Episode 188: The Impact of Leadership On Dental Teams

“Dentists who are exceptional leaders check on their team to see if they are ok and if they as a business owner and team leader can do to help the team accomplish their jobs.”
~Sommer Carrol, RDA

Leadership is one of the most daunting elements of business ownership. And if you don’t think so, you’re not doing business ownership right. But how do you know if you’re a good leader?

Here’s a quick stress test: Do you find yourself doctor rolling your eyes at the team often? Are you often rehiring or dealing with some turnover issues? Do you have a knack for throwing instruments? I hope none of you have a knack for throwing instruments. But it does happen.

If some of these things are occurring in your practice, you probably have a leadership problem. And the good news is it’s completely solvable. The answer is your team.

That’s why we’re so excited to have Sommer Carrol – one of Dr. Bruce B. Baird’s lead chairside assistants – joining us today to share stories about how Dr. Baird’s leadership journey developed his team into one of America’s top producing offices. 

If you’re looking for ideas of how to develop a rock-solid dental team, then join us today as we dive into:

• Creating a team of “co-pilots” to share the burden and hold you accountable
• The importance of communication, education, and investing in your team
• How to create a team that is self-motivated and takes ownership 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:00
Hi, Dr. Regan Robertson, CCO of Productive Dentist Academy here and I have a question for you, are you finding it hard to get your team aligned to your vision, but you know, you deserve growth just like everybody else? That’s why we’ve created the PDA productivity workshop. For nearly 20 years PDA workshops have helped dentists just like you align their teams, get control of scheduling, and create productive practices that they love walking into every day. Just imagine how you will feel when you know your schedule is productive, your systems are humming, and your team is aligned to your vision. It’s simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. We can help visit productivedentist.com/workshop that’s productivedentist.com/workshop to secure your seats now.

Sommer Carrol 0:46
For instance, if a patient comes in, and they have a budget in mind, you know, and we blow them out of the water with a different kind of treatment plan that’s out of their budget, I won’t, I wouldn’t hesitate to go and ask for a different treatment plan that would, could fall into their budget. So again, you know, that’s just advocating for that patient what’s best for them, because if we give them an option that they cannot afford, then we’re not really helping them.

Regan 1:16
Welcome to the Everyday Practices Podcast. I’m Regan Robertson, and my co-host Dr. Chad Johnson and I are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical proven methods you can take right into your own dental practice. If you’re ready to elevate patient care and produce results that are anything but ordinary, buckle up and listen in.

Regan 1:46
Welcome to Everyday Practices. I am your co-host Regan Robertson joined here today by my co-host Dr. Chad Johnson. How you doing today Chad?

Dr. Chad Johnson 1:54
And I’m Chad Johnson. No, I’m doing all right. How are you? Good to chat to your face. Thank you chat with our listeners here.

Regan 2:03
It’s wonderful to chat to everybody today. You guys will hear me a little extra giddy because we have a very special guest in this episode. So we’ve been chewing the fat for a little while before we even hit the record button. The topic today is a good one, “Leadership”. Leadership is one of the most daunting elements of business ownership and if you don’t think so, you’re not doing business ownership right. How do you know if you’re a good leader? Here’s a quick stress test we thought of, do you find yourself, Doctor, rolling your eyes at the team often? Are you often rehiring or dealing with some turnover issues? Do you have a knack for throwing instruments? I hope none of you have a knack for throwing instruments but I’ve heard it. I’ve heard that it does happen. If some of these things are occurring in your practice, you probably have a leadership problem and the good news is it’s completely solvable. Do you want to know how? I’ll give you a clue. The answer is your team, that’s why Chad and I are really excited today to have Summer Carol with us. Summer is a Registered Dental Assistant, having held multiple roles in the practice over her career. Summer was one of Dr. Bruce B. Baird, the co-founder of Productive Dentist Academy‘s lead chairside assistants for over 18 years and currently, she assists for “Dentistry He’s Got Talent” champion, Dr. Jeff Brewski. Summer, welcome to the program.

Summer Carol 3:39
Thank you. Thank you.

Regan Robertson 3:40
I appreciate you being on now. There’s some new things you and I have worked together for a decade and I did not know that Dr. Baird discovered you working in a Veterinary Clinic and hired and trained you and over that journey of 23 years in the field. Now you are definitely at the top of your game. I’ve heard you on our patient advocacy calls and to me you go way beyond what I would consider a Dental Assistant to do you are truly a patient advocate. You care deep not the assistants don’t care about their health of the patients but I see you going above and beyond and I think that comes you know, from you know helping support some top producing doctors in the country. So we’re excited to pick your brain today and learning about how Dr. Bruce Baird has learned from his leadership fumbles and turn them into greatness and how you’ve helped him really supported him in becoming outstanding in his job and in turn becoming outstanding in your job. So Chad, I want to pass this over to you because you always have really insightful questions and being a dentist, I think this is a really interesting topic.

