July 30, 2025 • 14 mins
Tired of feeling like you're the only one who gives a crap?
This week, Dr. Paul breaks down one of the real causes of burnout—not just for you, but for your team. It’s not about working too hard. It’s about feeling like none of it matters.Discover how powerlessness creates disengagement, resentment, and culture rot—and how a simple shift in leadership style can turn your team from reactive employees to proactive owners.You'll learn:This is how you build a team that solves problems without you.
- Why your team might be checking out (and it's not laziness)
- How to give people real ownership without losing control
- The one-on-one question that sparks instant engagement
- How to create “collaborative ownership” across your practice
🔗 Apply for the DPH Legendary Mastermind: dentalpracticeheroes.com/apply
🎯 Learn about 1-on-1 coaching: dentalpracticeheroes.com
Take Control of Your Practice and Your Life
We help dentists take more time off while making more money through systematization, team empowerment, and creating leadership teams.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
So here's the question why do some team
members light up when they talkabout their work and some other
ones look like they're justcounting the minutes until the
end of the day or the lunch?
Are they just a bad hire?
Are they lazy?
Or is something deeper going on, something that we, as the
leaders, might be accidentallycreating in our practices?
Today I want to talk about oneof the biggest causes of team
(00:24):
burnout and disengagement thatalmost nobody ever talks about.
It's the disconnect from havingmeaningful work and having
control, because when peoplefeel powerless or if they feel
unheard at your office, theycheck out and when that happens,
the culture tanks and theproduction stalls and you just
feel like you're trying to pushpeople uphill and you can't
(00:45):
figure out why you are the onlyone that gives a crap at your
office.
Have you ever felt like that?
Honestly, everybody, includingyou, feels drained, and the good
news is it's very fixable andit's very easy to fix.
Now you're listening to theDental Practice Heroes podcast.
I'm your host, dr Paul Etcheson.
I'm the author of two books ondental practice management, I'm
(01:05):
a dental coach and I'm an ownerof a large five doctor practice
in the south suburbs of Chicago.
I am somebody who practicesjust one day a week and I want
to show you how you can have ateam-driven practice so you can
practice less and live a betterlife.
We often talk about burnout.
Burnout is that buzzword whereeveryone's like, man, I'm
burning out, I think I'm burningout, I think I'm working too
(01:27):
hard all this stuff and a lot ofpractice owners.
We think burnout is caused bytoo much work.
But I've been there.
I've been at that burnout pointand I've felt it and it's a
crappy feeling.
But when I think about it, itwasn't entirely about too much
work.
I mean, sometimes it can be,but more often for me it was
that the work that I was doingfelt pointless.
(01:47):
No matter what I did, it didn'tmake a difference.
No matter how much effort I putin, it didn't change anything.
I was always banging my headagainst the wall and being like
why am I even trying?
Why do I try so hard?
Nobody notices, nobodyappreciates it and nothing
changes.
So there was this research fromback in the 70s that I often
like to reference, and it'scalled the Whitehall Studies.
(02:08):
So what this was is they ransome studies in Britain and
looked at organizations like agovernment organization, like a
big bureaucracy.
And they said, okay, let's lookat the health of the people at
the bottom of the organizationand the people at the top, and
who's going to have betterhealth, who's going to have more
stress and all this stuff.
And what they thought was thatpeople's health at the top would
be worse.
I mean, they have more stress,they have more responsibility.
(02:29):
But what they actually foundwas the opposite.
It was the people at the bottomthat had more stress, that they
had worse health.
And what they looked at andthey said, man, that is really
surprising.
Let's get some more information, let's figure out what's going
on here.
So I looked into it and whatthey found is that it came down
to a lack of control.
When people don't have controlover their work environments and
they feel like nothing they doaffects the outcomes, they're
(02:51):
just told what to do.
They're a cog in the wheel.
There's no creativity, there'sno decision making.
That causes the highest rate ofstress and highest rate of
depression.
So it wasn't the top levelexecutives, it was the people at
the bottom with the lowestcontrol.
So think about that in thecontext of your practice, your
front desk team.
They're constantly, you knowthey're reacting to the schedule
.
