Episode : #948: The CEO Visionary + OM Implementer
Podcast Description
Kiera gives insight into how CEOs and office managers (or dreamers and task-drivers) can effectively work together to run the ideal dental practice — without stepping on each other’s toes.
Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am so excited to be on the podcast. I’m excited to be podcasting with you. I hope that your new year is rocking and rolling and I hope that you are just enjoying your time working in dental practices because remember, we are so blessed and so lucky to be working in an industry that literally changes lives. I believe that dentistry is the best possible industry for us to be a part of and you get to make people’s literal smiles come true. So as always,
Thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team family. Please be sure that you are always leaving us review, sharing us with other people. That is how you keep us as the top dental podcast out there. And I just want to say for every one of you that has done it, truly thank you. Thank you for sharing this podcast with others. Thank you for being on our journey. And for those of you that are new, welcome. I want you guys to remember we are getting up there on our numbers of podcasts. So we are in the 900s, almost breaking about a thousand episodes.
I cannot believe I have made that many episodes. That’s a lot of episodes. And sometimes it might feel daunting or you might forget that this is a resource in your back pocket. So always head on over to TheDentalATeam.com click on our podcast page and you are able to then go search every episode. So if you have like, wanna know information about cancellations or I wanna know about partnerships or I wanna know about buy-ins or I Kiera talked about Pearl AI, but I can’t remember where that was at.
go search our podcast in any episode that I have ever recorded for you of all those thousands of episodes, because there’ll be more coming, you will literally be able to go find any one of them. So just be sure put that in your resource pocket. A lot of people want to know like, how do get our hygiene? How do we do perio? How do we do fluoride? How do we run effective meetings? How do we run quarterly meetings? Any of those things literally, I want you to think about this as your Google or your AI for you.
It’s all there. There’s a ton of it. have verbiage for you. I have information for you. So be sure that you’re always using those as resources for you because I believe in working smarter, not harder. And I’m always here committed to sharing the top tips and tricks for you. So today I just wanted to dive into a really fun topic that I think is great for you guys. I think it’s something that I get asked a lot. It’s something that I’m excited about and really helping you understand kind of what a CEO visionary
Kiera Dent (02:14.816)
and an office manager, implementer or integrator role should look like and how you can have this in your practice. Because as I’m watching offices and as I’m coaching practices, I’m noticing that dentists, when they start to move into this CEO role, they actually don’t know what the heck they’re supposed to do. It feels very weird. It feels very awkward. It feels like I don’t even know what I’m supposed to be doing. And so giving you guys some tips of what does this relationship even look like? So.
There’s a great book. guys know I’m a huge faction, a huge fan of traction. Merged those together and had faction come out. Huge fan of traction by Gina Wickman. We help a lot of offices, Dental A Team’s version of traction where we actually help you build leadership teams. We help you get quarterly goals in place. We help you with accountability, tracking data, scorecards, write people, write seats. So if that’s something you’re interested, be sure to reach out. [email protected] Super, super, super fun and very effective.
We have a lot of offices that we’ve worked with for years on this and being dental experts, we’re able to help solve a lot of the problems that come up. Whereas some of the other implementers or integrators, they really can’t help with that. So it’s a really fun niche that we’re a part of that I absolutely love. So if you’re interested in that, how do I set up these leadership teams or quarterlies, be sure to reach out. I’d love to help you. But in doing that, Gina Wickman wrote another book called Rocket Fuel. And Rocket Fuel, I think is a really lovely book that kind of splits apart this visionary role.
and this integrator role. And not all CEO doctors are visionaries and not all office managers are integrators. And so really figuring out and dialing in, what does this relationship look like? Like what should a CEO do? What should a doctor do? What should an office manager do? I think this dynamic can actually get really tricky and it can get really hard for people. And you might not know exactly what does this look like and how can we maximize it? And so I just kind of wanted to come on and paint a picture. Now, again, this is a picture that’s painted.
