Do you ever feel like your practice culture is toxic? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Adriana Booth, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, to list the seven toxic habits that you might be doing, how they're affecting your culture, and what you can do to create a happier, more committed team. Great culture doesn't happen by accident! To learn how you might be sabotaging your team and what you can do to fix it, listen to Episode 951 of The Best Practices Show!
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Episode Resources:
Main Takeaways:
Quotes:
“The number one toxic habit, or maybe more like a toxic trait, is the absence of trust. Your team members may be unwilling to be open with one another about concerns or weaknesses. They may want to hide their mistakes, and they're a little embarrassed about it if they don't know something or know how to do something really well, so they avoid vulnerability altogether, which is the telltale sign that they don't trust each other. A lack of trust ends up leading right into miscommunication, finger-pointing, ‘It wasn't me. It was her,’ and a fear-driven culture, which always, always affects your patient care and, ultimately, your team morale.” (6:18—7:09) -Adriana
“In Patrick Lencioni's book, The Advantage, and in Gino Wickman’s book, Traction, they both talk about vulnerability-based trust and it is the key to a positive culture — not just trusting that your team is going to show up on time and do all the elements of their role, but they are open to trust each other on a deeper level. They have each other's backs, and they really want the best for one another. So, it's not the kind of trust that I can leave my purse on the table with that winning lottery ticket in it, and I think no one is going to take it. It has nothing to do with that kind of trust. It is that vulnerable trust to say, ‘I was wrong. I don't know how to do this. Can you help me?’ Those types of trust are really key to a team. When the team members and the owners/doctors are genuinely transparent and honest with each other, that's when we're really able to build our vulnerability-based trust.” (7:15—8:14) -Adriana
“When we can't have those conflict-based conversations, meaning we don't agree on it, or maybe it's something that I thought one way about the story, and you thought one way about the story — we have to learn to come together and have a healthy debate. It doesn't have to be loud voices. It doesn't have to be hard language. It can just be, ‘Here's how I feel,’ Kirk tells me how he feels, and we find a way to meet in the middle. If these disagreements go unspoken, they become toxic and not constructive, because then it does become an argument, and you've got all these buried feelings in there. So, when the unaddressed issues fester, those little, tiny problems of Kirk not ordering the supplies on time become really big ones, and all of our energy is wasted on gossip and passive-aggressive behaviors rather than just saying, ‘Kirk, how can we help you get the ordering done a little faster? I'd love to help you. What can I do?’” (11:41—12:48) -Adriana
“Unresolved conflict always — and I do mean always — becomes a crisis. When you don't have resolution to any conflict, whether it be perio, whether it be relationships, whether it be financial, if you don't resolve it, at some point it’s going to become a crisis. It will. It may not be today, it may not be in a month, and it may not be in the next year — but it's going to blow up. So, you’ve got to get good at resolving these conflicts.” (13:11—13:38) -Kirk
“When [conflict] doesn't get resolved, people like to share it. They actually will take an easy path, meaning, ‘I've got to talk about this.’ So, they find a common denominator in the practice and they want to spread some gossip or conflict. What you have to teach the entire team — and I do mean the entire team — is that when somebody comes to you to triangulate, meaning, I'm going to talk with AB about a problem I have with Barrett, AB has got to stop the conversation. The phrase that our coach gave us is this: ‘Am I going to tell them, or are you? Because I'm happy to have this conversation with Barrett if you're not happy to have the conversation. But you can't just dump this on me and leave, because now it's going to fester.’” (14:25—15:11) -Kirk
“When voices aren't being heard, team members don't feel valued. They start to disengage, they don't buy into your decisions, and you have inconsistency with your systems. There are a lot of things that start to happen, and you can see it's not good. So, we always say without weigh-in, there's no buy-in. Your team members have to have a voice. Now, do they get to decide where all the practice goes? No. That's why I'm a big fan of the check-ins. Individual check-ins are so important. They are one of the best things you will ever do in your business.” (17:18—17:49) -Kirk
“[Toxic habit] number four is a tough one. I like to use two different versions of this. So, avoiding accountability, to me, is also avoiding responsibility. When we think about this, if we don't have clarity and commitment from our team, they are going to avoid confronting their peers about the behavior or the performance. Their tasks are going to get dropped or missed, or maybe not performed to the highest standard. Ultimately, that responsibility falls unfairly on the doctor or the manager, and then their burnout. Like you said earlier, it's like they don't even want to show up to this place anymore. So, we want to create that culture that puts a hand up, ‘I'll take responsibility for that. I'll take accountability for that. Let me take this off your plate,’ because we do want to share in all the responsibilities of a practice. That's how, as a team member, I feel valued and important on a team.” (20:00—21:08) -Adriana
