Episode : #1,197: The CEO Dentist Playbook: Lead a Practice That Can Grow Without You

Podcast Description

Being a CEO dentist doesn’t have to mean fewer patients. It means leading your business as intentionally as you are clinically. Kiera gives specific tips on how you, as a dental practice owner, can shift your mindset so you’re operating like a CEO and your practice is humming.

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Transcript:

Kiera (00:00)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today we’re just gonna kind of like jump right into it. I hope it’s an amazing day over there. And I hope, as you’re listening, today this is going out to our dentist owners. and I think that a lot of dentists actually own a practice, but very few of them actually run it like a CEO. Is that fair? Would you agree? Would you not? what do you think? What do you think about that? Do you feel like that is

And the way you’ll know if you’re running it like a CEO or if you’re just being owned by it is do you feel trapped in your business or do you feel in control of your business? And I think I want to just kick this off because there are times, and I will tell you, once you hit one or the other, that’s not forever. That state is not a forever state. So just because you might be there today doesn’t mean you’ll forever be there. So if you’re trapped, great news, you won’t always be there. If you’re if you’re feeling in control, great, you’re not always going to be there either. But

The goal is like being a CEO dentist doesn’t mean that you’re actually having to see fewer patients. It’s about leading your business as intentionally as you are clinically. And being the leader of that, being the person who actually is setting the tone and being a CEO. And I think when I started my business, I didn’t know what a CEO was. I did not know the difference between like owning a business and managing a business. Like I just thought you worked in it. but I think when I started looking at if I left tomorrow for two months, excluding your dentistry.

Could my team function? Could my practice continue to grow? Do I have systems? Do I have processes? Do I have things in place to where I could do that? If the answer is no, then great, you’re still managing your practice. If it is yes, then great, you’re sipping into that CEO role. Does your team have the playbooks? Do they have that? And so today I just kind of want to dig into like a CEO Dentist playbook of like, how can you lead a practice that grows without you? I will say this is tricky. Like you still need to be the CEO, you still need to have a vision, but I think it’s a lot of pieces will be on mindset shifts that we’re able to have.

what you can possibly do differently. And then like what are some habits that you can do to grow to have growth, profitability, and freedom. Now again, this is if you want to. You don’t I also think some people get into this weird black and white. Like if it’s this, it’s that, or if I don’t do this or I do do that. I hate when I say do do. Guys, you just heard it come through. but I hate when you don’t have to have it just be black and white. All right. You don’t have to have it where it’s all or nothing. There can be an and

You can be a great clinician and be a CEO. You can be a CEO and you can still be in your practice. You can step out of your practice. We just want to make sure that you are not just being a clinician. And if you want to, that’s fine. But just make sure we have a CEO of your business. So know thyself and be free, I think is where it is. and if you want to look and think and lead like a CEO, these might be some great tips for you of some mindset shifts and what we what we should go through to help.

The CEO Dentist focus on where your focus should be, what things you can prioritize. So even if today it feels impossible, at least you have a roadmap of how to get there. So number one, as a CEO, you own the vision, not every task. And I think that’s a bold statement. Own the vision, not every task. Your job is not to do everything, your job is to create the direction. And this feels weird to me. This especially like dental assistant turned CEO. That’s a weird shift. So you better believe I was the girl who did everything.

My job is to look 10 steps ahead of my doctor. I’m supposed to be on point. I’m supposed to be doing these pieces. To have now an assistant who I’m like, hey, I need you looking 10 steps ahead of me. Where am I at? Like what things are coming down the line? That’s weird. It’s a weird shift for me. and but just helping you see like your job as a CEO is to own the vision. And most of the time you walk out of meetings without tasks. Now, if you are having tasks, that’s okay, but make sure that they’re truly CEO tasks that only you can do. And usually they tie to vision.

