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936: How to Keep Core Values Alive – Heather Crockett

Establishing core values is the most important thing you will do for your practice. But core values aren’t just words on the wall! In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Heather Crockett, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, to share how to keep your core values alive and prevent them from becoming stale over time. To learn how to make core values the heartbeat of your practice, listen to Episode 936 of The Best Practices Show!

 

Learn More About Heather:

Learn More About ACT Dental:

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

Episode Resources:

Main Takeaways:

  • Use your core values as decision-making filters. They will guide your culture.
  • Core values can be on your walls. But they need to be alive in your halls!
  • Talk about your core values constantly. You can't just set it and forget it.
  • Embed your core values into your hiring process to identify red flags.
  • Create exercises to help your team remember your core values.
  • Find ways to include patients in your core values journey.
  • Give recognition when core values are represented.
  • Share your core values through storytelling.
  • Track shout-outs and core values usage.

Quotes:

“It's really important to have core values because what we believe, innately, is just within us until we document them and then share them with the world. But the most important people to share them with are the people that we work with day in and day out. But we don't just share it with them — we have to keep them alive.” (1:56—2:14) -Heather

“We have to keep [core values] alive and well. We've heard and talked about many times before, they can be on the walls, but they need to be alive in the halls. That “alive in the halls” piece is so important because if you just put them up on the walls and they don't mean anything, and you don't add anything to it, and you don't breathe new life into them, then they'll just become ways for your team to point at you and say, ‘You're a liar. I don't trust you. These don't mean anything.’ So, we have to keep them alive in the halls so that we can continue making sure everybody knows just how important they are.” (2:17—2:52) -Heather

“The best decision-making filter out there are your core values.” (4:14—4:18) -Heather

“The first [way to keep core values alive] is called storytelling. So, any time that you're sharing a story about something that you or the practice did, or one of the team members, you can pull in one of your core values to do that to represent those exact beliefs and behaviors . . . One example is, one of our core values is “Give is Greater Than Get”. So, tiny, small acts of kindness that bring this specific core value alive, in return, we're promoting ourselves and what we really believe in. If we truly believe in that core value of “Give is Greater Than Get”, then those acts of kindness, as small as they might be, are going to reflect that. So, you could use that story when you're sharing it with a potential new team member, new hire, or with other team members to reflect and say, ‘This is what it means. These are examples of when it shows up. This is a story. Can I share a story with you about what “Give is Greater Than Get” looks like in real life?’ That's how they can stay alive with that storytelling.” (5:48—6:48) -Heather

“When you are going through the hiring process, it's very important to talk to the potential candidate with questions in your interview process that are going to guide them into answering whether or not they're going to be a good core values fit or not. I talk to my clients about this all the time. I have one in particular, she's hiring a new hygienist. We walked through the questions, ‘What kind of question do you think this team member would answer that would help you to know if they are going to act like they are an all-in attitude team member, or that they are going to focus on the collective results of the entire team versus just their own?’ So, it was really cool to walk through those interview questions. It's really important because you'll see and hear the red flags in their answers. If you feel like there are those red flags . . . if something feels icky, it's normally brushing up against one of your core values. It's really important to be aware of that and to identify, ‘Okay, which core value, which behavior, which principle is it that doesn't feel like they're aligning with?’ If you can identify that before you hire the person, you're going to save yourself a lot of headaches.” (9:46—10:59) -Heather

“Once you hire that new team member, you're going to want to really bring them into the core values and help them to know and recognize what they are and be able to say them. One of my favorite exercises to do is when we bring clients into our community and they establish their core values at our planning meeting, I will tell them all to pull out a piece of paper. I say, ‘Okay, number from one through six.’ They all get ready and look at me like, ‘What are you doing?’ I say, ‘Okay, write down all of your core values.’ They all look at me like, ‘Wait, what?’ So, you know that they're alive and well when the team members can write them down really quickly. So, support your new team members with that. Come up with an exercise, an activity, something that will help them to remember those core values so that when their coach has them take a quiz, they can actually answer them, and not just look at how they are listed because they're on the wall, but that they really internalize them and they're proud to bring them up and say, ‘Yes, this one. Yes, this one. Yes, this one,’ and they're excited about it.” (11:11—12:10) -Heather

“The right team members want to know how they're doing. They want to know if they are behaving in the ways that are outlined in your core values. You can't do that without giving and providing that evaluation type of feedback to team members. So, when you do that, set up against your core values. You can ask specific questions of the team members. We have it where we can fill it out ourselves, and it's such a great exercise for me to self-reflect and think, ‘Okay, over the past quarter, what have I done to really bring “All-In Attitude” to life? What have I done to really embrace that “We Before Me” mindset? What have I done for my team members that wasn't for my benefit, but for everyone's benefit?’ So, that specific piece has been huge.” (12:50—13:30) -Heather

“Include your community. For us, it's our clients. For you, it's going to be your patients. How and in what way are we going to represent our core values? By putting them into those stories or by recognizing our community. We actually also give our community medals every single quarter. We get to nominate those clients that we see their efforts, and we see them embracing our core values, and they're fantastic clients because they fit in with and also align with those specific behaviors of ours. I love, love, love so much when I see my current clients or past clients post something on their social media to include their patients in their journey, especially when it comes to core values.” (15:38—16:18) -Heather

“It's important to track, to a degree, the shout-outs that are taking place in the practice. Once you start tracking it, then it will make more sense as we go into this one. I had a client a couple of years ago that, as they were tracking their core values, they recognized that one of them wasn't getting shouted out as often as the others. So, when we brainstormed about ways to bring that one alive more, we did come up with a quarterly theme to really focus on that one specific core value. The other ones were naturally, organically happening and felt more alive and well than this specific one. So, they made a quarterly theme for this specific core value. Our example could be “Always Be Growing”. If “Always Be Growing” wasn't showing up as often as the others, then you could create a book club, or say, ‘What CE could we attend together this quarter as a team, and how could we really amplify our attendance of that CE? What could we do to make that “Always Be Growing” core value really come alive as we attend this CE together?’” (19:16—20:16) -Heather

“When you're not used to talking about core values all the time, it's going to be hard, and you have to grant yourself and your team that grace, which is why tracking shout-outs or doing something to make sure that you're bringing them up frequently enough, that you guys are talking about them frequently enough, that 90 days into establishing your core values, all of your team members should be able to whip out a piece of paper and write down every single core value without any prompts or any reminders. That's how often you need to be saying them out loud, talking about them out loud. That routine is crazy important.” (21:17—21:49) -Heather

“If you don't already have your core values documented and in place, that's the first thing that you've got to do. Remember that core values really, truly are the guidelines, for your culture too. You have to talk about them daily, weekly, often. You can't just post them on the wall and forget about them, because then you'll be the biggest hypocrite of all. Leadership really sets the tone. If you are consistent with those routines, if you are consistent by implementing them in the recruiting and the onboarding, if you are consistent in shouting them out, if you are consistent about that communication and you use that positive reinforcement, you will be the reason why they stay more alive and well.” (23:44—24:20) -Heather

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:20 Why this is an important topic.

2:59 Core values are your filter.

4:48 Use storytelling to share your core values.

9:36 Recruit and onboard using your core values.

12:31 Tie performance evaluations to core values and use positive reinforcement.

15:36 Include your community.

19:05 Create themes and use daily reinforcement.

23:00 Final takeaways.

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. 
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