Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Dental A-Team! Kiera encourages listeners to acknowledge and celebrate the people in their lives in real time.
Episode resources:
Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast
Schedule a Practice Assessment
Leave us a review
Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:01)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and Merry Christmas. I hope that you guys are so happy and I don't know, I feel so honored that you're sharing Christmas Day with me. I hope that you unwrapped your packages. I hope that you were able to give amazing gifts. I hope that you were not naughty this year and you were nice. I hope that like, my gosh, like I just wish that I was with you like walking down the stairs to your Christmas morning. I hope that you were with your friends, your family. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope that you woke up today just feeling the special magic.
of this time of year of anticipating our next year. And I just hope that you're surrounded by friends and family and that you just feel love. I hope you feel love for yourself and just Merry Christmas. I am so, I love this time of year. I love this holiday and I did not used to love this holiday. It was my favorite growing up. And then there was a short stint of time where I hated it. Like no Christmas music, no things. I don't even know how that was possible because I was Mrs. Claus.
I worked for United Way of Utah County and I was Mrs. Claus for the year and we did Sub for Santa. And that was a year I realized that there is truly magic in our communities and in us serving each other. And gosh, I just like, I remember growing up like, yes, I loved presents and I love those things, but a lot of times it was just like my family being together and little things. And like in my family, had, when I was really, really little, we had these like dollars. don't know, they were called like.
I to say scholar dollars, but that wasn't right. They were these like little dollars that my mom gave us. And it was like little things that we did that were kind gestures to our siblings, like helping each other out. My family was lawn mowing business. And so we'd help each other with that. And growing up and getting older, I think, well, yes, it's so fun to have gifts for my siblings. The real gift that I look forward to, and I'm sure a lot of you can relate to this is
being with these people, being able to be present with them, being able to share special moments, to be able to share magic with them, that's what makes holidays magical. ? And when I think about like this time of year, giving's not just about gifts, it's about like our presence. So not present, but presence, our impact, and how we're able to like show up for our families and for our teams and our practices. And so when I look at this, I just really think about like,
in the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of giving, in the spirit of that, like leadership and team culture are so important of gifts that you can give your team. And this is what can help you guys thrive. So of course, it's the holidays. I'll make this short and sweet for you ? because I really want you to think about like when we're looking at our families and we're looking at today, being present with our family.
is one of the greatest gifts that we can give them. think of how many times are we scrolling on social media? How many times are we not present? I even think about me and Jason, like we're hanging out together and we are both knee deep in our phones. And I look up and like 45 minutes have passed by and I've been sitting by the person that I absolutely love. And the world is so obnoxiously annoying on asking for our time, asking for our attention. And I think that that's why we get so excited about holidays is we actually have this like
Dedicated shutoff time where we can be with our families and holidays sometimes actually bring out the worst in us I know two Christmases ago It was absolutely one of the worst days and I felt so annoyed because I had to slow down and I couldn't go anywhere and I couldn't call anybody because people with their families and I felt stuck and I felt trapped and I was like this is not a good thing Kiera you clearly are operating at such a high velocity all the time that you slowing down was actually one of your worst days and so I think when I look at like being present in life
I think being present for my team. How many times is my team talking to me and I'm slacking or I'm sending an email off or I'm not fully listening or I'm responding to a text message. I think the world today is craving people being present, of being intentional, of listening, of caring. And I think that that's like when my family gets together, yes, a gift is nice, but the gift of their time and attention is becoming more and more valuable because I think it's so hard to capture that from people. And also I think being present for yourself.
showing up for yourself every single day, having meditation time, having journal time. Like the world can be so loud. Things can be like, we have dinging things, reminders constantly that it's like being present, listening, showing up, engaged, engage with your team. I think about Britt, there's certain times that her and I would just like shoot the breeze and we're just hanging out with each other. And I'm like, those are more meaningful than our meetings. And we're just like trying to rattle things off and get things done.
