There are roles in a practice people are meant to have, and there are those that’ll suck the soul right out of someone. Tiff and Kristy go into how to match team members to where they’ll operate best (and where they want to be), what to do when there aren’t any “right” seats available for your right person, how to know the right seat from the get-go, and more.
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Transcript:
The Dental A Team (00:01)
Hello Dental A Team listeners. I am here with you today. My name is Tiffanie. For those of you who don't know me, I never introduce myself. That's kind of weird. I maybe should. I introduce you guys, I never introduce myself. So I know we have some new listeners here, because I know we've some new subscribers. If you are new here with us, thank you so much. We love the support, and we really truly are here to give the world of dentistry as much as we possibly can. So keep listening. Go back through the archives. There's a million podcasts that you can listen to.
There's a ton of free resources on our website as well, TheDentalATeam.com. And gosh, we have webinars, we have all kinds of stuff. We have Summit coming up. I don't know if this is released before or after Summit, so we'll see. If you weren't there, sign up for the next time. If it hasn't happened yet, sign up for this time. Go head to our website, TheDentalATeam.com. There's links all over the place there. Or reach out to us, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. We'll get you more information. So for those of you who are new here,
I'm Tiffanie. For those of you who have been here for a long time and you're like, who is this chick? I'm Tiffanie. I am a consultant here with the Dental A Team and I have Ms. Kristy here with me today as well. She is a stellar consultant here with us. She has years and years of amazing experience within consulting, office management, billing, treatment coordinating, all the pieces the list goes on, as well as some other fun facts that we won't like dive into today.
? but she has some other really cool jobs she's held within her lifetime as well. So Kristy, welcome. I appreciate you being here today. How are you?
The Dental A Team (01:31)
Good, thank you. It's always a good day when we get to podcast and help our clients out through our podcast tip and hearing the results when they comment and how we've been able to help. So it's always fun to dig in and tackle another topic with you.
The Dental A Team (01:48)
I agree. I agree and I thank you for that. can say, gosh, Kiera had this awesome idea. Kiera, our CEO and our founder, she does a lot of the podcasts here. If you're new, you'll hear her a ton. She had this amazing idea. Gosh, I should know how old this podcast is, but I do not. I have been here the whole time and I do not know how old it is. That's okay. Years and years ago, Kiera came to me with a great idea and her famous line is, Tiff, I have a great idea.
The Dental A Team (01:51)
Peace.
The Dental A Team (02:15)
and I remember her coming to me and she's like, we have to do a podcast. And I was like, oh my God, that sounds amazing. I don't know what that means. I don't know how to do it. I assume you'll figure it out. And she did. we, I just have to say this podcast has turned into something that we never imagined that it would turn into. It has reached so many more people than we ever imagined possible. We did the podcast, we decided we wanted to put it out into the world because we really wanted to expand our reach. truly.
wanted to expand the reach that we had within the community that we had, because we only have our handful of people that we can reach. And we said, there's gotta be more and we wanna give the world of dentistry and businesses alike free information. And we love talking. So this is great. We're just gonna do this. And Kristy, it's just been so cool to watch it morph over the years and become just this incredible tool. And I have to say,
I mean, I'm making this number up. I'm just off the top of my head guessing. If I were to pull the ROI on new clients and even just like new inquiries to Dental A Team, at minimum 90 % come from the podcast and or a referral from a current client. And I just, I wanna say thank you to our community first and foremost and to our team.
whether it's consultants or marketing or admin, like we have an incredible team and our community of people who are clients, past, current, future, community of people who are just listeners. You guys are supporting something that's just reaching so many people. We have Canadian clients. We had someone reach out to us from Australia. Like we've got people listening all over the world and it's just really cool. And Kristy, I wanted to take a moment to recognize that because they just...
One, I think it goes along, it aligns with our topic today. And two, I really want to show massive appreciation and respect for everyone involved in reaching a community that you guys don't even realize you're reaching with. Every subscribe, every listen, every download, it creates more motivation within the podcast world. So we show up more the more you guys share and you guys watch, which means you're promoting
more people to see and hear really valuable information. it's just super cool. And Kristy, today we're talking about, well, we're talking about right seat, right person, which we've talked about before. And more importantly, we're talking about how someone in the wrong seat, right, it can ruin the right person. And I say that this is relatable to that statement because Kiera and I love presenting.