They're reacting to upsetpatients.
(03:13):
The phones are ringing off thehooks.
Your assistants they're likecleaning up everything after you
.
They're taking care ofeverything, making sure the day
keeps on going.
So a lot of their work isreactive.
So we want to create anenvironment in our dental
practices where it doesn't feellike that.
I mean, I remember back in theday that my front desk they were
just really getting burnt outand what it was is we just said
man, after COVID, people justgot so mean.
(03:36):
Everybody is upset, everybodyis complaining, like the
patients I'm talking about, andthey felt like, no matter what
they did, they were just gettingyelled at all day and I was
just like dang like, what isthat about?
That really sucks.
I hate that they're feelinglike that.
Think about what I said nomatter what they did, they got
yelled at, so they had nocontrol over it.
It didn't matter if they did agood job, bad job, whatever
(03:57):
Patients were pissed off Is whatwe did.
Is I on how to handle upsetpatients?
This is a module in our onlinetraining that we have, if you're
interested.
But we train them how to handleupset patients and it's a
two-step process and when wetaught them how to do that.
They got their control back.
They're like, wow, this works.
It helped them to feel better.
They didn't feel that burnoutanymore because they felt like
(04:18):
they were back in control.
If somebody wants to get upsetwith me, I can handle the
situation.
I'm just not at the whims ofthis upset patient complaining
about their insurance orwhatever the heck they are.
So we give them back theircontrol.
And when I think about mypersonal burnout, I mean it was
just like, no matter what I did,it was never enough.
It's just like I felt like Iwas always unappreciated.
I felt like there was alwaysissues going on at the practice.
(04:40):
I couldn't handle them enoughand, no matter what I did,
people were telling me that youknow, we need you more here, we
need you to be more like this,we need you to do more of this.
And I'm just like dude, I can'tdo all these things at once.
So it makes you want to throwyour hands up in the air and
just say screw it.
That's what your team does aswell.
So if you don't haveintentional systems to give
people ownership and a voice atyour practice and this could
(05:02):
very possibly be one of theworst foundational elements of
the culture of your practice.
So this is important.
All right, let's talk aboutpowerlessness, because that's
what we're really exploring here.
What does powerlessness feellike?
When you feel powerless, youstart to go through the motions.
You don't care.
You might have a team that'snot improving on the systems,
(05:22):
even though you're talking tothem, you're trying to get them
to improve it, but they're justnot doing things the way that
you want them to do, becausemaybe one that's the way it's
always been, or two, they justdon't really care to change the
ways, because it doesn't matterwhat they do anyway.
They feel like that.
Or you might be feeling likeyou're the only one who gets it,
you're the one who doeseverything, you're the only one
who but it's probably not thatthey don't get it they just
(05:44):
don't care because at some level, it makes zero difference what
they do.
They feel like that, they tellthemselves that story and they
have found evidence at yourpractice that that is true.
I remember a long time ago whenour front desk was maybe only
four or five people large.
Right now we've got like 10 or11.
But we had somebody who wasgreat and she slowly started
dropping the ball and I broughther into my office and I really
(06:06):
just had this sense that she wasgoing to quit.
I really felt it and I askedher.
I said hey, what's going onwith you?
I just sense that there'ssomething wrong.
And she's just like no, it'sfine.
And I could still sense thatthere's like she's not telling
me something.
So I continued to prod, I saidyou know what?
I just I'm sorry if I'm feelingthis way, I'm sorry if I'm
wrong, but just my intuition istelling me that something's
(06:27):
upsetting you and I really wantto help you whatever it is, but
I can't help you if you don'ttell me about it and you don't
share it with me.
And that's when she shared.
She felt like we were justbringing a lot of policy down on
the front desk and we were justshoving things down their
throat that we need to do thingsthis way, and she had a lot of
ideas of some different ways wecould do it, but nobody was
listening.
We weren't really listening tothis person.
(06:47):
We were just saying, no, thisis how we want it done, and not
including the team.
So that just goes to show youis that people don't want to be
told what they do.
They want to collaborate.
So that's what I learned inthat is hey, you know what?
What do you think we should bedoing?
