Latest / Hey Docs! / Building Careers, Not Just Jobs, In Your Orthodontic Practice
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome to the Hayducks Podcast with your host Jill Allen.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Today We're going to do something a little different, and
- 0:11Speaker 1: I'm going to dive into something every orthodonist and office
- 0:15Speaker 1: manager might think about but rarely discuss out loud. Are
- 0:19Speaker 1: we building careers for our teams or just providing jobs.
- 0:23Speaker 1: After spending years helping doctors build and improve their practices,
- 0:28Speaker 1: I've seen firsthand what team members really want from their positions,
- 0:33Speaker 1: and it might surprise you how often it has nothing to.
- 0:36Speaker 2: Do with the paycheck.
- 0:37Speaker 1: In this episode, I'm going to break down the tips
- 0:40Speaker 1: that can help practices set a real path forward for
- 0:44Speaker 1: teams and team members so that they're not just checking in,
- 0:48Speaker 1: but building something that lasts a career in orthodonics.
- 0:52Speaker 2: So let's jump in and now.
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- 2:32Speaker 3: I'm super excited to be speaking and this topic that
- 2:35Speaker 3: I'm talking on is something that I think every doctor
- 2:39Speaker 3: office manager. This is a topic that's really on our
- 2:42Speaker 3: minds and how are we building careers and not just
- 2:46Speaker 3: jobs in our orthodonic practices. We're going to be working
- 2:49Speaker 3: through seven ideas that I have that's going to help
- 2:53Speaker 3: you as doctors and office managers really determine how you
- 2:58Speaker 3: can set the path forward for building a career in
- 3:02Speaker 3: your practices for your team members. And we can get
- 3:05Speaker 3: away from just providing jobs in which we've got team
- 3:08Speaker 3: members that are kind of hopping from job to job.
- 3:12Speaker 3: So when we think about this, I really like to
- 3:15Speaker 3: have docs think about an office managers think about what
- 3:19Speaker 3: do you think your team really wants out of a
- 3:24Speaker 3: position at your practice. And I think a lot of times,
- 3:28Speaker 3: as orthodontists or office managers or team leads, we assume
- 3:34Speaker 3: that our teams view their roles as a career like
- 3:39Speaker 3: we did as an owner of a business or as
- 3:42Speaker 3: a doctor in your practice. A lot of times, you know,
- 3:44Speaker 3: you think about you went to school to become an orthodonist,
- 3:48Speaker 3: or you got into this because this was your career.
- 3:52Speaker 3: But a lot of times, when we are surrounding ourselves
- 3:55Speaker 3: with our teams, they don't necessarily know, especially team members
- 4:01Speaker 3: that are entering in early into their job life, that
- 4:06Speaker 3: there can be actual careers in the orthodonic field outside
- 4:10Speaker 3: of being an orthodonist. So it's interesting over the last
- 4:15Speaker 3: twenty years running my own business and being in the
- 4:18Speaker 3: orthodonic field for over thirty now. When we sit down
- 4:22Speaker 3: with team members across the country, I hear lots of
- 4:25Speaker 3: different things from team members about what they want out
- 4:28Speaker 3: of the position that they're holding. Many employees feel like
- 4:33Speaker 3: they're doing a job but not necessarily building a future.
- 4:38Speaker 3: And I really feel like when somebody feels like they're
- 4:41Speaker 3: just doing a job, they're going to behave a little
- 4:44Speaker 3: bit differently. They're going to disengage a bit sooner and
- 4:48Speaker 3: they're going to maybe look elsewhere faster because they're just
- 4:52Speaker 3: not kept captive with what they're doing. And a lot
- 4:56Speaker 3: of times what ends up happening is they invest a
- 4:58Speaker 3: lot less in our pre practices emotionally. So what we
- 5:03Speaker 3: want is we want to find team members that are
- 5:09Speaker 3: looking to get into a career path. And so that's
- 5:12Speaker 3: what I'm hoping that we can kind of bring along tonight.
- 5:15Speaker 3: So I want you to just kind of think about
- 5:17Speaker 3: this for a minute. I asked this question at the
- 5:20Speaker 3: AO when I spoke this year. I asked everybody in
- 5:23Speaker 3: the room, Hey, quick show of hands, how many of
- 5:25Speaker 3: you have had an employee leave in the last three years.
- 5:29Speaker 3: It was pretty amazing to look out in this packed
- 5:33Speaker 3: room of doctors and office managers and team members, and
- 5:38Speaker 3: almost every person in that room had their hand go up.
- 5:43Speaker 3: And I think if you were to just reflect for
- 5:45Speaker 3: a minute, anybody who's listening, and you were to ask
- 5:47Speaker 3: this question of yourself, have I had an employee leave
- 5:51Speaker 3: in the last three years. I'm going to bet more
- 5:55Speaker 3: than likely you have. And the sad part is when
- 5:58Speaker 3: we were at the AO or you know, everyone's kind
- 6:00Speaker 3: of looking around, it's not you. And I want you
- 6:04Speaker 3: to hear that, doctors or office managers, it's not just you,
- 6:08Speaker 3: and it's not just your practices that are having problems
- 6:11Speaker 3: retaining team members. It's everybody in our industry. And I
- 6:17Speaker 3: like to take it just a step further and say,
- 6:19Speaker 3: it's really everybody, even within our dental profession. So many
- 6:24Speaker 3: times when we're out gifting or doing different things, you know,
- 6:27Speaker 3: what you realize and what you see on so many
- 6:29Speaker 3: threads is everybody is really struggling to keep employees long term.
- 6:35Speaker 3: You know, it's kind of interesting when I look back
- 6:37Speaker 3: over my years in the orthodonic field and think about
- 6:41Speaker 3: when I was first getting started in orthodonics. Definitely employees
- 6:46Speaker 3: were staying to the end. You know, they were starting
- 6:49Speaker 3: with the doctor and ending their career with the doctor,
- 6:52Speaker 3: and that is just not the case anymore. What I
- 6:54Speaker 3: see in orthodonic practices now is we're lucky if we
- 6:57Speaker 3: get three years out of most of our employees that
- 7:01Speaker 3: we hire. So let's talk about what is causing some
- 7:07Speaker 3: of this. What I think is this big shift that's
- 7:09Speaker 3: happening in our industry, and what I believe is happening
- 7:14Speaker 3: is that the expectations of employees has shifted, and what
- 7:20Speaker 3: has motivated teams, especially if you've been in the industry
- 7:24Speaker 3: for a while, a doctor that's maybe more seasoned than
- 7:27Speaker 3: some of the startup docs that I work with, is
- 7:30Speaker 3: that what motivated teams ten or fifteen years ago is
- 7:33Speaker 3: no longer enough. And we now have to think about
- 7:38Speaker 3: the fact that we have up to four different working
- 7:42Speaker 3: generations of potential employees in our practices right now, where
- 7:47Speaker 3: when I got into orthodonics, we had one or two generations.