Dr. Chad Johnson 4:37
Well to that point. Summer. Thank you Regan.To that point. Summer. Do you feel advocating for the patient would also mean challenging the dentist?

Sommer Carrol 4:46
There’s been times like, for instance, when Dr. Baird, even when he was still practicing in the office where he would go in and do a treatment plan and he would come out and I would be like, “Hey, you prejudged them,” and he’s like, “No, I didn’t,” and I’m like, “Yeah, I mean, you did prejudge them,” and he’s like, “No, I didn’t,” and I’m like, “You would have given them this treatment plan had you thought that they could have afforded it,” and he’s like, “Oh, you know, you’re right, you’re probably right about that.” It’s happened in reverse also though, where, you know, I had a guy come in, and I told Dr. Beard, I was like, “He needs full mouth rehab, there’s no way he can afford it. I don’t know what we’re gonna do to help them, you know, like, maybe we can get him a night guard, at least. So you can stop grinding his teeth,” and anyway, doctor walks in, does this treatment plan walks out, the guy turns around and writes a $40,000, check and paste for full mouth rehab, and Dr. Baird goes like, “Who pre-judged them?”. You know, it’s a constant back and forth of us, like holding each other accountable and just calling each other out on that but, yeah, I mean, if, especially if I feel like, for instance, if a patient comes in, and they have a budget in mind, you know, and we blow them out of the water with a different kind of treatment plan that’s out of their budget, I won’t, I wouldn’t hesitate to go and ask for a different treatment plan that would, could fall into their budget. So again, you know, that’s just advocating for that patient what’s best for them because if we give them an option that they cannot afford, then we’re not really helping them.

Dr. Chad Johnson 6:22
Sure. It would kind of be like, if someone if a realtor said, “Yeah, there’s a lot of houses available, this one starts at 10 million, and it kind of just works up, you know, down down the street. So there’s 10 Millions, there’s 50 Million and if someone said, I can’t afford a $10 million house, the best advocate realtor would say, “Well, should we look more like at the 300 000s? You know, is that kind of what you’re into?”, you know, as opposed to, “Well, this is it,” you know, being able to work with the person in their budget is going to help get that person to house and help the realtor get the sale? I mean, both are advantageous. So, go ahead, Regan.

Regan 7:04
Well, I was gonna say, Sir, you know, listening Summer too, you talk about going into treatment options already, and looking in the mouth and knowing you have to excuse my ignorance, I don’t think of Dental Assistants, as a whole of doing that, I think of them truly as being they’re supporting, listening to the doctor and just kind of doing what the doctor says and so I, I see, you know, you talking about at that level, being really an advanced level of care and advanced level because of your experience in that. So is that right, or is that inaccurate of me? Do most assistants go in kind of understanding what’s in that mouth or, or did it take time and, and training and teaching and leadership from Bruce along the way?

Sommer Carrol 7:46
Um, I think that a lot of them probably do see and know a lot of what their doctor is going to treatment plan, but maybe they don’t feel comfortable explaining things to the patient, you know, but I think that a lot of a lot of assistance, you know, kind of already have an idea of what the doctor is going to treatment plan, but they might not feel comfortable and sometimes it is uncomfortable, but you know, because of our marketing, we kind of market to those train wreck patients that have, you know, everything’s bombed out, everything is failing, they need to be rebuilt and so we can, you know, and they know that sometimes they come in and say, “Hey, I need dentures, or hey, I want implants,” and so before he even comes in, you know, I’ll just get some models out and show them the models, you know, and show them now, this is what an upper denture looks like, this is what an upper denture with snaps, you know, that come in and out of your mouth. This is what you know, it looks like if we do implants, and then the teeth are like in the mouth permanent where they don’t come in and out and that way, they already have an idea of what it is he’s talking about when he comes in,

Dr. Chad Johnson 8:53
Because you’re also feeling them out, you’re not just educating them. But if they go, Oh, no, no denture? Let’s do all do implants. Before that, then you can tell Dr. Bruce, Man, this guy is really interested in implants because he is disinterested in a denture, for example, right?