Hey, I'm game for tryinganything, let's try it.
So this is what I like to callcollaborative ownership.
This is the fix.
It's not really delegation,it's not entirely delegation,
(07:09):
but it's saying we're going togive our team control over how
their work is done.
We're going to let them buildsomething with us instead of
just doing what we tell them todo.
So they're not just going to dowhat we say.
And that might freak some dentalowners out.
You might say, well, I can't dothat.
I mean they're going to tank mypractice.
I beg to differ.
I think you can try anythingfor a month If your team has an
(07:33):
idea and you can say, hey, thisis what we want to try to do.
What do you guys think?
What do you always want to try?
Let's try it.
Try it for a month.
Think about that.
That's a fraction, one over 12.
If you do it for one month outof the year, you're going to see
what is that?
8.3% of your practice, I meanyou'll probably see less of your
practice and over that course,because not all of your patients
are coming in on a consistentbasis, but 8.3% of your practice
(07:56):
.
Now how many of that 8.3% areyou really going to piss off?
You were trying something.
It didn't work.
Very, very little of them.
You might see piss off a few ofthem.
That is not going to tank yourpractice by pissing off a few
people.
That might be 8.3 of yourpractice.
See how it goes and improve onit.
Discuss it with a team.
How did this go?
What can we do better?
So this is why thecommunication things come up.
(08:18):
As a leader is, we often hadthese issues in our practice and
we look for policy.
What can we do to make thisbetter?
But in reality it's acommunication issue.
If we could just get morecommunication, maybe some more
one-on-ones with our team, wecould ask better questions and
get the team to collaborate more.
We would find solutions.
They might not be the bestsolutions, they might not be the
(08:41):
most ideal system, but do theymeet the goals?
And if they do meet the goals,did they come from the team?
Because if they did come fromthe team, the team is going to
be bought in on it.
They're going to want to do it.
Think about when you tell yourteam how to do something.
When you tell your team how todo something, sometimes they
follow the rules, but they'rereal, like deep down, like in
this.
They might not even be aware ofit, but at some level they want
(09:02):
to prove to you that what youcame up with doesn't work and
the way they've been doing itbefore is better.
And they're trying to show youwhy this is not going to work,
because they don't want thatsystem to work.
They don't like that system.
But what if you gave them thegoal?
What if you identified the goaland you identified the problem
that you're trying to solve andyou open the floor to let's hear
some ideas.
What do you guys think we coulddo?
(09:30):
And the team came up with anidea.
How much more engaged do youthink that team is going to be
in carrying that system throughto see if it works?
Because, instead of trying toprove it's not working, they
will do everything they can tomake that work and they will
follow that system.
You don't have to redesign everysystem for your team.
You've got to engage them inwhat we're doing, and this is a
lot of what we teach in ourleadership with Dental Practice
Heroes and our coaching and ourprograms is we teach you how to
get these questions and drawthis conversation in your team,
(09:52):
because this is truly what getsbehavior change is getting the
team on board.
It's not only about having theright systems.
We can know the best way to dothings, but if we can't get our
team to do it, it doesn't meanany.
It doesn't mean jack.
So let's talk about what thislooks like in a practice,
because I want to give you sometangible steps here.
We let our team own theirdepartments.
We are giving them the freedomand trust to come up with
(10:15):
solutions and address things.
We are supporting them.
How can I help you?
How can I support you?
What can I do to help?
We're talking about the goals.
We're talking about the issues,but all the solutions, those
are a collaboration with you andyour team.
It's a collaboration with theteam leads and their departments
, things like that.
We're involving people in thedecision making.
(10:35):
So anything big, any bigdecisions changing to policy,
changing scheduling templates,anything that you want to do you
want to involve to some extentthe people that are affected to
help you make that decision.
When you do that, you're goingto get better ideas, but you're
also going to get better buy-in,and this is why meetings are so
crucial Meetings with the fullteam, meetings with departments,
(10:57):
meetings one-on-one with eachof your leads.
Lead meetings with your wholelead department, your leads
meeting with their departmentsone-on-one.
These meetings are so crucialbecause this is where the
collaboration happens.
