Episode Transcript
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Chris Stone (00:00):
Alright ladies, this is
the Wizard and here we go in 3, 2, 1.
Jen Steadman (00:09):
Back in 10 is a podcast
for dental leaders who do it all
and need 10 minutes to themselves.
Savanah Carlson (00:14):
It's about real
conversations, not curated ones, the
kind that happen off the clock, behindclosed doors, in between the chaos of
running a practice and running life.
Jen Steadman (00:24):
Hosted by Savannah Carlson
and Jen Steadman, two women who've led,
learned, and laughed through it all.
Savanah Carlson (00:31):
This show brings
honest stories, leadership truths, and
the occasional sassy take on what itreally means to lead in dentistry today,
Jen Steadman (00:38):
because sometimes
the best leadership happens when
you step away for 10 minutes.
Savanah Carlson (00:44):
This is back in 10.
Hey everyone.
Welcome to back in 10.
I am Savanah.
And I'm Jen.
And today's episode, it may be atwo-parter, it may be a three parter.
(01:05):
This is a deep co.... A deep, oh wow.
This is a deep topic.
I almost said something very foul.
This is a deep topic that wecould talk about four hours,
but we won't, but we could.
So I would highly recommendyou grabbing your.
(01:26):
Pen and your notebook.
We are going to talkabout hiring for culture.
What is your office culture like?
Do people actually wannawork in your practice?
Does, is your current team happy?
What is the culture like?
Jen Steadman (01:46):
That's a great
question to ask yourself if
you're looking to hire people.
Right?
Because it's so important that whenyou are looking to hire for culture,
instead of necessarily by positionnumber one, know what your culture is
and when you're looking tohire for that way, make sure
(02:07):
that your ad talks about it.
Yeah.
It's a huge mistake that people make.
Is that their ad turns intoa job description, it turns
into a legal document insteadof like a dating site, right?
Like you, I want people to look at yourad and say, would I date this office?
(02:28):
Would I have a cup of coffee?
Would this office, because if theywouldn't have a cup of coffee with you
from your ad, then your ad is wrong.
So.
Making sure that your ad speaks to whoyou are is really, really important.
And ask your team, whydo you wanna work here?
(02:50):
Why do you continue to work here?
And it's really going to shed light ona lot of things that are going really
well in your practice and maybe thingsthat are going really wrong, right?
Yeah, absolutely can addressit just, it opens the door.
(03:12):
So super important that you understandwhat your culture is first, and everyone
always says, well, we have a positiveculture, and we're like a family.
What kind of family
Savanah Carlson (03:25):
Do you feel like
the redheaded stepchild today step?
Jen Steadman (03:28):
I'm telling you, because
some people might not like their family.
So it, it all depends, right?
It's right.
Is it close knit?
Is it distant?
Because every family iscompletely different.
So, uh, that would beone thing I would say.
Maybe not say family in your jobad because again, it's for everyone
That means something different.
Savanah Carlson (03:48):
You said something
interesting that is controversial
about being a dental family.
There are two, the generational dividebetween, oh, I don't wanna do decades.
I don't wanna marginalizeanyone, but Okay.
So we have a group of teammembers who want that family-like
(04:12):
atmosphere at their mm-hmm.
Points of employment.
And then we have very green up andcoming team members that don't.
Want that feeling.
They want to be able to come to work,do a really great job, be proud in
what they're doing, and then go home.
They don't wanna feel mm-hmm.
As though they have that responsibilityof being a family member.
(04:39):
Mm-hmm.
What are, what have youencountered that I sure have?
Jen Steadman (04:44):
Oh yeah.
Absolutely.
And that's why it's really importantthat when you are hiring, that you
are 110% honest in your ad aboutwhat you are and about who you are.
So don't have someone come in underfalse pretenses either, right?
(05:06):
So if you say you're family,if you are a family, know that.
You are putting upbarriers for some people.