Sommer Carrol 9:10
Absolutely because any anything, any information that I can gather for the doctor, to be able to share, you know, to make sure that we give them the best treatment plan for them. It’s just going to speed things along, you know, and he’ll still go through those options, but, you know, because I guess that’s what you have to do is tell them all their options, but I already give them an idea that that’s not what they want to do and another thing you know, one time I had a patient and Dr. Baird said, “Go in there and ask them what their budget is,” and I was like, “I can’t do that, that’s like asking somebody how much money they have in their wallet, you know, or how much money do you have in your checking account? I can’t ask them their budget,” and he goes, “No summer. I just need to know how to guide them into something that they can afford,” and I was like, “Oh, Okay,” so then once I understood it that way, and so because you know, people, a lot of times, they do have a budget in mind, you know, it may be 100 bucks, it may be 500 bucks, it may be $5,000, but whatever it is, let’s just say they have a mouthful of amalgams that need to be replaced or something, well, then let’s stage this out over, you know, three to four years, do a quadrant at a time and be able to get it done where they can afford it and in the end, they’ll end up with all their dental work done. So,

Regan 10:29
That just made me think about when we, when my husband and I built our, our home. So we were very excited to build our own home, like have our own design and I had all the house books out and everything, and we were gonna work with the builder, and you know, all that stuff and my dream, like what I wanted as far as the materials and the finishing, and all of that was about three to four times the cost of what we could afford and be approved for and I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of like, I don’t know if it’s ever been described that way, but it just made me think of okay, well, there’s options, though. So let’s understand our budget, you’ll still get a house, it’ll still have all the windows and doors, it just you know, instead of a granite countertop, you might not have that you might have a laminated countertop instead. So that’s a really, like, I’ve never really thought about that when it comes to my oral health. Like for me, I just, if the dentist says do something, I’m like, “Okay, let’s just do it,” you know, I just go go full forward with it but you’re right, for patients that have that larger level of care needed. It’s gonna there’s gonna be, you know, you still want to be able to help them and I think that’s really interesting. How has his how has Bruce’s communication as a leader, because this to me boils down all to communication, how has that changed over the years from when you first started working with him to to now and how has that empowered you along the way to share your voice as a leader?

Sommer Carrol 11:52
Well, you know, Dr. Baird is a master, master communicator, he, you know, the old saying he could sell ice to Eskimos, you know, literally, he’s just true. He’s just very good educating and taking the time to, you know, make sure that you understand, like, for instance, I remember when I first started, so, you know, I had been working at a vet clinic came to work there, literally, because they worked four days a week had no any other knowledge of dentistry prior to that, and came to work and I’d worked with one of the associate doctors for, I don’t know, a couple of months, and I was having a hard time even remembering the, like, steps to the composite resin and, you know, I would have to like make notes and it was like, which one goes first and I sat down with him to do a composite billing and he was like, “Hey, summer, you know, can you hand me over the edge?”, and he’s like, “I use the edge first, because it does, whatever and then, now I need the bonding agent, because it does this and then when the flowable composite, and I need you to hear that, and this is,” you know, he told me why the why behind it and it did take us way longer to do that filling than it would have normally, but I’ve never had to question what the steps to that filling again, you know, so just just him taking the time and having the patience to to know, to invest in us, you know, like he believed in us and even when I didn’t believe in myself, sometimes, you know, like, he taught me how to make beautiful temporaries and sometimes I would go and say, “Hey, I think I need your help,” and he was like, “Are you sure you really need my help? I think you can probably do it,” and sometimes then I would he knew that that would give me the fuel to go back in there and do it again and try harder and then maybe go ask for help.

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:47
And along those lines with communication, because I love doing that too. It’s funny, I was actually doing that even before PDA so I think it’s that communication type that drew me to Dr. Bruce but I would explain you know, I’m going to be tracing this edge around the enamel first because enamel is more impervious to the edge than than the dentin is and it’s this weird combination I’m explaining to the assistant. It’s this weird combination where you want to etch the, the dentin for 10 to 15 seconds but you want to etch the enamel for 15 or more seconds. So how do you compromise that? We paint it onto the enamel first as much as possible and then I paint it into the dentin if you’re doing total edge and so that’s why if you’re wondering why is he doing it like that, it’s like there is a reason why and when you hear me counting down I normally am counting from when I finished getting it on all the dentin and I want it rinsed off then because 16 seconds is not 15 seconds, 18 seconds is not 15 seconds, 15 seconds, I want it there for 15 seconds and it’s and it’s really important to me, but how am I supposed to delegate that at some point B because in our state, I can have the assistant assets, how am I supposed to delegate that to the assistant, if they don’t know what I’m thinking, and this the thought process behind stuff, so it’s really important to be able to, to, to express what you value. So that way, for example, on when we’re doing Invisalign attachments, and I’ll say, “Listen, so if the edge was on this on the tooth for 20 seconds, it’s an enamel only, it’s not going to kill it. So I’m not as particular, whether it’s 15 seconds, or, or 16.1 seconds, it that doesn’t matter so much as I want it to be 15 or more, because we’re not on dentin and furthermore, when I’m scrubbing around the adhesive, then when we get to that step, that when we evaporate that and cure it, I only need it cared for, let’s say, five seconds, I don’t need a full 22 second here on that buccal surface, because this doesn’t need to last for 40 years, I also don’t need this composite, you know, it’s going to be coming off and it’s enamel only, it’s only to help move the tooth, this isn’t to fill on the inside of a tooth, a cavity prep or anything like that.” So helping them understand, okay, so there’s times when we might break that rule, you know, and we’re not fully curing because this is only going to meet on the tooth for six months. So who cares if it’s not fully cured, we’re working on speed getting the patient out of there, because we value getting the patient out of there, if it’s only going to be lasting six months, versus I want this film to last more than six months. So we’re going to full cure that it’s some examples summer that you probably are thinking of that, you know, when when the dentist is able to express that then you can say, well, I value that too. Therefore, that’s important to me and so now I’m going to espouse those values when it’s delegated to me, and I’m going to hold my doctor accountable for that as an integrity of the team, if that’s what we value, then I’m going to hold you to that integrity level, right?

