For the CEOs out there, how are you planning out your weeks to keep your business humming for the short and long terms? Kiera talks about what it means to plan and delegate as the leader of your company, as well as three tips that CEOs of multi-million-dollar practices live by when it comes to success.
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Transcript:
Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:01)
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera, and I hope you are having an awesome day today. I hope that you're loving your life. I hope that you remember that we just are so lucky to live this life, that we are so lucky to work in dentistry, that we get to have our life calling. I am just so excited to podcast with you. I am coming in off the road. You guys know that when I've been on the road, it's a great time. I love seeing offices in person. I love working with teams. I love seeing how very simple.
pieces can actually help out a practice. And it was really, really fun. So I'm just excited. I'm I'm lit up and I hope you are too. So today I wanted to go through just a fun ? I realize a lot of people listening and a lot of our clients and even myself included, a lot of what we're trying to accomplish as business owners is how do we become the CEO of our business and how do we block that CEO time and how do we actually work on the business? Like everybody says like you got to work on the business and not in the business. And I just get annoyed with that. I'm like, okay, but great. Like
Tell me what that actually means. Tell me what I'm supposed to do. And so today I wanted to break it into very much a what exactly does that mean? How do I actually do it myself as a CEO? Giving you guys some tips of what do you do on Sundays or when you block your time? How do you set up your week for success? So I think a lot of time it's ? there was I think it's like if you fail to plan, you set yourself up for failure, something like that. Like there's a quote, I'm sure I could have done a better job on that.
But it's so many times people come in and they feel like they're just very reactive instead of proactive. And early in my career, there was a great client of mine who was like, Kiera, do you know how I prep for coaching calls? And I was like, How? He's like, I go to a coffee shop, I spend 30 minutes preparing for a call, I sit there, I ponder, I make sure that I'm very intentional. He's Do you know how sometimes you feel like you come into calls? Mind you guys, this is like Kiera, like two weeks into owning her own business. And I was like, He's like, You feel like you just rush to the call and ?
At that time he wasn't wrong. And it was a really great thing for me to recognize and I think about that often of what are we doing with our weeks as CEOs? Are we running into them haphazardly, not even prepared? Or are we like the client was where we take the time to plan, to prepare, to see what we can actually delegate to our team, to other team members on it, or are we just in reactive mode? I think it's more the how proactive are we versus how roactive are we. So I want to just walk you guys through specifically what I personally do, things that have worked well for my success, things that have worked well for clients that we work with.
To hopefully give you just some good tips of how you can set yourself up as a CEO and maybe start doing things a little bit differently. Like they say, success leaves clues. So let's give everybody clues and tools and different things that we all can do together. So that's what I wanted to do. ? and also just realizing like you genuinely don't find time to work on your business. You don't find time to be a great leader. You don't find time for this. You have to create and make that time. So ? one thing that I noticed is like,
we're going to work on how to stop reacting and be a bit more proactive. So I think when I look at it, you're trying to be a doctor, a manager, HR, scheduler, problem solver, like just answering all the problems and you're trying to do it in real time rather than sitting there focusing. And I will say when I look down the line, I can tell when I've been proactive and I can also tell when I've been very reactive. So I just wanted to kind of give you like three tips how specifically I do it, what I do, and what I've seen other offices do and other doctors do that are very successful. And like I said,
The my elite practices who are the multi-millions, who have multi-offices, who have their lives where it feels like they just have it together, these are things that they all do too. Now, how you do it, when you do it, that's gonna be up to you. But all of us do a lot of the same things. So ? number one for me, I block my time on Sundays. So you can do it whenever. I do not like having the Sunday scaries. I don't like walking into my week. I also don't like to plan on Fridays. So whatever it is, I'm usually downright tired on Friday. And so
that's not usually my best day. So for me, it's on Sunday. So it takes me about I usually plan 30 minutes to an hour, is how long it takes. ? and I still have a physical planner. So, however, it's gonna work well for you. But I like to see physical space. I'm a very visual person, and so I like to see my physical space. So I actually walk through and I go through my entire week. I map out exactly what is there, what's on the calendar, and I I go out four weeks. So I'm looking ahead to see.
