When leadership isn't aligned, it will lead to chaos. So, how do you prevent conflict and the day-to-day struggles? In this episode of Practical Solutions Day, Kirk Behrendt brings back Carlie Einarson, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, with three keys to alignment and healthy partnerships. Misalignment is the root of all evil! To learn how to get in sync to gain trust and boost productivity, listen to Episode 914 of The Best Practices Show!
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Episode Resources:
Main Takeaways:
Quotes:
“Misalignment is the root of all evil. If you look at any relationship that goes bad, it starts with misalignment, either on values or what to do. So, it's very, very important that you get aligned.” (4:04—4:17) -Kirk
“Alignment and agreement are not the same things. You can work together really well with somebody and not agree.” (4:25—4:32) -Kirk
“Any crack in alignment between leaders blinds everybody else on the team — no different than a couple being married. Sarah and I raised three teenage daughters. You can't have any crack in alignment because they exploit the crack in alignment. Then, you start playing good cop, bad cop, and that ultimately creates bigger challenges. The big thing that happens though, when leaders aren't aligned, is that the trust erodes, not only between you and the partner because you don't believe in your partner or you don't like where your partner is — that's where it starts. Then, you can see the people that are leaning into the leadership of the partner, they start to lose their trust too.” (6:20—7:04) -Kirk
“Alignment is part of figuring out what you want your goals to be and what your shared goals are. But ultimately, it comes down to both parties really jumping in and being aligned and also feeling like they have that responsibility on their shoulders — it doesn't come down to just one person or the other.” (8:21—8:40) -Carlie
“Your best investment of time, as a leader, is to get aligned with your other leaders.” (10:04—10:09) -Kirk
“We start, number one, with a shared destination. We also start with having very defined roles between leaders. Both you and Barrett do something different, and you're both really good at what you do. So, having those aligned leadership meetings and/or knowing your roles, you know exactly what lane you're in, and that's where you stay — not that you don't swerve in and out a little bit sometimes, but also knowing that we're going in the same direction to that same destination.” (10:17—10:46) -Carlie
“Most leaders, especially partnerships, we come in and we know that we have things in common like dentistry, and we know we want to own a business, and we know that's what we want to do. Other than that, we haven't defined how, we haven't defined when, we haven't defined why, we haven't defined our vision, or our goals. Ultimately, weekly meetings for alignment are what we need. But we also need some kind of starting point of what is our vision, what is our goal, some kind of yearly alignment meeting to start or some kind of bigger meeting at the beginning.” (10:48—11:25) -Carlie
“It's really important that you know yourself and you know your other leaders so you can lean into their strengths, and you don't start “swimming in each other's lanes”.” (12:26—12:37) -Kirk
“Most of the time, we do not reach our goals unintentionally. We don't just end up getting there. We have to set that intention and we have to really decide where we're going.” (12:51—13:02) -Carlie
“The time that you put in now will save you time later. Once you put in the time for these weekly consistent leadership meetings, I would try to have some kind of schedule, honor it every week, and make sure that you don't book a patient over it. This is our time. You set it aside and you honor it no matter what, and you also have some kind of structure to that meeting. It is very specific every time and you go through the same thing. So, discussing some key aspects to your practice like the course and the annual outcomes and goals, like, ‘What courses are we on? Where are we going? Are we going in the right direction? Did one person veer right? One person veer left? How are we going to get back on track?’ talking about team celebrations and challenges, some financial KPI reviews, and future thinking. We want to make sure that we go through some of these key alignment pieces. And it doesn't have to be a really long time for these meetings. They can be 30 minutes, an hour, just to make sure that we're getting aligned, and a starting point.” (13:48—14:52) -Carlie