And so I just think like, if we're giving a gift of presence, not present, how can you as a leader do that? And I think one of the biggest things that doctors can do is to actually be fully attentive in team meetings. ? And for team members to be fully attentive in team meetings, I can't tell you how many times I watched teams and the doctors on their phone, they're not engaged. And I just think like, if you're asking your team to be here and you're asking them to solve problems, but we're not willing to be present,
Gosh, like that's just such a hard ask. And I think as leaders, that is your job to silence them, to be present, to be with the people in front of you and not to be distracted elsewhere. And I say team members to do the same. We've got to also have our minds be there. I could be completely checked out of my phone and Slack, but my mind could be elsewhere. And so how can I be fully attentive in my team meetings when I'm having conversations with people? And I will say like, doctors, this is like, Merry Christmas. Be present for your team.
? I watch often and I see doctors just scrolling on social media, even when I'm there having conversations with them. And I just think if you're willing to do that with me, that you're paying me to be here. ? and that feels icky to me. How do think your team feels when they're coming to you as a leader, as someone that they're looking for, for support. And I just think for your family, the gift of like, even if it's like five seconds, even if you put the phone down, ? even if you just like really commit to be there.
be there. ? Another thing is like to pause during the day like a short connection. ? It doesn't take a lot to be connected to people. It doesn't take a lot for you to just say hello to ask them like genuinely with no agenda, no time construction, not having your phone, not having your watch go off. Like even people is like, my watch like, hmm. Yep. huh. I'm listening. I'm like, you're not listening to me. I literally have my watch to where it will not have text messages come through at all. I use it specifically for a watch. If I need to later, I can have things pop in but
I shut off the notifications because it drives me nuts when I'm in a conversation and I'm having a conversation and they pull up their watch, they pull up their phone like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. No, it's not uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. You're not listening to me. You're not present with me. So I think like today, practice being present with those around you. You might be Kiera who had like one of her worst Christmases a few years ago and it was awful, but I realized this is, I'm out of touch. I'm out of practice. I don't do this often.
And if we can train that muscle, gosh, what a gift it's for yourself, a gift for your team, a gift for your family to truly be present. ? I also think another way for you to do it is to celebrate people in real time. So the reason why this is a gift of presence is because you have to be intentional. You have to be paying attention to them to celebrate them in real time. like look for it, look for when your assistant does like perfect handoffs to you, like.
They're handing the instruments and they're just crushing it. Celebrate that with them. Celebrate when someone closes the case for you. Celebrate when we fill this schedule hole. Celebrate when we like got that claim collected. Celebrate when like doctors, got that perfect endo, like you got all the way to the bottom of that root tip. Celebrate when you did a perfect crown prep. Celebrate and be present in that moment. Celebrate when patients tell you great things. Celebrate when we get an SRP diagnosis and we went from a bloody profie to an SRP and we told them what they really needed. Celebrate when our team
is like giving a great patient experience, celebrate when our team does a tour of the office and highlights how great of a place it is, celebrate when people edify each other, celebrate those little pieces in your life. This is such a fun, easy way, because I really do believe that we're just becoming a society that's not present. We're giving presence, but we're not present. ? We're so distracted trying to be connected that
we're missing the people right in front of us. And I think about that. We have no social media Sundays in our house. And Jason and I are shocked at how many times we like go to the app on that day. And it's just a habit. It's like these habits that have been formed. And so I think like, can you be attentive in team meetings? Can you be just connected at little points, like busy times throughout the day and just pause and connect? Can you connect with your spouse or your kids? Text them, send out little magic moments to them every day. Like,
Tell them how much you love them. I will tell you like, shout out to Jace, he's such an incredible man. He's like my greatest gift in this world. Every day he texts me three reasons he loves me. And ? sometimes I don't read those with intentionality. I just think, Kiera, he sat there and thought about you. The least you can do is just be like so present and say thank you. ? To give that gift to me every single day is beyond magical. To send a little love bomb, you could even do it in the morning. It can be part of your morning routine of like,
I meditate and then I send out magic to somebody and just tell them how much you love them to be present, to be connected to somebody truly connected, to pick up the phone. My brother calls me and I think about how often am I distracted while I'm on the phone with my siblings rather than being present and intentional with them. Jason tells me he'll take five minutes of me being intentional rather than 30 minutes of me being distracted. And I just think like, a gift we can give each other to not just give presents this year.
