Lane & Assoc Family Dentistry Female Leaders Take Over The Studio

Lane & Assoc Family Densitry is leading the way with female leaders.   5 female regionals sit down with Erica DeLong to discuss how they have succeeded as female leaders in the industry.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's Erica DeLong for lane In AssociatesFamily Dentistry, and I am so honored
today to be with five regional leaderswith Lanein Associates Family Dentistry, all females
honoring women for Women's History Month.Jeries. We're going to start with you
women in dentistry. Would you saythat being a woman offers a different approach
to management and leadership styles? Iwouldn't think so. I would think a

(00:23):
good leader you just expected to communicatewell. I feel like if you communicate
well with your team, if youencourage your team, I think that it's
not gender bias. I feel likeif you're a good leader, that's just
going to shine through as long asyou communicate and encourage your team as well.
One thing that we may do aswomen is have more understanding of some
of the struggles women may have inthe workplace. But being a good leader

(00:47):
shouldn't be reference to your gender,all right, Brandy, So how do
you balance the everyday duties of beinga spouse a mother while leading such a
fast paced environment. And this isgood for every environment for work in mine,
I started to say, I don'tknow that I necessarily balance it.
I will definitely call myself a chaoscoordinator. Yes, in the office and
at home, just realizing know thatI do have to draw the line between

(01:11):
work and home and not combine thetwo most every day so that when I'm
at work they get my full attention, but when I'm at home they get
my full attention. So it's justfiguring it out, and it's different from
day to day. It's never thesame. That's true. Anybody else want
to add to life balance because youknow it's when you have little kids or
just a family in general, it'sa lot to manage. I think even

(01:33):
when you're married life life balance.They expect you you have your work here
and you have to go home,and that's another eight hours. So you
have to stop somewhere and just cutit off. You can't bring work home
because if you do, then youhave somebody they're saying enough is enough.
So you have to know when tocut it off and realize that you cannot
do everything right. We have areally good group here that works well together

(01:56):
because we're at so many different stagesof our life. I know, Kelly,
kids are grown and you know,out of the house like dres and
weathers, but not in Corney's kids. They're still at home and we're still
active in sports and school and bookfay or all the things that draw same
same face. So we really helpeach other and rely on each other because
they understand where we're at, youknow, and they can help us cover

(02:20):
things that we may be getting pulledto do. So it's definitely a team
effort that goes into school for sure. And one of the things that I've
noticed that Lane and Associates Family Dentistrypreaches to it's all about family. Y'all
really are family. You have theactual people of your your employees on the
walls, and so I think itmakes a big difference where you have that
line of respect. Courtney, doyou want to add anything for that?
How you balance career, personal lifeand passions. Just like Brandy said,

(02:45):
it's a hard balance, but youhave to do it. So when I'm
at home, I give my undividedattention to my spouse and my children.
Right now, I'm doing a lotof traveling on the weekend, so i
can't really give attention to to workit all. I'm focusing on my daughter
and volleyball and tournaments things like that. So it's just keeping a healthy balance
and as long as we have that, then we're good. Unsually, we
work for a company that allows itso, and traffic volleyball is like a

(03:07):
part time job for me. It'sserious. Kelly, What are the ways
that you stay grounded and take careof yourself. I've learned my limits over
the years and know when to sayno. And again, piggybacking off of
what the other ladies have said,I have learned where the line is at

(03:30):
between the work life and home lifebalance. And then, you know,
on my own personal time, Itake time to go to spas, go
for walks, listen to good musiclike you here on G one A five.
And during the day, even atwork, we always try to take
time to laugh and have fun.It's not you know, always, and

(03:55):
that makes a huge difference, Likewhen you're working in an environment where you
actually lie during the day and itdoesn't feel so stressful. It makes you
proud to do what you're doing too. Heather, coming to you, So,
do you think that the face ofdentistry has changed? And if so,
how so as opposed to how itprobably was like twenty years ago.
They didn't really have the Internet andthings like that, so it's easier for
patients to you know, look thingsup and see and then we do have

(04:19):
more now like see out crowns.It can be done in the office same
day, the patients don't have towait on it to come back from a
lab things like that. So definitely, we have five female regionals for LANE
and Associates Family Dentistry, and we'resitting down with all of them during Women's
History Months. Brandy, what arethe benefits of having a community of women
in leadership at LANE? Or Wehelp each other, We understand each other,

(04:40):
We can you know, sympathize withwhat each other's going through, and
we also encourage each other. Iknow, just with our team within ourselves,
we realize when one of us isnot having the best day, the
best week, when we're struggling withour region, and we all are there
for each other. We have theconstant group text where we're talking to each
other, girl, you got this, you know, ride the wave.