The Dental A Team (04:49)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (05:07)
Like it's a huge passion of ours to get in front of people and share our experiences, share our knowledge, share what we've been through so that somebody doesn't have to take that same route and we can say, do this instead. Like we are so passionate about it and putting us in that seat has exponentially grown Dental A Team. Eve, we know Eve, we love her. I actually made her do a podcast with me.
And if no one has seen that podcast, you should go watch it, subscribe, give a five star review, give her all the praise and all the fame. is one of our behind the scenes marketing people. She is behind the scenes. Most marketers are behind the scenes. They do not like to be in front of the scenes. And Kristy, could you imagine if we took Eve, who's a behind the scenes gal, she's got a ton of energy, you guys. She is...
The Dental A Team (05:56)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (06:00)
a phenomenal human, I love her, I wanna spend every day with her. But making her do the podcast every day, right? It wouldn't work and it would change who she is. Or putting me, and I told you before we started this podcast, I can do billing, I'm great at billing, I hate billing, and it kills my soul. Every second of time that I'm spending entering.
The Dental A Team (06:00)
Thank ?
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (06:26)
an insurance payment and calling on an insurance claim. There are people that were built for it and there are people that were not built for it. And it kills my soul every second I have to spend with it because I want to talk to people. I want to engage and I get stifled. So I say all of that to say, make sure we've got right person, right seat, right people, right seat. So Kristy, what are your thoughts on right people, right seat and all of the information I just decided to throw out everybody?
The Dental A Team (06:52)
Yeah,
I could totally envision Eve and you guys, Tiff's right. She's the person you want in the car with you on a long drive because you're going to laugh and laugh. But I guarantee you if we had her in the wrong seat, she would not be making us laugh. We'd be crying for sure. Yeah, for sure. 100%.
The Dental A Team (07:13)
Yeah, we would. Yeah, with her. We'd be crying with her.
The Dental A Team (07:19)
I think so many times, Tiff, I do see this happen and ? it usually starts with leadership holding them back. They're like, no, they're doing such a great job. I can't move them. I can't put them anywhere else. And truly, like, I understand that from a selfish standpoint, but we're holding back the practice too and that person when we do that. So.
I think if you've been in dentistry or leadership long enough, we've all seen that happen. 100%. Yeah.
The Dental A Team (07:50)
for sure, yeah.
And then we wonder too, like gosh, if later on, right, the person leaves or we just, it's not just right anymore. And we often wonder what if I had moved sooner or what did I miss? What did I do wrong? And that's the space of right person, right seat. When the right, when the person, you have the right person, right person I think is easy.
I think you know when you have a right person or not. You're like, this person, I want to be around this person. I want them working with my patients. I want them working with the rest of the team. They help us thrive. That's the right person. Okay, the right person isn't just the person who knows how to collect money from the patients, but then like talks crap about the team behind their back. That's not the right person, right? Like, yeah, cool. She's collecting money from our patients or I've even seen him. This one kind of sucks. This one's hard.
The Dental A Team (08:28)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (08:46)
I've even seen it, the patients love her. She's phenomenal and my collections is so clean, but she's really mean to all of my team. And she won't actually do the things I ask her to, but my collections is so clean and my patients would maybe leave if she wasn't here. That one's really hard, but you've got to evaluate your right.
The Dental A Team (08:57)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (09:13)
person and is your right person right for something or is your right person right for everything? Right?
The Dental A Team (09:20)
Right?
Well, and I think that's why we always start with identifying the role and the seat. I always joke with everybody, the right person, right seat. I almost think it should be right seat, right person, right? In that order instead of the other, because again, there's a lot of great people, truly great, phenomenal people, but they may not fit the characteristics of that seat, so to speak. And Tiff, I would say,
The Dental A Team (09:26)
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
The Dental A Team (09:48)
Truly getting down to finding the right person, right seat is number one, identifying the seat. But also, I tie it back to how often are you meeting with your team to find out what their desires are? What do they like doing? What do they not like doing? Where do they see themselves in the next year? Because so many times you can uncover things that you didn't even know. Like, heaven forbid one time I had a client where literally, I mean,
whoever finds this, but they found a clinical team member that liked making re-care calls. mean, who likes making re-care calls? Everybody's like, it. And if you have that person and they like doing it, why don't you find a way to let them do it? Because they're going to have great results.
