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899: 3 Steps to Build a Trust Culture – Heather Crockett

To have a thriving dental practice, you need trust. To build trust, there are three key pillars you need. In this episode of Practical Solutions Day, Kirk Behrendt brings back Heather Crockett, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, to share how to cultivate trust with your team and patients through empathy, transparency, and consistency. Trust is the currency of the future! To learn the three steps to create the ultimate dental practice, listen to Episode 899 of The Best Practices Show!

Learn More About Heather:

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More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:

Episode Resources:

Main Takeaways:

  • Learn to show gratitude and learn to apologize when you make mistakes.
  • Trust takes a lifetime of hard work to build, and only a second to lose.
  • Keep communication open. Transparency fosters connection.
  • Show empathy. Listening strengthens relationships.
  • Be consistent. Predictability builds trust.

Quotes:

“Trust is crazy important. It's the foundation to every dental practice that is truly successful. Without it, our team relationships suffer, our patient relationships suffer, the morale of the team declines, and leadership influence weakens. If your team doesn't trust you, you'd better watch out. It's not good. Strong leaders in any industry will cultivate trust by demonstrating empathy, transparency, and consistency. When you have that trust and it's high enough, the team will be more engaged, they're productive, and they're committed to the practice's success because they trust it, they know that you know where they're going, that you're going to lead them in a direction that they believe in alongside you because they trust you. You can navigate challenges that come your way with confidence — and we all know challenges come our way often. By creating that trust, it will then increase a positive workplace that everybody craves, that everybody wants to work at.” (2:44—3:51) -Heather

“You really need two things from the people around you. They have to like you, and they have to trust you. Now, there are many dentists we coach in which their teams like them, but they don’t trust the leader for one second. And I’m not talking about the trust of being a good person. They don’t trust that you’re going to be consistent. They don’t trust that you’re going to tell the truth. They don’t trust that you’re going to do the right thing. It is the most amazing thing when you work really hard as a human being to be good, likable, and behave well. That’s basically core values, and those are pretty easy if they're established.” (5:51—6:28) -Kirk

“You don't get people's trust — you earn it. When you get both, I'm telling you, it changes your life.” (6:34—6:41) -Kirk

“Openness fosters connection. People may admire a leader's strengths, but they connect more deeply when leaders are open about their struggles. That's the authenticity, that genuine piece of who we are as humans. I did a client call this morning, and I said, ‘Listen, I'm going to make some mistakes. I make mistakes often, and I'm going to share them with you. I want you to also share them with me when you notice it too, because if I'm aware of those mistakes, then I can make some changes and some intentional changes too.’” (7:14—7:43) -Heather

“In that speech that Craig Groeschel delivered at GLS when he was talking through transparency, empathy, consistency, he said this comment about transparency. People aren't impressed by your strength, but they connect with who you are and with your weaknesses. So, in those moments when you're receiving that feedback, you thank and you appreciate Barrett, in those moments when a doctor like Dr. Adam Fox is apologizing to his team like, ‘Hey, I'm sorry that this didn't go the way that we wanted it to go,’ that's when your team really connects, truly connects with who you are, and that starts to build and foster the trust that we're talking about here. So, getting those communications in place and getting those rhythms down with your team, when you lean into the transparency, it's going to help be one of the building blocks to trust.” (13:02—13:54) -Heather

“Empathy is another big one. Listening strengthens relationships. When you ask really thoughtful questions and genuinely listen, and show your team members that they're valued, that helps to exemplify what we're talking about here with empathy. Weighing in creates buy-in. So, involving the team in the decision-making process and considering how changes will affect them as well can foster a sense of respect and collaboration also. Every decision that's made greatly affects every single team member on every team, especially in dental practices — especially when we're talking about small dental offices. I think of practices that I have that only have four or five team members. Everything is going to affect everyone. So, taking that into consideration, the decision-making process is key and so important. The other piece of that is recognizing and appreciating your team. Giving them and showing them that gratitude in the way that they want to be shown that appreciation can really reinforce that culture and speak to the empathy piece.” (14:29—15:38) -Heather