Sommer Carrol 16:49
Absolutely. That’s absolutely correct and I also had, you know, permission to ask questions like during a procedure, not that I’m, and even Dr. Brewski and I since I started working with him more, you know, he didn’t know maybe that I asked a lot of questions just because I like to know, and it helps me remember, and it just helps me to be better and like a couple of times I’ve asked Dr. brewski will, will explain to me why you’re doing that. You know, whatever it may be, and he kind of looked at me. And then he realizes, Oh, she’s just curious, she’s not questioning me. Yeah, like Dr. Baird always knew that. If I’m asking him a question. It’s not too. It’s not because I’m questioning his abilities, or whatever he’s doing. It’s just because I want to learn why you do a shampoo margin on some things and why you use a rounded diamond on the other margin, you know, like, it’s not that I think he’s doing it wrong, because I don’t have a clue, he’s just educating me so that I can be better at what I do.

Dr. Chad Johnson 17:51
When the dentist also has the comfort level to tell the assistant if I give you the authority that if I’m drilling and it’s a blind spot for me, where you see some carries before we’re getting ready to edge and you’re thinking, “Oh, courage, should I say something, say something?” Absolutely. Other doctors will be like, “Don’t say something,” or they might say, “Just tap me on the knee.” I don’t care how the communication goes but do you give your assistant freedom to co pilot with you through that appointment? If not, it’s it’s like the idea of the Honda factories or whatever, when when the employees are able to stop the factory line, that yeah, Toyota, yes and it doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, or when there’s a concern that the employee feels like they’re going to be heard because it shuts down and you know, I’ve told them I’m just like, I do not want to leave carries. So if for some reason you think you see it, it’s a good learning moment, or worse yet, you are going to let me put a feeling over the top of that, and I didn’t see it. Now you’d like to think I’m perfect, but I’m not and so if it’s on a like a side of the tooth that I can’t see, but you’re looking right at it, going like, “That’s like brown like, what is he doing?” Tell me I don’t want to be an idiot that was thought to perceive to be perfect as opposed to being like, Well, I mean, would you want that on your I wouldn’t want to remind you and I’ve told you this beforehand that it’s important to me that we have carry free teeth that we’re restoring no plug there for carefree, but if I got a free box from carry free CTS three and CTS for rinse 20 ounce bottles, I would be very happy. So Summer, you’ve probably experienced that, where you feel the comfort level to say hey, “Do you mind checking that distal lingual angle?”

Sommer Carrol 19:41
Absolutely. I’ll just say, you know, I don’t know if that I’ll just say is that when you check that mesial I don’t know if that’s just say there’s a nice way to put it. Yeah, I don’t say, “Hey, dude, you left some stuff in there,” you know, you can you can say it elegantly where it’s right. You know, making the doctor look bad or whatever.

Dr. Chad Johnson 19:59
Doctors give your assistant permission to find a way to say that along that those lines, I mean, those were techniques, specific stuff. But something that we often hear from doctors who start working with PDA is how much they were unaware of how their attitude affected their team and a team looks to the doctor for leadership. So when they walk out, stressed out, or they’re frustrated or angry, the team reflects that back at the doctor. So Dr. Baird, us used to micromanage and was grumpy when he’d come into the office, can you tell us about that, you know, like, how that used to go and how you over time, groomed him to become the doctor that he could be?

