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Managing a Team
30 Plays5 months ago
About the Hosts:
In this insightful conversation, we are joined by Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor. Both guests showcase a wealth of experience in dentistry, set to inspire and educate listeners on navigating the early years of a dental career. Dr. Craig's journey from dental assistant to practicing dentist brings a unique perspective, emphasizing the significance of teamwork within a dental practice. Dr. Sartor brings her recent experience of transitioning from residency to practice ownership, focusing on building a practice culture and team dynamics, and sharing her insights on patient care in a small town setting.
Episode Summary:
In a profession where technical skill is often spotlighted, this episode of "Beyond Graduation" with Dr. Savanah Craig and Dr. Ronnetta Sartor shines a light on the challenging aspect of managing dental teams. The conversation begins with a nod to the complexities inherent in handling the diversity of personalities within a practice.
Dr. Sartor takes us through her journey of transitioning from residency to owning a practice, along with the reshaping of her team. Emphasizing the value of establishing a desirable office culture, she narrates the impact of retaining and hiring team members who share her vision. Dr. Craig contributes her experience as an associate navigating team management, providing insights from her interactions as both a supervisor and an empathetic team member aware of each individual's unique arduous tasks.
Key Takeaways:
- Managing a dental team involves more than just dentistry, requiring the ability to effectively handle diverse personalities and establish a positive practice culture.
- The patient experience is deeply influenced by the team's dynamic and how well team members are treated.
- Effective team management requires transparency, direct communication, and addressing issues promptly to prevent escalation.
- Both Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor emphasize the importance of mutual respect, support, and assuming that everyone on the team is trying their best.
- Leaders in dental practices should seek input from their team on improvements and provide the necessary resources and support to foster a supportive environment.
Connect with Ronnetta Sartor: @dr_sartor
Connect with Savanah Craig @savanahcraigdds
Connect with FutureDentists: @futuredentists
Connect with Future Dentists Beyond Graduation: @futuredentistsbeyondgraduation
Dive into the full depth of the conversation by listening to this episode of "Beyond Graduation". Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor explore the nuances of team management within a dental practice with candidness and valuable takeaways. Stay tuned for more engaging and informative content from these seasoned dentists as they continue to tackle real conversations about life and career beyond graduation.
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Transcript
The Challenges of Managing a Dental Team
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. There's a reason it's called practicing dentistry.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to Beyond Graduation with Dr. Craig and Dr. Sartor. This week we are talking about managing your dental team. This is an extremely great topic because I feel like it's, the dentistry is the easy part most days, but managing personalities can be very complex. Yes, sort of the people piece of, you know,
00:00:44
Speaker
your practice. We talked about the patient piece, but now the other people and your practice, your team. Right. Right. It's just probably the most important people that you're going to interact with because your team and the culture that your team has can make or break your practice. Yeah.
00:01:05
Speaker
You know, you think about you're only one person in the grand scheme of this machine. So your team is, you know, your extension of you in your practice. So, well, you are managing the big, big team over here as a practice out there.
00:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting.
Building a New Practice Culture
00:01:26
Speaker
So, um, as some of you guys may know, about a year ago, I acquired a practice. And so when I acquired the practice, I hired the three pre-existing employees that the previous owner had worked with for many years. And, um,
00:01:46
Speaker
Currently, I have one of the three remaining, and then everyone else on my team are people that I hire being... Which is not uncommon, right? You are for sure.
00:02:00
Speaker
There was no drama or anything like that, but what I will say is that two of the previous doctors team members leaving allowed me to be able to build the culture that I wanted in the office. They all came in and had my vision and not
00:02:25
Speaker
the previous owner's vision in terms of how we see the office moving forward and how we treat each other and how we treat our patients.
00:02:36
Speaker
Do you think your patients have felt that culture shift? To some extent, I think it's more so a shift in terms of personalities because I acquired a practice from an older doctor and we're in a very small town. So I think for the most part, the thing that has remained the same is that he cares and cared for them.
00:03:00
Speaker
you know, like his own family and, you know, I do the same and it's something with our team that we try to foster in every interaction that we have with our patients. I think it's more so the difference is, you know, just new people doing it, you know, new personalities doing it as opposed to the team that the previous owner had and, you know. Interesting.
00:03:24
Speaker
How has your experience of team management changed going from resident to associate to practice owner now?
From Residency to Practice Owner
00:03:34
Speaker
I don't know about you, but in residency, coming out of dental school and not having an assistant.
00:03:41
Speaker
and all, to actually having an assistant was awesome. But very soon in residency, you realize, okay, well, you know, if I want my assistant to kind of know what I need and want from them as an assistant, I have to coach.
00:03:58
Speaker
then we have to work together and I have to be able to lead and so it wasn't a really big change from residency to my associateship that I was in for four years because I just took those same concepts and you would coach
00:04:16
Speaker
the assistance that I had as an associate, but I think all those experiences just helped me to be able to be a better leader now in the office that I'm in, because it's not only am I leading assistants now, I'm also leading hygienists and I'm also leading front desk.