“You can't get aligned in a conversation. You can try. It might work for a little bit. When you have a document, you can actually write down what you discussed, you can write down what you agreed on, you can write down what we're going to do next, you can write down challenges, and it allows you to focus on getting something done via that document. But you've got to make time for that. It's got to be earlier in the week. Here's what I would say about partners that don't take the time to align. The divide will grow. You'll get upset. If you don't have time for alignment, that crack starts to show and it creates resentment. It creates misalignment and challenges happen later. So, you've got to make time for alignment.” (16:19—17:02) -Kirk
“[Creating time for alignment] also holds you accountable. There are certain times, especially as a leader, you have so much going on in your brain. And like you said, instead of just sending out a random text at 10:00 p.m. to your partner and burning them out, you have a place to put it. It also can be shelved from your brain. You don't have it in there anymore. It's not running around. It's living somewhere, so you don't forget it. You're going to come back around every week to make sure that you've gotten done what you've gotten done. We use that for any of our team meetings here at ACT. To be honest, this morning, I did one thing that I knew was on the list and somebody was going to ask me. I would have forgotten about it unless it was written down and it was there to hold me accountable. So, I think it'll save time in the long run, and some brain power too, to take it out of your brain and shelve it.” (17:31—18:17) -Carlie
“Number three, [show a] united front to the team. Even if you don't have a partner, most people have some kind of lead in their office, or some kind of an office manager, or somebody that's helping them with some of the leadership tasks. Ultimately, whether it’s one partner and another partner, whether it’s a doctor and a dental assistant, if somebody comes into the office and says, ‘Hey, we got this new scanner. Am I supposed to scan today?’ and one person says, ‘Yes, that sounds great. We’re going to do it,’ and one person says, ‘No. I'm not ready for that. We don't know what we’re doing,’ what do I do as the team member? I don’t know. I would sit there and probably just do whatever I want, or not do it because that’s the easy way out.” (19:28—20:09) -Carlie
“It’s something that you have to set your ego aside, set your, ‘I’m right. This is what I want.’ You ultimately have to be in it together. Even if you’re figuring it out still — like, nobody has everything figured out all the time. That’s not normal. We’re always figuring it out. Part of it is having these alignment meetings so you can figure it out beforehand. But if not, you can also say something like, ‘I don't know. We're still working on that, and I'll get back to you.’ That's a better answer than giving two different answers from two different leaders. Make sure that you're aligned. Again, even if you don't say it the exact same way but you repeat it and you guys are on the same page, it creates a sense of safety and people feel comfortable and supported in the office. You're clear and you're connected. That trust and execution is going to go so much more effectively if you guys are on the same page.” (22:43—23:38) -Carlie
“Even when leadership isn't in sync, we need to have decisions — they can be small, they can be large, but we need to make sure that they're consistent, they're all going the same direction. Those small decisions or those little one-offs that you throw out there that you aren't aligned about become roadblocks and it really gets in the way of your team’s progress. They get confused. The tension builds. Ultimately, that strategic vision, getting everything in the right spot, you guys are clear, you guys know exactly where you're going, you're swimming in your own lanes, knowing exactly what your role is, is going to help the team be more efficient, more successful, and gain that trust, gain that safety.” (24:52—25:37) -Carlie
“You can't spend enough time getting aligned with the people you spend your days with. Remember, you spend 30% of your life at this place called work. Alignment is a hugely important ingredient.” (26:41—26:54) -Kirk
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
1:36 Why this is an important topic.
5:02 What happens when there's a lack of alignment.
9:09 The importance of alignment meetings.
10:10 Start with vision alignment.
13:21 Make time for alignment.
19:24 Show a united front to your team.
24:37 Final thoughts.
27:30 ACT’s BPA.
Carlie Einarson Bio:
Carlie Einarson is a lead practice coach who has a passion for helping others succeed in the dental field. She loves helping to create a stable foundation for practices so both professionals and patients have a great experience every time they walk in the door!
Carlie graduated from Utah College of Dental Hygiene. She has ten years of experience in the dental field, including clinical dental hygiene, front office, and leading teams.
In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with loved ones, traveling, skiing, playing volleyball, and golfing.