You can't collaborate if you'renot communicating.
So you've got to set thesethings up, you've got to put
them in your schedule so thatyou don't skip them.
And every quarter, typicallyafter every quarterly meeting,
every department has what I calla mini quest or a mini mission.
(11:20):
They've got one thing over thenext quarter that they are to
improve upon they're supposed toimprove on the cancellation
percentage, getting that down.
They're going to improve ongetting more new patient
conversion.
They're going to improve ondealing with upset patients.
There's one focus, one bigfocus that they can all focus on
and band together as a team andget better at it.
So if you did this at yourpractice, what do you think
(11:41):
would happen?
Like what happens when peoplenow have a voice at their work,
where they can express theircreativity and they can
contribute, and it makes adifference.
Well, the engagement's going togo up, the personal ownership
of every single person in yourpractice.
That's going to increase.
The complaints go down and theculture now shifts from reactive
(12:02):
to proactive.
People are now solving issueswithout you having to hold their
hand for every little thing.
So if you can create a culturelike this at your practice,
problems all those little thingsthey start to just work
themselves out because yourengaged team is talking about
what's not working and what canbe done better.
And when people feel likethey're builders they're not
(12:24):
just employees that's wheneverything can change.
So here is your challenge forthe week.
For me, I want you to pullaside a few team members,
one-on-one with them this week,and just ask them if you could
fix or maybe change one thing inyour department.
What would it be and how wouldyou do it?
And don't jump in, just listen.
That is where the magic isgoing to start.
You're going to listen and seewhat they say and, like I said,
(12:47):
this is exactly the type ofshift that we help practice
owners make in our mastermindthat we got coming up in
September.
Two spots left in our mastermind.
We're kicking it off inSeptember.
Come join us.
We also have one-on-onecoaching options.
You can go todentalpracticeheroescom to learn
more about that.
If you're interested in themastermind you want to apply, go
to dentalpracticeheroescomslash apply.
(13:07):
So, final thoughts your teamthey don't need pizza parties
and ping pong tables, okay.
They just need to feel likethey have meaning and they have
value on your team.
And you do that by giving thema say, you give them a mission,
you give them goals and youlisten to their input and you
collaborate with them.
So that is how you build aculture that's not just
productive but proud.
(13:28):
They will be proud of wherethey work and that's the kind of
practice that is worth showingup for, and that's what I want
for your practice.
So thank you so much forlistening and I hope this week
you go in and you start changingthe culture of your practice
for the better by communicatingand engaging your team.
Thanks so much.
So here's the question why do some team
members light up when they talkabout their work and some other
ones look like they're justcounting the minutes until the
end of the day or the lunch?
Are they just a bad hire?
Are they lazy?
Or is something deeper going on, something that we, as the
leaders, might be accidentallycreating in our practices?
Today I want to talk about oneof the biggest causes of team
(00:24):
burnout and disengagement thatalmost nobody ever talks about.
It's the disconnect from havingmeaningful work and having
control, because when peoplefeel powerless or if they feel
unheard at your office, theycheck out and when that happens,
the culture tanks and theproduction stalls and you just
feel like you're trying to pushpeople uphill and you can't
(00:45):
figure out why you are the onlyone that gives a crap at your
office.
Have you ever felt like that?
Honestly, everybody, includingyou, feels drained, and the good
news is it's very fixable andit's very easy to fix.
Now you're listening to theDental Practice Heroes podcast.
I'm your host, dr Paul Etcheson.
I'm the author of two books ondental practice management, I'm
(01:05):
a dental coach and I'm an ownerof a large five doctor practice
in the south suburbs of Chicago.
I am somebody who practicesjust one day a week and I want
to show you how you can have ateam-driven practice so you can
practice less and live a betterlife.
We often talk about burnout.
Burnout is that buzzword whereeveryone's like, man, I'm
burning out, I think I'm burningout, I think I'm working too
(01:27):
hard all this stuff and a lot ofpractice owners.
We think burnout is caused bytoo much work.
But I've been there.
I've been at that burnout pointand I've felt it and it's a
crappy feeling.
But when I think about it, itwasn't entirely about too much
work.
