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Accountability
21 Plays3 months ago
About the Hosts:
Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor are two dynamic dental professionals exploring life post-graduation. Dr. Savanah Craig, a self-professed perfectionist, navigates her career with an intrinsic drive for precision and a passion for growth through mentorship. Dr. Ronnetta Sartor brings a culture of honesty, humility, and accountability to both her practice and her interactions. As enthusiastic practitioners, they are dedicated to learning from each experience, fostering a supportive environment for their teams, and ensuring comprehensive patient care.
Episode Summary:
In this engaging episode of "Beyond Graduation," Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor dive deep into the complexities of owning mistakes and embracing the learning opportunities they present, especially within the field of dentistry. This conversation offers a window into the challenges and growth experiences that come with dental practice and personal development.
In the spirit of authenticity, Dr. Sartor shares her approach to owning mistakes, recognizing them as essential learning moments for both herself and her dental team. She highlights the impact of vulnerability and accountability in building a supportive team culture. Dr. Craig candidly discusses the difficulty of confronting her own mistakes, stemming from her perfectionist tendencies, but also acknowledges the significance of growth through these experiences. Together, they stress the importance of setting patient expectations, understanding the transience of dental work, and communicating effectively for better outcomes.
Key Takeaways:
- Owning up to mistakes is vital for personal growth and building trust within a dental team.
- It's crucial to set realistic expectations with patients regarding the permanence of dental work.
- Maintaining professional humility helps humanize dental practitioners and fosters a culture of mutual learning.
- Effective communication with both team members and patients is key to successfully navigating setbacks.
- Treating others the way they need to be approached and leveraging their strengths can lead to a more harmonious and effective clinical environment.
Connect with Ronnetta Sartor: @dr_sartor
Connect with FutureDentists: @futuredentists
Connect with Future Dentists Beyond Graduation: @futuredentistsbeyondgraduation
-books for further reading sponsored by IgniteDDS:
- Dental Residency Guide and Beyond Graduation eBooks: igniteDDS.com/eBooks
Do not miss the full exploration of real-life experiences and professional insights in this episode of "Beyond Graduation." Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor offer invaluable perspectives that resonate with dental professionals at any stage of their career. Stay tuned for more conversations that illuminate the path to excellence in both dentistry and life beyond academia.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Navigating Life Beyond Graduation
00:00:00
Speaker
Join Dr. Savannah Craig and Renetta Sartor as we navigate life beyond graduation. Real conversations about forging our own paths in our early years in our careers.
Owning Mistakes in Medical Careers
00:00:12
Speaker
There's a reason it's called practicing dentistry. All right, so this week's topic is a difficult one. Talking about owning your mistakes or I mean even just things that didn't go the way you had hoped.
00:00:31
Speaker
What thoughts? It's a, it's a great topic. I think it's funny cause you said, yeah, this one's, did you say this one's a hard one? Yeah. So for me, I think this one is an easy one. Ooh. Because I try to lead with honesty and vulnerability. And so with my team and even when I was an associate, if I did something wrong. Yeah.
00:00:54
Speaker
I was the first to say, Hey, I apologize, especially like to my team. I apologize. Um, this is what I did and this is how it could have been better because the way I see it, it's a way for us to learn. And it's a way to show your team that you're human too. And you, you do make mistakes and it's a way for them to also see that you're holding yourself accountable and it helps them to be held accountable when things go wrong as well.
Transparency in Dental Practice
00:01:24
Speaker
from a, cause this is a loaded topic, but from a patient perspective, you know, owning mistakes or I think it's loaded because over time I have learned that just because something did not work from a dental perspective does not mean that it's my mistake. Yeah. It could mean that the dentistry failed. Right.
00:01:55
Speaker
but part of it is figuring out why the dentistry failed and expressing that to the patient. And if it can be something to do that we could do to improve it, explain it to them how we can improve it and make it better for the next time. And I think what makes that easier is a conversation that I like to have with all of my patients when we're talking about doing anything in their mouth, like,
00:02:21
Speaker
You know, I cannot create something that's better than what God gave you, you know? And so, you know, anything that we do in dentistry, you know, even if it's the best quality product, it's going to need some sort of maintenance or possibly a redo in the future. Yeah. Nothing is infinite or gonna last forever. And I think going into it,
00:02:51
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with patients and I mean it's the same thing for like patients that have like medical devices like patients that have knee replacements and pacemakers and that sort of thing all of those things require maintenance and
00:03:06
Speaker
letting patients know that in dentistry things require maintenance too. Just because we take all your teeth out and give you dentures still doesn't mean that you'd never have to see the dentist again. Yeah. You know,
Perfectionism and Growth
00:03:18
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yeah. What's your, what, so tell me why your thought process and your first thought was that owning your mistakes is hard. Um, I think because I,
00:03:31
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I hate the word, but I'm a perfectionist. And so I don't have a hard time admitting that I've made a mistake, but I will beat myself up about it forever. Forever. And so I think just admitting that I make mistakes, period, is not my favorite thing.