Sommer Carrol 20:43
Well, back in the day, way back in the day, they had an actual you know, the, the magnets that go on like your dishwasher that are like you turn it one way and they’re clean, you turn it the other way, and they’re dirty. So we had a smiley face frowny face in the office in the in the break room. This was actually a little bit before my time, but I’ve heard the story enough to know how it went. But it had been in there for quite some time and he didn’t know what it was for and so he went to one of the girls and he’s like, “Hey, what’s the smiley face moronic brace on the fridge,” and they’re like, “I don’t know, you better go ask Gay,” and he goes and ask and she’s like, “You better go ask Emily.” Nobody wanted to tell him, you know and so it goes to Emily and she says, “Well, back to you. Every day, when you come in the office, we either put it on the smiley face with a frowny face based on how you walk in the door,” and he like what, you know, like he had no, you didn’t realize that, you know, like, if he was listening to talk radio, and he didn’t like what was going on in the world, you know, that he’d come in the office, all pissed off, and it would affect all of us, you know, and when you walk in the back door, and that we’re all ready for the huddle, and he’s mad because of whatever he heard, you know, then then we’re all like, “Oh, my gosh, you know, this is gonna be a fun day.,” and when he walked in, in a good mood than we were, you know, it was like, okay, we can relax a little bit and, you know, that that occurred over time. You know, he’s he’s always says, “It’s God having a sense of humor,” because his dad was, he was raised by Marine pilot and then God gave him four daughters and so that I think that and working with 20 women over time, you know, helped him to know how to communicate with us. You know, very early on after I started working in the office, like, as I mentioned, earlier, I was working with one of the associate doctors, and gay was his lead assistant, her son had an accident, and he was in an ICU for quite some time, several months and they picked me to go help Dr. Baird and I was, I think back I think I was about 21 years old, so I had been doing this for about a year and I was still pretty green, and to step up and work with him at a different pace. It was, it was very nerve-racking and we were doing the best that we could at the time and it wasn’t good enough for anybody. I mean, we were running behind patients were being affected our schedule and anyway, they walked into a room where we were fixing to do a crown prep, and he looked at the patient, and he said, I can’t work on you today, “I’m gonna have to reschedule you, because if I do, I might have a heart attack,” and he looked over at me, and he goes, “I don’t know what y’all are doing but your system sucks,” and he walked out and I was just kind of dumbfounded and the patient looked over to me and she goes, “Why do you work here? Why do you put up with that?” and I was like, “Well, I don’t know. Honestly, that’s never happened before,” and so you know, we’ve dealt with the patient and then I just thought the rest of the day like, how, why do I work here like, am I going to allow him to treat me like this and, you know, knowing human behavior, if you allow someone to treat you like that, you’re just training them what you’re going to accept. So, put my big girl pants on that evening, when we were done and I went in and asked if I could speak to him in the office. I was probably shaking and sweating and maybe crying but I went in and I was like, “Hey, I need to talk to you about how that went down with Miss Jones.” I said, you know, “You expect them to respect me. You expect them to you know, talk about personal things, like their finances and scheduling their appointments and all of this stuff,” I said, “But you didn’t show me respect in front of her and I just I understand that we’re struggling through this, you know, without Gay but I just need you to, if you need to have we need to have another conversation like that, like, take me in the office and let’s hash it out. Like let’s get through it, but please don’t address me like that in front of a patient,” and he was like, “Wow, you know, thank you for bringing that to my attention. I didn’t, I didn’t realize how it, how it made you feel and if that ever happens again, you let me know,” and you know, he thanked me again and I was like, I think that was a big turning point for us because I earned his respect by being able to come to him and just say, like, you know, “Hey, this is how it made me feel,” and so anyway, that that was kind of the beginning of the way that things changed for us and the way that we were able to communicate with each other

Dr. Chad Johnson 25:27
Well, you know, what it is your calm demeanor disarms people, it really does, I have to think you have to be like, one of the, like, the second best mom ever beside my mom that as you know, but like, just because I was thinking about that, you know, like, when some parents that are inside my skin sometimes, you know, get bent out of shape and, and stuff like that. I’m just like, you know, I really wish that I could, I know, I’m not that way but I wish I could be known for I was on my run this morning, I was like, I wish I could be known that later on my kids would be like, you know, “You you always kept your cool about stuff,” but that’s, it’s, that’s not me, but that’s, that’s you funny enough, later this afternoon, here I am sitting with you recording this one, that’s you’re the type of parent where, you know, I’m not saying that you’d never get mad, that’s not my point. So don’t feel like you have to defend or like, you know, do a self-pity kind of thing. I know, though, like with your demeanor, that you would have to look at your daughters and be like, “Hey, is that the best you could have done?”, and they’d be like, “I know. I know.” So tell me about that, you know, when you had written down in some of our pre-interview stuff, don’t let your dad down situations. Tell me about that.