00:04:40
Speaker
people, but I think at the end of the day, as long as you stay true to the core values that you have and you want to foster in your office and with your patient experience, and as long as everyone is on the same page and agree, have agreements that they follow each day,
00:05:05
Speaker
It all works out. What about you? What has been your experience, you know, as a new associate at a residency with team management?
Learning and Leading with Assistants
00:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's been interesting, you know, in residency, the hope was that we like had an assigned assistants that we worked with for several months, but just with team transitions and things like that, it never, you know, worked out that way. We rotated assistants a lot. And I always.
00:05:36
Speaker
you know, I was an assistant for a few years as an oral surgery office, like in summers in college and things like that. So I can empathize with the experience of like, what does each doctor want and need? And so I sort of shied more towards like, I'll just get it. Or, you know, making it, I wasn't so focused on them knowing everything that I want. And over time, like,
00:06:02
Speaker
we got a feel for each other, but it wasn't so strict just because I knew they were working with six, eight, 10 different doctors depending on the week. And so in my associateship, I do have a dedicated team at the two offices that I'm at. However, when I'm not there, they're working with other doctors still. So I try to give them some grace in that,
00:06:31
Speaker
All of us do different things. All of us ask for different instruments. And it's interesting to try to find that balance between, you know, this is what I want and I need and I expect versus, you know, I think you can learn so much from your team too. And they've been doing this far longer than I have.
00:06:52
Speaker
and just being like, oh, what does doctor whoever use and I did that a lot in residency, especially of I was there to learn. So what does, you know, try this instrument, try this force up and see how it goes. But I think the struggle in my associateship has been determining when to
00:07:14
Speaker
When to step in and coach, when to, not demand, that's not the right word, but you know what I mean, have certain, almost like my personal clinical operating procedures for what I expect for certain procedures. And it took time because some days I don't know what I want, you know, so I can't expect.
00:07:36
Speaker
my assistant to read my mind when I don't even know what I'm gonna need until a lot of times I'm like just grab anything and everything we're not gonna open it but I would rather it be in the room with us then and so it's been interesting to see because there have been you know things that I've been very vocal about this is how I want it this is what I need you to help me do these sorts of things and other things that I've just
00:08:04
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you know, I've stayed consistent with but haven't necessarily vocalized it and it's interesting to see the things that they pick up on over time and maybe it's taken a little bit longer than had I come in and been like, this is exactly, you know, my armamentarium for extraction of number six. But I think it also gives them some agency to like, learn how I work. And, you know, I think that sticks a little bit more than like,
00:08:30
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giving verbal direction sometimes.
Resolving Misunderstandings and Building Trust
00:08:33
Speaker
Have you had any situations where there may have been like a misunderstanding or confrontation amongst the team and how have you dealt with or managed that situation?
00:08:49
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Yeah, I think one of the most interesting things coming from, you know, I'm a very new grad, let's put it out there, you know, coming from dental school, residency, it's still so new to me to have an assistant. And in residency, we still, as the residents took on a lot, you know, we were pouring up our own
00:09:14
Speaker
models, we were, you know, writing our own notes, all of those things. And so there's a lot of expectation for my assistants to take control of a lot of things. And a lot of it's stuff that I don't even know that they can or should, should, according to other doctors, be doing for me.
00:09:32
Speaker
So there have been moments where it's just going to be faster, in my opinion, for me to go directly to the front desk and have a conversation rather than tell my assistant and then have my assistant go to the front desk. And we've had some tension about some of my assistants worrying that I don't trust them because I'm not giving them so much responsibility, if that makes sense. And so I've had to have conversations, very frankly,
00:09:58
Speaker
No, it's not that I don't trust you. I'm just not trying to put all of this on you. We're a team. Or in Ohio, we have F does who can fill our fillings for us, which is a very different
00:10:14
Speaker
world than I've ever practiced in before. It's incredible. I love it. My shout out to the F does, you know, they do faster, more beautiful fillings that I can do in it. It's awesome. I love it. But there are times where even just yesterday,
00:10:31
Speaker
I had prepped one patient and my EFTA was filling and I was going in to prep another patient. And it was just a couple occlusal composites. And the time it would have taken for me to get up, go find another EFTA, or wait for my EFTA to finish prep, you know, filling the other patient.
00:10:49
Speaker
We would have all been staying late. And so I just filled the fillings. And my F2K meeting was like, oh my gosh, did you not trust me to fill those fillings? And I was like, no, I am positive. You could do occlusal composites, but I didn't want all of us to stay late. We're a team. You were doing your job in that room.
00:11:07
Speaker
You know what I mean? And if I would have waited for you to come fill those fillings, it would have put all of us behind. And I was already sitting there. I'm capable of doing an occlusal composite. And so it's just been interesting, I think, for them to see me take more responsibility, not more responsibility on myself, but you know, I haven't had the luxury of these other roles for so long. So it's nothing for me to, you know,
00:11:37
Speaker
go pour up a model or you know i just think it's we're all a team and we all need to work together but i think it's taken them a minute to realize that that's not a knock to their character or to their abilities it's just part of teamwork in my in my opinion
00:11:55
Speaker
I think you bring up a great point and it's something that I like and I think it's pretty important in terms of managing a team or just managing relationships with people in general. I like that as soon as your assistant, you know, had those thoughts, you were there to address them so that
00:12:17
Speaker
it didn't have time to fester and become bigger issue.