- 7:52Speaker 3: So the expectations of the employees coupled with the generations
- 7:59Speaker 3: that are within our practices is really making a shift
- 8:04Speaker 3: and what our team members are looking for. And when
- 8:08Speaker 3: we think about this, you know, and we look at
- 8:10Speaker 3: the reality of what our workforce teams are looking for.
- 8:15Speaker 3: I think that this list here is pretty important to
- 8:19Speaker 3: think about, and I think that I want you to
- 8:22Speaker 3: really note that the last thing on this list, financial stability,
- 8:28Speaker 3: is really what the team is looking for. So of
- 8:30Speaker 3: course everybody wants financial security. I mean that's a given,
- 8:34Speaker 3: you know, when you look at what it costs to
- 8:36Speaker 3: live and what it costs to raise families and whatnot.
- 8:40Speaker 3: Everybody's looking for that financial security. But what I want
- 8:44Speaker 3: you to hear from me is that money is not
- 8:47Speaker 3: enough to create long term commitment anymore. I think that
- 8:52Speaker 3: that is this big shift. There are other pieces that
- 8:56Speaker 3: are really playing into what team members are looking for
- 9:02Speaker 3: when they're looking at a path forward or a career
- 9:06Speaker 3: in orthodonics, they're looking for purpose, they're looking for growth,
- 9:11Speaker 3: they're looking for recognition, and they may even be looking
- 9:14Speaker 3: for some flexibility. So I really love this little saying here.
- 9:19Speaker 3: People don't leave jobs, they leave environments where they cannot grow.
- 9:25Speaker 3: And I truly believe in our orthodonic practices that we
- 9:30Speaker 3: have to keep a mindset of growth is the currency
- 9:35Speaker 3: of retention. If we want to retain our employees, we
- 9:39Speaker 3: have got to give them a growth path into our
- 9:44Speaker 3: practice and show them where their career can go in orthodonics,
- 9:49Speaker 3: because I really believe that when somebody feels stagnant, when
- 9:53Speaker 3: they just don't feel like they're fitting in or they're
- 9:57Speaker 3: going somewhere, what they start doing is they start imagining
- 10:01Speaker 3: life somewhere else. And I think this is what we're
- 10:04Speaker 3: seeing in our orthodonic practices where we have these team
- 10:07Speaker 3: members that are just moving from one job, hopping from
- 10:10Speaker 3: one job to another, is they're looking to find that purpose.
- 10:16Speaker 3: They're looking to find a place that they can grow
- 10:20Speaker 3: where they aren't going to just be, you know, make
- 10:23Speaker 3: the coffee, make the donuts every day type of a mentality.
- 10:27Speaker 3: So what I want you to think about is I
- 10:29Speaker 3: believe that your goal as practice leaders should be to
- 10:33Speaker 3: build an environment where your team and your people that
- 10:38Speaker 3: you're choosing to surround yourself with see a future in
- 10:43Speaker 3: your practice. So when we think about what this means
- 10:48Speaker 3: and why it matters. So many times I think that
- 10:52Speaker 3: we think about this and we think, well, this isn't
- 10:54Speaker 3: just a human resource issue. But what I want you
- 10:58Speaker 3: to think about is it's a practice performance issue. And
- 11:04Speaker 3: when we think of it in that way, we think
- 11:06Speaker 3: about the fact that if we don't have the right
- 11:11Speaker 3: people in place that see a vision, that see where
- 11:14Speaker 3: we're going, that see a future in our practice, what
- 11:18Speaker 3: it does is it ultimately affects the practice and the
- 11:23Speaker 3: performance of the practice. And I think each one of
- 11:26Speaker 3: you could probably think about, you know, a successful orthodonic office,
- 11:31Speaker 3: and maybe you can think about, you know, somebody you
- 11:33Speaker 3: follow online or somebody that you've had an opportunity to
- 11:37Speaker 3: go visit their office or whatnot. And what I think
- 11:40Speaker 3: is really interesting is when I work with practices and
- 11:43Speaker 3: when I see really successful orthodonic practices that are just
- 11:47Speaker 3: really clicking, they all have a few things in common,
- 11:52Speaker 3: and most of the time what you see is that
- 11:55Speaker 3: their teams stay. And when their teams stay, they become
- 12:00Speaker 3: incredibly powerful. They're able to build trust with patients, they're
- 12:05Speaker 3: able to communicate better, and they perform more efficiently. And
- 12:10Speaker 3: so the goal is to help you understand, like, how
- 12:13Speaker 3: do we make this path forward for teams and team
- 12:17Speaker 3: members to be able to see that there is a
- 12:21Speaker 3: path to a career when they say, Hey, I want
- 12:24Speaker 3: to accept this job that I've just seen or found
- 12:27Speaker 3: out on Indeed, about So let's talk about the second idea.
- 12:32Speaker 3: And that's why money alone doesn't work. And I think
- 12:37Speaker 3: this is the old adage. For decades, this has been
- 12:40Speaker 3: the model salary or wage plus an annual raise equals
- 12:45Speaker 3: employee retention. And I'm going to bet that many of
- 12:50Speaker 3: you who raised your hand or have thought about have
- 12:53Speaker 3: I lost an employee in the past three years, probably
- 12:57Speaker 3: did this but didn't end up getting employee retention. And
- 13:01Speaker 3: again that's because this model has stopped working. It isn't
- 13:08Speaker 3: just enough to have a salary wage and maybe to
- 13:11Speaker 3: give an annual raise. That's not enough anymore to keep
- 13:16Speaker 3: our team members happy and to have them feel like
- 13:19Speaker 3: when they're showing up every day that it's more than
- 13:21Speaker 3: a job. And I feel, like, you know, many times
- 13:24Speaker 3: what I see is practices fall into this trap of
- 13:29Speaker 3: that old adage of every year we give a little
- 13:32Speaker 3: nominal raise, if we're even going to give a raise.
