Episode 136: Requested Replay: Building the Best Team

“If you’re going to grow your business, you need to grow your people.”

Building and retaining a fantastic team is key to building your Investment Grade Practice™.

But so many dentists and business owners struggle with their team and office culture. In fact, it can be downright debilitating when good team members leave, and you struggle to figure out why.

There’s been a trend in dentistry to hire people outside the industry – retail, customer service, etc. – and teach them dentistry. The funny thing is, these people often end up being the best team members.

So what’s the secret? The secret is, there’s so much to learn in dentistry. Yes, money is important. Everyone needs to be in a job they feel gives them financial security. But for most people, that’s not their biggest concern in the workplace. Employees who see a path to growth, to continual learning and development they are more likely to stay.

Something I think we tend to forget as business owners is our employees – our team members – are not just taking direction from us. They are adding their own talents, skills, and personalities to the workplace. So we, as business owners crafting our Investment Grade Practices™, need to know how to find and retain those people who will invest their time and skills into the kind of practice we want to build.

Join me for today’s podcast with my very special guest, HR Management specialist, Dr. Adrienne Reynolds, as we discuss how to find and retain quality team members and:

• What drives them
• What character traits they have
• What work environment they seek

To get in contact with Dr. Adrienne Reynolds you can email her at adrienne@productivedentist.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Announcer: The Productive Dentist Academy Podcast Network.

[00:00:02] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: For anyone to be successful, say for the next 50 years. So I’m talking about, you know, maybe entry level or fresh out of college, um, students coming out. They have to be prepared for continual change and continual learning and continual development and so the mindset also of, “Oh, you’ve graduated, you’ve got your bachelor’s or your associates or whatever it is, so you’re good to go.” No, no, no, no, no, that’s just the beginning.

[00:00:27] Announcer:  Welcome to Investment Grade Practices Podcast, where we believe private practice dentists deserve to get the lifestyle today while building an asset for tomorrow. Join your host, Victoria Peterson, to design the practice of your dreams and secure your financial independence. Let’s get started.

[00:00:46] Dr. Victoria Peterson: If you’re going to grow your business, you grow the people, not growing widgets. You’re growing people and I had you, you totally have blown my mind here today. This is my nugget from the podcast that intentionally look for people who don’t measure up 100%. There is a big shift right now in dentistry to hire non-qualified people. If you say non, non-previous experience. So there was a big exodus. from frontline healthcare workers. Can’t imagine why.

[00:01:16] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: What could have happened?

[00:01:19] Dr. Victoria Peterson: That, you know, the pandemic brought to light, but dentistry can be, you know, a very toxic environment. You’ve got the radiation, you’ve got biological things like that and at some point, If you’re getting paid 9 an hour, you go, “I don’t know if I really want to do that.” So the pay scales have changed. The requirements have changed and what employees are demanding in terms of safety and growth and contribution is shifting. And so I’m hoping that our doctors. Feel that trend and they’re hiring on people out of hospitality and retail and customer service, and then teaching them the dental and maybe, maybe you’re tapping into why those employees stay for so long because there’s so much to learn. Right, right.

[00:02:06] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: And, and they can see, if employees can see a path of growth, and it doesn’t necessarily have to tie to any position titles or moving up a proverbial ladder, but if they can see a pathway of continual growth and development, yes, that, as you said, it ties back to Maslow’s hierarchy, you know, yes, money is important. Of course, money is important, but for everyone, unless money is their absolute driver of, you know, well, I’m, I’m not self-actualized unless I have Hermes bag or, you know, whatever, um, for everyone at some point, a 10 percent pay increase, while they wouldn’t turn it down is not going to be a motivator. Okay. At some point there is a monetary level at which people feel secure and safe and absolutely employers should be paying that. Um, you know, it, it should not be, uh, “Oh gosh, I, I wonder, you know, how am I going to pay for this medical issue or how?” No, it’s, I totally disagree with employers that do not understand that you have to pay enough to take money off the table. Okay, but then once you do, then you have to provide that ability for growth and continual learning. Things are changing so rapidly, whether it’s from technological advancement, or even, uh, we’re seeing such more rapid changes. Not only in the US, but around the world that for anyone to be successful, say for the next 50 years. So I’m talking about, you know, maybe entry-level or fresh out of college, uh, students coming out, they have to be prepared or continual change and continual learning and continual development and so the mindset also of, “Oh, you’ve graduated, you’ve got your bachelor’s or your associates or whatever it is, so you’re good to go.” No, no, no, no, no, that’s just the beginning and so that has to be inculcated into the organizational culture as well. That continual growth, continual risk-taking that is appropriate. The ability to make mistakes and learn from them has to be encouraged and not punished and that’s also a critical thing about how to get the most productivity and the most passion out of your people. Well, give them room to be human and learn and try and make mistakes and contribute. You know, and not just be micromanaged and do this and if it’s not in your job description, no, no, no, no. You can’t do that.

[00:04:39] Dr. Victoria Peterson: Stay in your lane. What a difficulty it is though, for, and you see it everywhere. You know, the authoritative top-down type of management’s breaking apart and there’s this balance between certainty and predictability in the role, yet variety to grow and striking that right balance. So nice. Every day is not a new day. Hey, right. I don’t know. What do you feel like doing? There’s this system. I often, I often think of it as, as a dance, right? You think about ballroom dancing, you’ve got the man, the masculine energy that holds the framework and there’s a woman that gets to flow, you know, kind of in it and yes, it sounds like that’s what you’re describing to your business has to have enough structure and framework that we know the rules of the game and where we’re going, but then freedom to how you get it done.

