Dentistry is a Team Sport
Episode #513 with Heather Crockett
You're not just a dentist — you're also the player and the coach for your team! And to help you and your practice be on your A game, Kirk Behrendt brings back Heather Crockett, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, to explain how football relates to a dental practice and the takeaway tips that you can start using today. You can't run your practice alone! To start becoming the best team possible, listen to Episode 513 of The Best Practices Show!
Episode Resources:
Links Mentioned in This Episode:
Traction by Gino Wickman: https://benbellabooks.com/shop/traction
Main Takeaways:
Delegate and elevate. You can't do dentistry alone.
Alignment with your team is essential.
Have countermeasures in place.
Positivity breeds positivity.
Be a confident leader.
Quotes:
“Last night, I went to a football game with my husband, and I was thinking of a couple of my clients and some of the struggles that they’ve recently been having. And some of those struggles come from the fact that they — in my mind, I'm thinking that they're the quarterback, and they're going on the field, and they need their team to come with them, and they need their team. This is a huge deal. They need to have a team around them supporting them as they're going onto the field to play this team sport. They can't do it by themselves. And oftentimes, they carry too many of the things that they need to do with them.” (3:06—3:42) -Heather
“I was just talking to a client this morning about how they could delegate using their digital printer to one of their team members. But sometimes, they're a little bit hesitant to let something like that go or to train their team on it. But they're doing one too many things. We talk about better practice, better life. Part of that better practice, better life is letting go, delegating and elevating to our other team members. And we need to be able to trust our team to take these tasks on, to protect us. Like, as the quarterback, we need the offensive line. We need that center to protect us so that we don't get sacked.” (4:06—4:42) -Heather
“You're going to have plays. You go out, and each team member knows the play when the quarterback calls the play or when the coach calls the play. And so, then, the team knows how to execute that play. They know their role. They know exactly which route to run in that play. Well, if we don't tell our team what those plays are, we don't tell them what our ultimate goal is, they're going to be completely lost. So, when you go to pass, you go to throw, your wide receiver is not going to be there to receive the pass that you just threw because you didn't tell them that game plan to begin with.” (6:35—7:13) Heather
“What makes the game better is when everyone knows the game plan.” (8:21—8:24) -Kirk
“The practice owner has too many things on their plate. They need to delegate that to other team members. And not necessarily does each role have a similar amount of things on their plate. But the more evenly spread the tasks are within the practice, the better things are going to run because we have that expectation, and we have that role.” (8:56—9:23) -Heather
“We could take this in multiple facets. Like our Function Accountability Chart, who’s in charge for each thing, so that when we come off of the field we can say, ‘Oh, we missed that. Quarterback got sacked. What do we need to do to change and improve? Do we need a different offensive lineman to take the center’s job? Do we need to try that for a couple of rounds to see if that is what we need to do?’ Maybe the previous center doesn't quite have what it takes, the “get it, want it, capacity to do it” thing that we get from Traction. Is that person in the wrong role? Oftentimes, we hear of a high school player, ‘I did wide receiver in high school.’ Well, now, in college, they might switch to a completely different role. Their coach might see their potential somewhere else. And we need to do the same thing in a dental practice.” (9:24—10:12) -Heather
“Could you imagine playing on a football team where the offensive coordinator and the head coach do not get along and they are not on the same page? It’s going to confuse every single person. The key of alignment is essential.” (11:17—11:30) -Kirk
“If you're a dentist and you're in a five-doctor practice and you have 75 team members, or whatever, the problem is not your team. The problem is the five leaders at the top. Any crack in daylight between the five blinds everybody else.” (12:00—12:15) -Kirk
“As a coach, you've got to have alignment time. You should never go onto the practice field where you didn't align with the other coaches.” (12:26—12:33) -Kirk