- 13:35Speaker 3: But what I want you to ask yourself is does
- 13:39Speaker 3: that fundamentally change how somebody feels about their work? Does
- 13:45Speaker 3: a three percent raise or a little this or that
- 13:49Speaker 3: actually change how somebody feels about their work? And I'm
- 13:54Speaker 3: going to say probably not, because what I see when
- 13:58Speaker 3: we have that much model where it's the oh, it's
- 14:02Speaker 3: time for the review and they're going to give me
- 14:04Speaker 3: a three percent raise or they're going to give me
- 14:06Speaker 3: the twenty five cent or whatever it is raise. What
- 14:10Speaker 3: it becomes is raises become expected rather than motivating. And
- 14:15Speaker 3: what we need is something that's going to help motivate
- 14:20Speaker 3: our teams to see that we are creating a career
- 14:24Speaker 3: path in our orthodonic practices. And the way I see
- 14:28Speaker 3: it is motivation usually lives in two categories. We've got
- 14:33Speaker 3: hard motivators, which those are financial, which I'm not going
- 14:37Speaker 3: to discount the fact that we need to pay our
- 14:39Speaker 3: employees well. But we also have soft motivators and these
- 14:45Speaker 3: are that emotional component that I feel like most practices
- 14:50Speaker 3: focus really heavily on the first one, that financial motivator,
- 14:55Speaker 3: and they ignore the soft motivators or that emotional side
- 14:59Speaker 3: of it that is really kind of what locks our
- 15:02Speaker 3: team members in and helps them say, you know what,
- 15:05Speaker 3: I do want to stick with this and I do
- 15:07Speaker 3: see myself building a career in this practice. So let's
- 15:11Speaker 3: talk a little bit first about the hard motivators pay
- 15:14Speaker 3: and bonuses, and as I'm going through this. I think
- 15:18Speaker 3: that some of the most obvious ones that we can
- 15:21Speaker 3: talk about are pay scales. Now I'm going to a
- 15:24Speaker 3: little bit later and talk about really what I believe
- 15:27Speaker 3: pay scales should look like, but pay in general, what
- 15:30Speaker 3: are you going to pay somebody and how does that
- 15:33Speaker 3: correlate into potentially bonuses, benefits, financial incentives, And I believe
- 15:41Speaker 3: that all of these are important. These are the core
- 15:43Speaker 3: foundational pieces that everybody needs to have an understanding about
- 15:47Speaker 3: when they're hiring on into a position, but they have
- 15:52Speaker 3: to be structured correctly. So when we think about pay
- 15:57Speaker 3: scales or pay one of the biggest mistakes I see
- 16:02Speaker 3: is that practices are really inconsistent with pay structures. A
- 16:06Speaker 3: lot of times raises happen really randomly. Pay is different
- 16:12Speaker 3: between team members who may be doing the same job.
- 16:15Speaker 3: So a lot of times, you know, if you don't
- 16:17Speaker 3: believe that your team members it isn't going to get
- 16:19Speaker 3: out what everybody is being paid, You're probably really mistaken.
- 16:24Speaker 3: I run into this a lot when I'm working with
- 16:26Speaker 3: doctors and they're like, well, I hired this person at
- 16:30Speaker 3: this skill level or at this pay, but I'm bringing
- 16:33Speaker 3: this other person on. It's the same job, but I'm
- 16:35Speaker 3: going to pay them differently, and so it can cause
- 16:38Speaker 3: a lot of unrest a lot of times, and I
- 16:41Speaker 3: think a lot of times for team members when compensation
- 16:44Speaker 3: feels unclear or inconsistent, what it eventually does is it
- 16:50Speaker 3: creates resentment. And that is not what we want in
- 16:54Speaker 3: our orthodonic practices. When we are looking at how do
- 16:58Speaker 3: we build a career for our team members within our practices,
- 17:03Speaker 3: the next thing is bonuses. I get asked a lot
- 17:07Speaker 3: about bonuses, especially because I work with a lot of
- 17:10Speaker 3: startup practices, and I think that bonuses can be very powerful,
- 17:16Speaker 3: but only if they are clearly tied to performance. And
- 17:21Speaker 3: I think that a lot of times in smaller practices
- 17:24Speaker 3: or younger practices, I'll say, especially sometimes the practice just
- 17:29Speaker 3: isn't big enough to implement bonus structures. But I will
- 17:34Speaker 3: tell you, if you are doing bonuses, or if you
- 17:38Speaker 3: are going to use that as one of those motivational factors,
- 17:43Speaker 3: if your team members do not understand how the bonus works,
- 17:48Speaker 3: or they do not understand how they're going to get
- 17:52Speaker 3: that carrot that you're kind of dangling in front of them,
- 17:55Speaker 3: it's not going to motivate them. So when we think
- 17:58Speaker 3: about bonuses, you really have to think about are you
- 18:02Speaker 3: going to be transparent with the way that you're going
- 18:05Speaker 3: to present it, is it actually achievable. So many times
- 18:08Speaker 3: I have doctors that are just like, oh, I heard
- 18:10Speaker 3: on a Facebook group that we should be trying to
- 18:13Speaker 3: grow our practice twenty five percent, and so that's my
- 18:15Speaker 3: growth goal. But they haven't actually looked at their own data.
- 18:18Speaker 3: They don't know what other persons set that goal and
- 18:22Speaker 3: where they're at in their practice life cycle in comparison
- 18:25Speaker 3: to where they are. So when we set those type
- 18:29Speaker 3: of goals and we haven't put a lot of thought
- 18:32Speaker 3: into it, and we're just randomly trying to motivate the
- 18:35Speaker 3: bottom line, which a lot of times to just increase production,
- 18:39Speaker 3: it ends up getting us a real negative effect. So
- 18:41Speaker 3: we really have to think about that and what does
- 18:44Speaker 3: that look like. So for me, I think just giving
- 18:48Speaker 3: you some examples, there are so many different ways to
- 18:52Speaker 3: give bonuses in an orthodonic office nowadays if you're going
- 18:56Speaker 3: to do that, but the important thing is having alignment
- 19:01Speaker 3: and your bonus structure should reinforce the behaviors that make
- 19:07Speaker 3: your practice stronger. So there's a lot of really common
- 19:11Speaker 3: bonus structures out there, and you just have to kind
- 19:14Speaker 3: of think about which ones make sense. And from a
- 19:17Speaker 3: consultant to a doctor, you know, I always say, if
- 19:20Speaker 3: you're going to run a bonus system, you should always
- 19:22Speaker 3: have a start in a stop time. We're going to
- 19:25Speaker 3: run this for the next quarter, We're going to run
- 19:27Speaker 3: this for the next year, We're going to run it
- 19:29Speaker 3: for However, because if a bonus system never has a
- 19:33Speaker 3: start and never has an end, just like raises that
- 19:37Speaker 3: come every year, it will become ineffective and it will
- 19:42Speaker 3: not motivate your team the way you would like them motivated.
- 19:47Speaker 3: So as we kind of finish up on the bonus's
- 19:50Speaker 3: component of it, I really want you to take this
- 19:53Speaker 3: to heart that bonuses that feel random or unreachable can
- 19:57Speaker 3: be probably one of the biggest pit that you can
- 20:01Speaker 3: do in your practice because your team will stop caring
- 20:04Speaker 3: about them. And again, it's that consistency of this is
- 20:09Speaker 3: what our goal is. These are the outlines of it.
- 20:12Speaker 3: Things like that are really going to help motivate your
- 20:15Speaker 3: team if that is a lever you're going to pull.