But it’s a, I would say it’s made with markers that you can erase or it’s one of those like, remember the Etch-A-Sketch that you’re able to use like with the sand and you’d like etch it out and then could like shake it up and erase it. That’s what I think that this picture and this dynamic should look like for you where it’s not perfect. It’s not something that you have to do, but this is gonna kind of just give a sketch and an outline of like, what does a visionary do? What does an integrator do? And doctors, a lot of times what I’m seeing is,
Kiera Dent (04:33.43)
you come in and you’ve been a clinician and then you’re like, okay, I’ve mastered my dream. I’ve made this a reality. I have taken it to where I no longer have to do clinical all the time. I’ve hired associates, we’ve onboarded associates and now what do I do? And what you tend to default into is more of the office manager role, which is fine if you enjoy management, but if you don’t, don’t slip down into that. And also you might not be the best for this role. You might not be as good at communicating.
I learned like know thyself and be free I think is the best thing I could ever tell you. And so what is your role and what do you like love to do and what if I were looking at your energy sucks in life versus the things that light your fire. What we’re trying to do is get everybody into those zones of genius. There’s some great books out there. There’s some good places where you can kind of look to see what are the tasks. Do I enjoy them? Am I good at them? Am I not good at them? I’ve done some podcasts on that where you can honestly quadrant yourself into like these are tasks that I love doing and I’m good at.
These are tasks that I don’t enjoy doing, but I’m good at them. These are tasks that I am not good at and don’t enjoy doing. And these are tasks that I can train people on. So there’s kind of some quadrants. And the goal is first to have like 90 % of our day in the quadrant of these are tasks that I’m good at and that I actually enjoy doing. So if we can get you guys there, phenomenal. That’s what we’re trying to work on. so helping visionaries see, I think so often as doctors are producers in their
these drivers and they’ve been like with an eight to five schedule moving into what I call more of a creative visionary. It’s a very different space. And a little while ago I was on a trip and I realized that the creative mind is so much different than the structured mind. So when I want to create my best ideas, well, if I put it into my calendar, Kiera, you’re going to go create at this time. I don’t. And I started noticing my marketing team was doing this. They would be their most creative.
when they were in the middle of the night. A lot of my marketers would work at two, three, four a.m. They would sleep in and then they’d come and I was like, this is such a weird world. Like I’m used to the dental office and we have patients at seven a.m. and we’re done at five p.m. And that’s just the life we live. But that’s a very structured schedule versus this creative schedule. And doctors and visionaries start to move into more of this creative schedule, which is not an eight to five per se. It is not forcing ideas and creativity to come.
Kiera Dent (06:52.48)
It is having more space, but I think visionaries oftentimes don’t give themselves the space because they’re like in this very rigid mindset. And so just kind of, again, like I said, painting this picture with an Etch-A-Sketch where we can shake it off. We can decide which things we want to do, which things we don’t want to do, but helping office managers and doctors kind of learn this relationship. So doctors don’t accidentally get into the office manager’s lane and office managers allow the doctors the freedom and flexibility to become these CEOs and these visionaries.
that they want to be. Now, if you are a doctor and you’re not a visionary, that’s okay. You do not need to be. Some doctors are incredible, incredible, incredible implementers, and they actually hire someone like another doctor or maybe a CEO to come in to be that visionary role. And that’s okay. So again, this is an Etch A Sketch. It’s not a perfect painted canvas that we can’t change in a race and add different lines to it. It’s just a picture. But typically speaking, a CEO who’s a visionary, their main pieces are vision,
growth, sometimes they add numbers in there and culture. And usually if I like box it out, that’s going to be the three things that that visionary is responsible for. They usually leave meetings. They don’t have, they don’t have a lot of to-dos. They don’t have a lot of items. They come in, they give the vision, they help build the culture. And that’s really what they’re supposed to do. and a lot of times people who are in this role, they don’t think that that’s actually that hard or
it’s needed or it’s like, I remember when I heard like, okay, these are what I’m supposed to do. I was like, that’s it? Like, aren’t I supposed to do more than that? you know, that’s it. I’m just supposed to have the vision and culture and like kind of the numbers. And that’s like, no, it’s like 20 ideas, big problem solving, relationships, culture. That’s like what it is. And…
I think sometimes we take for granted that that’s a talent. That’s something we’re built with and not everybody is coming up with 20 ideas on a regular basis. Like if you are someone like myself, we’re like the ideas keep coming. Tiffanie Trader, if you know her, you, I’m sure you do. You love her on the podcast. Tiff will say, I told her on her tombstone, I will write the Tiff died being the efficiency queen. And she told me on my tombstone, she will write Kiera. Like I have a great idea. I’m constantly calling my team. I’m like, Shelbi, I got a great idea. Tiff, I’ve got a great idea.
