Who are the most important people in your practice? If you said your patients, listen to this episode! Kirk Behrendt brings back Heather Crockett, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, to explain why your team comes first — not your patients. Start putting your energy where it matters most! To learn how to take care of your team and transform your practice, listen to Episode 796 of The Best Practices Show!
Learn More About Heather:
Learn More About ACT Dental:
More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:
Episode Resources:
Main Takeaways:
Quotes:
“We do what we do for people, and we work with people in order to make that happen. If we don't focus on our people and have consistent, intentional communication with them, then we will flounder in all of our goals and all the things that we want to accomplish, period.” (2:34—2:49) -Heather
“It's important for you, as an entrepreneur, to get your focus right. A lot of times, people say, ‘Well, our patients come first. We put the patients first.’ That's ridiculous. In a great practice, you can never put patients first. When your team comes first, the magic starts to happen. You can never put the emotional needs and technical needs of 1,500 or 2,200 people first. You’ve got to take care of the people that are around you. When you take great care of them, they do things you would never ask them to do, and they stay, and it's powerful. [A check-in] is truly the way you can put your team first.” (5:27—6:04) -Kirk
“The check-in piece is also a way for the team member to know how they're doing, and for you to provide that feedback that we talked about before. Kirk, I remember when you interviewed me years ago to come on at ACT, you did ask, ‘Do you want to know how you're doing and how you're performing to benefit the company, yourself, and your clients?’ Yeah! Who doesn't? If you have someone who doesn't want to, then they're probably not the right team member for your practice.” (7:02—7:28) -Heather
“A big problem with most dental practices is team members do not have a clear line of sight on how to succeed in their roles. They are not onboarded, they're waterboarded, which means you bury them with information and hope by osmosis they're going to pick it up, and they don't have the support in this process. That's why [the check-in] changes the game for you.” (7:47—8:11) -Kirk
“The other piece with the annual review is that if it's annual and you're only talking to your team member once per year, there's a real disconnect with that communication. So, the feedback becomes very spread far apart, and things that you had the opportunity to talk to the team members about on a day to day, week to week, monthly basis are gone. You lose that opportunity because whatever it was that you were going to talk to them about becomes irrelevant over time, or it becomes even worse because the team member probably thinks, ‘Oh, if I could get away with that, I could continue getting away with it because they haven't said anything.’” (9:09—9:45) -Heather
“I was just on a call with a client today. They let one of their assistants go. There was a lot of mismatch in that core value piece, for sure. So, when we were talking about hiring, I said, ‘Okay, are your core values in your ad? Are they on your interview form? If you use an interview form, you have to talk about core values. You actually have to almost scare your potential candidates away by talking about your core values too much. That's literally how important they are.’ They're hiring for a dental assistant position. I said, ‘Listen, I trained from scratch off the street as a dental assistant. I didn't go to dental assisting school. I turned out okay,’ and it was my favorite thing. The reason it worked so well is because I did fit in with the core values of the practice that was willing to train me up. You can train anybody in skills to get results as long as they fit your core values.” (15:25—16:14) -Heather
“All check-ins are going to be scheduled by the team member. This is them. You're empowering them and giving them that autonomy. They are going to schedule the check-ins. They are in charge of the check-ins. The leadership team, whoever has the check-in with that team member, can give the parameters of when to schedule which dates and time, specifically.” (16:24—16:45) -Heather
“I love so much what you said. You have to show up with your head and your heart. [A check-in] really can be a great foundation for moving from being their boss to their leader and their coach.” (21:29—21:42) -Heather
“Some check-ins are going to go there, and some are going to be a lot more light. But every single time, you have the team member fill out personal high, personal low, professional high, professional low. And sometimes, that could be nothing. Oftentimes, when I fill out my own check-in form, I'll put personal high, something awesome. Personal low, I can't think of anything that's been a low in the last few weeks. So, it's okay if the team member fills out none for one or two of those. If they're filling out none for all four, then during the check-in, you've got to dig deeper and ask some questions. Usually, in a dental practice, it's in such a small square footage. Usually, something is going on. So, digging a little bit deeper to find that out can be crucial if you know that the team member is not sharing as much as you may want. But don't go where they don't want to go either. Make sure that they feel really comfortable.” (22:28—23:22) -Heather
“As a dentist or as a leader, you’ve got to listen. Don't be looking at your phone. Ask questions . . . Now, whether you do it on a piece of paper or not — we use Typeform on our team. So, people submit them electronically. I actually get to see them, and our leadership team gets to see them well in advance. So, I already have an idea of some of the questions I'm going to ask. And you can see the more that a team member has been here, the more that they add. You're like, ‘Wow.’ They're ready to tell you, and it creates an awesome way for you to connect with somebody.” (26:38—27:17) -Kirk