I mean, sometimes it can be,but more often for me it was
that the work that I was doingfelt pointless.
(01:47):
No matter what I did, it didn'tmake a difference.
No matter how much effort I putin, it didn't change anything.
I was always banging my headagainst the wall and being like
why am I even trying?
Why do I try so hard?
Nobody notices, nobodyappreciates it and nothing
changes.
So there was this research fromback in the 70s that I often
like to reference, and it'scalled the Whitehall Studies.
(02:08):
So what this was is they ransome studies in Britain and
looked at organizations like agovernment organization, like a
big bureaucracy.
And they said, okay, let's lookat the health of the people at
the bottom of the organizationand the people at the top, and
who's going to have betterhealth, who's going to have more
stress and all this stuff.
And what they thought was thatpeople's health at the top would
be worse.
I mean, they have more stress,they have more responsibility.
(02:29):
But what they actually foundwas the opposite.
It was the people at the bottomthat had more stress, that they
had worse health.
And what they looked at andthey said, man, that is really
surprising.
Let's get some more information, let's figure out what's going
on here.
So I looked into it and whatthey found is that it came down
to a lack of control.
When people don't have controlover their work environments and
they feel like nothing they doaffects the outcomes, they're
(02:51):
just told what to do.
They're a cog in the wheel.
There's no creativity, there'sno decision making.
That causes the highest rate ofstress and highest rate of
depression.
So it wasn't the top levelexecutives, it was the people at
the bottom with the lowestcontrol.
So think about that in thecontext of your practice, your
front desk team.
They're constantly, you knowthey're reacting to the schedule
.
They're reacting to upsetpatients.
(03:13):
The phones are ringing off thehooks.
Your assistants they're likecleaning up everything after you
.
They're taking care ofeverything, making sure the day
keeps on going.
So a lot of their work isreactive.
So we want to create anenvironment in our dental
practices where it doesn't feellike that.
I mean, I remember back in theday that my front desk they were
just really getting burnt outand what it was is we just said
man, after COVID, people justgot so mean.
(03:36):
Everybody is upset, everybodyis complaining, like the
patients I'm talking about, andthey felt like, no matter what
they did, they were just gettingyelled at all day and I was
just like dang like, what isthat about?
That really sucks.
I hate that they're feelinglike that.
Think about what I said nomatter what they did, they got
yelled at, so they had nocontrol over it.
It didn't matter if they did agood job, bad job, whatever
(03:57):
Patients were pissed off Is whatwe did.
Is I on how to handle upsetpatients?
This is a module in our onlinetraining that we have, if you're
interested.
But we train them how to handleupset patients and it's a
two-step process and when wetaught them how to do that.
They got their control back.
They're like, wow, this works.
It helped them to feel better.
They didn't feel that burnoutanymore because they felt like
(04:18):
they were back in control.
If somebody wants to get upsetwith me, I can handle the
situation.
I'm just not at the whims ofthis upset patient complaining
about their insurance orwhatever the heck they are.
So we give them back theircontrol.
And when I think about mypersonal burnout, I mean it was
just like, no matter what I did,it was never enough.
It's just like I felt like Iwas always unappreciated.
I felt like there was alwaysissues going on at the practice.
(04:40):
I couldn't handle them enoughand, no matter what I did,
people were telling me that youknow, we need you more here, we
need you to be more like this,we need you to do more of this.
And I'm just like dude, I can'tdo all these things at once.
So it makes you want to throwyour hands up in the air and
just say screw it.
That's what your team does aswell.
So if you don't haveintentional systems to give
people ownership and a voice atyour practice and this could
(05:02):
very possibly be one of theworst foundational elements of
the culture of your practice.
So this is important.
All right, let's talk aboutpowerlessness, because that's
what we're really exploring here.
What does powerlessness feellike?
When you feel powerless, youstart to go through the motions.
You don't care.
You might have a team that'snot improving on the systems,
(05:22):
even though you're talking tothem, you're trying to get them
to improve it, but they're justnot doing things the way that
you want them to do, becausemaybe one that's the way it's
always been, or two, they justdon't really care to change the
ways, because it doesn't matterwhat they do anyway.