Kiera Dent (09:17.254)
I’ve got this great idea. Hey Eve, I’ve got this great idea. Jacintha, I’ve got this great idea. Dana, I’ve got this great idea. If that’s not you, you might not be that visionary CEO role, but that’s like what they do. 20 big ideas, creativity problem solving, big relationships and culture. Now for me, I do enjoy numbers. Numbers like light my fire. So I have it on there. That’s what I like to do. And then also something else for me that I’m really good at that’s a piece in our company is speaking and being a public figure. Now, surprise, surprise, right? I’m on the podcast all the time. I enjoy it. I’m speaking at events.
That’s what my role is as the visionary. Now the integrator role or usually an office manager and not all office managers are created equal. I used to be an office manager and how good do you think I was at this? The answer was not very good. I was able to morph and shift into it, but a company I really love is Culture Index. If you’re not familiar with them, reach out [email protected] I’ve got some great contacts. I think it’s really, really fascinating. their whole model, it’s kind of like Disc or Myers or Briggs or Colby.
but what they do is they actually have you in culture index look to see who are you in your natural habitat and like things you naturally are good at and then how are you performing in your work position. And the goal is that the top box and the bottom box are pretty similar. So me in my happiest state, I would be actually doing things like I would do them naturally. So for me, I like a lot of autonomy. I love a lot of people. I like things to move fast and I like to be creative and I’ll have like details when I need them.
That’s my perfect world. So me being in an integrator role or an office manager role, that’s way more like way less autonomy, more people, I’m good with the people. But then also having to do so many numbers and metrics and checklist and protocols and thoroughness. my gosh, I did not enjoy that. But yeah, I wanted the title of office manager because I felt like that was the only space that I could grow into. And so office managers listening to this as well, know thyself and be free as well.
because I actually made a much better treatment coordinator than I did an office manager, but my ego got in the way of that. I think being careful as we etch a sketch this out of our best role, our best space is let’s not be putting ourselves into a box that we actually aren’t incredible at. So the office manager or integrator role, according to EOS traction version, their job is to lead, manage and hold accountable. Lead, manage, hold accountable. Their profit and loss, the business plan, remove obstacles and barriers, social projects and logic. And I have over here like,
Kiera Dent (11:39.48)
Projects A to Z, that’s the lead managing accountability. They’re doing like the one-on-ones, a lot of HR, a lot of like managing the team, it’s lead managing accountability, the profit and loss with the numbers. Like I said, I put numbers in me, but that should really fall under the integrator. So they’re watching it. They’re moving, they’re removing the obstacles, barriers. They’re working on these projects. So all those different pieces, like when you hear the podcast of like, hey, you should implement a treatment tracker or you should implement an AR protocol or this is a billing protocol. That’s all this integrator’s job.