“My favorite thing I've ever heard a team member say about a dentist is this. ‘I work for an amazing dentist, but she's an even better human being.’ That was so powerful, it hit me in the heart. You can't ask for that — you have to earn that. You earn it by what you do on a regular basis. And I'm telling you, by a check-in, you transform who you are and who they are in a way that it goes way beyond work. We spend 30% of our lives at work — 30% of our lives. We're all looking for meaningful work, and we want to like the people that we work with. And it's hard to like people that you work with if you don't have the space to be vulnerable and honest. So, this is powerful, powerful, powerful cultural glue.” (27:25—28:21) -Kirk
“While the other things are always pressing, there's always going to be something you have to choose first. Like, what's the most important thing to do here? And I always say, no question — not even the slightest debate — the team member check-in first. So, I calm all the activity in my brain. When my phone is blowing up and alI that, I go, ‘No. Team member first.’ What I'm encouraging you to do is you give yourself permission to fully be present.” (30:25—30:54) -Kirk
“[The check-in] is the most important thing I could be doing all day, because these team members are what make the world work for me and everybody else.” (31:04—31:11) -Kirk
“I love when you said the order and the priorities. I challenge my doctors, especially new clients that come on like, ‘Oh, the patient comes first.’ Do they, though? They don't. Because if you put your team first, then your patients will be well taken care of, 100%.” (31:19—31:33) -Heather
“Another thing I always do on my check-ins, or most every time, is I build the value of importance while it's happening. So, sometimes, team members go, ‘I know how crazy your schedule is this week. I'm so sorry. I'm going to make this quick.’ I go, ‘No. This is important to me, and we're going to do this all the time. I want you to know that this is important to me, and so are you. Don't ever think to yourself that I'm too busy or this isn't important.’ I want to dispel that right away. It becomes repetitive, but it's truly how I feel in this, and it also sets the tone from the top about this meeting. So, it's crazy important.” (32:42—33:27) -Kirk
“[Check-ins] have to be consistent. Otherwise, team members will tell a story to themselves about what's happening. You may not even know that you said something to make them upset, or somebody else made them upset, but they will know that they are important to you and to the practice simply because you've said so verbally. They don't know otherwise. They're not mind readers. They don't know how important they are unless you say it, and your actions speak to what it is that you said and support what you said with that importance by scheduling these check-ins and having them.” (33:29—33:54) -Heather
“What do you believe about your team? Should they be first? Most of you would say yes. Well, what do you do that supports what you just said? By putting a check-in, you are proving to yourself, your team, and the world, ‘Oh, I put my team first because those are the moments that I really get to know who they are.’” (37:26—37:48) -Kirk
“The benefit [of a check-in] is they're going to tell you things that are on their heart that you would not know. They're going to say this in a check-in and go, ‘I want that role that's opened up. I want that.’ And you go, ‘Excuse me? That is on the other side of the practice. That's a whole different road.’ They'll go, ‘No, I think I'd be good at that.’ And you would never know that if you didn't give space to it. Some of the most talented people we have here have jumped departments. They're like, ‘I want that role.’ They also tell you what they're really great at. You go, ‘You're really great at that?’ They go, ‘I'm really great at that.’ ‘I didn't know that. Let's see if we can put that to use in our game plan for next year.’ So, I want to leave space. You're going to learn a lot of stuff about your team members. It's a system, and you're going to create a bond that transcends work. It'll truly be one of the greatest things you've ever done.” (39:08—40:06) -Kirk
“I can't think of any doctor, practice owner that I've met that wants to not have trust on the team, that doesn't want loyal, committed team members. [The check-in] is your key to making that happen.” (40:13—40:26) -Heather
“Shift your mindset. Don't micromanage. Don't critique performance. Don't do the flybys. Be the kind of leader and coach to your team members that you want to be by implementing these check-ins right away.” (40:42—40:54) -Heather
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
2:18 Why the check-in is important for your practice.
8:12 Why annual reviews are ineffective.
11:28 Check-ins and annual reviews, explained.
15:08 Best practices for check-ins.
22:17 The system for check-ins.
27:17 Earn your team’s trust and respect.
29:10 Establish an order for priorities.
32:32 Emphasize to your team that they are important.
34:05 Check-ins are great for accountability.
35:50 When to have the compensation conversation.
37:09 Flybys are not check-ins.
40:07 Final takeaways.
Heather Crockett Bio:
Heather Crockett is a Lead Practice Coach who finds joy in not only improving practices but improving the lives of those she coaches as well. With over 20 years of combined experience in assisting, office management, and clinical dental hygiene, her awareness supports many aspects of the practice setting.
Heather received her dental hygiene degree from the Utah College of Dental Hygiene in 2008. Networking in the dental community comes easy to her, and she loves to connect with like-minded colleagues on social media. Heather enjoys both attending and presenting continuing education to expand her knowledge and learn from her friends and colleagues.
She enjoys hanging out with her husband, three sons, and their dog, Moki, scrolling through social media, watching football, and traveling.