Episode 675: How to Build Your Leadership Team

 A hot-ticket item DAT is seeing in practices across the nation is teams stripped thin and a need to build the leadership team. In this episode, Kiera and Dana talk about how to go about building up and bringing in leadership to your business. Such a move can alleviate stress and execute on goals.

Kiera and Dana share multiple scenarios of practices and how to implement leadership team structures in each, including specific tactics to apply today.

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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 had 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 travelling consultants where we have travelled 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 could help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress and create A teams. Welcome to The Dental A Team Podcast.

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0:00:51.0 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I have the one and only Dana, travelling consultant, virtual consultant. She does our office manager mastermind every single month. She also does operations manual intensive, so the Operations Manual Workshop. Dana's an all-around awesome person, if you haven't met her. She also does... What is it now? Consultant Question and Answer. She used to do Donuts with Dana. We've changed it up a little bit, every Friday. So welcome to the show, Dana. How you doing today?

0:01:19.8 Dana: I'm doing really good. Excited to be here.

0:01:22.8 KD: Dana, what's your favourite thing of all the things I've listed off? You've got in-person consulting, virtual consulting, office manager mastermind, Operations Manual Workshop that runs for three months, and Donuts with Dana, aka Consultant Question and Answer every single Friday. What's your favourite thing that you do? I'm just curious, 'cause that's a lot of different pieces. In addition to Donuts, she's building in Santa's Wonderland over there another product that's coming. What's your favourite thing to do, Dana? I'm just curious, personally, for myself.

0:01:50.4 Dana: Right now, actually the Operations Manual Workshop. I really loved getting to see offices consistently, like weekly, for that three-month period. It was really fun and just like a new avenue, so that's really strong in my heart right now.

0:02:05.7 KD: I love it. And for those of you who don't know or didn't get to participate in it, we actually ran... It was the first time Dental A Team has ever run it. For three months, we actually did operations manual creation, which was super cool, because what happened was, we hear all the time that, "I don't have time to get operations manuals done. We don't know how to do it. We don't even know where to start." So we decided as a team, "We're gonna actually help you guys get these ops manuals done." And so Dana and Brit ran it every single week. It was on Thursday. Offices got together. And there were a lot of offices. We had a pretty great turnout, so our personal clients but also external clients were able to come to it, and for three months, Dana and Brit walked them through, gave them action items, held them accountable, and they were able to get those operations manuals done.

0:02:48.0 KD: And it was so cool to see offices actually get done. So we're running one internally, so if you want to be a part of this, join Dental A Team, become one of our consulting clients. Our next one is kicking off in May, but that's only internal. You have to be a Dental A Team client to participate. But our next one to the public will be in September. But it was such a cool one, Dana, and I'm proud of you and Brit for taking it on. And also for all the offices that came, 'cause I know they saw a lot of value from that, but Dana's also an awesome consultant. So Dana, I know you've been talking to offices, what's kind of some of the hot items that are out in the world right now that you're seeing with your practices? 'Cause I think as consultants, we get a little micro view into the greater world of what's really happening across the world of dentistry. So Dana, from your perspective from your clients, what's some of the things you're actually running into these days?

0:03:36.4 Dana: Yeah, I think we're hearing a lot... Teams are stretched thin. We're hearing a lot of like, "Well, we're looking for hiring." And part of that piece that I've been working on with a lot of practices right now is kind of building that leadership team so that when we are short-staffed or we're stretched thin, we have leaders in the practice to help the team pivot, to help the team keep growing even during those times.

0:04:00.0 KD: Right. And honestly, as myself, I agree. Guys, I think it's one of those things. COVID was here and people were like, "Oh, I want it to go back to normal." And I'm like, "This is the new normal." And I think it's a really important point that you bring up, Dana, of everyone talks about like, "Oh well, when more people are in the economy then we can hire." I'm like "Guys, it's not going away." I don't think it's gonna shift for a while. And again, I don't have a crystal ball, but I hate sitting here waiting for something to happen before I can be successful. So let's give you tools today. I think, Dana, you're brilliant, bringing these leadership teams in to help not have as much stretch then. And so just to be clear, I like stats and facts, and they've proven that a leader can usually successfully manage about five people. So if you are one person, so a doctor, if you're acting as solo office manager, if you got more than five other team members, it's probably time for you to have someone else helping guide and lead.

