Episode 670: The Number One Thing Associates Want

Kiera shares a tactical laundry list of how true, beneficial mentorship of associates can happen. Ideas from finding motivations and working backwards to going for a walk outside during a break and plenty in between.

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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 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.

0:00:51.8 KD: Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And you guys, I wanted to just pop on today, say thanks for being here. Tell you guys it's a great day for a great day. And today, let's see, the quote... I have a little quote calender. Today's quote for you guys, I'm not telling you what day it is, 'cause you might be listening to this on a different day, is, "Your problem isn't the problem. Your reaction is the problem." there you guys go, a little morning tidbit, afternoon tidbit. Little inspiration for you. Your problem isn't the problem. Your reaction is the problem. And with that, guys, I just wanna say thanks for being a podcast family member. If this podcast has blessed you, served you or done anything to inspire you, make you laugh, make you cry, want a high five or be excited to be in dentistry, go leave us that five-star review, please and thank you. Honestly, guys, go do it right now. Go on, scroll down to the bottom of where you're listening, look for those five stars and do it, because honestly, without your reviews, our reach is tapped. I can't do anymore, all I can do is deliver amazing, amazing content that has served you, blessed you, changed your practice, helped your practice grow. And without you guys, we can't help other practices. There are over 185,000 dentists just in the United States, not to mention across the globe, and I know we are in the globe.

0:02:05.2 KD: So, how are we gonna reach all those dentists? 'cause that's my mission, reach every single dentist out there and change their life and shape their life and inspire them. I can't do it without you, so go do us a favor, tag us, share us, like us, leave those five stars. That's the number one way because it puts us higher up on the podcast radio. And then put us on your social media. Share, tell people, "Hey, go listen to this episode. Changed my life, helped me. This is amazing." Today, I'm going to go a bit tactical with you guys, tactical day, here we go, let's dive into this. And thank you for all of you who have left those reviews. I don't wanna leave that part out, because honestly, you did the hard work, you've helped us grow and without you, we wouldn't be here today, so thank you. And thank you for sharing your time and listening today. So today, it's gonna come into how can we help our associates? And this is not gonna be full-blown everything you need to know. There's a lot and this feels like a very broad topic, and so I just wanna break it down a little bit for you.

0:03:03.2 KD: I was talking to one of our offices, we actually have a really cool thing for our platinum practices, so if you guys wanna be a part of this, be sure to join us. We've cranked it up a notch this year, and what we have is we have Think Tank Tuesday, and every single Tuesday, we get our doctors only. It's a doctors only event. We also have an office managers event on Mondays called the management mastery mastermind. Don't worry. It used to be motivated manager, but now it's management mastery, 'cause honestly, I like that way better. It's the management mastermind... Management mastery mastermind on Monday. Don't worry, that's the MMMM, and I should send you guys M&M's, of course. But we have that for our office managers and then Think Tank Tuesday for our doctors, and I love Think Tank Tuesday because it is a place where, honestly, we get all of our doctors together and we talk doctor shop. And I do not record those. I do not share them with the public, so they are recorded and shared back if people miss it, but they are not shared with the public anywhere. And I oftentimes have after dark where I stop the recordings and we talk shop and we have fun diving deep on your guys' problems and on things that only doctors face, and it is truly one of my favorite events of every single month. We bring in really cool people, we had...

0:04:25.6 KD: Gosh, I'm not even gonna tell you guys, we just have... It's like the VIP behind the closed door event list. And in one of those, a doctor... We were talking about associates and he asked a question of like, "How can I be a better mentor for my associates?" And it just has like... It's stuck with me for almost a month now because I realize that is kind of a tricky spot. Doctors get busy especially in multi-practices, so this is for multi-practices, also for solo practice, but I've just been thinking about this a lot because at the end of the day, I've talked to a lot of associates, I'm not an associate and I'm not gonna pretend. So I'm just gonna share with you what I hear. I feel like that's one of my best assets that I bring to the table that most people don't have. I'm not a doctor, guys, I don't know if you knew that. I'm not a dentist, I don't have a doctor degree. [chuckle] I did work at a Dental College, but I do not have a doctor degree. And I think that that's actually one of my greatest assets, because I'm not you, and so because I'm not you, I actually sit there and I listen, and I listen for what people feel and what they say to give you guys the best insider scoop I can give you.

