Episode 645: “I Won Today Because …”

 What does “winning the day” look like to your team? This is a new process the Dental A-Team learned from a practice in New York and applied to its own team — defining what “winning” means to each and every team member and creating a visualization of what that winning looks like. Listen to this episode to learn how to go about establishing this type of victory checklist for your team.

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Transcript:

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0:00:05.6 Kiera: 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.

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0:00:51.8 Kiera: Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And you guys, I am so excited to be podcasting with you today. I'm excited that you're here celebrating you. 'Cause guys, honestly, when you listen to this podcast, I feel like you should just give yourself a pat on the back because you are investing in you, you are growing yourself. I am so thankful you choose to listen to the podcast because I know the greatest gift we have is our time. And the fact that you're here with me means we're clearly doing something great. So if we have served you, if we have blessed your life in any way, please be sure, go give us those five stars, share this podcast with somebody that you think could benefit. And if we can help serve you by being your consultant virtually or in person, guys, life does not have to be hard, it truly can be easy, and I would love for you guys to join us. So be sure to email us at [email protected]. Be sure to leave those five stars. I appreciate you guys so much.

0:01:38.5 Kiera: So today, I wanna dive into a topic. This actually came from a practice that I went and consulted and I thought it was so dreamy, I had our team do it, and then I'm now giving you guys on the podcast a way for you to truly win. So when we look at the scoreboard, I don't know any of you out there, did you ever play sports? I know I did. Believe it or not, you guys, I'm gonna list it off. If you're new to the podcast, you'll know Kiera Dent, I am real, I am just a girl next door hanging out with you guys, trying to make dentistry a little more positive, share with you guys and give you tactical practical tips. That's what I'm all about. So when I used to play sports, I played soccer growing up, I also played tennis, I made the varsity tennis team in high school, not because I'm actually that great guys, or 'cause I really care about tennis, but I honestly just wanna wear the cute little skirt that they give them.

0:02:28.5 Kiera: And so because of that, I learned how to play tennis. I played flag football. I had four brothers. So you better believe I had to get scrappy. I do know how to kind of like, let's use this very loosely, like we used to play, true story, rollerblade hockey, like not an actual sport. I really am terrible at frisbee, that's probably the thing that I'm the worst at, so like disc golf, you better believe, forget it. I was on the beach one time playing frisbee with my husband and, not kidding, I threw the frisbee at the same poor man sitting over there, sunbathing, not once, not twice, but three times, hitting the same man three different times. So we kinda gave up the frisbee after that on the beach. But I just... I enjoyed sports. And what I like about sports is it's a very, very easy way to know, are you winning or are you not winning? You look up at the scoreboard and you can tell against your competitors, "Am I winning? Am I not?"

0:03:20.1 Kiera: My dad, he was a very big basketball fan. All of my siblings, except for me, I think honestly, all played basketball. My dad was their coach. And even my two little sisters played. I don't know what happened to me. I must have just like skirted under the radar. I don't know what happened. But I know the concept of basketball. I know all the plays of basketball. I know man-on-man defense. I know zone. My dad had all these different plays that he would run. My favorite one was when he'd call hotdogs or ice cubes. That was my favorite ones. People were like, "What the heck? Did that guy just say hotdogs?" Yes, it was hotdogs and ice cubes and brackets. I can still see my dad coaching and... But I loved it because you were always focused on the score. So when we'd come and we'd huddle or they'd call timeout, "We need a timeout," and they'd huddle together, it was always on, "How can we win the game?" That was always the focus.

0:04:11.7 Kiera: My dad was very big on it. My dad is now bald, guys. I think it's 'cause he like rubbed the top of his head and rubbed his hair off from being so stressed out. But it was always because they were trying to win the game, all effort, all attention, but they knew the score. It's not like you were sitting on the court and being like, "Hmm, are we winning or are we losing?" And yeah, I feel in dentistry and in so many businesses, we don't let our teams know how to know if they're winning. Like it could be, but does your team actually know what it feels like to win? Like when they're walking out to their car at the end of the day, can they honestly say, "Did I win, or did I lose the day?" So kudos to this office, they're an office in New York, so I'm giving them mad thank you and appreciation 'cause they're the ones who taught me this. And I really just loved it because they were struggling, their dental assistant department was struggling, so they actually created, "What does it look like to win? What does it mean?"