0:04:50.6 KD: So then if you're up to like 7-10, that's also another time for you to really start to bring these leadership teams in. So Dana, what are you seeing? How are you getting these leadership teams in play? What are offices doing? When do you know you need a leadership team? How does that alleviate the stress in the environment of having all these different people in the hiring like, "It's hard, we're stretched thin." What are you seeing? I said a bunch of things, so take whatever you want and let's run with it. Whatever suits your fancy right now.

0:05:15.0 Dana: Sure. And I think it's like a tuple when we see that we're growing, our team is just getting larger. And then I see too, when we see that certain things we aren't able to keep consistent with the team that we have, it is then looking at who can we bring in or who can we rise up and grow to kind of take over those things and help team members stay consistent, help pieces in the practice keep going. I think that's kind of when I say, "Hey, let's look at... Do we have anybody on the team that has some strong leadership or has shown some potential, or maybe it's time that we look for someone for that?"

0:05:49.6 KD: Right. And I do think when you have a leadership team in play, they can help actually alleviate the stress and they can create solutions. So I know for us, we are a smaller-ish team, you would think, in a group of nine people, we don't need a lot of leaders. But leadership departments can really elevate. So I know I started running leadership meetings when it was just me and one other person. And I felt really dumb doing it, but what was cool is you're also buying them into the vision. They're able to then help create the vision. They're bought into the vision. They can help execute on things. And I truly think leadership team is, for me, a leadership team is execution, so how can we execute? How can we get these projects done? How can we increase our case acceptance? How can we make our dental assistants rise up and have a better dental assisting department or have them take on, if we don't have dental assistants, they help hire, they help interview, they help bring people to the table. They're helping lift that load.

0:06:42.5 KD: So, okay, Dana, I'm your office right now. I am... Let's think. I am a solo doctor, I've got a team of about five people, so I've got... Let's list them off. Maybe I've got more than five. I've got two hygienists, I've got two assistants, and I've got two people up front, so me and six people. Don't worry, we could add a few more in there or not. I don't really have an office manager. I'm new, I'm growing. What do I do if I wanna start building a leadership team? And don't worry, guys, I'm gonna have Dana have this office and then I'm giving her a much larger office, and let's see what she does. So, Dana, that's the office. How are you gonna help me get a leadership team in play? What do we do from where I am today?

0:07:21.3 Dana: Okay. So I would really start, in this instance, with office manager. I think departments are big enough yet to have department leads, so I would say somebody really that's going to implement the things that you have as your vision for the practice. So I would look for an office manager and I would say, "Hey, look at your front office team or look at anyone in your team." Because office managers can be clinical, "And do you see any potential... "

0:07:43.5 KD: Dana, do you say that because you were a clinical hygienist, moved to office manager?

0:07:47.3 Dana: I did. That might have been a plug from my own life.

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0:07:51.2 KD: It's true. Don't dismiss those clinical people. They really can bring some value.

0:07:55.8 Dana: Yeah. And I would say, "Is there anybody that we can grow into that position?" Or we can start maybe by delegating some things to get off of your plates so that you can focus on higher-level business things. So do we see any potential in who we have? If we don't see potential in who we have, then let's bring someone in, let's hire somebody that has the qualities that we're looking for. And then I would say kind of create your leadership avatar, like what do you want personality-wise? What do you want for communication style? What do you want for skill set or experience? And then really be thinking about what that person would do in your practice. So what would they take off of you? What would they maybe take from clinical team? How would they oversee front? And just kind of then do rough sketch of job description, what you really want them to do, because if you don't have that role in place, sometimes that's where we struggle.

0:08:48.2 Dana: "I'm gonna bring this person on and they're gonna be a full-time employee. And how do I fill their time? What do I do?" So I would say just even start thinking about the pieces that team members currently do that you could maybe take off of them, especially yourself, if you are the owner or the only leader right now in the practice.

0:09:05.7 KD: Right. And so I'm gonna play devil's advocate, Dana. What do I do if I don't even know what an office manager should do? Where do I go to get this information? How do I know? Because I know I need it, but I think we hear this often that practices don't even know what... Like "What am I even supposed to have this person do? I know clinical, I was a dentist, I went to dental school. How do I even train this person? How do you even make a job description for this person?"