Profit culture. That’s pretty much, and sometimes it will be like leading edge of a new initiative. So if you’re wanting to build out a surgery center in your business, you’re probably gonna be doing that right alongside with it, with your with your office manager. So what it looks like when it’s broken and you are not owning the vision, and every task is coming to you is team constantly asks you what to do. You priorities are changing weekly, doctors making every decision or a lot of the decisions, like what toys are we buying for the toy box?

when should we schedule lunch? When should we have this person in? That means like you’re still doing a lot of this, you’re still managing your business, you’re not leading and guiding it. So, like what a CEO dentist would do is you set a clear vision. This is where we’re headed, this is where we’re going. You have the priorities, this is what’s happening in the next three months, and then you communicate what success looks like. So you see how there’s a shift. The daily tasks are still getting done. You can still oversee them. You still have a manager who you meet with.

But you’re not the one doing this. You’re not stamping off on that. And I will tell you, it’s a really awkward, it’s really weird, but it’s very freeing. And ultimately what it does is it also like we’re doing a mastermind talking about Dan Martell’s buy back your time. And that one we’ve got to just make sure we figure it out. And we like when you buy back your time, I look at my tasks and I think if I can have anybody do this task for less than four X what my hourly rate is, I need to do it.

And I need to push myself into my own comfort zone. And I need to be working on things that I can’t also like right now. The projects I’m working on, like I can I can do my own confirmation calls, I could book my own travel, like I could stamp off on where team members are going and PTO and like lots of people can do that. What people can’t do in our company is figure out where the next level of Dental A Team is going. And I that’s my job. That’s what I’m paid to do. That is literally Kiera’s job. I still podcast with you guys, I still hang out, like.

Other people can podcast, these are things that I really enjoy. But I’ve simplified it down. I only block this much time in my calendar. So I have much more of my time that’s dedicated to building our company. No one else is doing that. I’m literally the only person that does it. So for you to go from solving daily problems to leading the quarterly planning, leading team priorities, having the team become proactive and less dependent on you. So that would be what success looks like. So that’s building a leadership team. We love to do this. We help build leadership teams. We help you to run your quarterly meetings and

Set up those rocks and teach the team how they’re able to drive and influence rather than being dependent on the doctor. You’re still there. You still get to help them. You still get to influence them. You still get to mentor them. Those pieces are going to be great for you. So what happens here is teams actually need you to be the lighthouse. And my team told me this. They said, Kiera, I know you want to be in the weeds with us, but we actually need you to be the lighthouse of like where the heck are we going? Because none of us can see that. And without your guidance and your direction, we’re all going to be lost. And like

I like shirk over here. To me, that sometimes doesn’t feel as good because I can’t check a check mark. And I know that sounds so ridiculous. And I think that sometimes this is why people do sit in the day-to-day manager rather than into the visionary CEO seat because the day-to-day tasks feel good. Having the like I’m just gonna call myself out. This is speaking to Kiera. I’m having an intervention with myself over here. This is where I am wanting to be important.

me stamping off on things makes me feel like I have control. Me telling a team what to do, there’s so many people that report to me. That’s a freaking ego. My team does not need that. Do you know how many great leaders and managers I have in my team? They do not need me. I do not need to be stamping off on everything. Now, do we have a maturing team right now? Absolutely. Do we have a lot of like I feel like we shook the snow globe based on where we’re headed? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean it’s a forever seat for me. It’s a temporary, it’s an interim, and I know that they know that. So it’s sitting there just in the interim.

and so what I would do for this is help your team feel empowered, where we can we move you to what are the three goals for the practice? What are the quarterly plans? Who’s responsible, not the dentist? And then questions that come to a doctor. I want you to truly start asking, like, is this something only I can do? And if so, solve it. And if not, start delegating and having empowering your team to do it. This will help you. This is going to have it. So

That’s CEO shift number one. Number two, I would say know your numbers that drive your business. and this I’ve talked about, I’ve harped on, there’s so many podcasts on this. I just want you to know your performance. So you’ve got to look at your numbers before things feel wrong. You need to know numbers beyond production, and you need to make decisions on those numbers always. You gotta be looking at your KPI scorecard, your overhead, your PL. And every single month minimum, you are looking at like be the CFO. Like,