Encouraging Accountability and Openness
00:12:22
Speaker
And I have found that that's been something that has been really helpful to me, you know, especially as a new practice owner, that as soon as you know,
00:12:35
Speaker
Any type of negative talk or, you know, down talk of emotions amongst the team begins to happen. I'm able to kind of step in and have those conversations so that it doesn't become something bigger that
00:12:54
Speaker
were you know ruins the culture of you know what we've worked so hard to try to build um because you know a lot of times it can that word trust that you said it can take a long time to build trust but with you know very little the trust can be destroyed too so um i think i love what you said about you know being a team player
00:13:21
Speaker
And I think everyone on your team while it's taking them a minute to like get used to it, I think they will 100% appreciate it because by you stepping up and not dictating, you do this and you do that, you're showing them that, okay, we're a team.
00:13:43
Speaker
And I don't think I'm better than you because I'm a doctor. I'm willing to jump in and help so that all of us can get home to our families. Exactly. Exactly. And I think, you know, just reminding them of like, you know, we all have weird days, bad patient interactions.
00:14:05
Speaker
you know, we've all looked at our whoever weird across a patient and you know, I can take those things so personally and just like you said, reminding them, let's nip it in the butt, like come to me. If we've had an interaction or maybe something I said came across, you know, snippy or demanding, like I've really tried to tell my team like, please just come to me and let's address it immediately.
00:14:33
Speaker
And I think that's really helped too. And I try to meet with them at least once a week and be like, all right, these are the things that went really well. These are some things that we need to adjust to. And I've really tried to, like I said, give them grace of like, I know you're working with so many other doctors and I have my own quirks and my own note templates that I stole from residency that are
00:14:58
Speaker
way more detailed than anybody else and you know just I think reminding them that like we're all learning together and as long as we're taking good care of our patients you know it's it's gonna be okay the thing um in addition to that it kind of
00:15:14
Speaker
builds accountability to and I think that's very important in terms of team management. We talk a lot about on my team filters that we might have based on like previous experiences or automatic negative thoughts and we hold each other accountable with making sure that you know and I'll catch myself doing it sometime too like if
00:15:39
Speaker
If I have a negative thought or I say something, I let them call me on it and we call each other on it and we automatically figure out a way to change whatever it is into a positive and just try to do our best to work together. I think at the end of the day, like you said, it just boils down to transparency and honesty and then
00:16:08
Speaker
Everyone just knowing that we're in it together and we're all human, you know, right? Like I'll be the first to let them know. Hey, I know I make mistakes like and I'm very quick to apologize if it's something that I dropped the ball on and The only thing I asked from them is to have that same level of transparency and honesty 100%
00:16:33
Speaker
I think, I don't know, it's been really cool to watch, like I said, things unfold over time. I think the other thing is they see my transparency with my patients too of like, hey, this was an unintended bad outcome or this didn't go the way we thought it would. I set a lot of those expectations up front, but I think
00:16:57
Speaker
You know, I think if they see that I can treat my patients that way, they know that like, basically, I'm seeing everybody as equal humans here and we're all just trying to do our best every single day. And I think that brings up a great point too, because I have had patients comment on how my assistant and I interact or how our front desk coordinators interact with them. And patients, they know.
00:17:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah, they can see everything. Yeah, they can sense toxicity. They can sense when, you know, they know that people in office, you know, team members are treated well and when they aren't. And I think that all goes back to, you know, the culture. For sure. Yeah, I was reading, you know, we love to read here on this podcast. I was reading
00:17:51
Speaker
daring leadership, Brené Brown's book, and one of the core pieces of it is just everyone is, if you assume that everyone is doing the best they can, then if things aren't going the way you want it to, what resources or support or training do they need to get to that versus if you assume people are lazy or, you know,
00:18:19
Speaker
ignoring what you're telling them to do, then that's a very different style of leadership than, okay, I'm assuming everyone is trying their best. What piece am I as the leader missing to give my team the chance to succeed? And I think sometimes that's just respect and trust.
00:18:38
Speaker
That's very important. Every view that or meeting that I have with the team, I always ask them what are things that you guys need from me to make things better for you to make us be able to work.
00:18:58
Speaker
easier and more efficiently. And I think that's pretty important because the same way I'm reviewing their performance, they also have the opportunity to tell me ways that they think I can improve too. And I try to like humbly remind myself that like, you can unplug me from this equation and input another dentist and this team still runs, you know, at a certain extent, but I can't do my job without them.
00:19:25
Speaker
That's a very, very good point. I think that's a good point to end this week's episode on. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Beyond Graduation. If you enjoyed this week's episode, 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.