0:09:28.8 Dana: I think you reach out for resources, reach out for support in that if you don't know. I think find a coach. Dental A Team, for sure, we can help you with that. It's absolutely what we do when it comes to working with teams and training on positions. And then I think too, use your resources around you. If you have a dental community, even asking them, asking, if you have friends that have office managers, like, "Where did you start with them? What did you have them do?" I think just using the resources around you to kind of get those foundational pieces.

0:10:00.6 KD: I agree. And Dana, I do think this is a plug for Dental A Team without intentionally doing it, but I always feel my time is very valuable as an owner, so if I'm the doctor in this situation, what's your time best spent doing? Is it building out this manual and trying to train up an office manager when you don't really know how to do it, or is your time better spent drilling and filling teeth that somebody else can't do? Us as coaches, literally, we are office managers, so why not have the best people who've been there, done that, train your team up for you so you don't have to be there? Now, I say there is a catch in there, and I'm gonna put a massive asterisk on that. I don't feel you can delegate or abdicate needing to know what this position needs to do. So yes, you use the resources. We have online... Dental A Team literally has an office manager online course that will teach someone off the streets how to become an office manager or elevate someone within the practice how to become an office manager.

0:10:50.8 KD: If they don't have dental, we have a dental... Like everything dental in our dental assisting course, and so they can learn all the, like what is a crown, what are teeth numbers. All of that, we've built in there for them. But you as a doctor and as an owner, I feel it is your reality and your responsibility to learn the position so that way you can support them as well. So even if you hire us, I recommend doctors who are bringing in an office manager, hire a coach. We interview with you to make sure that this person is a great office manager. It's just like right now, guys, I am not good at marketing. I do not know how to hire a marketer, so I hired a fractional marketing company, and they're literally helping me interview and figure out who I need to hire, how I can write those ads, and then they're interviewing them with me to make sure that this person really is a great fit. Because I don't know marketing.

0:11:37.7 KD: So if you're this doctor and you don't know office management, hire someone to partner with you, which is why I like what Dental A Team does. It's not cookie-cutter, it's literally, "You need help with an office manager, Dana, as your consultant, is going to help you write the ad." Then when you've got people coming through, we're going to assess the interview with you and say, "Yeah, we think they're awesome," or, "Hey, they lack in these areas. Could we outsource that, could be bring in other people?" But agreed with his leadership piece, when you get that many people, and doctors, you're busy, so that would be a manager of five people not working full-time doing dentistry. A manager, usually, of five people is able to manage... Yes, they can take on other tests, but they're not doing full-time dentistry. So you, doctor, don't think you're an awesome office manager when you're busy all the time and not able to answer questions, not able to find the resources, not able to help them out. That's where bottlenecks happen.

0:12:23.8 KD: And so if you're bottlenecking, if your company is not moving forward, you need to bring in another leader to ensure that the practice can move forward, the patient experience can be there. So agreed, hire a coach, ask for something and ask yourself, "Where is your time and skills best utilised." A great book plug I'll put out there is 'Who, Not How.' And I think we often don't think of like who could train this office manager and do really well, who could train my hygiene lead? Who could train these people? So it's not me like, "How can I do this?" It's, "Who could I hire to do this?" And I will say Dental A Team, we are definitely the experts of team training and team elevation and building these leadership teams. And then we always refer back to you. So that's our one example, that's how we're gonna do it. Dana's gonna help hire, we're going to have a coach, we're going to get this person trained up and then give them the expectations of your vision.

0:13:11.6 KD: It's crazy, like I have had right-hand people grow our business when I didn't think that they were capable of doing it. So you do not have to hire someone within dental. I think, truthfully though, if you're in a small practice where you have those fewer team members, hiring someone with dental experience is supercritical and valuable. Dana, do you agree? Do you think smaller practices can hire someone outside of dental, or do you think it's better to hire within dental, if we can?

0:13:35.7 Dana: I think when we're really small, it is helpful to hire within dental when we can, just because we don't always have the resources that larger offices have as far as getting them trained in the dental pieces.