In your ad. Just like if you saidyour hygienist was gonna, if,
if you said you're looking fora hygienist and you're gonna pay
them $25 an hour, that's a barrier.
If you said you're paying them $60 anhour, that could also be a barrier.
(05:28):
So I really try to limit the barriersthat you put up and saying that your
family could be one of them, could.
Every office is different.
There's practices I've workedwith that are very faith-based
and that's very important to them.
Now they do not, it doesn't matter tothem what denomination you are or what,
(05:50):
you know, what religion you practice,but faith to them is important.
Then you put that in your ad. That's thetype of person that you're hiring for.
You want someone who has faiththat faith is important to them.
If that's what's important toyou, then make sure that you put
it in there and know that people,that that's not important to
(06:12):
them, they're not going to apply.
That could be a barrier for some, butif that's what you want and that's
what you need, then that's whatyou're gonna put in there, right?
Savanah Carlson (06:19):
That level of
transparency is, is super important
and it needs to trickle to allaspects of your practice Marketing.
So if your ad doesn't reflect who you aresocially, there is a red flag right there.
You're there is a, somemiscommunication in culture.
Jen Steadman (06:42):
Yes, ma'am.
And what I will say to that too isyou need to be very mindful of what
you have on all of your marketing, onyour social media, on your Facebook,
on your website, on Instagram, on.
On X, on TikTok, everything, because youneed to think your future team members
(07:05):
are going to be looking at that, right?
So whatever you post today, your futureteam member that you're gonna look to hire
three years from now is looking at it.
Or they're looking at your,they don't see anything,
Chris Stone (07:18):
Jen.
It's the wizard.
I have a question on this topic.
So you're talking about whatyou post on social media, right?
Are you just talking about on thepractices page or are you also talking
about what you post on your personal page?
Because there are a lot of super sleuths.
Out there that after an interviewthere, I would guess they're not only
(07:42):
going to look at your practices, socialmedia, just like the practice is looking
at the interviewees social media.
So how do you is that somethingto be mindful of as well?
Savanah Carlson (07:54):
That is
a very touchy subject.
Mm-hmm.
And we.
Jen, do you wanna wanna address it first?
Jen Steadman (08:00):
Yeah.
So here's what I'll say.
As an employer, if I was the interviewer,I have never looked at someone's
social media prior to hiring them.
Mm-hmm.
It is a practice that I amnot getting involved in.
There are so many red flagswith that because it can put
(08:22):
them in a projected class.
So many different things.
Things that I don't need to know.
I'm gonna make my decision on theinformation that I have in front
of them, and by talking to them.
Now, if I do a background checkand something comes up, you bet
your bottom that there's gonnabe a conversation That, right?
But that's a different story now.
(08:43):
A lot of providers, I'll sayout there, the majority of
them, their profiles are hidden.
Mm-hmm.
Or they're, they're protected.
Right.
So people can't see intothem for the most part.
You can always findsomething though, I'll say.
So look, with anything on socialmedia, you always need to be
mindful of who's looking at it.
(09:03):
If you're gonna put something outthere you know that anyone can find it.
That's your choice.
That's a personal choice for you.
Um, and that's okay.
Just know that someone may findit and they may not choose to come
and work for you and be part ofyour team based on what they found.
That's your decision, though.
That's totally up to you.
(09:24):
It's, it's a personal choice.
Savanah Carlson (09:26):
And when it comes
to what you, yourself post mm-hmm.
On your socials, that is, again,that's a personal decision.
You as the manager and your dentist cannotdictate what you do on your off time.
I've encountered this.
I have been pulled into a conferenceroom to have a discussion about something
that my doctor did not agree with,that I posted on my personal page and.
(09:52):
It was a hard conversation to havewith the dentist, not for me to have
with the dentist, but for her to hear.
Mm-hmm.
That that is my personal space and thatis something if she, if she doesn't wanna
look at my socials, she doesn't have to.
Mm-hmm.
And that, I mean, youcan gate all of that.
(10:12):
You can block people, you canmake things private, but your
socials are, are your socials and.