“Don't make dentistry harder than it is. You have a group of people that are on your team. You have to treat them like a team. You have to practice. You have to have a game plan. You've got to have core values that attract the right type of players. You've got to treat it like practice.” (13:29—13:41) -Kirk
“Let's talk about confidence here for a second, because if your quarterback goes out and is unsure, what is the feel of the rest of the team?” (14:14—14:21) -Heather
“You have to go in with all this confidence to say, ‘Look. Yes, we are down by 14 points, and we have five minutes left of the game. But you guys, we can totally do this.’ And is that team going to rally around that quarterback? Absolutely, yes. Or the quarterback can go in and go, ‘Oh. Well, it looks like we lost this game.’ Not okay. So, coming in with that confidence factor, that positivity breeds positivity. So, as you go into the game and the situation, it’s okay to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to call a timeout for a minute. We’re going to get really confident. We’re going to get aligned on the play that we’re going to do, on the game plan, for the next few minutes. And we are going to make this happen together because we can. It’s absolutely possible.’” (14:30—15:17) -Heather
“Confidence is like porcelain. With every layer, it gets stronger.” (15:26—15:30) -Kirk
“You can create a wildly predictable, healthy, awesome practice. What you have to do is you've got to simplify the processes. You've got to think like a team, and you've got to put a game plan together.” (17:28—17:38) -Kirk
“Last night, the game that I went to, our rushing yard, at the half, was negative five. Negative five, rushing yard. So, I'm going to look at that and go, ‘Are you serious right now?’ So, when we go into halftime, we’re going to put countermeasures in place. The coaches, the team, we’re going to say, ‘Holy cow, look at our stats. Our KPI says this. Negative rushing yards.’ Now, as the running back and the quarterback, we have this fire. We are going to make those rushing yards positive again. Not only that, but we’re going to blow it out of the water. By the end of the third quarter, those rushing yards were better than the opposing team. So, countermeasures are anything that we put in place to change a number in a positive way.” (18:08—18:49) -Heather
“A lot of times, your answer, your countermeasure, will be a system. That's what's really cool. It doesn't have to be an effort. It doesn't have to be a new person. It doesn't have to be a new purchase. We just need to tighten up our checklist or our systems. Now, you can accurately diagnose, ‘Where do we need to go?’” (19:13—19:29) -Kirk
“Sports analogies are often my favorite because you see a team come together around a set of values. You get the right people in the right seats. You simplify the game plan. You put in measures and countermeasures. You make the alignment super tight at the top. You practice over and over again. And then, when it comes to the game, that becomes fun. If you’ve ever played a sport, you know how that is. A great week of practice usually translates to a great game. The game becomes the fun part.” (19:38—20:08) -Kirk
“Rely on your team more than you ever have before. Delegate and elevate to them. See them as your peers. They are here for the same amount of ownership that you are. They want to see you and the practice succeed. So, really, really rely on your team in that way.” (20:18—20:37) -Heather
“It’s not always about winning and losing. But I will tell you, winning is a lot more fun than losing. And you can understand that as a dentist.” (21:15—21:22)
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
2:14 Heather’s background.
2:46 Dentistry is a team sport.
3:43 Dentists are doing too much.
5:20 How an “audible” works in a dental practice.
8:46 Relating football to a dental practice.
10:12 How Nick Saban runs spring practice.
10:57 Alignment is essential.
14:12 You need to have confidence.
17:08 Have countermeasures.
20:11 Last thoughts.
Heather Crockett Bio:
Heather Crockett is a Lead Practice Coach who finds joy in not only improving practices but improving the lives of those she coaches as well. With over 20 years of combined experience in assisting, office management, and clinical dental hygiene, her awareness supports many aspects of the practice setting.
Heather received her dental hygiene degree from the Utah College of Dental Hygiene in 2008. Networking in the dental community comes easy to her, and she loves to connect with like-minded colleagues on social media. Heather enjoys both attending and presenting continuing education to expand her knowledge and learn from her friends and colleagues.
She enjoys hanging out with her husband, three sons, and their dog, Moki, scrolling through social media, watching football, and traveling.