0:13:47.7 KD: And there's also, in my opinion, a lot of things that doctors don't know. So I'm like, If you have an office manager who knows the billing, knows how to close cases, knows how to run a team, knows how to hire, knows at least an idea about HR, that's a lot of stress off of you, but doctors do not abdicate that responsibly. You still need to look through the billing, you still need to make sure things are going well, 'cause at the end of the day, you are the owner. So, okay, Dana, next one, we're gonna shift to a different leadership team. Large practice, we've got... Gosh, let's say we've got a team of five hygienists, we've got three doctors in the practice, we've got a pretty solid front office team, we have an office manager that's trying to serve all these team members, how do we build this entire leadership team? What does that leadership team structure look like?

0:14:29.9 Dana: Sure. If we already have an office manager in place and they're now looking for people to lean on to help guide the rest of the practice, I would say now it's time to look for department leads. So we've got five hygienists, let's find a really strong hygienist with some leadership potential, lead hygiene and then also assistant team, have someone lead the assistant team. And you can even have a clinical leader, clinical coordinator, that's one of the doctors as well. But I'd say just making sure that we've got a lead in each department then will help us, not, one, have our office manager feel like she's stretched so thin, but also then having that team member that the other team members can go to and it's not everything is always being taken to owner/doctor/office manager.

0:15:13.1 KD: For sure. And I think when you guys have to roll this out, having clear org charts and job duties. Now it gets weird because we haven't done it. And it's also weird to elevate within to be a co-equal, we're all hygienists and then all of sudden this person is now the lead hygienist. And there's some different ways you can do that. I think sometimes appointing someone. I think other times offices will do a survey and say who do they think would be the best leader of that department. So that way it's a group effort. I've had some offices when doing that, they've campaigned 'cause they want to be that position. But really, the goal of leadership, and I think one of the biggest pieces is, do you love to serve and to make other people better? And are you always refining and defining yourself. There is a book... Patrick Lencioni has a lot of books on leadership. And I think, why are you wanting to be a leader? Is it for ego and for status, or is it because you truly want to lead and guide a department and to take them to greatness?

0:16:11.0 KD: Not because of you, but because you want all of them to elevate. And you know if that department can elevate, that's gonna make our patient experience better, and we're truly looking to serve. I think leaders really need to check themselves of why are they doing this. Do they want the title? Do they want the status? Because that's not going to be a great leader in your practice, and you don't want that. That's an egotistical... And don't worry. I've had it. I wanted to be an office manager, guys, not 'cause I actually think I'm a good office manager. Truth be told, I do not think Kiera Dent is a great office manager. Do I think I can do it? Do I think I'm capable? 100%, but who I am as a person, I think I'm much better suited in the role I'm in now of growing businesses. I'd be a great regional manager, I'd be a great COO, like making sure all operations are going. I actually don't know if I'd be that great. I don't love all the details. I'm a fantastic treatment coordinator.

0:16:56.5 KD: And sometimes your treatment coordinators want to go to that next level, and I think management is going to fulfill that. But if you don't love taking care of people and elevating people and solving problems all day long for them and truly leading and guiding them and looking at the numbers and looking at the KPIs and figuring out how to make your department serve the practice in the business better, don't be a leader. That's not for you. So agreed with Dana. You've gotta have all these pieces. And then Dana, let's take it one step further today. How did these people... How do you all meet as a leadership people? So okay, we're in the small practice and we've got us in an office manager now, or we're in the larger practice where we've got a hygiene lead, a dental assistant lead, a front office lead, a doctor lead, we've got our doctor, we've got our office manager, so at least six people in there. What do we even do with these meetings? What do you suggest? What are some of the ways that you kind of helped offices with these leadership teams?

0:17:42.9 Dana: Yeah, I think start making sure that we are meeting regularly. So I even say leadership team is meeting weekly. That way then we can look at setting goals. Once we have goals set, where are we with those goals? On track? Off track? Really looking at each department too, and their pieces and getting us there. Then we take those things to the team. And then I would say have the leadership, the leaders that we've put into place, also meet with their departments at least monthly and start to build some traction in that. And then I think leaders can also really take on those one-on-one meetings with the members in their departments as well.