What things are on the books, what meetings do I have? You could be looking at your production. So you could be looking to see what do you have coming up? What projects are coming up? What pieces are coming up. ? like right now, mid-year, I'm looking at my taxes. So I'm looking in the different buckets of from as a CEO in the business, like what's my profitability, what's my culture, where are we headed? It's about to be mid-year. So I'm looking to see what what pieces do I need to get done there. I'm also looking for me, I've got podcasting, I've got meetings, I've got
Bookkeepers. I've got different people that I'm meeting with. And so where is that at? And I always am looking four weeks out. Now, office managers should also be doing this as well. So this is for doctors and OMs. What do I have coming? Like what's coming up on the schedule? What are the team challenges? I'm looking to see what team things need to get done. What projects are we doing? What initiatives are we rolling for this week, for the next week, and the following? What I found is when I'm on a four week run, I'm able to catch things, I'm able to ha better utilize my time.
I'm able to see like, gosh, we've got vacations coming up. Do we need to do more production right now? So I really, I personally, Kiera Dent loves looking four weeks out. So looking to see where it is. ? and then I look at this week. So by looking four weeks out, I'm able to say like, where am I maybe put in meetings that I don't need to be a part of? ? where am I missing? What team members are going to be out? What things do I need to proactively plan for? So I'm really looking and like overseeing a lot of those scheduling pieces. Now managers should be doing this as well, looking to see.
Do we have our schedules covered? Do we have different pieces? For me, I'm looking to see who can I delegate, who on my leadership teams in and out, consultants being on the road for you when our associates out. And I think when we proactively can look at this, we can look at our production. We can look at where am I working on the business? What big projects and initiatives do I want to get done? So for me, I just noticed that where it's at. I really do think doctors who are looking at their production a week out, two weeks out, three weeks out, four weeks out, you're going to be a lot more proactive and
I know a lot of dentists get into the rut of just kind of being robotic. Like we go and we do our exams. When you're constantly looking at your week, what is my production? What's my dollar per hour? How am I looking? What were my cases? Reviewing my cases last week, which closed, which didn't close, looking at my PL, looking at my numbers, looking at my meeting with my office manager, what things are on my plate that I could delegate to my office manager. I'm always looking. I also have a list of things that I write down. you can have it as a a digital version or you can have it as a paper version. I technically do both.
? but really looking to see what is my game plan. So that way when I walk in on Monday, it's very much prepared. I also am planning my leadership meetings. What things does my leadership team need to have in place? What do my consultants need to have in place? ? what do I need to be relaying to our COO and our CFO and what things do I need to have them working on as the CEO? Like at the end of the day, the CEO, we are orchestrating. Yes, we do have a lot of people that work for us and with us. ? but I'm orchestrating of
Who do I need? What meetings do I need to have? Where do I need to make sure that I'm running these pieces? So maybe you're looking at what do I need to get my lead hygienist to be working on? What things if my dental assistants could take over would help me out? How are our supplies? What are our budgets? This isn't saying you're managing the practice. And I hope that you're hearing of you're looking at to me, I feel like I'm kind of doing an inventory. It's almost like I'm going to go grocery shopping. Like what's the inventory of my business? Where are things and what do I need to have the different departments do? Because if I can proactively just
get people working on one or two projects throughout the week that don't rely on me, we're able to make a lot of movement and momentum. And I've actually found my friend and I, really, really successful CEO. We were talking about that. And he said, Kiera, could your business sustain without you being there for a month? And I thought about it and I was like, actually yes. Like I'm very proud of our team. I'm very proud of what we built. They could last a month without me being here. I've tried it, I've tested it, I know for a fact they can, I know they could go for longer than a month. But he said, but will they grow without you there?
And I've thought about that a lot. And so for me, when I'm taking my CEO time and I'm blocking my week, it's I believe we're almost like the wind in the sails. Our team is the boat. Our team is the sails. You as a CEO need to be the wind. So how are we going to grow? How can we work through our team and not have everything sitting on our shoulders? I'm very, very cognitive of what meetings am I in, what what projects are being assigned to me, what projects are assigned out there, what things have I not followed up on.
Who do I need to follow up on to make sure things are moving? And I will say it just it takes that load ? off of my brain and allows me to really be present and to step into Monday in that week very confident, but also not just the week. We're looking at the month. And so we're always in this proactive piece. So really looking at the financials, looking at the business acumen, looking at what my OM should be doing, and then who can I delegate to? So the next piece to this is once I have it all mapped, once I've looked at it, once I've removed it.
Then I'm gonna be delegating. So I literally have a list of here's all the items Kiera has on her. Are these things really for me? Or who's better at that, who's more equipped, and who actually has the time to do it? So I will delegate out projects or tasks. Or if I know I have a big project coming up, so maybe we're working on operations manual, or maybe you're working on an Invisalign promo, or maybe you're working on ? getting your hygiene period protocol written.
