Did you know: Positive employees are 31% more productive and show higher sales and creativity? That’s why Kiera is talking all about positivity! She shares tips for how to encourage those higher cortisol levels among team members and patients.
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Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and welcome. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I hope you're having a great day. I hope that you realize that we are so lucky to live in the profession that we do that honestly dentistry is just this life-changing profession and I'm really grateful to be here. I'm grateful you're a part of our podcast family. As you guys know, the Dental A Team podcast was created to positively impact and inspire you in the greatest way possible. Our mission is to be in the hands of every single dental practice owner and office manager out there. So please do us a favor.
leave us a review, share this with somebody today. It really helps us stay at the top and to truly impact, inspire in the greatest way possible. If you're to the podcast, welcome, I'm Kiera Dent. I'm obsessed with all things dentistry. And you can always go to our website, TheDentalATeam.com and you can click our podcast and you can search if you need help with billing, associate scheduling, leadership mindset, you name it, it's all tagged there for you. So it can be a great resource for you of lots of inspiration, lots of motivation.
and it's something I'm very proud of that we've created. I'm proud and grateful for all of you being here. So today I think is very, very on cue for what we do and it's positive mindsets and how it really is, I think, ? an advantage that most people underestimate. having that positive mindset really can set you apart from other people. It can help you ? just really have a team that's positive.
And I think that it's a currency. Positivity and negativity are both available. And it's just which one are we going to have? Which one's gonna run our practice? And so ? there really is research that talks about positivity and how high performing owners use it as a strategic advantage that we're gonna dig into today. So I just am excited to go into this. I really like have been giddy about this because I think it's just an advantage that most people don't realize. And I think it's something that is a trained habit, but also something that really is very doable. And I think...
Shoot, if I could eat a bowl of checks every morning and I would get this huge strategic advantage in my practice, would I do it? Probably yes. If I could just have a more positive outlook on life, literally I'm talking like a one or 2 % better and I can have a strategic impact on my practice, why not try it? So looking at this, positive employees, here's some research for you guys, positivity drives performance. So they say positive employees are 31 % more productive and show higher sales and creativity.
So if we look at this, and that's from Sean Anchor, it was a Harvard research on positive psychology performance. I was looking at this when I was prepping for this podcast and I thought like, okay, so if we know that positive team members are 31 % more productive, okay, great. And then next to it is teams operating in a positive environment have stronger engagement and lower burnout. So we don't want to have team turnover. So right there, and the brain literally performs better when it is not operating from stress.
Okay, well, fascinating. Like if I look at this and I think about, okay, a Harvard researcher did this, like, why not? So it's, it's a, it's a matter of it. And Sean Acker was like, ? author of the, gosh, of the happiness advantage. And like, I mean, they say this, it's really truly something that's going to make your life that much better. And so.
I read a lot of books on positivity, a lot of books on how to be more positive, a lot of things of what can we do to enhance this? And I think it's like, it's crazy that when we look at this like 31 % more productive and the happiness and the joy felt while striving toward potential, which required training the brain to find opportunities. So when it talked about on happiness and success, it says when we are happy, when our mindset and mood are positive, we are smarter, more motivated and thus more successful.
happiness is the center and success revolves around it. Happiness is not the belief that we don't need to change, it's realization that we can. It's hard to find happiness after success if the goalposts of success keep changing. Note that. So if we're constantly moving it, it's very hard to find that happiness and the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy is a positive and engaged brain. Fascinating. So I was thinking about this and I was like, all right, so if we know this,
What can we do to add that? So number one, we know it's going to drive it. So you think about this, like we can even change our morning huddles to what were wins from yesterday. We start to look and find the positivity, the wins, the happiness within our world. And we start to share that every day. My team, they've been pushing me. I've had a few people say, like, can we change it? Morning huddles. And I'm a hard no, because Monday's a motivation. We all get connected as a team. Tuesday's tip Tuesday, where we all share some of the best things.
We are not a together team, so we have no water cooler talk. We're not sitting in the break room like, my gosh, I love this lip gloss, or have you tried this recipe? We don't get that. So tip Tuesday is when we do that. Wednesday's core value shout out, and we shout out team members who are emulating a core value and doing really, really well at it. Thursday's thankful Thursday, we say what we're thankful for in our life, and Friday's fun Friday. And what I found is, and then after that, we go through that, we do it, and then we talk about client wins and wins as a company. Every single day, my team knows this.
I do this intentionally because I know that focusing on the good, we create more good. Focusing on the bad, we're gonna create more bad. So then what we go from there is emotional states are contagious, whether you realize it or not. So if you're always grumpy, you're always down in the dumps, it's contagious. If you're always positive, you're always looking for the glass half full, that's contagious too. And I think when we, I've seen a lot of teams that are one or the other and the positive teams,
help each other out, they work harder together, they hit goals easier. There is this rallying versus a dragging. And so when we look at it, ? there's actually some emotional studies by a Yale professor where it was like, your mood is an operational infrastructure. And when we looked at that, thought about like calm leadership lowers cortisol levels across groups and improves collaboration. If we know this, how can we as leaders have an emotional state that's contagious? And I think some of the pieces that you have are
going to the gym, reading, like I have a calendar, it's actually being held under the mic. was like, where is it? It's right here. It says, today is the day and every day is a positive quote. And it sits here on my desk every single day because I want to infuse myself with good things. I was noticing that I was very negative and it's because I was always talking about what are the problems? Like as CEOs, we're always looking down the line as OMS is like, we've got an issue with this, we've got an issue with this. Like what's going well?
