Discovering your WHY - why you do what you do - not only helps you build strong connections with others, including your team members and patients, but it also helps you discover and drive your passion. Dr. Gary Sanchez walks us through how to do it and the 9 WHYs so you can start connecting today. To learn how to listen to Episode 658 of The Best Practices Show!
Episode Resources:
Links Mentioned in This Episode:
Main Takeaways:
Stop looking at WHAT and start looking at WHY.
Use your WHY Operating System to connect with your team and patients better and faster.
When you talk about what you do you blend in. When you talk about your WHY, that’s how you stand out.
Happy team members will believe in what you believe in.
When what you do is in line with why you do what you do you will have passion for what you do.
Quotes:
“There had to be something better than this. And that’s why I hired a coach and I heard about this concept of ‘Why.” ‘Why do you do what you do?’ Simon Sinek did his TED talk. I watched that 20, 30 times. I bought his book and read it many times. I said that is what I’m missing. I have a great ‘What’ but I don’t know my ‘Why’...I went back through my life looking for clues to why do I do what I do and when I finally figured it out, my why, is to find a better way and share it my life started to make sense. So I went back and stopped talking about what we do: crowns, bridges, fillings…and started talking about why we do it. What is it that we believe? We believe that life is better when you have great teeth…we started changing all of our messages and our marketing all based around great teeth, better life and that’s when my practice really took off.” (4:34—5:43)
“I figured out not only your why, your why, your how and your what. We call that your Why Operating System…it gives you the words to create your message and to be able to answer the question ‘Why should I choose you? What is it that makes you special?’” (6:41—7:04)
“The first step [of applying this to dentistry] is go discover your WOS. That will give your why, your how, your what and it will create your message for you. It will put it into very simple terms so that you can easily and quickly articulate who you are and why I should choose you. And then the second thing is do the same thing for your team, so that you know who you have on your team, how you all fit together and how you can perform at the highest level. Do I have the right people in the right place doing the right thing at the right time? They love what they’re doing, they’re passionate about what they’re doing so you can build a really strong team. And once you know that about each of your team members you will know how to connect and communicate much better, much faster.” (9:58—10:47)
“Once you know someone’s Why, How What (WOS) it strips away what you think you see and it brings forward who is actually there. And you’ll know the language that they speak, you’ll know the words that they need to hear in order to feel heard and you’ll know how to connect with them much faster.” (12:36—12:59)
“If you do this with your patients, you’ll know exactly what they are looking for and how to connect with them in a way they can hear it.” (13:21—13:37)
“When you talk about what you do, you blend in with everyone who does what you do…even if you do it at a higher level, people don’t know that. But when you talk about why you do what you do and what you believe, it connects to a different part of the brain that allows people to make a decision because it feels right and when it feels right that’s when they make a decision.” (15:06—15:48)
“If you could imagine 2 big circles, one inside the other. Imagine that as your brain. The inner circle is the limbic brain and the outer circle would be the neocortex. The neocortex can understand facts, figures, features. But decision-making doesn’t happen there. People might understand what you’re saying but it doesn't drive behavior so don’t make a decision. The inner part of your brain, the limbic, that’s the part of your brain that’s responsible for feeling things like loyalty and trust. One hundred percent of decision-making happens at the limbic brain, but it doesn’t have the capacity for language. So people buy things because it feels right then they justify it with the facts, figures and features. So how you connect to the limbic brain is by starting with your WHY. Why do you do what you do and what you believe; and that’s why it’s so critical.” (16:52—17:54)
“[Team members] don’t have to have the same why but they have to believe what you believe. And if they believe what you believe…they’re going to love working for you. If they don’t believe that, they’re not going to enjoy working with you…You are really good at articulating it, of keeping it alive. It’s in your tag line, it’s in what you talk about, it’s the essence of who you are. So if they believe it, they’re all in. And that’s who you’re looking for.” (20:15—21:11)
“The 9 Whys: the first one is contribute to a greater cause, add value, have an impact on the lives of others. The second why is trust: to create relationships based on trust. The third one is make sense: to make sense out of the complex; great problem solvers. The fourth why is better way…is to find a better way and share it. The fifth why is right way: to do things the right way in order to get predictable and consistent results. The sixth why is challenge: to challenge the status quo and think differently. The seventh why is mastery: to see mastery and understanding, dive in deep, look for the nuances. The eighth why is clarify: make things clear and understandable. And the ninth why is simplify: to make things simple and easy to understand. So one of the 9 Whys is your Why. One of the 9 Whys is your How. And one of the 9 Whys is your What. So all of us have all 9 Whys but one of them is more dominant than the rest and that’s the one that becomes your Why. So when you have them all in sequence…you’ll know what’s super important to them and you’ll know what’s not important to them at all.” (22:11—23:30)
“[What most people get wrong] is people just pick one…your Why is so critical to your life, to finding your passion, your purpose, your direction, to knowing where your fit is, to knowing so much about yourself. Why would you chance getting it wrong?” (23:46—24:22)
“When what you do is in line with why you do what you do you will have passion for what you do. And passion is the fuel that gives you the energy to pursue your dreams. Without passion you’ll give up. Without passion you’ll quit. So you have to have that passion to be able to move forward. So it’s so important to know what your Why is so you can see what you’ll do from the perspective of your Why and know that you’re going in the right direction.” (27:03—27:37)
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
4:34 A better way to Why.
9:58 Applying the Why to dentistry.
16:42 The brain explained.
20:15 Finding team members that love working with you.
22:11 The 9 Whys.
23:46 What most people get wrong.
26:29 Final Thoughts.
Dr. Gary Sanchez Bio:
Dr. Gary Sanchez’s WHY is to find a better way and share it. HOW he does that is by making things clear and easy to understand. WHAT he brings is simple solutions to help people move forward. He and his Team have worked with hundreds of thousands of individuals, as well as thousands of companies, from small yoga studios to Fortune 500 companies, helping them get clear, stand out, and play bigger.
Outside of the WHY Institute, Gary enjoys playing a round of golf, messing around on the pickleball court, and hanging out with family and friends, enjoying some red chili dinner.
Join Dr. Sanchez on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/garysanchez2000