0:05:33.8 KD: Plus, I'm also a team member, so I can give you that perspective too, plus I am a really good business owner, plus I've owned dental practices, talk about a crazy perspective over here. Let's dive into this. So, how can you guys mentor and support your associates the best? And I think the word is mentoring, so let's dive into what is a leader? And a leader should be able to support, to lead, to be there for them, to remove obstacles from their way. Yes, you need to help them not be dependent on you, but you do need to help them and you do need to check in with them. And so it's gotta come from a very genuine place, and if checking in with people, staying connected... Like Jason, my husband, man, I love him so much. Staying connected with friends, not his strength at all. He's like... My family writes Thank You cards for Thank You cards, like, "Mom, thank you so much for sending me that Thank You card." Jason's like, "I don't even know when this ends. This is the song that never ends." Like, "No, I don't need to write you a thank you card for a thank you card."

0:06:30.3 KD: My family stays very well-connected. Jason's family, it's like, "Hey, when I remember, I'll call you." We gotta remember our associates, we gotta remember our team members, they've gotta feel that genuine love, connection, and that they belong. So if that's not your natural style, you gotta add in some reminders. Jason, he has to set reminders for his team to check in with them, he's gotta set reminders to check in with me, 'cause he knows that that's important for me. But I think the biggest takeaway that I've had is you've gotta schedule time for doctors to just talk. Gotta schedule time for team members to just talk. It's interesting, I found... I have a virtual company for the most part, I've got team members in different states that I don't even live in, and I don't even see more than maybe once or twice a year. That's kind of weird, but for team members which you guys have that you work day in and day out with, I found it's often interesting if you go for a walk, people talk a lot on a walk. It's safe, they say things, or go to dinner. People talk, and if you're willing to listen, you actually can hear their needs. If you're truly listening and trying to find out how can you support them in their way...

0:07:42.6 KD: Give them a space to talk. Also set regular cadences to train. I really encourage doctors to have your own "think tank" with your doctors, were you guys bring in FMX and you guys all collaborate on, what are you diagnosing, what am I diagnosing? How do we do this? And then bring up a problem case. We do that with consultant collaboration, is what we call ours, and we all bring an office that we're thriving on and an office that we're struggling on, and we work together on it. You guys can all bring in FMX, let's collaborate on that. Let's think about how we do that... Can do trainings. If you've got a dentist who does amazing with hand skills, guys, just type it on, it's there on Amazon, prep teeth together, go back to dental school, start working on those hand skills together, work on your hand-offs together, work on hygiene exams together, spend time collaborating and growing each other clinically, and then also schedule time to talk. You don't have to physically be present, but if there's a set time where that doctor knows that they're gonna be able to talk to their owner doctor about whatever it is, fantastic.

0:08:42.4 KD: Also find out what drives that doctor. Are they motivated by money, are they motivated by having their name on the door? Are they motivated by owning? Are they motivated by clinical growth and excellence? What is that? Find it, and then find a way to work backwards. Whenever I've got team members who wanna make X amount of money, all you gotta do is work backwards, show them the number that they need to produce, and this is how it is. This is how you're able to do it. So let's go together, let's find it, also increase your clinical skillset, let's find some CE for you to go to. There's a lot of different ways that you can help your doctors actually be better, and this is how you mentor them; check in with them, know their kids, know their families. I look at offices who have raving cultures and really great doctors and really good team members. They take a genuine interest in them as a person, they see them as a person not as just a team member or someone in their team. Do the little things, check in with them, "Hey, how is that crown prep?" Check in and find out, "Hey, how's it going?" Go for a walk if you're in person with them. Just say, "Hey, just wanna go for a walk, I wanna find out... Let's just go and let's chat."