What are the good things in our company? What things can we really focus on and say like, this is great. Because the more we have that, the more we talk about wins. So honestly, our morning huddle is where I focus on the wins and the positivity of the company. We do it at the same thing in our company. have it Mondays, we start out with our personal wins and our professional wins every single Monday. Cause I want people thinking of how great their personal life is and how great their professional life is. So what else can we do?
? I read a lot of the positivity books. I listen to a lot of great podcasts. I do meditations that get my mind in the right space. So I can show up as a leader that has an emotional state that's very contagious. It's very fluid and it's very there for people. So I think when offices start to realize that you are the emotional currency in your practice, when you are contagious, if you've got team members, gosh, like it's so hard when I got...
I don't know, just an E or on the team. I'm like, all right, we gotta change this because it's dragging the whole ship down. And for me, I know we'll be higher performing. I know we're gonna get our goals with more ease if we have that positivity. So I think like, perfect. How can we look to see, how can we bring that energy up? And even for my lower energy people, I tell them like, people are like, Kiera, that's just not my natural state. And I'm like, great, well, we're on stage. So it becomes your natural state.
I don't care who you are at home. I do care how you are on stage and that's the stage of our dental office. When you're patient facing, when you're interacting with team members, we have a culture of positivity. We have a culture of teamwork. We have a culture of fun. And I expect that. And then the next piece is going to be something, ? I got a really cool one that I'm excited about where gratitude is one of the highest ROI leaderships. ? It's very scientifically backed.
where gratitude does improve your psychological well-being. It increases optimism, it strengthens relationships, and it reduces stress. And that was pulled from another Harvard Health and UC Davis study. And there was a great human that I got really excited about. I shared it with our mastermind team. And I'll share just a little bit about it. There's a guy named John O'Leary. And if you guys haven't watched his documentary, he's got a movie out.
burned his entire body and like lost his hands and just had some really incredible people that helped him out throughout his life. one of his quotes he said is, and I mean, this is a man who has whole body's burned. doesn't even have his hands anymore. Like I just, can't even imagine what that mental game would be. He said the number one joy indicator, the one thing that will predict whether someone feels joy in their life or not is the practice of gratitude. And
we did an exercise with our mastermind group and I just think about it of like, okay, so if gratitude is one of my highest ROI leadership habits, how can I start incorporating that more? Could it be that every day I list 10 things I'm grateful for and not just like health, time, like I am grateful for my incredible body that serves me every day. I am grateful for a loving spouse that makes like me truly feel like the luckiest girl in the entire world. I'm grateful for
by parents both being alive. I'm grateful for my team that shows up for me every single day. Doing that, writing 10 of those, three of those every day. Do you think that's gonna change your outlook? It truly is true. ? What we focus on, we achieve. What we focus on, we create more of. And so this is where it's a space of if you start focusing on the gratitude, you're going to grow more of it. More positivity will show up in your world.
And ways that you can like infuse this into your team is like text a team member at the end of the day or tell them in the practice. had a doctor literally have an alarm on their phone and they had like eight little pebbles in their pocket and they like take one out and figure out the name of it. I'm not joking. And they would just tell that one team member every single day, something specific that they were grateful for them for. How do you that's going to change your perspective of your team? Office managers, doctors, it's going to make it like team morale is going to go up. They're going to feel seen and noticed. Loyalty is going to get deeper.
and efforts are going to get increased. Like the number one thing I wanted as a dental assistant was for my doctor to tell me I did a great job that day. That's it. I just want the gold star. Wouldn't be told that was awesome. I will also say as a leader, I write a Friday five every Friday. I've been doing this. I think since 2021, I haven't ran it every week. I've had a few helpers throughout a couple of time. Um, but I refer in the bulk of these and I will also say me focusing on team members, great strengths, rather than me focusing on the things that they're doing wrong.
also makes me appreciate my team a lot more. So it's also a gift for myself to highlight them. So I think for you to look at that. And then the last piece is honestly, when teams feel this positivity, they're going to feel safe speaking up. They're going to tell you problems earlier. They're going to have ownership of like, I messed up on that. like creativity, innovation, team morale is all going to rise. And Google's multi-year project Aristotle,
found psychological safety was the number one predictor of team success. I'm gonna say that again. So Google's multi-year project Aristotle found psychological safety was the number one predictor of team success. like positive is not about being like this endless cheerleader. It's about creating an environment where people can perform without fear. And I've thought about this a lot of like...