Sommer Carrol 26:41
Well, you know, whether it be scheduling, whether it be follow-up calls on unscheduled patients, just the way that, you know, scheduling the goal, meeting our goals, thank our patient and whatever it was. They, I mean, we as a team, we just wanted to make him proud, you know, like, so that’s the best way I could explain it is like when I was young, I never had to get spankings, you know, the lashing thing from my dad, like, I didn’t. I never really got in trouble when I was young, because I was afraid of letting him down and I always felt the same way with Dr. Baird, you know, he, he kind of is like a, he’s always been like a father figure to me, I have two great dads that, you know, have a dad and a stepdad that have been in my life forever and but anyway, you know, that’s just kind of the, the relationship that he and I have, you know, we became really good friends over the years. and we were just there for each other as far as you know, keeping him in check and keeping me in check and he wasn’t afraid to, you know, like, come to us, if we were having a crappy day, maybe for whatever reason, and it was showing outwardly and we didn’t realize it, you know, he wasn’t afraid to come and approach us and do something he called confrontational management and be like, “Hey, everything going okay with you today, because you seem a little upset, you know?”, and it was just kind of like, “Oh, it’s just like a like a, you know, you’re checking in on them to make sure are they okay and is there anything you can do to help them through their day, or maybe they don’t even realize they’re being a Butthead, you know,” and you just have to kind of bring it to the attention and that, that was the that’s just kind of the relationship, like I said, that we had at the office is this that we wanted to get through the day, we wanted to take great care of patients, and we wanted to meet all of our goals and, you know, he would reward us when we would meet those goals over the years, you know, we went to Mexico multiple times. I know, he took the girls to Hawaii one time, took them on a cruise, he took all of us to New York City, you know, so we have lots of fun times and memories and team building experiences where we just really became family as a team.

Regan 29:03
I think it’s important to listen to those cues like as, so as someone who manages team, I feel very similar to kind of maybe Bruce’s journey and when I was very first doing it, like 15 years ago, I was so obsessed with two things ego, like kind of like proving myself and proving that I had the capability, fighting that curiosity with others. If they ask questions, I assumed that they were maybe attacking me and it had nothing to do with me whatsoever at all. It was just genuinely people trying to learn and not listening to the cues of how I showed up. So now I mean, we have, we are surrounded at PDA with such incredible team and if somebody says Jennifer Heinz is late this morning, that’s a good example. She said to me, just I was she called she was asking about room arrangements for the upcoming PDA workshop and I was like, “Yep, yep, I trust you. We’re good,” and then she says it’s always my clue, she says, “Hey, she goes you have a lot on your mind today, what’s something going on today?”, and it stops me in my tracks immediately, and I reset and I’m saying, “Okay, so what energy am I giving off?” So I kind of thought about it. I’m like, “You’re right,” and she said, “Let’s work through what you’re what you’re worried about here,” and so I wouldn’t have talked to her about anything, but I said, “Oh, well, here’s what I’m kind of worried about in not PDA workshop related, but here’s what I’m going through,” and, and she helped me work through it and I could feel my own energy drop and I thought, “This is how I should show up, calm, collected, present.” So when you know, leaders are humans too, and when you’ve got something going and don’t think for a second that your team can’t pick up on it, because they do, they can feel it and, but providing a safe space, so that they can that the team can come and talk to you listen to those clues, don’t let those go by, I think is something that I’ve learned that it sounds like Bruce picked up on pretty fast, hopefully.

Sommer Carrol 30:52
Absolutely, we always had an open line of communication and I feel that way with Dr. Brewski, as well, you know, I mean, he’s kind of like a brother to me, you know, I don’t know why I compare them to family members, but like, we’re together so much

Regan 31:05
So you can say you spend every single, you know, multiple days a week with them.