A CEO works with a CFO, and until you’re large enough, you need to know these numbers forward and backwards. Your office manager should be preparing them, you should be looking at them, but you have got to know the numbers of your business. I’m not saying you need to be the one who preps all the reports, but you have to know what’s going on. So that way you’re able to see, are we making money? Are we not making money? And I think so many dentists get into this hustle and bustle of like, I’m just gonna go produce, produce, produce. And I’m like, Do you realize that if you just spent a little bit of that production time on looking at your numbers, you would actually be able to know.

rather than guess. You would be able to work less and create more. And so I just really think for you to start shifting. So number one is you got to set the vision and the culture and you got to have your team do it. You set the priorities, you define that where we’re going and you communicate what success looks like. You’re not solving every decision. Next step is you’re using your numbers to make every single decision and you’re having a monthly meeting on numbers. Money monthly meeting there you go money monthly meeting and you know what it is.

You know your numbers today, forward and backward. You know what your overhead is. You know where we’re spending more, you know where we’re spending less. You know what your profit margins are, and you know what you need to produce to cover all your expenses, including paying yourself. You need to review that every single month at a minimum. Set it up with your CPA, force yourself. Like that’s what I do. I have a meeting with my CPA. I don’t really need to talk to them, but that’s Kiera’s time where it forces me to look at the numbers, to review where I’m at, to make sure that I’m making decisions based on that. And then the third thing is going from an operator to an owner.

Is you’ve got to have leaders and systems so there’s less dependency on you. so if we lucked again, I think about myself like if I were to leave, what things are gonna break in two months? That’s where we start with those systems and that scalability. and what am I going to put into play? What am I going to do? What is going to happen? Like, where is this going to get resolved? And we start having those systems and those people built into those leadership spots.

So I really want to make sure that you guys have that of this is where it’s the systems, the structure and the scalability. And I think the Dental A Team does such a good job of this. Like we know the systems to put into place for you. Like they’re very basic, they’re very minimal. Most things can get resolved. We have decision trees that are in there. We help your leaders look at the numbers so they know how to make the decisions too while you’re gone. And this way it continues to grow and there’s no more dependency upon you. You can truly step away. So

If you have this, I think that oftentimes doctors and office managers are firefighters and it’s like, my gosh, care, I’m so exhausted and everything’s coming to me. And it’s like, okay, great, we’re gonna make a list of everything coming to you. We’re gonna chunk those into like what categories do they fit into. Then from there, we’re gonna figure out who should be the owner of this, what protocols need to go into place, and what systems could reduce this. That way, when you go, then what we typically do is we recommend that you do actually schedule like a two-week, like start there.

vacation where you’re going to be gone and the practice is still going to operate. And we want to just see what breaks. We’re going to do the same thing for our office manager because we want to be able to make sure that this practice can truly start to function without you. Now, again, I get to a spot and I’m like, I’m on this path and I want to be the CEO of it, and I don’t want to be there every day where I have to be there. And then I actually like achieve it. And I’m like, my gosh, who is Kiera? What is it like? What is my life if this doesn’t happen? And what’s

What’s my own like what’s my purpose? And I think this is where a lot of people get trapped in the cycle of your purpose is not to be doing tasks. Your purpose, like they still need you to set the vision. It’s not something I can ever stamp off and say, I’ve done this, this, and this. I can’t stamp a check mark on a vision. I can’t step a check mark on a culture. Those things are almost like these soft skills, like they’re they’re soft. Like I can say I have a vision, I can say I have a mission statement. I can say we have a great culture. I do check, check, check.

But ultimately they’re intangibles. They’re things that people feel. They’re things that people experience. And honestly, when I get to a point where I’m like, wow, the business can run without me. Sometimes I go in and I create chaos because I want to be needed. And I want to just caution you that as you’re going to this, whiplashing a team can actually be so detrimental to them. Sending them on, like, I want to be here. But then you come in and you undercut everybody. This is me talking to myself. I’m sure none of you do this. So sorry, Dental A Team.