0:18:22.0 KD: Awesome. And agreed. And I think some good resources for you guys are one, we set these up for teams, so if you're like me and you don't wanna go read your self-help book and try and implement it yourself, Dental A Team, we set up leadership teams and we do run off of the traction model, not pure traction, we're not EOS implementers, we have to do Dental A Team's version of it. And then we also have built-in Patrick Lencioni, like with his rallying cry, defining objectives, so either one of those. If you want to look into some of those, those are kind of where we blend it together and make it our own that we've just seen work really well for dental practices. But I think having that guidance, having that cadence... I know when I first started thinking, "Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? I have to have a meeting every single week?" But these meetings are not unproductive, and they're rated every single time. And we build the trust and we work on the five dysfunctions that Patrick Lencioni talks about.

0:19:08.3 KD: Of five dysfunctions of teams, and really building that trust and vulnerability. That way we have healthy debate, we're truly committed, we hold each other accountable, and then we also win the day. So having that in play, I agree with Dana, I think those pieces really can elevate. So Dana, I'm just curious, let's give them the beautiful piece of like, "Okay there is... " It looks like there might be a mountain ahead of us of like, "I've gotta go find these people, I've got to elevate these people, I've got to hold these meetings." But what does a team with a true leadership team that's really functioning well, what does that actually look like and feel like in a practice?

0:19:38.9 Dana: Yeah. I think once we have our leadership team in place, it really is having a full team that can help implement the vision for the practice in each department as well as then be able to track and see, "Hey, where are we doing really well? Where do we have opportunities for growth?" And then meeting with the team members to bridge that gap, giving team members tactical things that they can do to then help fulfil the vision, help fulfil the things that the leadership sees that will move the practice forward.

0:20:11.0 KD: I love that, Dana. It's one of those things where I look at this of you now have many departments going. So the way I think about a practice, I just gave this analogy to Shelby yesterday, I said, "When you don't have a great leadership team, I feel like it's like bumper cars. And every so often your team gets it straight away and you go fast for a minute, but then it's like then you bump into another car and it just feels like it's hard to make things work because we're all kind of like clobbering over each other, there's not really clear direction." Versus let's go to Top Gun, and this is my analogy, this is the best one, if someone's got a better one, please email me [email protected]. But I think a true leadership team has all of your jets lined up on the runway where each person's in their silo, but we're all taking off for the exact same mission. We know what the winning looks like, we know where we're going, and we're responsible for our department.

0:20:57.0 KD: And so just having that, like I think about Top Gun, and those people, they knew what the mission was, they knew what the target was, they knew what they needed to do individually within their jet, but working and looking at all the people around, watching each other's back and making sure we're all flying together to the same outcome, and I think that's what it looks like. So what can you do today? You can do nothing. You can keep going along playing bumper cars, you might hit that straight away for a second, or you can decide, "No, I'm gonna put a leadership team into place and I'm going to go through what it takes to get there." So that way we really do have all of them aligning, all of them moving. Because leadership teams are a small nucleus, and then just think you've got multiple practices, and you've built the design, this happens across multiple boards. You've got your office manager in all the different practices, you've got your department leads, you've got different people that are reporting up and reporting together side by side, that is the magic of leadership.

0:21:46.9 KD: So Dana, I love that you brought that up. And I would say, guys, if you want help with that, reach out to us [email protected], or head on over to our website, thedentalateam.com, and just click 'Book a call.' Ask us. Who knows? You might not be a candidate or you might be a candidate. But if you know that this is something that sounds empowering to you, we implement this and then we help you with 100 other things that you didn't even realise were possible, so reach out. I would definitely encourage you to do that. And Dana, any last thoughts on leadership teams that you've seen? Any last thoughts that you wanna do to wrap up our podcast today?

0:22:15.5 Dana: I think we really tackled it thoroughly, but I just say, learn to look for leaders in your practice so that when the opportunity comes around or when it comes a need, where we've looked, we've started passing little pieces to see how they tackle it, truly look to grow and empower team members into leadership positions.

0:22:36.7 KD: Dana, I'm so glad you said that. I think it's called grooming. And my husband ended up taking over multiple hospital clinics that he's responsible for. And I will tell you, his boss groomed him for two years. And so when COVID hit and they needed somebody, Jason had already been groomed. I will tell you, I have groomed people in our company, I have been groomed without realising it, but agreed with Dana, look for those people, start giving them the opportunity rather than like, "Shoot, we need a leader. I haven't even thought about this." I think that's brilliant. So Dana, thanks for being on our team. Thanks for the value you brought today. And for all of you listening, thanks for listening. And as always, I'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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0:23:15.1 KD: 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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