(05:01):
It's gonna get better. And justthe support that we show each other means
so much, I know, Imean personally going through things in life and
work, to know that you havea team that backs you and supports you
and helps you through it. Ilove that I'm gonna come work with y'all.
I'm come work with y'all. Stephanie, all right, Jeres. What
factors impact a woman's ability to leadothers? I feel like you have to

(05:25):
be confident with yourself. Confidence isdefinitely a major factor, and you also
have to know your self worth.You know, we're quite capable of doing
the job and we deserve to bethere as well. And then when you
have a woman president in your company, that lets you know that you know,
we can go anywhere and we cando anything, and we just have
to put yourself out there to beable to do it. Investing in yourself

(05:46):
like having that confidence, that's thepart of investing in yourself. Is there
something that y'all have done throughout yourcareer where you're like, I need to
invest in myself because it pours outinto my daily life, whether it's work
or at home. For me,definitely, I think I take every day
about twenty to thirty minutes in thecar before I go home. So if
I've had a heart dead work,if I've struggled at work, I don't
want to take my feelings or myheart deat work and portray it on my

(06:11):
family. So I just take agood fifteen to twenty minutes every day in
the car just to kind of decompressand reset so I can be the best
mom and the best wife to myfamily. Right. Yeah. I started
audio books too, so I cando that. Okay, what are you
listening to a lot of Danielle Sealand Nicholas Sparks. Oh you've got the
romance going. Okay, I'd becrying in the car. Okay, this

(06:32):
is for everybody, So share anexperience where you've had to navigate power structures.
I have one that immediately comes tomind. So we're a large company.
We have you know, sixty locationsnow throughout the state. I've been
with the company for twenty years thisyear. So when I started, we
only had ten offices and growing notmuch. Over the years. There's been

(06:55):
you know, people coming and going. And I'll never forget when I was
managing one of the offices in thebeginning, there was an employee that was
put in my office that was somebodythat knew doctor Lane personally, and you
know, he was put there andlike, oh, we're gonna help him
out and give him a job.Well, he tried that with me.
You know, he's like, oh, you know, I can do this.
And I pulled him to the sideone day and I was like,

(07:17):
just because you're a friend of doctorLane's don't mean you can get away with
you. No, you work forme. This is what's gonna be done.
And I gained so much respect fromnot only that employee that day,
but from doctor Lane himself that Iwas able to just step in, take
charge and do my job and notlet you know, outthinkside things get in
the way because I knew what neededto be done and wasn't expected of me

(07:39):
at the time. Okay, Ithink that's the same as setting clear boundaries,
and that's what she did. Whenyou set clear boundaries and let people
know that you're just not gonna acceptcertain things. You know, you have
to let people know that this ishow it goes, and it's abtained a
command and how things happen, andyou have to follow those things so they
don't take advantage of certain situations andthis is how things work in the Once

(08:01):
you do that and set your clearboundaries, there's no misunderstandings on how things
work. How did you do thatearly in your career because a lot of
times you might be fearful or youdon't have that confidence yet, So how
did you do that early on?It's a learning process experience. Sometimes I
probably went back and was like,oh my god, I can't believe I
said that was probably shaking that.But then you think like, how about

(08:22):
that exactly? And it does makeme proud when that that story still gets
brought up today, like I rememberwhen I was like, but just learning
from that and just growing more confidentin yourself, not only as a woman,
but in a leadership role. Ithink we also always have to learn

(08:43):
and it is a learning process tokeep friendships aside from work, because we
do know we're here to get ajob done. But you can still be
friends and you can still get alongwith people. But learning that you know,
let's all be here and get thisjob done in a professional manner,
and it's I mean, it's agrowing experience and learning experience along the way.