but give our presence. And on our team meeting, say that like passion, present, results, solutions are four things we say in our company. We want to show up with passion. We want to be present. And that means we show up with the people in front of us, email, Slack, text, phones are closed. And I'm not here to say that we have to be perfect at it, but I am here to say that today of all days, I hope you take time to go be present with your family, present with the people in front of you, and to maybe give a little bit more of that gift of presence to your team this year.
Be attentive in team meetings, be connected during busy times, celebrate the small wins with your team. And I will tell you that, and this means like being at morning huddle, being connected and doctors who do this have higher morale, have stronger retention of teams because they feel cared about. They feel seen, they feel heard, they feel like they're a human. So I'm telling you that's five minutes of your time that you are giving up to get this huge outcome. You're gonna have stronger relationships. You're gonna have better relationships with your kids, better relationships with your spouse, parents, siblings.
aunts, uncles, neighbors, and I think it's a gift to give. And I think it's something for all of us to do. So I would just say like today, give someone your full attention, no phone, no distractions for five minutes. See if you can do it. And then maybe work up to 10 minutes and just try it and just see. And also for yourself, sit there in silence for five minutes. See if you can do it. Sit there for 10 minutes. See if you can start to train yourself that your, your preferred operating system, unlike mine a few years ago,
is to be present rather than to be distracted feeling like I am present. And I would just say that's I think a gift for all of you. And so today is Christmas. I hope that you're celebrating with family. I hope that you love yourself. I hope that you give yourself the gift of presence to be present for yourself, to shut off, to disconnect, connect to yourself, to connect to ? the universe, to God, to your higher self, to the space around you, whatever you believe today that you really truly do.
Give that great gift to yourself and to those that you love, including your team. You guys, we are so blessed to be alive today. We're so blessed to have experiences. I'm so blessed to have all of you in my life, my Dental A Team family. Gosh, I just like want to celebrate you. I want to be there with you. I want to drink, you know, non-alcoholic eggnog with you. I want to be like, cheersing you on the great things you're doing. I want to be present with you. I want to listen to your struggles. I want to listen to your wins.
I want you to be a part of our community. I want to see you the first Tuesday of every single month. I want to meet you in person. I want to be that cheering cheerleader for you. I want you to see what it feels like to have somebody see you, to know you, to recognize you, to love you, to encourage you, to give you a good like push when you need a push to hold you accountable. That's our gift to you. So if that feels good to you, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. I am not working today, but I will be working tomorrow and our team will be there for you.
So reach out. know this is a time where you guys settle down. You are more present. You're not busy with patients. You have time to connect to yourself, to connect to your family. And I think, hey, maybe giving yourself the gift of time to get a team that's trained a little bit better, to get a patient experience that's a little bit better, to help you be a CEO instead of an operator all day long, every single day. It might be the time. You might be able to settle into that and to be present, to give yourself even more time back. be a gift to give yourself. So if that feels right to you, reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com.
I'd love to chat more with you about it. And I hope you just go celebrate with your family. No, I'm like sitting there with you, drinking the eggnog, sitting there, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, hanging out with you at the beach, wherever you are. Just know that I'm giving you a giant hug. You're doing better than you think you are. I adore you. I love you. I'm here with you. You don't have to do this alone. And I'm happy to be the person to guide you. I'm also happy to be your friend on the podcast that walks with you every single day. But just know you're not alone. You're doing better than you think you are.
and I'm willing to give you the presence that you deserve. And I hope that you give that to those that you love as well. And as always, thanks for listening. Go have a magical, merry day, and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.