Sommer Carrol 31:09
We know a lot about each other and like we you know, we genuinely want to make sure that they’re doing well, and their families are doing well and stuff and so, but anyway, Dr. Risky, you know, we have an open line of communication as well, if he’s concerned about what’s going on something I’m doing, then he’s not afraid to bring it to my attention and the same thing with him, you know, like, if I see something that I’m like, “I think this could improve by you know, X, Y, or Z,” you know, he’s not afraid to listen to those ideas and, you know, recently I came to him because we’re doing a new style of marketing, trying something out because of smiles at see because of winning in that he wants lots of we’re going to vivos training next week and that’s all part of what he won, but anyway, that the marketing thing. So we have our third party person, but she acts like she works with us, she interviews these certain patients and gets them approved for financing and stuff, and then plugs them into our schedule, but she can’t see our schedule. So what’s ended up happening is we were all these patients, like new patients lined up, and I’m like, this is not working, like we can’t do this and he’s like, his response was, “I’m open to suggestions,” and I thought, you know, well played and so, you know, I was like, “Well, these are the two ideas that I have, I just don’t know what your schedule allows,” and so, you know, together, we went back and forth like that, and came up with a solution of where to put those patients and that’s just something that’s it’s a constantly evolving thing, it has to be checked in on all the time. You know, like, if, for instance, if you’re running behind, and I’m talking about an assistant, or a doctor, you know, and you’re consistently, you’re not changing anything, you’re not changing the way you’re scheduling your, your patients don’t expect him to be any better tomorrow, you know, empower your assistant to be responsible for their chair and be responsible for what’s it whatever’s in it, you know, it doesn’t matter who put it there. I mean, that was Dr. Baird’s thing, like the three of us had, we had our chairs in the schedule, or operatories that we ran and if somebody else put a patient in our schedule, it was it became our patient, our responsibility to know every single thing about them and even if he had never seen them before, you know, the biggest one of his pet peeves over the years was if he came to one of us with a question about this patient, and we’d go, “I don’t know, they’re not my patient, you know, I don’t know, I didn’t see him last,” Oh, it was just, that wasn’t a good thing to say, you know, so basically, but the point is, is we were responsible for our chair, it didn’t matter what was in it. Well, that also means if we’re, if we’re constantly running behind, and we don’t change the way it’s in our chair, then it’s on us, you know, it’s on us to see those two patients at the same time and if somebody else books it in your chair, and that’s, it’s incorrect, for whatever reason, then that’s a training opportunity and take the time to go educate that person. So they don’t do it again and again, and create frustration and animosity to in between the team, you just have to take the time to go and explain that to them so that they know “Oh, this is what she means by that,” you know, because the girls at the front and maybe the hygienist, they don’t know exactly how long it takes to do a Sarah crown, you know, so help them train them, teach them where to put them in their skin in your schedule, so that it’s it will be better outcome for everyone, including the patient.

Regan 34:35
Summary you’ve given us, I know that you’ve given us so many nuggets like oh, we’re going to turn this into an article too. I think this would be a really good article so get ready somewhere. We’re going to publish it in DentalTown.

Summer 34:50
Oh year, that sounds cool.

Dr. Chad Johnson 34:50
That sounds cool. My concluding thoughts that I think I need to clarify with my team or improve, is, I think my team knows that I’m having a bad day, but I don’t think I’ve given them permission to broach the subject, meaning, if I’m taking ownership of it, I could, I could know, if I were a victim of it, I would say, “Why can’t the team ask me how I’m feeling or something like that,” but I almost feel like I don’t really want to talk about that kind of stuff as a guy anyway, you know, like, in, but at some level, I’m sure they’re interested in broaching it, but maybe I’ve not earned their trust to do so. So if I were to take ownership, as opposed to victimhood of it, that I need to do some soul searching and figure out where I can improve, to allow for them to have concern for how they could make the day better for me and it’s not an egocentric or like a, like a me centered kind of how do I let them take care of, you know, the king of the King Penn kind of thing? The question is, though, if we had a really good relationship, then they would be willing to support me through the bad day or figure it out and be like, “Oh, yeah, that sucks, that’s too bad. Like, okay, well, now let’s chip up and get moving,” but I think they recognize it, but we don’t do much about it and so then their goal is just to figure out how to be like me, okay and, and get through those ho-hum days. So this is kind of a raw thought that is in its inception that I need to, you know, like think through better, but Summer, I think today got me thinking, “Okay, if I were honest about how this spurred me on to be better, it’s, well, man, you asked Dr. Bruce and Dr. Jeff, like, you know, “hey, what’s going on with your day?”, and I’m like, I don’t get that,” and, and why is it because basically, like, I’ve been too difficult to broach with that before or whatever. So that’s what it challenged me today and then I’m gonna, you know, like, push forward to figure out because it’s basically an unanswered question, but instead of just leaving a rhetorical, well, they just must not care. It’s like, is that really actually what’s happening, or is it me? So extreme ownership, leadership, right there, right? There you go. Absolutely. Well, Summer, thanks for coming on. You know, we had written out that there, you know, just for the listeners, in summary, that there’s three benefits to the team, when the doctor improves their leadership, the team feels more empowered to do their jobs and to become leaders in their own right. Number two, that they trust and support the doctor’s decisions that there’s more of that, you know, collaboration going on and like I called it earlier, integrity to, you know, that standard and number three, that that takes stress off the doctor, which was I was noticing was I was like, I kind of just carry that on my own, but so if the team, you know, leadership and communication improves, that they take stress off the doctor, and are able to focus on delivering exceptional care to the patients, both the team and the doctor being part of that team. So those were our three take homes, certainly there were more, but just in summary, I wanted to wrap those up. Regan, what closing thoughts do you have?