- 20:18Speaker 3: So now let's talk about the emotional side of what
- 20:22Speaker 3: I call soft motivators and I know some of you
- 20:25Speaker 3: may score them a little bit when you think about oh, emotional,
- 20:29Speaker 3: but there really is an emotional side to what our
- 20:33Speaker 3: team members are looking for when they are thinking about
- 20:37Speaker 3: what makes me feel like I want to stay and
- 20:40Speaker 3: keep this job in your practice, versus go somewhere else
- 20:45Speaker 3: and envision myself in somebody else's practice or even a
- 20:49Speaker 3: totally different career opportunity. So when we think about these
- 20:54Speaker 3: soft motivators, I really believe that they're really underestimated, but
- 20:59Speaker 3: I do think that they're very, very powerful, especially with
- 21:03Speaker 3: our younger generations entering the workforce, and some of the
- 21:08Speaker 3: things that we can see that people are looking for
- 21:11Speaker 3: is recognition, is development, is a purpose for why they're there.
- 21:17Speaker 3: They're not just there to answer the phone. They're not
- 21:21Speaker 3: just there to enter into a contract. They're looking for
- 21:25Speaker 3: some of these different things and sometimes even autonomy to
- 21:28Speaker 3: be able to be given an opportunity to work and
- 21:33Speaker 3: provide a good work product, but without having to be
- 21:36Speaker 3: micromanaged the whole way through it. Recognition is really simple,
- 21:42Speaker 3: and I think that it's incredibly impactful when you, as
- 21:47Speaker 3: a doctor or you as an office manager, can take
- 21:50Speaker 3: the time to just give a genuine thank you, acknowledging effort,
- 21:55Speaker 3: celebrating progress. These are really small moments I can really
- 22:00Speaker 3: create loyalty with a team member. Again, most people want
- 22:05Speaker 3: to be seen, they want to be appreciated, they want
- 22:08Speaker 3: to be valued. And I would challenge you for anybody
- 22:11Speaker 3: who's listening. I know as a business owner, it's tough
- 22:14Speaker 3: running a business and you've got one hundred and one
- 22:16Speaker 3: things going on, and when you've got a team under you,
- 22:20Speaker 3: it can be hard to take the time to genuinely
- 22:24Speaker 3: make eye contact and say thank you or genuinely recognize
- 22:28Speaker 3: when somebody does a good job. You know, we can
- 22:31Speaker 3: kind of give the cursory, hey, good job today everybody
- 22:34Speaker 3: as you're running out the door. But is that genuine
- 22:38Speaker 3: and are you creating that environment where somebody wants to
- 22:43Speaker 3: be loyal to you and your cause or your dream
- 22:47Speaker 3: or your practice. When you invest in your team's development,
- 22:53Speaker 3: I really believe something really interesting happens and that's the
- 22:57Speaker 3: they will invest back into your practice. And we have
- 23:03Speaker 3: such incredible opportunities in our orthodonic industry to be able
- 23:09Speaker 3: to give our team members to show them that we
- 23:12Speaker 3: want to invest in their development. There's so many different
- 23:16Speaker 3: CE courses that don't cost you anything but allow a
- 23:20Speaker 3: team member to see that, Oh my gosh, they want
- 23:23Speaker 3: to send me to that I don't know, retainer course,
- 23:26Speaker 3: or they want me to log on and they're going
- 23:28Speaker 3: to pay for my lunch so I can learn a
- 23:30Speaker 3: little bit more about digital workflow. Any time you guys
- 23:34Speaker 3: have an opportunity to invest in your teams, I promise
- 23:40Speaker 3: you they're going to see that investment as value and
- 23:44Speaker 3: you're going to get something out of that. So just
- 23:47Speaker 3: look for those opportunities when you think about growth opportunities.
- 23:52Speaker 3: Another thing that I think is really important to think
- 23:55Speaker 3: about when we are building our team and we're thinking
- 23:58Speaker 3: about what does it look like to come together day
- 24:01Speaker 3: after day, spend eight to nine hours a day. I
- 24:04Speaker 3: mean the crazy part is, and we all know this.
- 24:06Speaker 3: We spend more time with the people we work with
- 24:09Speaker 3: many times than our own families. And if we can
- 24:14Speaker 3: also lean into team experiences, retreats, team building celebrations, any
- 24:21Speaker 3: of those different things, it will really help build culture
- 24:27Speaker 3: in your practice. So I want you to think about this,
- 24:31Speaker 3: culture is not built through policies, but it's built through moments.
- 24:37Speaker 3: And I think for a lot of doctors that's what
- 24:41Speaker 3: we're constantly looking at and working for, is to build
- 24:46Speaker 3: culture within our businesses. Culture that makes somebody want to
- 24:51Speaker 3: stay more than three years. And I promise you docs
- 24:55Speaker 3: and office managers, it is not built by the policies
- 24:59Speaker 3: that you have in your handbook, but it's built through
- 25:02Speaker 3: the moments that you're creating outside of that handbook. So
- 25:07Speaker 3: the next section that I think is really important that
- 25:10Speaker 3: I want us to talk about is building career paths.
- 25:14Speaker 3: And we've kind of been building up to this, and
- 25:17Speaker 3: when we think about our orthodonic practices, I want you
- 25:23Speaker 3: to really think about this question. And when you're thinking
- 25:29Speaker 3: about as a leader, one of the most powerful things
- 25:33Speaker 3: you can do is ask your team members where do
- 25:38Speaker 3: they want to grow? Not how are things going, but
- 25:42Speaker 3: where do you see yourself developing? In this practice? Does
- 25:47Speaker 3: the team member have an opportunity to even visualize what
- 25:53Speaker 3: a career looks like in your practice? And I know
- 25:57Speaker 3: for a lot of you, you may be thinking, well,
- 25:59Speaker 3: you know, I've got to practice, or I've only got
- 26:02Speaker 3: so many people in the clinic or so many tcs
- 26:04Speaker 3: or so many front desks, and that's okay. But for
- 26:08Speaker 3: every role, every one of our core roles and our
- 26:12Speaker 3: orthodonic practices. There is a path to a career. There
- 26:17Speaker 3: is something bigger than that entry level position. And I
- 26:21Speaker 3: think most of you would be pretty surprised at how
- 26:25Speaker 3: many people would pause if you ask them that question,
- 26:30Speaker 3: because I don't believe that we take enough time to
- 26:34Speaker 3: see where our employees want to go. We unfortunately, most
- 26:39Speaker 3: of the time employees assume that they were hired to
- 26:43Speaker 3: do tasks and not build a future. What I want
- 26:46Speaker 3: us to think about is how do we build a
- 26:49Speaker 3: future for our team members within our orthodonic practices so
- 26:55Speaker 3: that they aren't constantly looking over that fence at that
- 26:59Speaker 3: grass is greener. Oh, it would be so much better
- 27:02Speaker 3: to go be a vet tech. Oh it would be
- 27:04Speaker 3: so much better to go learn how to cut hair.
