I don't allow myself if I don't know something to just let that be an excuse. I admit that I don't know this and this is how I'm gonna find the solution. Again, setting an example for how I want my team to be.

0:10:04.9 Kiera Dent: But how much more fun would it be to be at work, to be with your patients and be whatever attribute you chose? For me being more real with my team is something I have worked on, something that I feel I am more honest with, more real in front of my team. Like I let them see the emotion, I let them see when I'm scared, I let them see when I don't quite know what we're doing. And you'll notice I giggle about that. That's the silly side of Kiera. But again, all of these things don't mean we're 100% there. There are times that I'm not going to be real with my team on how scared I am of something. Not all of our emotions are meant to be shown to our team. I do believe that there are times that we do need to hold back certain emotions just as team members.

0:10:47.9 Kiera Dent: But what I'm saying is could we add 1% or 2% more of who we really are, make work a little more fun, make it a little bit easier, and let people really get in on a true human to human level is a question for you. The third thing for me is being more honest and thinking of how to take that into the workplace is do I actually give honest feedback to team members? Do I actually talk to them about the things that I want them to know about? Do I truly give them the feedback they need to hear? Do I actually tell them when I'm frustrated with something? Do I tell them with love of course, do I tell them what I'm thinking or do I just sugarcoat it? And that comes back to Patrick Lencioni's, "Five Dysfunctions of Teams". Do I have trust with my team?

0:11:29.1 Kiera Dent: Do I have trust with them to tell them what really needs to be said or do I just sugarcoat it? With our best friends, with the people that we're close to we don't. And so how could we add a little bit more of that? How could we be a little bit more honest? It's a lot easier to be honest even though it's terrifying. That's called building trust with our teammates, that's called making it to where it is easier to be with them. So with that today, it's a silly day, it's a fun day, but really I just wanted you guys to think about where could you bring a little bit more you, be a little more human in the workspace. Make life a little more fun. I'll tell you, when I stopped having to have everything perfect and always have to look perfect on the podcast and always have to think through it, it became a lot more fun.

0:12:11.4 Kiera Dent: I feel like I could be Kiera. I could show up exactly who I am and that resonates with people who are like me. I'm not trying to be someone fake, I'm not trying to be a facade. Again, it's not wrong. I'm not trying to make anybody wrong here. I'm just saying, could you make life today a little more fun? Could you show forth a little bit more of that real person who you are inside? There was a dentist that I coached and this is just like, let's peel back the window of an office that we coached. This office I coached them for quite a while. We got to know them really well. It was a husband, wife duo and I feel like they were really honest with me. They shared a lot of real things of personal things of their marriage, of their kids, of what they wanted their professional goals to be.

0:12:50.7 Kiera Dent: And I will tell you as a consultant and in Dental A Team, our motto is whatever goal you wanna achieve, there is no goal too high, there is nothing that you can't achieve and there is no judgment or criticism. I want you to live your best life because if you're happy, your team will be happy. So with this office, they told me their goals, they told me what they wanted to achieve and I worked with them for a good five years. So we were together for quite a while and I feel consulting is a very personal relationship. I don't believe I'm just there to grow your business. Yes, that's the monetary return, but I wanna give you a life return. Dental A Team is about giving you a monetary financial return and also giving you a life return. These people ended up being able to have more time with their kids.

0:13:35.1 Kiera Dent: They were able to get off work earlier. They only worked four days and they were taking home insane amounts of income and they did it with ease and they did it together and they worked together and they were happier together. And I remember at the very end, we wrapped up like, "Guys, send 'em out of the coop." The goal of Dental A Team is not to work with you forever. The goal is to get to know you, to get to know your life, to help you win your best life, to help you feel balanced and to just achieve that, and this couple did. They literally said, "Kiera, right now, there is nothing more that we want in life. We are living our dream of a life." And to me as a consultant, that is magical. They're taking home the financial freedom that they want. They've been able to have their dream life, their dream house, their dream kid, travel, all the things are there. They're working out, they're healthy, they're an incredible power couple.

0:14:20.3 Kiera Dent: And it took us quite a while to get there, but it was to build their dream of a life. And I remember at the very end, this doctor, the female doctor, she said, "Kiera, I feel more like me at my practice than I even do with some of my close friends." How cool would that be for you to say you feel more you at your practice than you do with some of your best friends because your team knows you? You have the trust, you guys, and of course they all maintain the professionalism, but really you are just there as someone who's really who you are. I believe that when we show up as who we are, we attract better team members because now we're not trying to sugarcoat or be something. The day that I stopped trying to create Dental A Team to be what team members wanted and make it a place that I love to work, a place that I would wanna be a part of, I started to attract people that were like-minded, that wanted to be a part of this with me.

0:15:10.6 Kiera Dent: When you start to be able to have trust conversations and be able to say the things that are holding you back, you don't have eggshells and this false illusion of a practice that's doing and thriving, but actually we're really struggling because we're not willing to say the hard things. Those are the types of pieces that I'm talking about. By being really who you are, let's hire better team members. Let's have more honest conversations so we have true trust and we feel secure within our practice. And then we're able to be able to say what needs to be said to really move the practice forward. We're not sugarcoating, we're not holding back because we're showing up as our true selves. So today I just wanna invite you guys, be a little silly, be a little more you, keep the professionalism while adding in who you are.

0:15:52.7 Kiera Dent: There's a lot of tangibles in here today, you guys, and if we can help you at all, get your dream of a life, get that financial freedom that you're seeking, whatever your goal is, I would truly love to help you as Princess Leia today. There is an important mission coming from the commanding office where your life is busy, it is bustling around, but I know that there's an easier way for you. I know that whatever goals you're looking for, you can achieve, and I know it doesn't have to be hard. And you can have someone who's there with you, champion for you, giving you the resources and tools, making it to where you can truly succeed. And if that can be us, I would love to help you. Today's the day, book a call. We do a free strategy call with you so we can actually give you value whether you choose to work with us or not.

0:16:40.4 Kiera Dent: But that way you actually get some value from that. So head on over to the dentalateam.com, book a call, book that strategy call. And I would love to help you be a little more you, enjoy life so much more because you deserve it. You deserve to be whomever you are. I want you to have the confidence of Kiera as Princess Leia because honestly, when I started the podcast, there is no way I would've ever showed up like this. But today I want you to know who Kiera is behind the scenes. I want you to know those pieces because this makes me happy. This is so fun, and I wanna give you the permission to be you as well. And with that, guys, thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast. And that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.

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