“One of the things that we can start with is just by saying thank you. That would be number one. It's amazing how many people don't do that in a workplace. Number two, you mentioned it already, but gratitude is a really good tool in the world. When you're experiencing gratitude, it's very hard to experience anger, frustration, and fear.” (15:40—15:59) -Kirk

“As a leader, set the tone. The tone in your office starts at the top. It doesn't start in the middle. It doesn't start with your best patient. It starts at the top. So, you as a leader, even if you had a crappy morning, let's set the tone for this place. Today, be a little empathetic.” (17:45—18:02) -Kirk

“Craig Groeschel was answering a whole bunch of questions, and one of them was, ‘How do I get my team to trust me? I might be younger than them. What is it that I do?’ He said, ‘These are the questions that you ask when you come in as this new leader is, tell me your story. Sometimes, you'll get responses just work-related. Say, no, no, no, no, no, no. We'll get to work later. I want to know about you. Tell me about your story.’ When people know that you care about them personally, individually, as a human being outside of what it is that they do — and I'm not saying you have to be besties with them. No. But if you're aware that they play softball on Tuesdays and then you ask them about it the next day, that far and away creates more trust and builds more trust than, ‘Did you meet this number, or did you not?’” (18:41—19:27) -Heather

“Clear expectations will strengthen trust. Leaders need to communicate clearly, as we've talked about before, reward behaviors that align with those expectations, and address inconsistencies promptly. So, we as leaders need to be consistent. We also need to hold our team members to the same. We need to hold them accountable to being consistent as well in their behaviors, in their job description, expectations, all of those things. When you talked about check-ins, Kirk, here's the thing. A check-in can be so powerful. But if you're inconsistent with a check-in, what does that scream? I know you say all the time what you do screams that you care, or you don't care. So, you might care for one month. But then, if you're not consistent with a check-in and the system of the check-in says that you're going to do it monthly or quarterly and then you don't, what message does that send to your team?” (20:46—21:37) -Heather

“Here's the thing with the chief reminding officer. I would say don't apologize. When you're reminding and repeating, don't apologize. Don't say, ‘Sorry, guys. These are our values.’ Don't do that. Don't apologize . . . What you said before, clear is kind. You will really make it hard on yourself if you start to apologize for the things that you said were the most important things. If you start to pull away from, and you're not as transparent, you're not as open, and you're only sharing half of the story, guess who's going to follow you and do the exact same thing? Don't apologize for what's most important for keeping those consistent communication rhythms.” (24:55—25:45) -Heather

“We have to recognize that our team members are human. We are human too. So, it's not about being perfect. It's about making an effort and, like James Clear says, one percent better every day. If we can focus on some small, tiny thing — just pick one of the things that we talked about today to improve in yourself. That will create the trust that you're hoping to achieve. All these things are the pillars to a thriving dental practice. If you could tap into one at a time and make those small improvements one percent every day, you'll get there. It's not built in a day. It's going to take some time.” (29:34—30:11) -Heather

“Looking inward is how you can project outward in this transparency, empathy, and consistency. You have to know who you are first, and how you're showing up, and how you're feeling about it. If you're unsure, talk to those that are close to you and see where you're at, and see which one of the three you could work on.” (31:12—31:30) -Heather

“This is hard work. It's the hard work that matters. It takes a lifetime to build great trust, and just one second with one really bad decision to lose it all. I hope that doesn't happen to you or anybody I know. That's why you have values. That's why you have people around you. That's why you have to be consistent. It becomes a lot easier to follow that path.” (31:50—32:16) -Kirk

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

2:38 Why this is an important topic.

4:12 The three main components of trust.

6:41 Step 1) Transparency.

14:24 Step 2) Empathy.

20:30 Step 3) Consistency.

26:53 Which of the three do you need to work on?

29:30 We’re all human.

31:38 Final 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. 
ACT Dental Team

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