00:04:02
Speaker
That's a conversation beyond dentistry. It brings up a great point though. And I think early on I carry that weight so much until now I'm in a place where I just can't. It's like, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I don't think about it. I will think about it.
00:04:28
Speaker
But part of it's got to be, OK, it's time for me to let this go and learn from it. Yeah. And so it's just like failures, like, OK, that didn't work. But if things worked all the time, then we would never learn. Yeah. So it's like, OK, well, what can I learn from it? And part of it for me was like a mentality switch.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yes. Like, okay. I didn't, like yesterday didn't go how I wanted to go, but it allowed me the opportunity to learn from it and grow from it and be better because of it. And if it hadn't happened, then I wouldn't have had those opportunities. Yeah, that's a, that's a good point. I, I think part of it for me is just like,
00:05:26
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I feel so bad for the people that had to be there with me in the learning experience. But I just need to remind myself, no one else is actually thinking about this as much as I'm thinking about this. I think that brings up another great point, though. Because if people are with you along that learning experience, then they're learning as well. And you guys are growing together. Yeah.
00:05:55
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And so that's the beauty in it.
Mentorship and Learning from Others
00:06:00
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That you're not, and it's why we created this podcast, right? Because you're not in it alone. It's the practice of dentistry. Like we're going to learn each day, but if we don't have mistakes or fail, then how do we learn? Yeah. And how do we grow and how do we be better together?
00:06:23
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It's the same thing we say about mentorship, right? Like our mentors tell us all the time, hey, this is what I did wrong. Don't be like me, be better than me, right? But if they hadn't gone through it and we didn't have that insight to be like, okay, well, I've heard this before. Maybe I should, you know, do something a little bit different than, you know, maybe we wouldn't.
00:06:49
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Yeah, those those who came before me made this mistake. Yeah, I think I think it's also an opportunity, like you said, to grow with your team with your, you know,
00:07:05
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I think it's also all about how you present it to the people in your life and, and like you said, humility and honesty. And even when people are, you know, upset that it didn't go the way they wanted it or whatever. I think at the end of the day, if you're more upfront about it and honest about, Hey, I'm upset that this didn't go the way we thought it was going, we were going to go either, but let's, let's make a plan forward. Um, can be hard.
00:07:36
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I think part of it too is like whether you are an owner and associate or you know, wherever you are in your dental career. If from the beginning you let your team know that, hey, I don't have all of the answers. You know, I don't have all the answers and some of this stuff we're going to figure out together and we'll be on a journey together and we'll learn together. I think that creates a space
00:08:06
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of, like you said, humility, and it, it allows for the opportunity for growth.
Overcoming Fear of Failure
00:08:14
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And, you know, I was listening to a Peloton guy, Alex Tucson. Okay. And he was saying how when he was younger, he felt from his upbringing that he was not supposed to fail. Mm hmm.
00:08:35
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And as he got older, he realized that through failing, that was his way of growing and learning and, you know, being better. And because he was scared to fail, he just wouldn't even attempt anything when he was younger. Right. It brings a great point. Like if you are so scared to fail that you don't even attempt it, how do you grow? How do you learn? Yeah.
00:09:08
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Yeah, that's, that's a really good point. And you're not gonna do, you're not going to live to your fullest potential because you were so scared to even try. Right. How do you handle that more with, with patients?
Communication with Patients
00:09:26
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We've talked a lot about your team, but all right. We're both young female doctors and there's some added level of
00:09:39
Speaker
hoops to jump through, I guess would be the best way to. I think a lot of times it starts from whenever we first start talking about what the diagnosis is and treatment options. Okay. I like to, you know, let patients know what their treatment options are. And then within reason,
00:10:05
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you know, I say within reason, meaning not to overwhelm them, but let them know what the risks and benefits are of those treatment options. And so if from day one, you know, they know, okay, well, if you do a bridge versus an implant, you know, these are complications that we could
00:10:28
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possibly foresee, then we've had that discussion. And if things become not what we want it to be, then it's not so much that it was a mistake. Yeah. It's more so, well, we knew that this could have been a complication. Yeah. Um, or we knew that this was a possibility of failure and now this is how we move forward.
00:10:56
Speaker
Yeah. And I think, what do they always say? If you wait till after the fact, it's an excuse. In the beginning, it's informing them after the fact, it's an excuse. Right. And I just try to make a point of...
00:11:14
Speaker
on the front and let them know like even if it's a tooth that you know is borderline like this tooth might need a root canal I try to let them know before we even touch the tooth and say hey look at this image you see where we're starting this is where we're starting
00:11:32
Speaker
And that's the beauty of technology and dentistry. You can take a radiograph, you could take an intro photo, you can take an intro scan, and you know, the same numbers don't lie. Photos don't lie either. Well, sometimes it can be, you know, deeper than what we think, but most of the time it's not more shallow. If anything, it might be worse than what we're anticipating. Yeah.
00:11:57
Speaker
And I think part of it is, you know, fully informing and co-diagnosing with patients too. I think that's pretty important. Like if, you know, you have a photo of what the tooth look like on the screen and the patient asks you, Hey, what's, what's going on with that? How do, how do we fix it? You know, or I think those things help as well. Yeah, that's a good point.