My husband works at the hospital and it's a no fault hospital. So that way people who make mistakes, like things are going to happen. They're going to make errors. But instead of them attacking the person, they hear what happened. So people speak up and they're not afraid of losing their jobs and they fix the problem and the protocol. And so it's not like who messes up. It's what broke in the system and let's fix that. Blame's no longer there. Solutions are increasing and leaders are going to emerge because people are not afraid. And that's going to truly like
enhance your practice. So when we look at this, research literally is telling us that positivity is actually going to make you 31 % more productive. So that's amazing. We also figured out that like, when we looked through this and the points that I brought up where we know it's gonna increase our performance, we also know that like our emotional state and where we're showing up is going to be contagious. Gratitude is the number, is one of the highest ROI leadership traits.
And psychological safety is the foundation of high performing teams. So what could we do? We can open up our meetings with wins or gratitude like we do in our team. We can recognize progress daily, like have a thermometer, tell people thank you. We can make sure that we as leaders are emotionally regulated. We can make sure that it's a psychologically safe place where people are not blamed. It's more the issue of the problem, not the person. And then we also like look for catching people doing right. Have a shout out jar in your practice where people literally highlight.
great teamwork or that's what we do with core value shout out, highlight people doing good things, you produce more of that. And I will say that this is something that is not built on just like fluff and puff. It's not built overnight. I told everybody when I was doing Friday five and I've got clients that do it now with me, it's a slow burn, but it's something that I think is so worth it. ? So when we look at this, just a couple of like fun research that I had.
? Just to kind of wrap today's podcast, it says having a positive outlook doesn't mean you never feel negative emotions such as sadness or anger says Dr. Barbara L. Fredrickson, a psychologist and expert on emotional wellness at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. All emotions, whether positive or negative, are adaptive in the right circumstances. The key seems to be finding a balance between the two, she says. Positive emotions expand our awareness and open us up to new ideas so we can grow and add to our toolkit for survival.
People need negative emotions to move through difficult situations or respond to them appropriately in the short term. Negative emotions can get us into trouble though if they're based on too much rumination about the past or excessive worry about the future and they're not really related to what's happening in the here and now. People who are emotionally well experts say have fewer negative emotions and are able to bounce back from difficulties faster. The quality is called resilience. Another sign of emotional wellness is being able to hold onto positive emotions longer and appreciate the good times.
Developing a sense of meaning and purpose in life and focusing on what's important to you also contributes to emotional wellness. Research has found a link between an upbeat mental state and improved health, including lower blood pressure, reduced risk for heart disease, healthier weight, better blood sugar levels, and longer life. But many studies can't determine whether positive emotions lead to better health, if being healthy causes positive emotions, or if other factors are involved. So when I look at this, yes, Dental A Team's mission is to positively impact the world in the greatest way possible.
you have research and data to show that this makes it you're going to have a healthier life. Like they say, is it the chicken or the egg? Is it because I'm positive I go like workout and I have that or is like, no, this is actually creating better health for it. Who knows? But regardless, seeing the glass is half full, training myself to look for the good, living in the good moments more than worrying about the bad moments. That's trained behavior and it's something all of us are capable of doing. And so if you need help, I am obsessed with
Like I got a text the other day and they just said, Kiera, like you truly bring so much positivity to you when you coach us, you help us see the good at what we're doing. And my thought is if we can do that for your team, we can do that for doctors. Gosh, like your practice, your life, personally and professionally, your team are all going to flourish and benefit from that. Like do yourself the gift and the service of having a bit more positivity. And I believe that your, your net worth is due to your network. And so who are the people you surround yourself with?
Are they positive influences or are you guys like all going out after work and talking maybe not as positively? And again, you gotta have a negative emotions. there's a point. It's just which one am I feeding more and which one do I focus on more? And who am I surrounding myself with? And I will tell you our Dr. Mastermind group, I mentioned John O'Leary and we talked about him and our mastermind, ? but being surrounded by like-minded people, people that want to be better, people that want to give back, people that have great teams, people that help share.
It's a give take community. You got to give and you got to take from this community. And it's not a one size fits all. I think for everybody to just realize that they're all here to contribute, they're all here to take, and they're all like-minded. Surrounding yourself with that really can be the fastest, easiest way to create more positivity. And then it influences in. And I hate being like, let me teach you doctors how to be this way. But then you have to like go and rally your team. That's why we work with doctors and teams. So if that's beneficial for you, if that's helpful for you.
Reach out, you guys, life's too short. You deserve to have a happy, positive life. You deserve to have a happy, positive team. And 31%, you guys, that is so great. So let us help you out. Reach out, Hello@TheDentalATeam.com or click on book a link or book a call on our website, TheDentalATeam.com And truly, thank you for sharing this. Thank you for being a part of our journey. Thank you for being a part of my life. I'm so insanely grateful. ? Your success truly is the highlight of my life, the highlight of our team's life.
We love seeing you have the best life you can ever have. So let us help you on that journey. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.