- 27:06Speaker 3: Oh it would be so much better, because that's the
- 27:09Speaker 3: path where they seek to a career instead of a
- 27:13Speaker 3: path within our orthodonic practices. And I really think that
- 27:17Speaker 3: once we start having these career conversations, that relationship between
- 27:24Speaker 3: you as the leader and them as a team member
- 27:27Speaker 3: starts to shift, and that's when they can start seeing
- 27:30Speaker 3: themselves as somebody who's building into a career as a
- 27:36Speaker 3: professional they're not going to be the doctor, but they're
- 27:40Speaker 3: not going to hold your role. But gosh, what does
- 27:43Speaker 3: that look like? I mean, I think about when I
- 27:45Speaker 3: got into orthodonics, you know, so many years ago. I
- 27:49Speaker 3: had this really great doctor that kind of laid it
- 27:52Speaker 3: out for me and said, hey, Jill, you're starting as
- 27:55Speaker 3: a sterilization assistant. But if you learn this role and
- 27:59Speaker 3: you like it, you've got an opportunity to become a
- 28:02Speaker 3: clinical assistant. And if you become a really good clinical assistant,
- 28:06Speaker 3: you've got an opportunity to start to teach others. Then
- 28:11Speaker 3: from there, if you want to try your hand at
- 28:13Speaker 3: treatment coordinating, let me show you the steps for that.
- 28:17Speaker 3: And I think if we can do that for our
- 28:20Speaker 3: team members, Yes, it's investing a little bit more, but
- 28:23Speaker 3: what's harder investing every six months every year in training
- 28:27Speaker 3: a new team member or looking for ways to show
- 28:33Speaker 3: our team members that there are career paths within our
- 28:38Speaker 3: orthodonic profession. So when somebody sees a future in your practice,
- 28:44Speaker 3: I truly believe that they're going to behave differently. They're
- 28:47Speaker 3: going to invest more energy into your practices, They're going
- 28:51Speaker 3: to take ownership of what they're doing. And the biggest
- 28:54Speaker 3: thing is they're going to stay longer. Now, can I
- 28:57Speaker 3: say that you know we're going to have team members
- 28:59Speaker 3: that stay for the next twenty or thirty years like
- 29:02Speaker 3: generations of the past. No, probably not. But if we
- 29:06Speaker 3: can get somebody that stays five years, eight years, ten years,
- 29:11Speaker 3: what an accomplish that would be versus six months, one year,
- 29:15Speaker 3: one and a half years. And for all of us,
- 29:18Speaker 3: we know what matters most is long term team members experience.
- 29:23Speaker 3: Teams communicate better with patients and in turn, they're going
- 29:28Speaker 3: to anticipate problems faster within our practices. So if we
- 29:32Speaker 3: can really lean into what is it going to take
- 29:35Speaker 3: to have higher team retention, what does it take to
- 29:39Speaker 3: build this career path that is going to be in
- 29:42Speaker 3: my opinion, what makes the difference between team members looking
- 29:46Speaker 3: at our practices and saying, hey, this is a job,
- 29:50Speaker 3: or hey this is a career path where I can
- 29:53Speaker 3: actually see myself moving along over the next years.
- 29:58Speaker 1: And now a word from the sponsors who make this
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- 31:04Speaker 2: Just follow the link in the show notes to learn more.
- 31:12Speaker 3: So, as you all know, we've got core roles within
- 31:15Speaker 3: our orthodonic practice, and I truly believe that there is
- 31:19Speaker 3: a career ladder that can be established for every core
- 31:24Speaker 3: role in our orthodonic practice. And I'm going to use
- 31:28Speaker 3: the assistant role because I think that's the easiest one
- 31:32Speaker 3: to make my point with, but I want you to
- 31:34Speaker 3: think about you can do this in every core role,
- 31:37Speaker 3: So probably in most practices that I work with, especially
- 31:41Speaker 3: if it's a more established practice. Every assistant is just
- 31:45Speaker 3: an assistant. You know, you're an assistant. You're an assistant.
- 31:48Speaker 3: You're an assistant. And a lot of times what I
- 31:51Speaker 3: see is that employee that is an assistant. And again
- 31:55Speaker 3: I'm just using this role. Could be front desk, could
- 31:58Speaker 3: be communications coordinator, be TC, could be FC because a
- 32:02Speaker 3: lot of times, when there is no delineation to what
- 32:06Speaker 3: a career path looks like, what that employee sees as
- 32:10Speaker 3: I'm an assistant, I don't have any there's no progression
- 32:14Speaker 3: in what I'm doing, there's no differentiation in what I do,
- 32:19Speaker 3: there's no growth in what I do, there's no structure,
- 32:22Speaker 3: there's no career path. So therefore, if there's no career path,
- 32:25Speaker 3: why am I sticking out? Why am I staying here? Okay, well,
- 32:29Speaker 3: what I want you to think about is could you
- 32:33Speaker 3: develop a visual career ladder for your team members that
- 32:41Speaker 3: shows them where they can go? So instead of a
- 32:46Speaker 3: team member feeling stuck, they start thinking, hmm, what do
- 32:50Speaker 3: I need to do to move up this ladder? What
- 32:54Speaker 3: do I need to do to develop more skills? If
- 32:57Speaker 3: I want to further my career path in this orthodonic practice.
- 33:04Speaker 3: And so here's just an example again, and of course
- 33:07Speaker 3: this would be for a busier, bigger practice, but if
- 33:10Speaker 3: we kind of show that path, you know, maybe starting
- 33:13Speaker 3: a sterilization and then a clinical assistant, you know, a
- 33:16Speaker 3: level one clinical assistant, a level two clinical assistant, you know,
- 33:20Speaker 3: maybe lead assistant up into digital coordinator up in the
- 33:24Speaker 3: clinical coordinator. If somebody sees that is just not assistant
- 33:29Speaker 3: assistant assistant, You're just an assistant. You just treat the patients.
- 33:33Speaker 3: You're just an assistant. But they can actually see and
- 33:37Speaker 3: have they're in control of their growth and they're in
- 33:40Speaker 3: control of where they go. What we are going to
- 33:43Speaker 3: see is team members that are actually choosing orthodonics as
- 33:48Speaker 3: a career and not just a pathway on into something else.