00:12:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think for some reason there's just this idea that dentistry will last forever for some reason. And like you said, just I can't do better than what you started with. And obviously that didn't last either. Right, and I think that goes back to
00:12:51
Speaker
you know, comprehensive and complete care dentistry, right? Looking at the whole body and masculatory system together, right? You know, it's the overall health is the joints.
00:13:08
Speaker
you know, it's the teeth, it's everything else in between and having that conversation with patients as well. You know, if a patient has acid reflux and they also are diabetic and they also are on a lot of medications that causes dry mouth that's gonna complicate treatment in a way that wouldn't if a patient did not have
00:13:35
Speaker
those comorbidities, you know? For sure. Yeah, I think have you, I mean, obviously between associateship, residency, now owner, you've worked with like a lot of different personalities. And have you seen, I don't know, I think sometimes team members can be not used to that honest, humble
00:14:06
Speaker
environment that you're creating, how has that sort of impacted your team environment?
Honesty in Medical Practice Teams
00:14:14
Speaker
The thing is, I think it has helped to humanize me as a doctor because sometimes like, you know,
00:14:27
Speaker
people including our team, they're like, Oh, okay. They're a doctor. They're supposed to have all the answers. Yeah. They're supposed to be the expert, but it, you know, as it applies to patients and teams, sometimes I don't know the answers and I have to go find them to the best of my ability, you know, or I have to contact someone that's stronger than me in the area or who might be an expert in that area. Yeah. And, um, ask them, I think,
00:14:54
Speaker
from a standpoint in terms of building a culture that is a very humble culture and one where we are all striving for better. For me, it's important that if you're a part of this team and the leader of your team is behaving and performing in this way, the same expectations go for you too, because I would not ask you to do something that I'm not willing to do.
00:15:25
Speaker
If I'm coachable and I am holding myself accountable and I'm asking that you guys as my team hold me accountable, then I expect you to be coachable and you to own your mistakes and hold yourself accountable too. And also as a team, we hold each other accountable so that together we can provide the best care and service for our patients.
00:15:55
Speaker
What's your take on it? How would how would you answer that question? No, I think that's you've said it all sort of leading by example. And I
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think actions speak louder than words, which is sort of what you're alluding to as far as building that culture. And I think I've tried to, you know, even though I hate, I wish just everything was exactly how it should be, but that's literally not dentistry.
00:16:29
Speaker
I think by sort of spinning it as a positive of like when my colleagues at work who have been practicing longer than me will be like, hey, you know, maybe consider putting your treatment plan in this order or, you know, giving me little tips and tricks and sometimes my team will be like,
00:16:51
Speaker
not shocked, but just like concerned that that could be upsetting to me. And I'm like, no, no, no, like this is a positive experience. I'm here for mentorship and to grow. And so I think them seeing me get, like you said, be coachable has now allowed them to know when I come to them with something like, Hey, next time could we do it this way? It's not me like being nitpicky or talking down to them. It's
00:17:18
Speaker
making it a positive of we're just trying to make this a better experience for the patient, for all of us, and make it run more efficiently. So I've seen that in some ways of them watching me get feedback or get coached has made them more open to that from me. So that's been cool.
00:17:40
Speaker
this all brings up a good point because I know some offices will do like the disc assessments and personality assessments and from those we all know that we all have different personalities and there are some personalities that are going to be
00:17:57
Speaker
more easier to coach and more easier to hold other people and themselves accountable as opposed to
Understanding Personality Types for Better Communication
00:18:06
Speaker
others. I know you've done some of those assessments. What's your take on that and how it applies to like owning your mistakes and accountability? Yeah, I think I like knowing my own personality type. I'm not super good yet at
00:18:27
Speaker
understanding other people's in the way I need to communicate with them. The whole treat others as you want to be treated, but it's more treat others how they want to be treated. I tend to give them information in the way that I want to receive information. And so I've been trying to work on that of understanding more what they need from me and how they need me to deliver it than
00:18:58
Speaker
pulling more from their strengths than my strengths. And I think that's a real challenge because people are all very different. I think that's, you know, that's a great perspective and a great note to end it on, like at the end of the day, owning our mistakes and being held accountable. The most important part of that is communicating effectively. Yeah. In a way that whoever you're talking to, whether it's your team or
00:19:27
Speaker
your patients actually hear you and understand and acknowledge what's being said. Yeah, yeah. Checking in to make sure that the communication is landing effectively. Thank you guys so much for listening to this week's episode. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Beyond Graduation. If you enjoyed this week's episode,
00:19:54
Speaker
Be sure to share it with a friend. Connect with us on social media at Savannah Craig DDS and at Dr. Underscore Sartor. And remember, you are not alone on this journey. This episode was sponsored by the Dental Residency Guide and the Beyond Graduation eBooks. These eBooks can be found at IgniteDDS.com slash eBooks. Thank you so much for listening to Beyond Graduation brought to you by Ignite DDS and Future Dentists.