0:05:02.6 Kiera: And guys, that doesn't mean that it's an easy, smooth, flowing day 'cause we can't always win. Just like in sports, you'll get your booty kicked like trying to win. Have you seen those football players? Have you seen those basketball players? They are rocked, ripped apart, dead the next day. It's not like it was an easy win. Their day wasn't easy for them, but they won the game. So this department, they were struggling in their dental assistant department and they started having almost like a visualization of, what does winning look like? So for that dental assistant department, it was, "We are always set up for our doctors before they come in." So they would say, "I won the day because I was fully set up and prepared for my doctor. I was able to serve a patient today. I had the hard conversations with my team members. I didn't gossip. I feel like I'm adequately paid and I am compensated greatly for the work that I'm doing. I love my team and I'm set up with a happy attitude for tomorrow." That's what they're saying.

0:05:54.9 Kiera: How do you think that culture shifted and changed? And the team created it together. So what me and this office did is we went around, they have multiple practices, and we literally defined what winning looks like for all of them. And every practice was different, guys. So for you, you can do it for your practice, you could also do it for your departments. For my team, we literally, you guys, no joke, we literally created what it means to win in our company. Okay. So I wanted to know, what does it mean to win?

0:06:25.5 Kiera: How does my team know if we're winning? That was something that was really, really tricky for us. And so I was like, "We've got to have this on here of how do we even know that we won?" And so my team, we created it, we figured it out and we said, "We're gonna make this into a real thing. We are literally going to come up with, how does our team know that they won?" Because if the team doesn't know, guys, if your practice doesn't know, guess what, you are never going to get traction ever, ever. So for us, what we say is, "I won the day today by positively impacting someone." Our mission at Dental A Team is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible.

0:07:06.7 Kiera: So for us, it was, "I won the day." And mind you, Kiera Dent, CEO, did not create this. My team created this. And we made it into a little phrase. So my team, hopefully, a visualization at the end of their day is thinking this and it is, I won the day today by positively impacting someone, totally owning my role to the fullest and doing everything I said I would. I had fun, I have energy for me and I'm fully prepared to win tomorrow." So that's what it looks like to win in Dental A Team.

0:07:36.1 Kiera: If you know me, you know that I am obsessed with our Dental A Team Podcast family, and because of that, guys, I wanna give you guys a little bit of love for this season. So from today, Valentine's Day, all the way through March, I am giving our podcast family a sneak peek access to Dental A Team's virtual summit, April 28th and 29th. You guys, this year we are doing Secrets of the Multi-Million-Dollar Practice, full team, nine hours of CE. It is going to be explosively epic, amazing. You guys, you are not going to wanna miss this. Full team day on Friday where we're going to go through true practice life examples, case acceptance, your gap on your systems and how you can fix it from a full team's perspective.

0:08:18.3 Kiera: Plus I'm bringing in lots of offices that are truly going to come here and teach you guys exactly what they do. Saturday is going to be full leadership. You got it. I'm bringing in the best of the best, popular, proficient, amazing CEOs who are going to come tell you exactly what they do day in and day out, from hospitality to their ways that they're going to structure their lives, to how to make an incredible associate. You guys, the speaker line-up is top notch. So right now, head on over to thedentalateam.com/summit2023, read up all of our speakers and use podcast code, LOVE2023 and you guys are gonna get early access. Tickets are not going on sale until March 6. So from today until March 6 guys, you have early access and we are only saving 50 spots at this price point. So go sign up today, thedentalateam.com/summit2023, coupon code LOVE2023, and I will see you at summit, April 28th and 29th.

0:09:21.7 Kiera: How do you think my culture has become? Do you think it's better? Do you think it's worse? It's way better. My team knows that they're winning. How does your office know if they won the day?

0:09:30.9 Kiera: Sure, we can hit our production number. Sure, for us, we could sign up a new client and serve them and do the best. But what if we're not winning and owning our word? I was having it to where our consultants were doing a great job serving their clients, but to their teammates, they weren't focusing on them. They weren't helping them. Well, that's a bad culture to have guys, in case you're wondering. That doesn't foster great teamwork. So we had to find it. So I wrote in there things about it, just like that dental assistant department. For them, they were complaining about their compensation and they literally had an honest conversation about it of, "Do you feel you're compensated fairly?" And the team had to stop and think about it, and then they had to say, "Yes, we do." So because they do, they had to literally say that in their visualization.