- 33:53Speaker 3: And so what I want you to be thinking about
- 33:55Speaker 3: is if we can show what a career ladder looks like,
- 34:00Speaker 3: it's going to show that team member growth and it's
- 34:05Speaker 3: not just a title change. So if we can at
- 34:10Speaker 3: each level, a level one clinical assistant might be focused
- 34:14Speaker 3: on basic assisting procedures and learning workflow, where as senior
- 34:19Speaker 3: assistant may be a team member that is mentors new
- 34:24Speaker 3: hires and manages clinical efficiency maybe or maybe a lead
- 34:28Speaker 3: assistant may oversee inventory or training or clinical protocol. I mean,
- 34:33Speaker 3: every office is different, and how you would set this
- 34:36Speaker 3: up is differently. But if you have changes at every
- 34:42Speaker 3: level and it's the team member's responsibility to move their
- 34:47Speaker 3: way if they want towards a career, what it does
- 34:52Speaker 3: is it then sets us up for how we might
- 34:57Speaker 3: move somebody through pay levels. I know a lot of
- 35:00Speaker 3: you probably just got a whole lot of heartburn because
- 35:03Speaker 3: I put some numbers on the screen, and I'm going
- 35:05Speaker 3: to say this for anybody that's a team member that's listening,
- 35:08Speaker 3: or anybody that's a doctor. This is just a very
- 35:12Speaker 3: generic visual to give you an understanding of how pay
- 35:17Speaker 3: and pay levels can work depending upon as somebody is
- 35:22Speaker 3: moving their way through that career ladder. So yea if
- 35:27Speaker 3: a team member comes in and they start as a
- 35:30Speaker 3: clinical assistant, a level one clinical assistant, and you say, hey,
- 35:35Speaker 3: as a level one clinical assistant, you're going to make
- 35:38Speaker 3: between eighteen and twenty one dollars an hour, depending upon
- 35:41Speaker 3: your skill level, and it's up to them to work
- 35:44Speaker 3: their way through that skill level. And hey, if you
- 35:47Speaker 3: want to become a Level two clinical assistant. These are
- 35:51Speaker 3: the duties, these are the skills that are going to
- 35:55Speaker 3: be required, and you're going to probably make anywhere between
- 35:58Speaker 3: twenty three and twenty five dollars an hour. And what's
- 36:03Speaker 3: great about this is it takes away like what we
- 36:06Speaker 3: were talking about at the very beginning, where raises are
- 36:09Speaker 3: based on every year after year we give a raise.
- 36:12Speaker 3: What this now does is this empowers the team member
- 36:15Speaker 3: to say, hey, if I want to make more money,
- 36:19Speaker 3: if I want more responsibility, if I want to do
- 36:23Speaker 3: more the carrot is there and the path is there.
- 36:28Speaker 3: But you know what, if I don't want to and
- 36:30Speaker 3: I'm really happy being a Level one assistant and I'm
- 36:33Speaker 3: really happy with the pay that I'm at, it's okay
- 36:36Speaker 3: for them to stay there too. And I think this
- 36:38Speaker 3: is what really makes that difference in just yep, we're
- 36:44Speaker 3: just going to give people a raise and hope that
- 36:46Speaker 3: they stay versus an employee instead of feeling stuck starting
- 36:52Speaker 3: to think, hey, what do I need to do to
- 36:56Speaker 3: move up on this career path? And I think it
- 36:59Speaker 3: shit from time worked into skills developed, and that's ultimately
- 37:05Speaker 3: what we're wanting right is for team members to feel
- 37:09Speaker 3: like they're working towards something, and if they work towards something,
- 37:13Speaker 3: they get rewarded for that. And I think that this
- 37:16Speaker 3: is also something I just want to bring up, is
- 37:19Speaker 3: not everybody. We don't need everybody to be a lead assistant,
- 37:24Speaker 3: or we don't need everybody to be the office manager
- 37:27Speaker 3: of their practice. We need team members in every I
- 37:32Speaker 3: usually say like for the assisting role, level one, level two,
- 37:35Speaker 3: level three assistants, but we need people in each of
- 37:39Speaker 3: those roles. And we shouldn't just expect that because somebody
- 37:44Speaker 3: has been with us for X amount of time they
- 37:47Speaker 3: should make more money if their skill level has not increased.
- 37:52Speaker 3: I think that is something we have to just be really,
- 37:54Speaker 3: really careful about. So when I work with practices across
- 37:59Speaker 3: the country, what I often tend to see is leadership
- 38:04Speaker 3: potential just hiding kind of in plain sight. And I
- 38:08Speaker 3: want each of you, as office managers and doctors to
- 38:11Speaker 3: really think about this. When you start to see leaders
- 38:15Speaker 3: developing in your practice, those are usually the ones that
- 38:19Speaker 3: are bought in and are seeing this career path. A
- 38:22Speaker 3: lot of times, what you're seeing is that's that team
- 38:24Speaker 3: member that goes the extra mile and helps train others,
- 38:28Speaker 3: or who notices the inefficiencies in your practice and starts
- 38:33Speaker 3: to bring them up with solutions, not just complaining that says, hey,
- 38:38Speaker 3: I've noticed this, and I've got this solution. What do
- 38:42Speaker 3: you think somebody who steps up when things are getting
- 38:46Speaker 3: really busy or crazy, those are the people that you
- 38:51Speaker 3: really want to be investing in, because those are definitely
- 38:54Speaker 3: the ones who are showing that skill set of hey,
- 38:59Speaker 3: I can do more than just be a level two assistant,
- 39:02Speaker 3: or I can do more than just be a level
- 39:03Speaker 3: one assistant instead of just everybody gets lumped in as
- 39:07Speaker 3: assistant assistant assistant. So when we think about this, I
- 39:12Speaker 3: do want to say this is again I think because
- 39:16Speaker 3: especially anybody who's an office manager or a doctor that's listening.
- 39:20Speaker 3: You know, so many times we think, well, I wanted
- 39:23Speaker 3: to do this, so therefore somebody else should want to
- 39:26Speaker 3: do it. But not everybody wants to have a job
- 39:30Speaker 3: where they manage people. And some team members want to
- 39:33Speaker 3: be leaders, but others just want to master their craft.
- 39:39Speaker 3: And I want you to think about this. It's okay
- 39:42Speaker 3: to have both because both should be valued in our practice.
- 39:46Speaker 3: Not everybody needs to be a leader. Not everybody has
- 39:49Speaker 3: to be a manager. Not everybody has to be that
- 39:52Speaker 3: top tier employee. It's really great to have an employee
- 39:56Speaker 3: that just has mastered their craft and is just really
- 40:00Speaker 3: good at what they do. And I see this so
- 40:03Speaker 3: many times in every area of our practice, and that
- 40:07Speaker 3: can really make a difference and again just how well
- 40:12Speaker 3: our practices do when we've got not just team members
- 40:16Speaker 3: that want to be leaders, but team members who have
- 40:19Speaker 3: mastered their craft, whether it's how they answer the phone,
- 40:22Speaker 3: how they are able to move a patient from on
- 40:25Speaker 3: the fence to a start in that TC room, or
- 40:28Speaker 3: maybe get that overdue fifty dollars out of that patient
- 40:31Speaker 3: that hasn't paid in a year. So always, you know,
- 40:34Speaker 3: keep in mind that it isn't always about moving towards leadership.