(09:03):
Now, obviously radio is a verymale dominant business, and so sometimes
I've been seen as, oh,she's feisty because I would say, like,
we're not going to have that.Have y'all ever experienced that? Or
because you're among so many women,you don't have that much of that in
your workplace. We have time,definitely, and I don't think it's that
we're feisty. I just think thatwe're confident on what we're saying and we

(09:26):
know the job that needs to bedone. I feel like we shouldn't be
considered feisty because we're women and sayingthat this is the job, and we
understand what the job is and we'retelling them, you know what should be
done and how it should be done. I don't think it would be any
difference if there was anybody else sayingit, So it should be okay that
we're saying it, and it shouldn'tbe considered as being feist all right,

(09:48):
Heather, How have you built yourconfidence resilience over the course of your career?
Basically because I've always been in managementrole employer i've ever worked for.
But I I go the motto thatI usually have with the people that I
work with is I don't want youto work any harder than I do,
but I do expect you to workas hard as I am going to and
then just lead by example. Okay, I like that. Yes, anybody

(10:13):
else want to throw anything in there. How you built your confidence even early
on and throughout your career. Ithink it's the same. I think we've
all been in that position where wewant our managers or our teams to know
that we're not going to ask themto do any more than we wouldn't do.
So we if we're asking you todo it, know that we've done
it and we're probably still doing itright career, and to actually show it.

(10:35):
It's very important when we're traveling aroundto our offices in our regions and
stuff. It never hurts to youknow, our front desk, to see
us walk through the front desk andpick up the phone and answer it and
schedule that new paper, just likewe're expecting them to do, and how
we conduct ourselves on the phone withthose people. You know, it does
wear off on the ones that arethere in the office. They see us

(10:56):
doing it and they're like, Okay, I can do this. I got
this. Newbies that coming. I'venoticed in our working environment they don't feel
as though they need to work ashard and so have you set an example
for the young the young people sayinglike, hey, I've been here,
you know, ten fifteen years,I'm still picking up the phone. How
do you encourage new people coming insaying like you got to get your feet
your hands sturdy in order to grow. By example, I think, yeah,

(11:18):
you have to lead by example andjust kind of show them that,
hey, I'm doing it too.Like every time I'm in office, I'm
usually how can I help you?How can I serve you? And I
think just being there and being presentit like Brandy said it, it just
makes them excited when they make themwant to do the job as well.
So leading by example I definitely ishuge and I always tend to. I

(11:39):
feel like, share my story withnew hires coming in when I'm in offices
and they're like, how did youget to where you're at today? And
I'm like, well, I startedwhere you did you know? I was
hired as a treatment coordinator at thisoffice, And I said, I worked
hard every day and I work myselfup and I learned more and absorbed as
much as I could, and Iasked questions and you know, I wanted
to know and I wanted to learn. I was like, and you can

(12:01):
be here too, because in theregional position I'm in anohing makes me prouder
than to promote people under me.It's like a proud mama moment to like,
oh yeah, my baby's growing growingall right, Courtney. Imposter syndrome
that is such a big, youknow word. But self doubt. How
have you dealt with the effects ofimposter syndrome in dentistry. I just try

(12:22):
not to have self doubt and believein myself and wake up every morning and
just say you can do this.You got this. You have to believe
in yourself. You have to bepositive, and you just have to I
just go to work and do whatI know I can do and just continue
to always believe it myself. Itry not to have self doubt. Yeah,
I mean, and that can goin any whether career personal. As
a mom, we feel like we'renot doing a great job. Anybody else

(12:45):
want to add to that with theimposter syndrome? And I would always say
to be confident in how you're respondingto people, even if you're not one
hundred percent sure what you're telling them, Just be confident in it and you
can sell it like it till youmake it. Yes, Kelly, With
the company being predominantly women, howdo you encourage and support the staff on
your staff? I think first,you have to have empathy for your staff.

(13:11):
Again, you have to lead byexample and show them that you're a
leader. You're willing to do everythingyou're asking them to do, encourage them
and push them outside their boundaries,and always always acknowledge their great works and
accomplishments and congratulate them. Okay,Jerise, yes, how do you?

(13:31):
How do we as women stop theirgender bias and leadership? I think first
we need to communicate where we seeourselves growing in the company, what we
see ourselves doing. Let them knowthat we are just as capable. I
feel like we should always surround yourselfwith like minded people. Get around that
group network, you know, talkto these same people and continues who do

(13:54):
continuing education. Learn as much asyou can, you know, learn what's
out there, Learn what you canto keep yourself in the news so that
they can see that you are ableto do these things. And then they
can't help but to not want youto be in that position. Because we
can do just what everybody else cando. You just have to let them
know it. I do think womenare such good multitaskers too, Like we
can just run circles around some ofthese folks Brandy, do you experience resistance

(14:20):
when you're leading a team of menand how do you deal with it?
So that' said, yes, youhave to just be confident and have confidence
in yourself and don't be afraid tosay how you really feel or to speak
your opinion. When we all havemeetings with some of the male staff on
our corporate team, you know,we can't just back down. If I