Are there people that can help you with this project that are just as good, if not better than you, that you could delegate out tasks to them? So I'm I'm really thinking in it's not even project management. It's more like, okay, I need to get these projects done. Who has time? Who's available to do this? And also whose responsibility is this? If Kiera's not the only one who can do it as a CEO, it doesn't sit on my plate. I'm going to pass it to somebody else. If it truly is only something me as a CEO can do, and that's not out of pride, ego, or things that I like.
I need to delegate it and make sure it's followed up with. So I look at my personal assistant, I look at my EA, what things can they take on? I look at our marketing team, our sales team, our rev team, our CRO, our CFO, our COO. Which ones of those can take these projects on? Who do I need to follow up with? So like truly, you delegate out to the team around you and you make sure that you're utilizing each of them. And so ? I really think it's just a valuable thing. I think it sets you up for success. I know it sets you up for success.
And it's also working through your team. ? we've been talking about this a lot in our leadership meetings and on our leadership team of how do you work, like how do you get everything done? And I think there's different types of leaders. There's those who want to just do it all themselves, and then there's those who work through their team. And working through your team is delegation, it's elevation, it's not abdication. It is really working through your team, meaning all of us are working together, all of us are getting the projects done. One person's not carrying the weight, and the rest of us are just sitting there.
on the boat alongside them, but we are working through the team. And this is how you prevent burnout. This is how we prevent having things stack up. This is how you're able to again be that like wind that pushes through the sales. So how do I work through my team? Because there's always a lot more that needs to be done that can't get done. How do I look at my systems? How do I review different pieces? I got to scratch those itches like maybe our finances aren't as tight. Maybe our billing's not as tight. Like let me look through this. It doesn't mean I need to do a deep dive. I can delegate and say, hey Sarah, I'm curious about our EOBs.
Can you take a look through the last three months and give me an assessment of where we're at? Like should take you about an hour. Do you have time to do that this week? I'd love that. And I'd love a report back by Friday. Absolutely got you. I make a note of the things I should follow up on as well because I don't like to delegate. I don't like to ask and then not follow up. And that's something that I will say I'm not naturally gifted at and something I have work really hard at. But really, it's a how do I plan my week? How do I work through my team? And then the next piece is when I do delegate, delegate outcomes not.
tasks. I think that this is such a a beautiful, different frame of mind to think of. ? so with a team instead of calling overdue patients, it would be like you own the schedule, ? I need you to call as many unscheduled or recare patients to get it full and to report your progress weekly. That's a different thing. So now it's a it's an outcome of owning the schedule rather than calling undue pay like overdue patients. Instead of working on our AR, it's we need to have our collections at 98%. We need, ?
are over 90 to be less than 15%, ? or like go down the line of one month's worth of of production or and collections. So this way they're able to work on these items, report back to you, and to really have ownership over an outcome rather than a task. ? this year's theme in our company is outcomes over activity. I'm really big on people owning an outcome, driving metrics, ? and being owners over that and to really shine in their own direction. And so for you to
To give that ownership, ownership creates accountability. Delegation really will work when responsibly has a name attached to it. So what are we delegating? ? and look to see what is that task? Does it align, making sure you have a really clear accountability chart too or organizational chart? Who does what in your organization? For me, I pull that out every single week and I'm like, okay, I've got these tasks. Who's the right person in the right seat to do this task and requirement? And who can I give ownership to this? So as we're looking at it, I think it's a
Can I block my week, my month, the next couple of weeks and look at it? Am I looking at my production? Am I looking at my overhead? Am I looking at my profitability? Am I game planning for that? Then am I taking that game plan to leadership? What are the issues that are outstanding? What things still are sitting on my mind that are taking up a mental load? Can I add that to my leadership team's agenda so that way it's off my mental load and it's there and then it's delegated, it's followed up on, it has accountability for it. Truly, like where are the parking lots for your brain? So it doesn't sit there and churn. Like,
I love our leadership meeting where we're able to put these items on there. What about in our hygiene department and our dental assistant department with my OM? Do I have agendas for those? So as I'm going through my week, these items that need to get done and resolved, is there a parking lot so I can relay this information? Do you have the meetings in place for me? I really love like every week. And people are like, you have so many meetings. And ? I'm a proponent of less meetings, but meetings that are very effective. And I do run off the model of traction. So it's an every single week, it's a 90 minute.