- 40:38Speaker 3: It's also about giving credit where credit's due for team
- 40:42Speaker 3: members who may not want that role but also want
- 40:46Speaker 3: to just be really good at what they are. So
- 40:50Speaker 3: how do we create a career and develop that plan.
- 40:55Speaker 3: I think that it's so important if you're really taking
- 40:58Speaker 3: this to heart, that you're really thinking about, Okay, what
- 41:02Speaker 3: do I need to be doing? What does the team
- 41:04Speaker 3: member need to know as far as what skills they're
- 41:08Speaker 3: developing if I were going to set out a career
- 41:11Speaker 3: path for them, what does that next level look like?
- 41:15Speaker 3: What does their pay look like? And how do they
- 41:17Speaker 3: get there? What does that timing look like? And then again,
- 41:21Speaker 3: not everybody wants to move up the ladder right away,
- 41:24Speaker 3: and I think that that is completely okay. Sometimes I
- 41:28Speaker 3: think as business owners, you know, we're drivers, and we
- 41:31Speaker 3: put our head down and we went to school and
- 41:33Speaker 3: we did the work, and you know, we got through.
- 41:35Speaker 3: And that isn't always the path that our team members
- 41:38Speaker 3: are going to take, and that got to be okay
- 41:40Speaker 3: with that, We've got to be able to give them
- 41:43Speaker 3: a path to career development. And that's really what I'm
- 41:47Speaker 3: hoping you're sitting with as you're listening to this presentation.
- 41:51Speaker 3: So we talked earlier about pay structures and career paths,
- 41:55Speaker 3: and absolutely all of these things matter, but I want
- 41:59Speaker 3: you to think about culture. And I really believe that
- 42:02Speaker 3: this is what determines whether people actually stay long enough
- 42:06Speaker 3: to grow. Anybody can offer competitive pay and great bonuses.
- 42:10Speaker 3: I mean, we see this all the time. You look
- 42:11Speaker 3: at the indeed ads or whatnot, and you're like, oh
- 42:14Speaker 3: my gosh, I can't believe what so and so down
- 42:16Speaker 3: the street is offering to get a good assistant in right,
- 42:19Speaker 3: like anybody can offer competitive pay and great bonuses. But
- 42:22Speaker 3: I promise you this, if the environment that goes along
- 42:26Speaker 3: with that competitive pay and great bonuses is stressful, chaotic, unpredictable,
- 42:33Speaker 3: people will leave. Eventually, those golden handcuffs and those great
- 42:39Speaker 3: bonuses are not enough, and people will leave. And so
- 42:43Speaker 3: what we need to be doing is we need to
- 42:46Speaker 3: be thinking about culture in our practices because that, coupled
- 42:53Speaker 3: with this career path is going to be what's going
- 42:57Speaker 3: to help us keep team members and a really believe
- 43:00Speaker 3: that culture is not just something that you write on
- 43:04Speaker 3: a wall, or you hang up in the bathroom or whatnot.
- 43:08Speaker 3: Culture is behavior. It's what happens when things go wrong
- 43:14Speaker 3: in your practice and how your team chooses to deal
- 43:19Speaker 3: with it. When a patient's upset, how does the team
- 43:23Speaker 3: react to each other? How does the team react to
- 43:25Speaker 3: that patient? When a schedule falls apart, how does the
- 43:29Speaker 3: team react to each other? How does the team act
- 43:33Speaker 3: to whoever may be part of what's making that schedule
- 43:37Speaker 3: fall apart? When a team is stressed, how do they react?
- 43:42Speaker 3: Are they reactive? Are they taking it and stride and
- 43:45Speaker 3: saying tomorrow will be a better day. Because when we
- 43:49Speaker 3: can kind of have an understanding of this and understand
- 43:55Speaker 3: that culture is behavior. When we can understand that behavior,
- 43:59Speaker 3: that's really when the two come together and we really
- 44:02Speaker 3: see that culture show up. I think it's really interesting
- 44:08Speaker 3: when we think about that psychological safety in high performing teams.
- 44:14Speaker 3: What we know is that when a team feels safe,
- 44:18Speaker 3: there's a huge factor or connector in team performance. And
- 44:23Speaker 3: when employees feel safe to speak up, they're able to
- 44:26Speaker 3: solve problems faster. When they feel afraid to speak up,
- 44:29Speaker 3: a lot of time mistakes stay hidden and that can
- 44:32Speaker 3: really impact And I'm sure many of you have seen
- 44:35Speaker 3: this or experience this in your practice. Patient experience and
- 44:39Speaker 3: team morale. And right now, what is it all about?
- 44:42Speaker 3: What makes our practices different? It's the experience that patients
- 44:47Speaker 3: have when they walk into our practice. We're all really
- 44:50Speaker 3: good at the clinical component of it, I'm going to say,
- 44:53Speaker 3: but what is that differentiator? It's that patient experience. How
- 44:58Speaker 3: do they feel when they walk into your practice? How
- 45:01Speaker 3: do they feel when they interact with your team? Do
- 45:04Speaker 3: they walk in and they are like, ooh, people are
- 45:07Speaker 3: upset today? Or do they walk in and it just
- 45:10Speaker 3: feels like they're at home, and this is a place
- 45:12Speaker 3: that they want to be able to send their friends
- 45:14Speaker 3: and family into. So Google many years ago did a
- 45:19Speaker 3: little project called Aristotle, and I'll talk a little bit
- 45:23Speaker 3: more about this, but one of the things that in
- 45:26Speaker 3: this project that they did, in this study that they
- 45:28Speaker 3: did over a couple of years, is they found that
- 45:31Speaker 3: the psychological safety was the number one predictor in team effectiveness.
- 45:37Speaker 3: And when we are looking at our practices and we're
- 45:42Speaker 3: thinking about how effective our teams are, depending upon where
- 45:48Speaker 3: you're at in your growth cycle is going to really
- 45:51Speaker 3: make a big difference. So the main findings out of
- 45:55Speaker 3: this study, and it was done between twenty twelve and
- 45:59Speaker 3: twenty fourteen, and you can go look it up. They
- 46:01Speaker 3: put it out their findings officially in twenty sixteen is
- 46:06Speaker 3: they did this study over one hundred and eighty teams
- 46:11Speaker 3: internally within Google.
- 46:13Speaker 2: And what they found is.
- 46:15Speaker 3: After processing all of the data and over the study
- 46:18Speaker 3: over all these years, is that teams performed better when
- 46:23Speaker 3: their team members felt safe to speak openly, ask questions,
- 46:30Speaker 3: admit mistakes, and challenge ideas. And I think when we
- 46:34Speaker 3: think about that in our own offices and in our
- 46:38Speaker 3: own practices, do our team members have that opportunity to
- 46:43Speaker 3: speak openly, ask questions, admit mistakes, and challenge ideas, because
- 46:49Speaker 3: if they don't, if they are just told you show up,
- 46:52Speaker 3: you do your job, keep your mouth shut, you do
- 46:54Speaker 3: what you need to do. Again, are we going to
- 46:57Speaker 3: keep and have effective team members or be going to
- 47:01Speaker 3: have people that are moving on to the next place
- 47:04Speaker 3: trying to find their tribe? And I think that's really
- 47:07Speaker 3: what we continue to see.