It's the first amendment, whichis freedom of speech, so, correct.
Jen Steadman (10:24):
Yep.
I will.
And that's why we're also here, right?
We're able to be, I will say one thingwhen we're talking about social media,
I'll just say electronic usage, if we'retalking about team member things, I've
had a conversation with a team memberin the past that constantly posted
things on social during work time.
(10:44):
Now that's a differentconversation to me, right?
I was not concerned about the content,did not care in the least bit.
However, if I see that when you are inthe office and you are on the clock and
we are paying you to be here and yourwork performance is not at the expectation
(11:07):
or at the level that we need it to beat, because we've had that conversation.
You are constantly posting onsocial because you can see it
and you're tagged in things.
That's a conversation you're gonna have.
But that's also with the culture, right?
That goes hand in hand.
Like if and the other,oh my goodness gracious.
(11:28):
Yeah, we could go on this forever.
So just talking about culture in theoffice, if you are going to allow a toxic
team member to stay in your practice.
And I'll use that example of someone thatthe team, everyone on the team knows this
person is on their phone all the time.
They're always on social,they're always posting things,
(11:50):
they're always on the clock.
And you are allowing that, you'regonna lose valuable team members
because you are allowing it.
So
Savanah Carlson (12:03):
it's just disrespectful.
It's just disrespectful.
To those team members that areable to follow the rules and
protocols of the practice thatyou are allowing someone else to,
to, to just disregard all of that.
Jen Steadman (12:24):
I will say it's also a form
of fraud because you are fraudulently
your timecard, you are being fraudulentwith your timecard because you are not.
On the clock right now.
Savanah Carlson (12:38):
Very true.
Jen Steadman (12:39):
You're not So there's
so much that goes into that.
Yeah.
But again, any toxic team member,you need to have a conversation.
I am always one.
I will always give someonethe benefit of the doubt.
I will always have a conversation first.
However, usually the first time youthink about firing someone should be the
(13:00):
last time that you think about firingsomeone because the amount of energy.
Stress that you are dealing withbecause of that toxic person.
You know, we all know as leadershow there's someone in your
practice, either now or in the past.
I hope in the past, for your sake, thatyou have gone to your leaders in the
(13:26):
practice and have said they gotta go.
Or guess what they did today,or just another chapter in
the book of them, right?
Think about how productive you couldhave been with that time if you
hadn't been talking about that person.
(13:48):
Amazing.
It's amazing.
So really important that youhave expectations for your team.
Your team knows whatthose expectations are.
You have a culture and you stick to it.
So if you have a culture of open,transparent communication, then you need
to be open, transparent and communicatesome of those things that are happening.
(14:09):
If you have a culture that personaldevices are not to be used during
office hours, you should not be onyour own device during office hours.
Right?
There's so many thingsthat that go into that.
Mm-hmm.
But.
You really for Going back to the,we got off on a tangent here.
(14:30):
If we are going back to hiring forculture, you really need to make sure
that if you have an open seat in youroffice, that you are not just filling
it with a warm body, because you couldalso lose valuable team members from
that, and that open seat is quickly goingto turn into a revolving one, right?
It's just that sucker's just gonna bespinning because you didn't take the time.
(14:55):
To hire good people.
Chris Stone (14:59):
This is the
Wizard to be continued.
Savanah Carlson (15:05):
Thanks for spending
a few minutes with us on back in 10.
Jen Steadman (15:08):
If something made you
laugh, nod or feel a little more
human, share it with a friend andmake sure that you're subscribed.
Savanah Carlson (15:14):
You can also
follow us on Instagram at Back in
10 Pod for more behind the scenesupdates and probably a little chaos.
Jen Steadman (15:22):
We're not here
to have it all figured out.
We are just here to tell you thethings that we wish someone had told us
Savanah Carlson (15:29):
and remind
you that leadership doesn't
have to be perfect, just real.
We'll be back in 10.
Back in 10.