Like they’re literally like these little machines that love to execute and implement projects. They love project management, softwares. They love to have checklists. They love to have Excel spreadsheets. They love to distract this off. They’re obsessed with the numbers and that’s really what their role is. And so you’ve got this visionary who’s creating a ton of ideas. It’s culture that’s very extroverted. And then you have this integrator who’s usually oftentimes more introverted, but loves to lead, manage and hold accountable, loves to do these different pieces. That’s really what we’re looking for. And so as you’re doing this,
Again, it’s an Etch A Sketch and not every relationship’s the same, but this is a good way for you to map out like, okay, do these things lighten me up? Do I love to create the ideas? Do I love to have problem solving and like thinking outside the box? My team comes to all the time, they’re like, Kiera, I had this big problem, we don’t know what to do. Before I answer, which is so hard for me, because I’m ready to go all the time, is what solutions did you guys have? Because I want to empower my team that they can solve these problems without me. But if they can’t figure it out, it’s really big like,
coming up with a new product launch in our company or coming up with a different way that we do things, that’s my bread and butter. That’s where I sit, that’s where I create, that’s where I come up with these ideas. And sometimes it takes me 10 minutes to create an idea. Other times it’s like seven months to create an idea. So again, creativity doesn’t strike all at once, it doesn’t come all the way, but that’s really kind of helping you see the CEO and this integrator role work in tandem. Now it can be tricky and you’re not always going to get it right, but I think seeing it more and more
what your role should be or could be or can morph into, I think is very empowering for both parties. And just know that when you’re in the right person in the right seat, things move so easily. They don’t get stuck. don’t get, like, it’s not like a traffic jam. It flows. And it was crazy because I watched in office and when they finally put, it was hard because they had someone who is in a hygiene coordinator or a hygiene lead role. And this hygienist wasn’t the right hygienist for it.
Kiera Dent (14:03.02)
and the hygiene team didn’t do well, they didn’t innovate, they didn’t create, and they just were not the right hygienist to lead this department. They were an outstanding hygienist. They produced really well, they were amazing, but they weren’t the best leader to lead their department. And it was crazy because that team, was really hard. was like, whew, like I feel stressed for them. Having that conversation and having that team member step down from leadership. And I don’t actually love that we call it step down because it feels like a demotion. It feels like we didn’t do well enough.
But being the right person in the right seat is not a demotion. It’s recognizing I’m good at this or I’m not good at this and I need to remove myself for the betterment of the team, of our patients, of our practice. And so when they switched this lead out, the hygiene team flourished. And it was crazy because they actually brought in a lead that was less experienced, less knowledgeable, had not been in the field for as long, but was incredible at leading, managing, and holding accountable a team. And so sometimes we think seniority equates to leadership.
Sometimes we think that we should put people in so they stay with us. But the reality is not everyone wants to be a leader. Not everyone wants to grow into that. Not everybody is actually a good leader who wants to be a good leader. And so know thyself and be free. Build this Etch A Sketch photo of what your practice looks like and what you enjoy doing. And for me, I have this giant sticky note behind where I am in my office that has me of what I want to do as the CEO and visionary for me.
And it helps me stay very crystal clear. Literally it says vision, growth, numbers, future products, ideation, creating, solve big problems, speak and leave. I don’t like to do the logistics of speaking. I hate setting up the booth. It stresses me out. I don’t like having to deal with the partners. Like I love all those pieces, but I hate doing that plus speaking because it’s two different brains and I get so anxious about it. Like literally anxious when I have to do it. I’m good at it and I can do it, but you put me in the box, that zone of I’m good at it, but I hate doing it.
is enough to make somebody go crazy and wanna quit their job. I unfortunately can’t quit my job sometimes. Unfortunately, I can’t quit it, right? But just thinking about this of how can we help ourselves be happier and set up for more success, I think is a really great way for you to view it. So hopefully today that was able to give you guys some clarity, some ideas around it, help you start to etch a sketch your own world. And sometimes we just need an outside perspective to help us see. I hired another coach. Don’t worry, I’m the queen of coaching over here. I do not hire multiple coaches at the same time.
Kiera Dent (16:26.798)
I’m very strategic with who I hire so I don’t get consultant paralysis. But I hired another coach who helped me see what my visionary role needed to be, who helped me see who I wanted to become, helped me see what I should or shouldn’t say yes to, who helped me see that what I’ve been in the past is not who I need to be to get the company to where I want it to be. And it was the most liberating, freeing, exhilarating moment of my life. And I love to do this for practices. This is what I geek out about is because I’ve done it.
Our company’s done it, we’ve successfully done it, and now let us help you. So if this is something that just lights your fire, but you don’t quite know how to do it, reach out, [email protected] I’d love to chat with you. And as always, thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you next time on The Dental A Team Podcast.
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