- 47:11Speaker 2: And now a word from the sponsors who make.
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- 48:07Speaker 3: So as we Binischepe, I want to just kind of
- 48:10Speaker 3: do a little recap of what we can do to
- 48:12Speaker 3: give you that last bit of how do we turn
- 48:15Speaker 3: all of these ideas that I've been talking about over
- 48:17Speaker 3: the last hour into action? So where do you start again?
- 48:23Speaker 3: I want you to think about adjusting your pay informally
- 48:28Speaker 3: over time. I want you to think about structured pay ladders,
- 48:33Speaker 3: creating transparency and fairness. And I know the transparency word
- 48:38Speaker 3: is really a scary thing to think about, and I've
- 48:41Speaker 3: had to do this with a lot of offices. When
- 48:43Speaker 3: we're like, we're going to be candid about what somebody
- 48:46Speaker 3: can make and when it comes down to skill level,
- 48:50Speaker 3: every other you know, you think about orthodonics as a
- 48:53Speaker 3: whole is a trade. Nobody except for the doctor, goes
- 48:57Speaker 3: to school to become somebody who works in an orthodonic office. Now, yes,
- 49:02Speaker 3: there are programs for orthodonic assistance in some states, but
- 49:06Speaker 3: when you think about it, our orthodonic profession outside of
- 49:11Speaker 3: our doctors and our practices is a trade. And so
- 49:16Speaker 3: like any trade, the more skills you have, they're transparent
- 49:20Speaker 3: about the amount of money you can make. I believe
- 49:24Speaker 3: should be transparent and fair with team members and get
- 49:29Speaker 3: away from how long you've worked here deterribines how much
- 49:32Speaker 3: you make in an office. So if employees should be
- 49:36Speaker 3: able to understand how growth connects to compensation, and that
- 49:40Speaker 3: growth is not longevity of time, but growth and skill set,
- 49:45Speaker 3: growth in their person, growth in their contributions to the practice.
- 49:50Speaker 3: The next thing is simplify your bonus systems. Remember, if
- 49:54Speaker 3: a team cannot explain how the bonus works, it's probably
- 49:58Speaker 3: too complicated. Creates motivation and again I'm just going to
- 50:03Speaker 3: say this, always have a start in a stop time.
- 50:06Speaker 3: If and when you're going to do bonus systems, it's
- 50:09Speaker 3: not forever, pick it and stick it. Step number three,
- 50:13Speaker 3: create those career pathways, career ladders, transform jobs into professions.
- 50:20Speaker 3: We want to give our employees something to work towards. Again,
- 50:25Speaker 3: going off with the assistant and maybe it's assistant working
- 50:28Speaker 3: to senior assistant working to lead assistant. Whatever it is,
- 50:31Speaker 3: and it doesn't matter if you've got a small practice
- 50:34Speaker 3: or a large practice. Every core role in your practice
- 50:38Speaker 3: can have a career path ladder. You just need to
- 50:41Speaker 3: break it out, think about it, figure out where it goes.
- 50:46Speaker 3: Step number four invest in development. I'm going to say
- 50:49Speaker 3: this again. When you invest in your team's development, something
- 50:53Speaker 3: really powerful, I promise you is going to happen. Those
- 50:57Speaker 3: team members are going to begin to see their role
- 50:59Speaker 3: as a professional journey, not just employment. That's what we're
- 51:05Speaker 3: trying to switch is we don't want team members that
- 51:08Speaker 3: just see their role with you as an employment role.
- 51:12Speaker 3: We want them to see it as a professional journey
- 51:15Speaker 3: into a career in orthodonics. Have a career conversation. Again,
- 51:22Speaker 3: this question alone can shift someone's mindset. It shows that you,
- 51:27Speaker 3: as the doctor, see them as somebody with potential instead
- 51:31Speaker 3: of just how you doing, see you tomorrow? How you doing?
- 51:35Speaker 3: See you tomorrow? How you doing see you tomorrow? That
- 51:37Speaker 3: very very generic banter that goes on so much in
- 51:40Speaker 3: our practices. And then the next one, the shift that
- 51:44Speaker 3: I think practices must make is we need to get
- 51:47Speaker 3: rid of that old mindset and we really need to
- 51:51Speaker 3: be thinking about this new mindset. Our orthodonic profession is
- 51:57Speaker 3: an incredible profession. I was one of those team members
- 52:02Speaker 3: that you may have on your team. I started as
- 52:06Speaker 3: an orthodonic sterilization assistant and I made this my profession
- 52:11Speaker 3: and made my way into being able to have the
- 52:14Speaker 3: opportunity to be a consultant that is able to coach
- 52:18Speaker 3: with hundreds of different practices across the United States. And
- 52:22Speaker 3: I truly believe this, when we as practice and practice
- 52:25Speaker 3: owners create environments where people want to grow, the results
- 52:29Speaker 3: will be remarkable and we will be able to change
- 52:33Speaker 3: this tide where we have team members that are just
- 52:36Speaker 3: constantly hopping from one job to another, but it takes
- 52:40Speaker 3: us showing them that there is a career path in orthodonics.
- 52:46Speaker 3: So I want to leave you with this one thought
- 52:50Speaker 3: as we finish up. If you worked in your practice,
- 52:55Speaker 3: would you see a future there. I think that this
- 52:58Speaker 3: is really important and heavy and we need to sit
- 53:01Speaker 3: with that as leaders because if this answer often reveals
- 53:06Speaker 3: exactly where improvement is needed. So I hope that this
- 53:10Speaker 3: gave you something to think about. If you want some
- 53:13Speaker 3: help or direction on setting some of these career ladder paths,
- 53:18Speaker 3: or just need to talk a little bit, You're always
- 53:20Speaker 3: welcome to reach out to me and my team, and
- 53:22Speaker 3: we're happy to help. Are you ready to start a
- 53:27Speaker 3: practice of your own, need a new, fresh set of
- 53:30Speaker 3: eyes or some advice on your existing practice.
- 53:33Speaker 2: If so, reach out to.
- 53:34Speaker 1: Me Jill Allen at www dot practice results dot com.
- 53:39Speaker 1: If you like what we're doing here on Haydocks and
- 53:42Speaker 1: want to hear more of this awesome content, be here
- 53:44Speaker 1: and give us a five star rating on your preferred
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- 53:51Speaker 1: miss an episode. Remember, new episodes drop every Thursday.
- 53:56Speaker 2: See you next week.