They feel like that.
Or you might be feeling likeyou're the only one who gets it,
you're the one who doeseverything, you're the only one
who but it's probably not thatthey don't get it they just
(05:44):
don't care because at some level, it makes zero difference what
they do.
They feel like that, they tellthemselves that story and they
have found evidence at yourpractice that that is true.
I remember a long time ago whenour front desk was maybe only
four or five people large.
Right now we've got like 10 or11.
But we had somebody who wasgreat and she slowly started
dropping the ball and I broughther into my office and I really
(06:06):
just had this sense that she wasgoing to quit.
I really felt it and I askedher.
I said hey, what's going onwith you?
I just sense that there'ssomething wrong.
And she's just like no, it'sfine.
And I could still sense thatthere's like she's not telling
me something.
So I continued to prod, I saidyou know what?
I just I'm sorry if I'm feelingthis way, I'm sorry if I'm
wrong, but just my intuition istelling me that something's
(06:27):
upsetting you and I really wantto help you whatever it is, but
I can't help you if you don'ttell me about it and you don't
share it with me.
And that's when she shared.
She felt like we were justbringing a lot of policy down on
the front desk and we were justshoving things down their
throat that we need to do thingsthis way, and she had a lot of
ideas of some different ways wecould do it, but nobody was
listening.
We weren't really listening tothis person.
(06:47):
We were just saying, no, thisis how we want it done, and not
including the team.
So that just goes to show youis that people don't want to be
told what they do.
They want to collaborate.
So that's what I learned inthat is hey, you know what?
What do you think we should bedoing?
Hey, I'm game for tryinganything, let's try it.
So this is what I like to callcollaborative ownership.
This is the fix.
It's not really delegation,it's not entirely delegation,
(07:09):
but it's saying we're going togive our team control over how
their work is done.
We're going to let them buildsomething with us instead of
just doing what we tell them todo.
So they're not just going to dowhat we say.
And that might freak some dentalowners out.
You might say, well, I can't dothat.
I mean they're going to tank mypractice.
I beg to differ.
I think you can try anythingfor a month If your team has an
(07:33):
idea and you can say, hey, thisis what we want to try to do.
What do you guys think?
What do you always want to try?
Let's try it.
Try it for a month.
Think about that.
That's a fraction, one over 12.
If you do it for one month outof the year, you're going to see
what is that?
8.3% of your practice, I meanyou'll probably see less of your
practice and over that course,because not all of your patients
are coming in on a consistentbasis, but 8.3% of your practice
(07:56):
.
Now how many of that 8.3% areyou really going to piss off?
You were trying something.
It didn't work.
Very, very little of them.
You might see piss off a few ofthem.
That is not going to tank yourpractice by pissing off a few
people.
That might be 8.3 of yourpractice.
See how it goes and improve onit.
Discuss it with a team.
How did this go?
What can we do better?
So this is why thecommunication things come up.
(08:18):
As a leader is, we often hadthese issues in our practice and
we look for policy.
What can we do to make thisbetter?
But in reality it's acommunication issue.
If we could just get morecommunication, maybe some more
one-on-ones with our team, wecould ask better questions and
get the team to collaborate more.
We would find solutions.
They might not be the bestsolutions, they might not be the
(08:41):
most ideal system, but do theymeet the goals?
And if they do meet the goals,did they come from the team?
Because if they did come fromthe team, the team is going to
be bought in on it.
They're going to want to do it.
Think about when you tell yourteam how to do something.
When you tell your team how todo something, sometimes they
follow the rules, but they'rereal, like deep down, like in
this.
They might not even be aware ofit, but at some level they want
(09:02):
to prove to you that what youcame up with doesn't work and
the way they've been doing itbefore is better.
And they're trying to show youwhy this is not going to work,
because they don't want thatsystem to work.
They don't like that system.
But what if you gave them thegoal?
What if you identified the goaland you identified the problem
that you're trying to solve andyou open the floor to let's hear
some ideas.
What do you guys think we coulddo?
(09:30):
And the team came up with anidea.