The Dental A Team (10:23)
haha
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I've
actually had that before too where a clinical team member, dental assistant is like, I love making re-care calls. And I'm like, great, we're gonna put you in the lab with a phone and you're gonna make so many re-care calls and you're gonna love it. And she's like, yes, cause she just wants to have a piece of that administrative puzzle, right? For whatever reason, we all wanted to be a teacher at some point in our childhood and we love highlighters, we love pens and we want all the paper and we want all the post-its sticky notes.
The Dental A Team (10:51)
Thank
The Dental A Team (11:04)
give them to them, right? Like, yes, I totally agree. And I agree with the right position. So understanding, I think, what you want out of that position is key because then you're gonna be able to understand the type of person. Now, right person means, right person means they fit your standards, they fit your core values, they fit your why, they fit your team, they fit your goals and your aspirations, and they fit the position. So,
I think the easiest one, it might be just because it's kind of how I operate, the easiest one for me to tag is the billing representative because I can take myself and I've done the positions. I can take myself and I can see it. And I want you guys to hear me. I want you to see me. If you're not driving right now, like watch this, like see who I am and how I'm showing up because that person being stuck behind a computer, head down in spreadsheets and line items and
checks, right? Like that type of a person or like, hey, you owe me money. Like that type of a person might be a different personality that outgoing, like I want to give all my energy to other people. Personality is phenomenal at podcasting, just kidding, but really, it's phenomenal at like, I'd treatment coordinating, right? Or dental assisting. I loved dental assistant. It was my favorite position or
when I was a dental assistant and my office manager said, you know what, she knows all of the patients, she builds a relationship initially, she needs to be at check-in. And I thrived at check-in and I was like, heck yeah. And then all of sudden I'm collecting money at check-in and I'm like, hey guys, let's make your office visit easier. And I'm jumping up and doing limiteds and I'm just coordinating everything from the check-in space because they saw that that could elevate the patient's experience immediately. So was I thriving as an assistant and did I do well? For sure.
but the office manager saw that there was a gap in the relationship that I was filling as an assistant. I had to fill that gap and work double time to get patients back to where we wanted them and then ahead on their patient experience. So I was overcoming the gap that we were seeing at the check-in space by just being double. And it was exhausting. And she saw that. She said, you're doing it, but you're working double. So what if we put you here?
and you do that and we lose that gap. So now we close the gap and your assistants are trained to continue that experience. So that was like both are right seat, but they saw an opportunity where wrong person was in that seat. And that person was more suited for insurance verification. She was shy. She didn't wanna talk to people. She was like, what's your last name? And patients are like, ? hi, I was here yesterday.
You know, and she's like, okay, but she's like stressed. It's like, she's a good person and she suits our team and she helps us thrive, but she's scared, intimidated and overwhelmed at check-in. Can we just move her? We want to keep her. Is there a position suited for that personality? Because what happens is that's the right person, wrong seat. And that's what we're talking about today. How the wrong seat can ruin the right person because she had the personality
The Dental A Team (13:58)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (14:28)
and this is just my experience in my office, she had the personality for our team to be successful with her, but we had her in a position that was like, sometimes I just feel like they're like in a bowl, you know, and they put the lid on it, and that's what she, we were just like closing the lid, and she was just getting smaller, and we needed to move her to a space where she could thrive, and also increase our patient experience. So.
The Dental A Team (14:54)
Mm-hmm.
The Dental A Team (14:56)
Kristy, when you see this with practices, how do you help practices identify, there's not always a move, by the way. There's not always an open position and that's okay too. We have conversations around that. But how do you help offices identify wrong seat? It might even be the right person, but wrong seat. What are some spaces? I know for me, I'm looking at like metrics and are they showing up for work? But how do you help them identify those?
The Dental A Team (15:19)
Yeah.
Yeah. Tiff, I always like to go back to the job description and look at those duties first and foremost, look at the duties and see are the duties being taken care of, but then also add in your core values. And those are kind of duties too. We have to live up to those metrics. And if it's not aligning, then take a step back. Were they aligning before and maybe they're not now, right? Meaning maybe we changed them into something that
wrong person. And so we just need to get it realigned, ? truly starting there and then having the conversation. But here's the thing. also think sometimes we're afraid to have those conversations. And again, I always like to say it instead of having it as a hard conversation, seeing it as a caring conversation, because you truly are probably freeing them.
and letting them go be happy if they're not in the right seat. And you're gonna have a lot more respect for each other by having the hard conversation, right? And like you said, identify is there another seat that that person would be suited for. But then, from that, learn from that experience and take a step back to identify how we could have hired this differently so we don't make that same mistake.