0:09:51.4 KD: Walk around the block, it does not need to be long, get out of the day in, day out. Find out how they're doing, "How are your kids, how's work, how's life? What things stress you out, what things make you happy? What are you listening to for CE, what are some great books you've read?" Ask these questions. It's how you're going to mentor people, it's how you're going to be able to be a true mentor to them. So I would say, number one, incorporate that. Call it whatever you want, think tank, we call it consultant collaboration. You could have it be doctor diagnosing, I don't know, Doctor Dialogue, whatever you guys wanna call it. I don't care. Come up with something fun. Have it every single month, where this is where you guys truly calibrate together. So for us, we do a consultant collaboration, we have it twice a month, it's on the second... Excuse me, the first and third Monday of every single month. And we have somebody train us, we have somebody teach us. We also all bring something we're doing really well as our consultant toolbox tip, and then we also have it to where we have a problem that we're facing and we want the group to help us solve. It's a collaboration time.

0:10:53.4 KD: It's not a judgment time, we come with no judgment, we come full vulnerable and we're practicing on each other. For us, practicing is consulting each other, teaching topics, having people pretend to be offices and consulting one another. For you guys, how do you increase your clinical skill set? It's your exams, your hand-offs, your clinical skill set, it's, "How do we present these different treatment plans?" It's recording treatment plans, keeping them HIPPA, obviously, but playing them to each other and listening, and, "How did we do this exam?" 'cause you guys don't hear each other's exams. And it's growing one another in a great way where you guys can actually then increase your clinical skill sets, your hand-offs, how are you working with your hygiene team, how are we presenting to patients, what's our production? How can we increase our production? How can we increase our patient care? What's CE? I'm having sensitivity with my fillings. Someone show me, how are you placing GLUMA? How are you getting more patients to say yes? Let's review our exams together. That's your collaboration time, that is going to be so helpful for your doctors. Associates crave, one of the number one thing I hear...

0:12:01.0 KD: I've been working at Midwestern, I've got a lot of doctor-student connections. Number one thing I hear from doctors, getting associate positions, the number one thing they want, guess what? Mentorship. They want to be mentored, they want to be guided, they want to have somebody there who's gonna grow them clinically and help them out. And guess what? Most owner doctors say, "I don't have time, I'm super busy, I don't have time to help this associate." Make the time, stick it in your calendar, you guys can do it over Zoom. Take those FMXes, see what people are diagnosing, get that in. And then the second way is schedule set time where you're one-on-one with that doctor, time for them just to talk. If you've got four associates, that's four hours a month, pretty confident you can find it. Five of you do an hour of calibration. If you've got one associate, it's one hour a month. To me, I think, Kiera, in your life, what are you actually prioritizing and are the things you're prioritizing the things actually moving your company forward, and your life forward for that matter? Am I prioritizing my health? 'cause honestly, that's gonna get me to 90 a lot better than prioritizing work. So, am I prioritizing that?

0:13:15.3 KD: I should be. Am I prioritizing my time with my team members? 'cause honestly, as leaders, prioritize that team... All team members listening right now, are you checking in with your team members, are you making time for them? 'cause honestly, the greatest cost on a company is turnover. How are you investing in your human capital? Are we taking the time? 'cause that's gonna save you more time, that's going to help grow your culture, it's going to free you up more than anything else. So there's your tip, guys, if you wanna be a part of our think tank, you wanna be part of our doctor mastermind or our office manager mastermind, along with getting that one-on-one customized consulting, join us, I'd love to have you. Email us, [email protected], or even easier, head on over to our website, thedentalateam.com. Right there, there's a button, you can just schedule a call and you'll get to talk to us and see how we can help serve you, how we can make your life easier, how we can truly make your dreams become a reality with less stress, more profitability and more ease with empowerment.

0:14:15.7 KD: So guys, I would love to help you and serve you. Get these things in place, empower your associates. And as always, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:14:26.5 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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