0:10:11.5 Kiera: So it's been interesting. I've watched these teams. These teams are becoming more cohesive. These teams know how to win. One of my team members, she wrote, "We have Slack." Am I a lover of Slack? Not yet. Am I working on it? Yes. But I had a team member and she actually wrote in our random chat on Slack and said, "I'm putting this in random, but I'm calling myself out here, I've been struggling to win my day. Being a working mom has been a new challenge for me, but days like today make me so proud. I got everything I wanted to get done for work done. Over the weekend, I prepared games, crafts, activities for my kids so they stayed entertained all day. I also meal-prepped healthy meals for my kids, so while I was working, I could just hand them their snacks. And let me tell you, it's 6:00 PM, my computer is closed, my kids are fed and bathed and I have energy for me and I did it all alone while the husband is out digging people out of the snow." How do you think my culture is going right now, guys? [chuckle] Just as a quick question, how do you think that culture is going?

0:11:10.9 Kiera: The answer is it's going incredibly well. That team member took ownership. She could've blamed and said, "I have these little kids and I can't do it." Her job is to show up. Guys, as much as I love my team, sure, I understand family things happen, I'm also paying you to do a job and I do expect you as your boss and as an employer to do your job. Team members, your doctor, the person paying your paycheck expects you to do your job, to show up and to own your role. I don't care if you had a bad night last night, I don't care if you got sick, like those things, call out if you need to, but if you're gonna be there taking dollars, show up and own your role. Do your job. Don't have excuses. That's at least, for me, what winning means. But what about for your practice? So what about an overarching goal for your team to know how to know if they're winning? What about for your departments? What does it look like for the hygienists to win?

0:12:01.3 Kiera: What about for your doctors? What about for your front office team? What about for the billing team? How do they know they won the day? How can you have it so clear up on that scorecard and scoreboard, just like in sports that they know that they're winning and not just hitting the metrics, guys? 'Cause for basketball, the metric is putting the ball in the hoop, but that doesn't mean they won. They have to put the ball in the hoop more times than their opponent. For you, it's that we see patients. That's just expected. Doing our job, sending out claims, doing the billing, those things are expected, that's not winning our day, that's just doing your job.

0:12:37.2 Kiera: What does winning actually look like? So I wanna give you guys, it was one of the most powerful meetings that I had with all these team members. People were on cloud nine. My team is rocking and rolling, they're loving it. And you guys, I wanna tell you that if you can do this with your team, if you can show them what winning looks like and have it so tangible up there, you're gonna have a different culture. You'll have a different practice. You'll have a different life. I'd have to tell that team member to go meal prep and make her life easier. She did it on her own 'cause she knows what winning looks like. She knows. 'Cause we say it all the time. Our team... I mean, I still have to read it 'cause it's brand new, but it's like, "Did I positively impact someone today? Did I do everything that I said I was going to do? Did I own my role to its fullest? Am I prepped for tomorrow? And do I still have energy for me? Check, check, check, check, check. I won the day." So it becomes an easy checklist for your team. Teams love checklists. Teams want to know how they can win. So let's have that very tangible score up there so they know.

0:13:41.5 Kiera: So guys, if you need help, if you need to create this with your team, it's sometimes hard, trust me, it was really hard to get my team onboard. Thank heavens, I have a team of consultants who are pretty much able to go along with anything 'cause they're coaching their own offices as well. But they were able to do this for me and we were able to create it. But guys, as a CEO, it's hard, it's hard to do it alone. It's hard to do it. So I would say, what if it could be easy? Because with Dental A Team, it can. And if that resonates with you and you wanna take the easy route, email me, [email protected]. We do not do custom... We do not do cookie-cutter consulting. We do customize to your needs, to your practice, to what your team is looking for. Nothing about it is standardized, cookie-cutter, because every practice is different. And if that resonates with you, email me, [email protected]. And as always, guys, thanks for listening. Go fricking win, guys. That's what this is all about. Go win.

0:14:31.3 Kiera: Make it easier for you to win. Make it easier for your team to win 'cause that'll build momentum. Alright, guys, as always, thanks for listening. We'll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.

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0:14:44.3 Kiera: 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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