This episode is all about the stress of people — managing them, working with them, attending to them, etc. Tiff and Kristy discuss what it means to manage results and lead people, and how sticking to systems of accountability in your practice can take a lot of that stress off your shoulders.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. We are back here today with another amazing podcast. I say that because I just know this is gonna be incredible content. I'll introduce myself again. I realized a podcast ago that I never introduced myself. I'm Tiffanie I am a consultant, a dental consultant here with the Dental A Team. I've been here for a really long time, so I guess I just assume everybody has also been here for a really long time. I think everybody's like my best friend and I sit here.

on this podcast, Kristy with you and with all of the listeners, just talking to my best friend. Like that's just how I roll. So I'll take the moment to say hello, welcome. Thank you to those who have been listening for a long time or a short time or a new today. We love being able to reach new people. Part of our mission is to reach as many people as we possibly can. And it's worded much better than that, but that's the gist of it. And Kiera, know, get, Kiera likes to quiz us.

every now and again and I fail every time you guys. It's just like words in my brain get jumbled. It's okay, it's totally fine. So our mission is here. We are so excited to welcome you. Kristy, I am excited to welcome you here with me today. You have been on a podcast roll with me. We have busted out so many. I really truly appreciate you for that and for so many other reasons. So thank you for being here today, Kristy.

The Dental A Team (01:18)

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited.

The Dental A Team (01:21)

Yeah, thank you. We have been chatting quite a few things. KPIs, I think this is the month of KPIs and results and it makes sense because Q1 is behind us. We're rolling into Q2 and making sure that we are set for success because my opinion is if we wait until November, but even July, if we're like, gosh, Q3, what are we doing? What are we doing? You're already behind you guys. You got a lot to make up at that point. You might as well just start now.

I love this role that we've been on today. We also always get to hit some personal development pieces, which is fun as well. So today, where this podcast right now, we really want to talk about the human side of things. Kristy, something that I notice, I get the luxury of seeing Dental A Team from all of the different sides. I get to see it from sales side, from marketing side, from development side, like all of education, from consulting.

every space of Dental A Team, I feel like I have a little toe dipped in there, just because I've been here for so long and I've helped in so many different facets to create what we are doing today. And with that, I get to see all of the different reasons that all of our clients are attractive to us and the people who are not yet clients or have just come for, know, tell me what my gap is and let me work on it. All those people, all the doctors, all the teams,

are typically coming and they're saying, I say this all the time, they're saying systems, right? We need systems. Clean up my systems, Kristy. My systems are broken. And they're like, please. And I've watched it. I've watched new to Dental A Team consultants be like, okay, let's start and we'll dig into systems. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait. Do we know that that system's broken? Like, let's take a step back and really figure out what it is, what it is and why you're actually here.

because your systems is the word that you're using to describe your issue, your symptom. And what typically is happening is we have stress. Things aren't working. They're not aligning just right. And we think, well, my systems are broken then. And your systems may not be broken. They may need adjusting or we may need to add some systems. We may need to do away with some old systems, right?

I've got practices that I'm like, think we're just billing this way because we like to, because we've always done it this way. I have to tell you, side tangent for a second, I love this office and when they listen to this, they're gonna know exactly who they are.

I was like, what do you mean you have a black book? What is a black book? Like I don't understand what this is. And they're like, Tiff, like you don't understand how much time we're spending tracking metrics. You're saying we're not tracking. And I'm like, well, I just need them on this Excel sheet. Like where are they at? And they have this old school accounting black book. Like I can't even show you how big it is. It's just like this massive ledger and they have a pencil and these little tiny cells and every day they're writing.

The Dental A Team (04:17)

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The Dental A Team (04:26)

production, adjustments, collections, where the collections is coming from. And I was like, wow, Open Dental tells us all of this every day. You just have to print it. You can even keep it. You don't need to, because it's always accessible. But if it makes you feel better, print it daily and keep it. What are we doing? And so I say that because there are some systems that are just like, we've just always done that. My dad owned the practice and this is how he did it. And it was successful and cool.

We can keep doing it or we don't have to. It's up to you. But the stress is actually the underlying issue and it's usually financial stress or misunderstandings, missed expectations. I expected to make more money than I did. I expected to be able to do my expansion and I can't. I expected to have another dentist on board. I expected to be able to find a hygienist. I expected someone else to talk to all the...

team members on my team. It's missed expectations and it's stresses. And Kristy, something I wanted to dive into today was really how, one, I do think systems help those things. So yes, there is a deep dive onto the systems, but really understanding the stress behind a lot of it and the why I think is key. And Kristy, I don't know if you noticed this in your office, just tell me what you see.

I think one of the number one stressors that I see for doctors, for business owners, and for even office managers who have already taken on this role and doctors have delegated this to them, one of the number one stresses that I see is the stress of people. It's dealing with people, right? Whether it's the patients or the team, but really the HR management side of managing people, like dentistry is not hard, right? Work isn't hard, people are hard. And dealing with that,

tends to be the crux of a lot of stress for doctors that they think the systems will fix, which we'll dive into how they can help that. But Kristy, do you agree? Are you seeing that within your practices as well?

The Dental A Team (06:34)

Yeah, 100 % acro...