How much more engaged do youthink that team is going to be
in carrying that system throughto see if it works?
Because, instead of trying toprove it's not working, they
will do everything they can tomake that work and they will
follow that system.
You don't have to redesign everysystem for your team.
You've got to engage them inwhat we're doing, and this is a
lot of what we teach in ourleadership with Dental Practice
Heroes and our coaching and ourprograms is we teach you how to
get these questions and drawthis conversation in your team,
(09:52):
because this is truly what getsbehavior change is getting the
team on board.
It's not only about having theright systems.
We can know the best way to dothings, but if we can't get our
team to do it, it doesn't meanany.
It doesn't mean jack.
So let's talk about what thislooks like in a practice,
because I want to give you sometangible steps here.
We let our team own theirdepartments.
We are giving them the freedomand trust to come up with
(10:15):
solutions and address things.
We are supporting them.
How can I help you?
How can I support you?
What can I do to help?
We're talking about the goals.
We're talking about the issues,but all the solutions, those
are a collaboration with you andyour team.
It's a collaboration with theteam leads and their departments
, things like that.
We're involving people in thedecision making.
(10:35):
So anything big, any bigdecisions changing to policy,
changing scheduling templates,anything that you want to do you
want to involve to some extentthe people that are affected to
help you make that decision.
When you do that, you're goingto get better ideas, but you're
also going to get better buy-in,and this is why meetings are so
crucial Meetings with the fullteam, meetings with departments,
(10:57):
meetings one-on-one with eachof your leads.
Lead meetings with your wholelead department, your leads
meeting with their departmentsone-on-one.
These meetings are so crucialbecause this is where the
collaboration happens.
You can't collaborate if you'renot communicating.
So you've got to set thesethings up, you've got to put
them in your schedule so thatyou don't skip them.
And every quarter, typicallyafter every quarterly meeting,
every department has what I calla mini quest or a mini mission.
(11:20):
They've got one thing over thenext quarter that they are to
improve upon they're supposed toimprove on the cancellation
percentage, getting that down.
They're going to improve ongetting more new patient
conversion.
They're going to improve ondealing with upset patients.
There's one focus, one bigfocus that they can all focus on
and band together as a team andget better at it.
So if you did this at yourpractice, what do you think
(11:41):
would happen?
Like what happens when peoplenow have a voice at their work,
where they can express theircreativity and they can
contribute, and it makes adifference.
Well, the engagement's going togo up, the personal ownership
of every single person in yourpractice.
That's going to increase.
The complaints go down and theculture now shifts from reactive
(12:02):
to proactive.
People are now solving issueswithout you having to hold their
hand for every little thing.
So if you can create a culturelike this at your practice,
problems all those little thingsthey start to just work
themselves out because yourengaged team is talking about
what's not working and what canbe done better.
And when people feel likethey're builders they're not
(12:24):
just employees that's wheneverything can change.
So here is your challenge forthe week.
For me, I want you to pullaside a few team members,
one-on-one with them this week,and just ask them if you could
fix or maybe change one thing inyour department.
What would it be and how wouldyou do it?
And don't jump in, just listen.
That is where the magic isgoing to start.
You're going to listen and seewhat they say and, like I said,
(12:47):
this is exactly the type ofshift that we help practice
owners make in our mastermindthat we got coming up in
September.
Two spots left in our mastermind.
We're kicking it off inSeptember.
Come join us.
We also have one-on-onecoaching options.
You can go todentalpracticeheroescom to learn
more about that.
If you're interested in themastermind you want to apply, go
to dentalpracticeheroescomslash apply.
(13:07):
So, final thoughts your teamthey don't need pizza parties
and ping pong tables, okay.
They just need to feel likethey have meaning and they have
value on your team.
And you do that by giving thema say, you give them a mission,
you give them goals and youlisten to their input and you
collaborate with them.
So that is how you build aculture that's not just
productive but proud.
(13:28):
They will be proud of wherethey work and that's the kind of
practice that is worth showingup for, and that's what I want
for your practice.
So thank you so much forlistening and I hope this week
you go in and you start changingthe culture of your practice
for the better by communicatingand engaging your team.
Thanks so much.
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