Episode : #954: Getting Your Team Aligned

Podcast Description

Kiera talks about the power of ‘state of the company’ meetings, how to set them up, how to roll them out, and how to continue having them quarter after quarter.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.802)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners, this is Kiera. And today I just wanna ask you the question of does your team know where you're going and what you're trying to achieve as a practice? And if the answer is not absolutely 100 % yes, if you came into our practice, Kiera, and asked every person, then today this episode is for you. And it's something beautiful that we've just recently learned that I'm so excited to share with you to make your life easier, to get your team aligned, to get them all rolling in the same direction.

and I just tested it on my team and we're testing it with offices and the feedback has been outstanding of better team buy-in, more clarity and easier ability to row in the same direction. Dental A Team is here for you. We love to support you. Our mission is to positively impact the world of dentistry in the greatest way possible. And I'm so honored that you're here as part of our podcast family. All of our consultants, we work with you virtually or one-on-one, in person.

or on the screen, we make sure that you are thriving and that you are living your best self. It can be hard, it can be lonely, but it doesn't have to be. And that's what Dental A Team was created. And that's why we created the podcast was to give you tactical tips to make sure that your world is easier, more efficient, and that you're able to feel not alone, but supported in the world of dentistry. All right, so today we're gonna rock this out. This is something from Traction. You know that I'm a huge fan of Gina Wickman and I'm gonna break down three simple steps of the state of the company.

The state of the company is something to do after your quarterly meetings. So you go as a leadership team, you meet, you have a quarterly meeting. We do this with our clients. We work with this within our mastermind group. It's so fun. And I'm so excited to help people really deep dive on the businesses. I've done a lot of research over the years to make sure that I'm able to deliver the best of the best to you. So we meet with our leadership team. We work on our action items.

We're able to figure out what's the focus. What are our annual goals? What are our quarterly goals that we need to do? And the leadership team gets crystal crystal clear. We're able to have the uncomfortable conversations, solve the issues. That step one is you've got to have your annual meetings to make sure that you are then focused on where are we going? And then also breaking it down into our quarterly meetings. So step one of the state of the company, getting your whole team rowing in the correct vision is number one, leadership team needs to meet annually and quarterly to set the vision, to set the focus, to say where they're going.

Kiera Dent (02:13.454)

I love it to be leadership teams because I feel like that's where we can really get to the nitty gritty, the juicy. I have an office and they're truly remarkable and I absolutely love them. And what's really fun is the leadership teams able to come hash it out. What does hygiene want? What did dental assistants want? What does front office need? What did the doctors need? What does the practice need from all those different perspectives? And it's been amazing to watch them go from a $3.5 million practice up to a $6 million practice in one year.

by simply getting their leadership team aligned and then rolling this out to their departments. So step one is leadership team needs alignment annually and quarterly. Step two is now you prepare for what the team needs to hear and this is called the state of the company. The state of the company feels like I should have a top hat on and that I should be Abe Lincoln and it felt really funny to me. But really what it is is it's a snapshot of where is the company at? What has happened? Where are we at and where are we going? And it was crazy because as I was doing it, it's a one hour meeting with your team.

but you need to prepare for this. So that step two is prepare for the state of the company meeting. And on that, what we do is, like I said, where have we been, where are we going, and what do we need to do to change? What are updates on the company? Where are our goals? What were the quarterly rocks that we just set in traction terms that we then are going to be able to take to our team and deliver in a clear, concise manner? This is usually done by your office manager. Office managers prepare it, they put it together.

Doctors, you're going to be the one who presents it or whomever the lead of the team is ultimately. So for me and my company, I'm the one who gets to deliver the state of the company. So step one, leadership team needs to work together. They need to create the annual and the quarterly goals. Step two is office manager and doctor need to combine together to figure out what exactly are we needing to do to make this state of the company report there. We build it. Britt kudos to her on our team. She built it in the most beautiful format. So we had it at the top. We have it mapped out.

Here's where we were, here's where we're going. If there's a gap, so if it's Q1 and we're behind, what's the gap? What have we learned and why are we here? It was a really beautiful conversation between Britt and myself where we were able to really assess how did we get here? Why are we here? And what are we going to do moving forward? For me, I don't believe in failures, I believe in results. So what are the results and why did we get here? And what are we going to do to move forward and to learn from that? Step three is now hold your state of the company meeting. I plan and prep an hour with our team.

Kiera Dent (04:31.564)

We do it at the beginning of each quarter. So we roll it out to them. And what we do is we actually show, I share screened this document that Britt and I had put together. I go through it I really empower the team and I talk to the team, this is where we are. This is the nuts and bolts. These are the facts. This is what needs to happen in order for us to move forward. This is the reason that we're doing these goals. And it's really to me, the state of the company addresses more giving the why behind along with the tangibles of what needs to happen. So it's why did we get here?

Why are we wanting to implement for our company this year? It's marketing masters and AI innovation. We're adding that in because I believe if we look down the line dentistry is going to be shifting heavily. And so we need to be ahead of that. We need to be ahead of the curve. We need to see, we need to build different ways for people to be coming to our company. We need to be having a way to truly, if our mission is to reach out to all the dental practices, we've got to be building different funnels, different methods, different models from what we've been doing and be ahead of that.

but me educating my team and teaching them, this is why we're doing it. Now the team has what I call the lock and loaded buy-in because now they're clear. And I had no clue how this would land. We ran it for an hour, gave them all the information. had it prepped. We asked them for questions. And then I actually wasn't there the next day. And Britt actually asked the team for feedback of, you want this every quarter? Do you not? And it has been an outstanding resounding. We loved that. And it's been so interesting to hear throughout the week, throughout the trickling.

of Kiera, feel so much more clear. Kiera, I feel like I understand where we're going. Kiera, I'm so grateful that you took the time. It was broken down in such simple steps for us. And what was great for me as a leader was I was able actually to do a deep dive on my practice, my business to see what were the strengths, what were the weaknesses, why did I get here? Ask the hard questions and for Britt and I to align and then lock and load our team in the synergy and the energy of having a team drive this forward for you is there.

Teams often just need clarity. They need to understand the why. They need to understand why are we doing this? Where are we going and what is the purpose of this? And then like I said, they lock and load and they're rock solid with you executing, taking ownership. I have seen teams that do this, elevate the ownership, elevate the clarity, elevate the synergy of them all rolling together. So my question is, do you want a team that's rolling together with ease, efficiency and effectiveness? The state of the company, the quarterly address.

Kiera Dent (06:51.916)

is something that I would strongly recommend with these three points to add into your practice. Feel free, I'm happy to share a sample of what we've done so that way you can see it so you can kick it off to share it with your team. Like I said, we pulled this from Gina Wickman Traction and built it up Dental A Team's version of how we wanted to do this, giving you the resources because my goal is to make dentistry easy, to make running a practice easy, to make it to where this isn't hard for you because really running a practice can be easy. Being a profitable dentist can be easy.

being fulfilled and not having to do it all can be a reality. Having a team that rallies and is so incredibly accountable can be a reality. And that's what Dental A Team does. So if that's of interest for you, reach out, [email protected] We do a one hour free practice assessment for you, where I literally deep dive with you, your practice, where you're at, some of these huge hits that need to happen in order for your practice to flourish and for you to have the life that you're wanting. So reach out, [email protected]

You'll get a ton of value. You'll be able to have clarity of where your practice goes. And if we're a great fit for you, I'd love to work with you as always. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.