[00:05:33] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: I think you been sitting in on my classes. Yes and in one of, uh, when I teach leadership to my undergrad, my sophomores, I start the week off with a clip of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing and have them describe to me, what is it that they’re seeing? And most of these kids have not tried ballroom dancing, but they kind of understand it and the mechanisms of it and if not, then I’d give them a quick intro into what that means and it’s exactly this. I said, “Well, you have a framework, okay, but imagine if you were only watching Fred Astaire dance. Now granted marvelous dancer, but Ginger Rogers brings that extra component and so those two together, you know, it creates that synergy that’s greater than the sum of the parts type of thing,” and I said, “Here’s what you as a business owner or manager have to realize that as you’re providing the structure, you, you know, maybe kind of guiding her with your hands of how to, where you’re going to go next on the dance floor, but she is looking just as marvelous as you are, but she’s doing it backwards and in high heels. So think of your employees. They’re not just taking direction from you. They are adding in their own capabilities, their own thoughts, their own talents,” and the most successful business owners harness that they recognize it. So they provide structure, but if one of their employees has an exchange with a customer, you know, or client and something happened from that, and that sparks an idea in them, they need to have the voice to bring that to the business owner so that, you know, “Oh, I never thought about that, but wow, that could maybe really enhance our business.” I’ve seen three different dentists since I’ve moved to the state of Missouri and nobody seems to have nitrous oxide here and I still have horror stories from my childhood dentists. I mean, I can still smell the office. It was one of those seventies, you know, scary places for kids. So even when I go to get cleaning, I’m the biggest wimp. I want nitrous, man. I’ve, I’ve got to relax and if you don’t have nitrous, then I’ve got to find some value or something cause I just, I have that childhood fear and so since moving to Missouri, it’s like, “What do you mean you don’t have nitrous?” I mean, in Florida, maybe we’re a bunch of babies in Florida cause everybody has nitrous in their offices. So I’m trying to put the word out to every dentist I go to, “Hey. You need to get some nitrous in here.”

[00:07:58] Dr. Victoria Peterson: What town are you in? I’ll put the word out here.

[00:08:00] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: Uh, St. Joseph, Missouri.

[00:08:03] Dr. Victoria Peterson: So, all right. We’ll see what we can do. We’ve got a big network around the country.

[00:08:07] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: Okay. Yes. Please get the word out cause they’re not getting it. I guess their employees have no voice cause I tell every hygienist and every assistant that comes in my cubicle when I’m there, I’m like, please tell them to get some nitrous. I don’t know. Maybe they’re just cleaning for something.

[00:08:22] Dr. Victoria Peterson: Oh my gosh. Adrienne, I want to spend an entire day with you. I really do but you brought so much to the table today, uh, talking about, um, growing the people and ways of growing the people. Like focus, focus on that and love the way you set it out with focus on the people and your passion and the purpose. And then the profits come, um, in great alignment with that. Thank you so much.

[00:08:50] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: You’re very welcome. Thank you for having me and I could, I could talk all day about it because this is my passion is helping those in business learn this. I mean, I’ve worked other fields and I’ve been that employee that felt like a number or felt like I was being treated like an infant and I’ve also worked for leaders where I thought, man, I would follow that person to the end of whatever business goal they have, because. I know I get to contribute and be a part of it. And of course, it’s part of my research and my study and I want everyone to be able to experience the type of amazing joy I’ve had in that latter type of position and for business owners to find that joy of, “Oh, wow, this actually is better.”

[00:09:40] Dr. Victoria Peterson: If you could give leaders one tip from Dr. Reynolds that could instantly improve their leadership. What might that be?

[00:09:50] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: Every employee is a human being first. Don’t voucher employees or learn them or interact with them by their job titles. Interact with them by their names and who they are as human beings. That is my top tip for sure.

[00:10:06] Dr. Victoria Peterson: Simple and yet not always easy because of the way that we’ve been trained to be leaders.

[00:10:11] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: Very true. Very true but the most effective leadership has a very high degree of empathy and emotional intelligence and you will not have either of those things at a high level. If you cannot see your employees as human beings first.

[00:10:26] Dr. Victoria Peterson: Agreed. Thank you so much for being here today. I so appreciate you.

[00:10:31] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: Oh, it’s my pleasure. I really appreciate it. Thank you. This was an honor. It was great.

[00:10:35] Dr. Victoria Peterson: All of your contact information in the show notes. Can people reach out to you with questions?

[00:10:40] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: Of course. Absolutely. Absolutely. Anytime.

[00:10:43] Dr. Victoria Peterson: I love it and if you’re a dentist listening to this and you’re in the St. Joseph, Missouri area. Take care of my friend.

[00:10:49] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: Up. I’m due for cleaning, so,

[00:10:53] Dr. Victoria Peterson: I love it. Thank you, Adrienne.

[00:10:55] Dr. Adrienne Reynolds: Thank you. This was wonderful.

[00:10:59] Announcer: Thank you for tuning into this episode of Investment Grade Practices podcast. If you find value in this episode, help us spread the word by passing it along to a dental friend. Subscribe and give us a like on iTunes or Spotify. Learn more about building your investmentgradepractice@productivedentist.com today.