The Dental A Team (16:30)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I love those options. I love that. Yeah, I think some pieces, some spaces that you guys can mull on to know, because I know a lot of doctors are like, I don't know, and I feel like sometimes she's on, sometimes she's off, and it's inconsistent. Inconsistency is a clue, okay? Inconsistency is a massive clue.
The Dental A Team (17:04)
Yeah.
The Dental A Team (17:07)
It could be a clue to overwhelm as well. I think that's where, know, Kristy, like you said, go back to that job description. So are we satisfying and fulfilling the job description? And then are we satisfying and fulfilling more than the job description? And is that because the job description needs to be updated or is it because we need to
is a good question. So overwhelm, inconsistency, underperformance.
And then I would say another space is gonna be, I guess the inconsistency you can apply to a lot of things. So inconsistency in personality, how she or he is showing up. Inconsistency on showing up, are they coming to work, are they late, are they calling out a lot, are they sick a lot, sickness, illness is a symptom of overwhelm. Are they inconsistent in their results? So maybe their results are that,
our hygiene schedule is full to 90 % for the next two weeks. And it's like sometimes it's on, sometimes it's way off and our whole day fell apart and they did nothing about it. But today our whole day fell apart and they did everything about it. So they're inconsistent there. ? Sadness, snippiness, like you're gonna see it in the personality pretty quickly. That's gonna show up pretty easily. And then realistically you guys, I've really.
I guess this is like my woo-woo side, I'll call it. I really think the universe gives us exactly what we've asked for. If we're not hitting our goals and our metrics, our production isn't working, our collections isn't working, all of those spaces, there's a space that something's not working and it could be someone's in the wrong
The Dental A Team (18:47)
I was gonna say too, Tiff, if it's somebody like we talked about Eve, we didn't maybe put a pin in it, but that is normally outgoing and they're withdrawn. That could be a sign too. And truly, like I said, embrace it and have a caring conversation because a lot of times we can find a way to overcome it. And if not, at least you can come up with a plan together that feels right.
to get them to the happiness. And you're gonna have a lot more respect for each other on the other side.
The Dental A Team (19:18)
I totally agree. Yeah, and I say that too about ? wrong people. And if they're the wrong person for you, you're the wrong person for them too. And that's okay. In any relationship,
that's my plug. It goes far outside of dentistry.
The Dental A Team (19:30)
Yeah, it's so true.
The Dental A Team (19:36)
I love that. love that. think action items from here so that you can ensure that
not
doing either of these, we're not ruining someone is what we'll call it, we're not putting people in the wrong seat, is I think following Kristy's lead there is really looking at job descriptions. Are they complete and are they usable? Are the people who are using them, using them correctly? So job descriptions, metrics, get your right person right. Do you know what your right person is and what that needs to look like?
and then do a simple evaluation. Are we hitting the metrics that we're supposed to? Does your team know their metrics
their job description? And do they have the skill set and the capabilities to accomplish them?
The Dental A Team (20:22)
I with you, Tiff. And I think too, ? I always am on the space of extreme ownership. So if there's anything that I could have done better in my onboarding of that person, I mean, I go literally to if their job is to answer the phone, do we just say one of your jobs is to answer the phone? Or do we say one of your jobs is to answer the phone and this is how you do it? We hear the smile, we hear, because again, if it's not matching their personality, it gives them the opportunity to say it right now.
So.
The Dental A Team (20:52)
Totally
agree.
love it. Take these pieces and run with them. Give us a five star review below. Let us know. I think Kristy, you had
incredible ideas today. Thank you so much. I love the job description. It literally starts there. It starts just like Simon's next says, it starts with Y. Your job description is your Y. Your Y and your what. So go get those together. Follow through with your team. Clear as kind. Okay, clear as kind.
The Dental A Team (21:15)
Thanks
The Dental A Team (21:17)
And remember, if it's not good for you, it's not good for them either. So let's figure out what's good, let's figure out what's working and what's not working, and nail those suckers in. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com, leave us a five star review below, hit subscribe, and if you want, download this one so you can listen to it again. I always download them, Kristy, before I get on flights, because I get bored. I'm like, ooh, this is podcasting time, but I don't want to pay for Wi-Fi, so I download a ton of them there. ? And please, like we said earlier, share this with someone you know.
We really wanna make sure we're reaching as many people as we can in the
and business world. So go do amazing things. Thank you so much and we'll catch you next time.