(14:41):
feel strongly about a situation or apolicy that we put into place, I
know that I have to say whatI feel is right and what's right for
the company, and I have tojust like defend that and not just I
would hate to say bow down,but not just sit back and let them
take the lead and then take theoh, because if I believe in this,
you know, I need to speakup and I need to say something

(15:03):
otherwise we won't be heard or wewon't our opinions are not expressed. Do
sometimes so if it's like a lotof men, like, for instance,
we have a lot of men thatrun our companies. It's like if you're
trying to reach a demographic of youngwomen that have young children, like you
should talk to your direct target,you know, and you guys have experience.
You have families, moms usually bringingthem you know, your patients typically,

(15:26):
isn't that how it goes? It'susually the moms bring them up.
So y'all have moved in the world. Yeah, I know this, and
so Courtney, how do you pushfor change around ideas that are new or
maybe not that popular. I thinkjust standing strong to your beliefs and what
you believe in, and you know, showing your corporate team why you believe

(15:50):
these this change needs to happen,and just win out all the pros and
kind and showing all the positivity thatcan come from that change, and just
standing strong behind your beliefs. Abunch of baddies in this room I life
that I hather. Do women indentistry bring a different sensibility to the job?
I think they do. One thingthat was mentioned earlier was the empathy.
I think we have more empathy whenit comes to employees because you know,

(16:11):
the majority of our employees are females, so it is easier for us
to understand the issues they may behaving. So I think that's a big
part of it. Okay, Brandy, what does it look like being a
woman in leadership in the dental field. Confidence again is knowing that you can
do it and being confident in yourself. I think I just said that,
But there is a large female populationin the dental industry. There's a lot

(16:40):
of male dentists as well, andwe're seeing even more like male hygienus now
than ever before. But it's stillso important because, like you mentioned,
we're the ones that do it allfor our families most of the time.
We're the ones that schedule the appointments. We're the ones that get them to
the appointments right and making sure theterrence is presenting because Dad don't know what

(17:00):
the insurance is kind of thing.So for us to be in the dental
field, we understand that when dealingwith the patients a lot of times and
just helping them getting on the samelevel as the patients a lot of times,
it's what the patient wants. Andone of our top things, Elena
as says, is patients are ourtop priority. We want to do what's

(17:22):
best for our patients. And beinga woman in the dentistry field, we
know what that is for a lotof moms. And Kelly, how do
we develop leadership skills as a woman, How can we develop leadership skills.
I think first you have to havea good mentor to start off with,
and then associate yourself with other successfulwomen that are in leadership roles that have

(17:45):
the same worth ethic as you do. Who is your mentor? Well,
mother, Yeah, it may havea mentor like in the dental field that
they had that they were like,Okay, she's doing great things. I
want to kind of because you said, surround yourself with like minded people so
you can grow yea each other.Fell It's not a lot of female'sition.
I've been with a company for almostfifteen years, but I'm the newest regional,

(18:07):
so I rely on them a lot. I'm daily sending them questions,
Hey, what do I do withthis? So, because it's not like
there's there's a book that I couldgo by and say this is what you're
supposed to mean? I did atthe beginning, So how do I rely
on them? So I would saymentor, as far as this position goes,
would be probably the people in theroom. I feel like we all

(18:29):
bring something different to the table.We each have a certain personality traits that
we utilize that help help each other. So I think having a good group
of people that are all different.We all have different points of views,
but we can all bring out pointsof views together for the greater good of
our team and the greater good ofthe company. I think that helps a
lot as well, which I likethat you're saying that you all have differences
that you bring, you know,assets to the asset to the company.

(18:52):
But do you ever deal with jealousy? And maybe not at Lena Associates Family
Dentistry, but sometimes women will getjealous of each other if one is growing
faster than the other. So howdo you like squash that so that way
everybody knows we can grow as asquad. We are blessed enough not to
have that problem in our group,believe it or not. I think we're
all super supportive of each other andwe're always pushing each other. Yeah,
you can tell that. You know, at the end of the day,

(19:14):
we all can agree to disagree andwork three things together. Like Heather was
saying, we come to each otherwith problems when we know it's something you
know, like, well, Ijust can't handle this. I know I
have four other people in this roomthat I can jump on that text thread
and be like help, like whatdo I what do you suggest write employee
issues? You know, I cango to Brandy, I can go to
Juri's. Hey, this is howI'm feeling right now? Am I overthinking