I do it. And it’s I have to recognize that that’s ego. That’s not serving anybody, including myself. It’s not serving my team. So if I have great leaders, which I do, I’ve got an amazing leadership team. But if I constantly go in and I’m answering questions in Slack and I’ll calm myself out on this of like, that was wrong. That’s not my place to overstep. And I need to connect in with the leader. you can have the best of intentions, but if you’re not willing to let leaders grow, you’re not willing to truly want to be the CEO, don’t

Preach it unless you actually are going to execute on it. You can have sluts like small setbacks, but you need to own it. You need to call yourself out and you need to move forward and your team needs to be able to trust you and have confidence with you. These are pieces that are non-negotiable for me. You have to check yourself and recognize that there’s an ego that’s chirping in the background, that’s chirping. It’s loud, it’s annoying. It wants you to do all these things, but that doesn’t mean that that’s right. It doesn’t mean that you should do that. It means that you have a chirpy ego that needs to zip it and you need to be the CEO.

You need to trust your leaders. 80% of them doing it is better than 100% of you doing it. So when you look at this for this, what are kind of the steps of you owning the vision, not every single task, you knowing the numbers of your business and making decisions based on that? And then making sure you’re truly building leaders and systems that reduce dependency on you and you truly are stepping into that CEO seat, you’re trusting and empowering your leaders to do it. They can do it. Develop the leaders, create accountability and build systems for consistency. And if you struggle there,

Reach out. That’s what we’re good at. We do this. We help you build the fundamentals for you. Get the vision in place. Teach you what your job description is. Call you out when you’re stepping in your lane that you’re not supposed to be in and say, get over there. They’ve got this. They can handle it. Teach your leaders how to run effective meetings, how to hold accountability lines. This is what it is. Your goal is not to be the busiest person in the practice. Your goal is to be the leader that helps your practice thrive and truly helps them and gets out of their freaking way.

I’m thinking about a doctor right now, and this doctor says they want to be the CEO. They say they’re not growing. They’re at the office all the time. And I’m like, you’ve got a leadership team, but you get in their way. You want the chaos. You don’t get out of there. You live in this chaos day in, day out. That’s your emotional home, and you go there because it’s comfortable for you. You have to start doing things differently if you want a different life. So this is a call out to all of you. If you really want to be the CEO of your practice, you’ve got to own that step out and get out of their way and get your

chirpy ego to zip their lips. You’ve got to change how you lead. You’ve got to change how you’re working. You’ve got to change the priorities you’re doing. It’s awkward. It’s uncomfortable. I’ve surely sat in bed a few times and cried and been like, my team doesn’t even need me. And then I like wipe my tears and I get up and I’m like, you will never say that again and you’re going to move forward because they do need you. They just don’t need you to do every task for them. I’m not an operator. I’m an owner of this business. My job is to lead.

To guide, to mentor, and to be the one who is sharp and to create the space, to give me the space to dream, to figure out the next layer, to read the books, to move into the next evolution of growth. That’s my job. No one else is doing that. And that’s your job as well. So if you feel like your practice can’t function without you, maybe it’s time to step into the CEO role and like let’s be more intentional and let’s get them to be able to function without you. Next level of growth is gonna come from changing how you lead, not how hard you work. So.

If you’re ready to change, reach out. [email protected]. Come to webinars or whatever it is, but make the change now. Commit to that. And your CEO role can look very different. But ultimately, the goal is to not be the busiest person, but to be the person who guides, leads, and gets out of their way and empowers your team to do this without you. Set the vacation, set the deadline, and let’s make it happen. This is what we do. We help you guys. So reach out. [email protected]. Commit to being the CEO of your practice. You can do it. I know you can. I’ve been able to evolve.

It’s an evolution. This is why we have our mastermind in person. So doctors can talk to each other. They can share their woes. We can talk as CEOs together. We can talk about the things we’re doing. We can call each other out because we see it in each other. Come be a part of that. Don’t do this alone. It’s really hard to do on your own. Come be a part of it. I’d love to have you be a part of it. [email protected] And as always, thanks for listening. I’ll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.