Regan 38:22
I loved your thoughts, your closing thoughts, Chad, because I feel for me to add on to that, if it’s something where, where I’m stressed out, and, and I can actually like intentionally energetically feel it like I’m impatient. So I want to move forward and you can influence people without saying anything on whether they’re welcome to speak or they’re welcome to not speak and I think it’s really, really important as leaders to provide that moment for them to always feel comfortable to speak. It’s like being a parent, isn’t it? I think it’s, Summer, isn’t it? Like, you know, if you’re impatient, you don’t want to hear it, and you move on, and that hurts the relationship?

Summer 38:46
Absolutely.

Regan 38:46
And it also makes Write what you think is going to take less time by being impatient actually ends up taking longer time and damages the relationship.

Sommer Carrol 39:04
Absolutely. You know, it’s funny, we were eating just went into Lubbock out to Texas Tech for her second year of college and we were sitting there eating breakfast and Shannon had gone with me to help get her load, you know, packed in and some of her friends had come to breakfast, and we were all being silly and we all decided that Whitney is just like her mother. All of those things that, you know, habits and mannerisms and things that you know, she’s definitely she moved into an apartment for the first time and there’s four girls. She’s definitely the leader of the pack. She’s definitely going to be the mama of all of them, but you know, everybody around you is influenced by your behavior, whether you know it or not in you know, I think you just have to really remember that how you show up in front of everyone is very important and it’s it’s impactful, you know, it impacts your day it impacts your whole life and where year two, for the better for the greater good and, you know, our patients and our team and, and we just need to remember to take care of each other basically. .

Regan 40:11
That’s so beautiful. I love it. Thank you, Summer. I think my last I have a last one closing thought for me. My takeaway from this is the why always explaining the why. So not just I mean, the only way you’re gonna get an outstanding team is to educate, educate, educate, and taking the time to do that. I mean, I think our team is incredible and the team I work directly with on a daily basis, always give them time for the why because that’s how they can you can delegate Chad and know that it’s that it’s taken care of completely, but if they don’t get it, then you know, you’re gonna end up with who knows what. So that’s my great takeaway from today. Thank you, Summer.

Sommer Carrol 40:47
Thank you for having me. That was fun.

Regan 40:49
Coming up next week on Everyday Practices Dental Podcast, a cyber attack on your business can feel as sudden as a heart attack and cost you your livelihood. If the recent attack on Aspen Dental didn’t catch your attention, the fact that roughly 90% of security breaches happen because of human error. Well, there are three things hackers don’t want you to know when it comes to your security and the reality is, you may be unintentionally committing one of the three biggest security mistakes in dentistry and not even know it. I’m Regan Robertson, co-host of the award-winning everyday practices dental podcast. Dr. Chad Johnson and I are here with an exclusive limited podcast series to help you protect your team, your practice and your business. We invited one of the world’s leading cybersecurity defense experts, Adrian Santangelo, and PDAs Information Security Officer, Robert Niles, to dive into the underworld of cybercriminal activity so you can understand the different types of attacks that happened today, and the new threats on the horizon with the development of AI technology. Adrian is the Chief Digital Forensics Officer of Site Emptive, the only cybersecurity company that guarantees threat elimination. He is an award-winning ethical hacker and IT industry expert that actively identifies detects and blocks ransomware before it hits the news. With over 30 years of experience in computer security and digital forensics. He lives and breathes giving others the knowledge, resources and support necessary for business owners to safeguard their livelihoods. We will also feature Robert Niles, who brings 28 years of Linux unix systems administration experience four years of HIPAA compliance and three years as a Certified Information Systems Security Professional. He is on a never-ending quest to protect others from the quote-unquote baddies and he is passionate about all things compliance protection and client education. Get ready and buckle up for this exclusive limited podcast series by everyday practices dental podcast, this could save you 1000s of dollars, hours, and days of manpower and maybe even your livelihood. Thank you for listening to another episode of Everyday Practices Podcast. Chad and I are here every week. Thanks to our community of listeners just like you and we’d love your help. It would mean the world if you can help spread the word by sharing this episode with a fellow dentist and leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share, Or feedback on how we can make this podcast even more awesome. Drop us an email at podcast@productivedentist.com and don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from Productive Dentist Academy at productivedentists.com/podcasts See you next week.