(19:37):
it? Am I being too hardon my employee? Like? What's your
perspective? So it's nice to havepeople that you know bring different perspectives?
Well, I like that? AmI being too hard? Is this too
harsh? Should I reframe those?A lot of times we will type that
email and yeah, we do thathere too. I'm like, that's probably

(20:03):
I know, all right, Heather? What strategies can work well to promote
inclusion in the workplace? Just justbasically lead by example, active listening when
you are talking to employees, theywant to be heard as well, okay.
And then juries as a leader,how do you stay mindful of who's
at the table and who's missing?I feel like we all can take inventory
of our surrounds and who are webeing inclusive? Do we have everybody here?

(20:29):
Are we making opportunities for others tojoin our team? And if not,
then we should take the time too. It may be some people that
we have not even offered certain positionstoo, and we should all take more
time to think about those positions andyou know, it may be some other
other people or other you know,we have a lot of female positions in

(20:51):
dentistry, it may be others thatwe're not even thinking about, and we
should take the time to be moreinclusive and open up those opportunities to others
and be more inclusive in that way. So I think it's just a matter
of paying attention to our surroundings andopening up the gap to everybody and just
kind of maybe, you know,making sure we're doing that and this is
for everybody. Do you believe thedentistry has a higher number of women in

(21:14):
leadership than other fields? And ifso, why is that? I think
I think the manager, Yeah,we say the home life that the our
employees, our female employees are goingthrough, as well as the work that
they have to get through and accomplishevery day. And I think we also

(21:36):
understand, going back to the clinicalside of it, the importance of a
good smile and what it can dofor you know, anybody's future. It
makes every day people feel more confidentin themselves and know that you had a
part or your business had a partin helping that person with confidence is great
just like warm feeling that you get, you know. And again, I

(21:57):
feel like that we can be moreinclusive and having other genders in it,
and it's just that maybe we haven'ttaken the time to find other leadership roles
for you know, other people thatmay want to be in the dentistry field.
Now, it's not a gender basedfield. It's just that women are
more in this field as leaders,and maybe we should tap into the different
fields to get more of another genderin it because they can lead as well.

(22:19):
If we feel like we can leadas well in this field, they
can as they can't, right,It's just that we maybe haven't taken the
time to help them get there,you know. And I just maybe they
don't know what dentistry is as faras the management side of how far they
can go on this end. It'sjust they feel like it's a woman's field,
but it is some men in there, and it's just a matter of
tapping out and finding it and showingthem that it's not just a woman dominated

(22:45):
field and you can be a manageror regional director. I think in our
company, over sixty offices, westill only have one male office manager at
this point. Oh he's isolated,he feels out numbered. Right, So
is there anything else that you ladieswould like to add today? You know,
being here Women's History Month, thatpeople are listening, anything you want

(23:07):
to say for somebody maybe is planningto be in the dentistry field, or
maybe just they're seeking what's next intheir life as a wanting to be a
female leader. I would definitely saygo for it. Dentistry is definitely not
going away anytime soon. It's allthere's always going to be a need for
it and it's just a great businessto be in. Go for it and
you can do it. I thinkevery person in this room pretty much started

(23:32):
from the bottom, and we allworked our way started from the bottom.
Not we're here. We all startedat different levels. We all worked hard
to get where we are, rightwhere we are. So if you want
it, go for it and justbelieve in yourself and have confidence because you
can do it. You can setyour mind to it. You can do
whatever you want to do in thisworld. So absolutely don't let anybody tell
you you can't. You know,you have to have the confidence and just

(23:56):
show up and you know, letsomebody and prove it to yourself that it
can be done. You can doit, you know, one day at
a time, once a hole outof time, as we say at the
offices, and there's a way tomake it to the top, you know.
Don't let anybody tell you that youcan't get there real quick. Before
we go, though, how longhave each of you been there? I
know you said you're news, Sohow long have you been with the company
for fifteen okay, but new inthis role? Okay? So fifteen years?

(24:18):
What about you? Ten? Okay, I'll even years in August?
Oh, congrats, okay, startingwith your baby twenty five in July also
started when you're a baby. That'samazing. That just goes to show how
Lane and Associates Family Dentistry it reallyis a family, and y'all have been
here for a long time and thatthat says a lot about the company.
So well, thank you for comingin today, Thank you for having us

(24:41):
the female regional leaders at lane InAssociates Family Dentistry check them out today.
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