leadership meeting and then we do have department meetings and I used to feel like it was so much. ? but when meetings are run and they're run very effectively, which I believe the L10 model is one of the most effective meetings that are always productive as long as you're actually running them, calling out metrics and focusing on the most important things. We parking lot these issues that come up. That way there feels like it's a space for it. For me as a CEO, a lot more could move forward because I'm not having it sit on my brain, sit on my plate. There's a space where things can get delegated and discussed through.
and then having those direct reports, report back and having the follow-through follow-up. I found so many dentists get stuck because I feel like we have this churn in our brain, but there's nowhere to put it. There's no follow back loop from our office manager or management team back to us to say where are things at. So having those set cadence of meetings where I can delegate out, we can report up, we can work through our team, really allows the entire organization to move quicker and faster. There are some departments that might not need a weekly meeting. I found that hygiene.
Once your hygiene department's running and they're hitting their metrics and they're doing a great job, they're usually like once a month. And what they really prefer in hygiene is they're going to want to have trainings in CE and looking at our metrics and seeing how do we work as a department. But really, hygiene oftentimes is a self-sufficient department. Doctors, once month calibration is usually sufficient unless I've got an issue where I'm onboarding a new doctor. ? dental assistant department, depending upon how they are, a lot of times they do need weekly training. ? full team training oftentimes can be once once a month, and that's very effective and efficient.
Doctor and OM meetings every single week, non-negotiable. Leadership meetings every single week, non-negotiable. Those are things that I'm absolutely meeting with. ? those things then can move forward. Billing meeting every single month. So that way you've got places, you've got agendas, you've got set times are set. And then we need to have some type of project management software where you as a CEO know all the projects moving forward have deadlines. They've got people assigned to them so it can loop back to you.
So hopefully that's just helpful for you ? to stop like putting out constant fires, to stop having it churn in the back of your brain to have some structure, to be able to get that leadership structure in place. Because I found that ? if you're trying to be the superhero and do it all, that's where burnout happens. that's where a lot of teams feel less empowered. That's also where you're actually enabling your team to not be there. Like you solving all their problems feels like you're helping them out, but it's actually creating dependency and it's creating burnout on you.
So what should happen is when teams ask questions and they immediately get answers, we gotta have it to where they can solve their own problems. If you as the owner are jumping in to solve patient issues or problems within the practice all the time, you have an empowered and lifted a leadership team. If the office manager is coming to you solving every single problem, like they've got to really be empowered to do this. And so really also teaching our teams to come up with their recommendations. What are three solutions to this problem? what options have you considered? What do you think we should do?
But really start helping your team and expecting them and rolling that culture out so that way as problems evolve and resolve, it's not just sitting on you. So hopefully that was helpful of prepping it on Sunday, how far out I look, what things I'm looking for, what we teach our doctors to do, what we help our leadership teams with our offices do, to really be able to scale, to have stability, to have like consistency. I think that that's one of the greatest things we're looking for is we want this structure, we want scalability, and we want it to be able to have great stewardship over our practices. So
If this is something you're struggling with, if you're like, my gosh, like this is my life, I feel like it's on that constant hamster will loop in the background where I never can let go. I feel like I don't know how to prep. Try it. Try prepping Sunday. Try prepping your week out. Reach out. ? I think a lot of you are great clinicians and you do an amazing job. You have a very creative mind, maybe not a management mind. And so ? I think sometimes that management skill needs to be taught, it needs to be trained, and it needs to be given to you in organization and structure. So reach out. I'd love to help you.
We help create those leadership systems and help build in accountability and help you delegate with confidence and how to help your team elevate to that level because they might not know either. So if you're looking for answers, great news, today's the day. Reach out Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. But I really just encourage and implore each of you to try and whatever it is, if it's a fr Friday for you, if it's a Sunday for you, look down the line, look at your emails, look at your tasks, look to see how you can work through that team.
Look one week out, two weeks out, four weeks out. Look at your production, look at where we're at, look at our billing, look at our collections. Really start to get into the mode of being a CEO. And right now you might be like, I don't even know what to do. Fantastic. Block the time. And I promise you, the more you do it and the consistent you are at it, the more it will start to become a habit, the more you're starting to see things because it's a consistent piece. Get those meetings, get those agendas lined up so you've got a parking lot for those ideas. Really start to build that structure. And I promise you, things will be so much easier for you. As always.
We are here. This is what we do. We're experts at it. So reach out. Hello@TheDentalATeam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team