“[Toxic habit] number five is inattention to results. I love whenever we can get into this conversation with a team member or with an owner. The biggest piece of getting this part right is knowing that we are a team working together toward goals and measuring success. That's what really creates a winning culture. The ultimate goal-builder of all the steps that have come before us, of building trust, having healthy conflict, being committed, and being accountable is actually the achievement of results. So, if you picture this like a pyramid, the base layer is trust, and we have to build from there. We can't just jump to the middle or jump to, ‘Oh, we're all accountable and responsible.’ No. We have to start with trust and build up. Our patient care, our practice growth, and especially our team harmony really suffers when people only focus on the “me” and not the “we”, that silo mentality. The long-term goals get extremely compromised when we have short-term, ego-driven decisions being made by team members.” (24:23—25:52) -Adriana
“You, as the leader, must pave the way. Your behaviors are being watched all the time. When we talk about leadership and we teach leadership and how to grow your leadership, flex that muscle a little harder — every person on your team has someone else that looks up to them, is watching them, that is mimicking maybe their behavior, their style. And most likely, they have no idea. A lot of times, we don't do a great job telling other people that we look up to them or we monitor what they do because we want to do that too. So, when the leader shows up and is vulnerable, that opens the doorway a little bit more for the team to be vulnerable. When the leader confronts their fear of conflict, or has those itchy conversations, but they approach it respectfully, the team will follow. When the leader follows through on what he or she said they were going to do and they did it, the team will follow. That one, I can't tell you how many times, as a coach, I have sat back and thought, ‘Your team is not really giving it their all in our program because you keep hiring coaching companies, but you don't change anything about you. You want to change them.’” (28:31—29:59) -Adriana
“Not leading by example is toxic. We teach dentists all the time, number one, you have to be on time. That's probably one of the biggest things. If you say your morning huddles start at this time, and you're showing up late with your cup of coffee, coming in hot, you are screaming to everyone, ‘This is not important.’ When you're not on time, it screams, ‘I don't care. Just do what I'm telling you to do, but I'm not going to do it.’ So, I think that's number one, is be on time for every meeting you possibly can. When you're consistently late, people start to lower their expectations of you until they have none at all.” (30:34—31:14) -Kirk
“[The seventh toxic habit is] neglecting feedback. All of us want to hear if we're doing a good job, but we also want to hear how we can improve. Once you have built that trust foundation, you can have these conversations with your team and it doesn't feel like conflict, and it doesn't feel like a corrective conversation. It could just be like, ‘Hey, AB. I really like when you do this, but I'd like you to do this more.’ We can figure out how to phrase that, and your coach will be really helpful in this. We have done thousands of hours of communication training, Five Behaviors Certifications. We've gone through all of this so that we can help you. Even if the feedback is only for appreciation, that is so valuable. That actually builds trust even more. We can evaluate tasks with feedback. We can also, what we say, “coach them up”, coach them into a better version of themselves. As a leader, you can do that in your team as well. So, when you see your team even meeting expectations or exceeding them, even in the tiniest way, acknowledge it, verbalize it, write them a nice note. Expressing appreciation consistently and right away goes a really long way in building that positive culture.” (34:16—35:47) -Adriana
“When you see your team failing to meet expectations, don't just ignore it or wait until that next check-in that you scheduled six months out. Get those check-ins monthly so that you have those 15 minutes to connect and provide feedback on things that have happened recently, so that the team member knows where they need to turn the dial up, or maybe you, as a leader, know where you need to turn the dial up. So, having those constructive and helpful conversations along the way can really boost morale, in general. If we avoid that feedback, it's going to lead to resentment. The worst thing, as a team member, you would ever want to hear is, ‘Well, you're going to be let go because you haven't met expectations for the last year.’ ‘What? I never heard this. What are you talking about?’ You're blindsided as a team member.” (35:48—36:41) -Adriana
“Great culture doesn't just happen. It's not built by chance. It is truly shaped by what you tolerate, what you model for your team, and then what you also reinforce. So, reinforcing good behaviors, reinforcing structure goes a long way. Those toxic habits that often will go unnoticed or ignored, that's your first step to look honestly at your team, your practice, and internally at yourself to assess and see which ones — maybe one, maybe two, maybe all of them — are happening in your practice, and then using our resources, tools, and coaching to turn that dial up and correct those, finding the right ways to navigate that.” (41:27—42:15) -Adriana
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
1:50 Why this is an important topic.
3:22 Warning signs that your culture is falling apart.
5:57 Toxic habits: Absence of trust.
10:36 Toxic habits: Avoiding conflict conversations.
16:47 Toxic habits: Lack of commitment.
20:00 Toxic habits: Avoiding accountability/responsibility.
24:21 Toxic habits: Inattention to results.
27:51 Toxic habits: Not leading by example.
34:10 Toxic habits: Neglecting feedback.
38:36 ACT BPA tools and resources.
40:53 Final takeaways.
Adriana Booth, BS, RDH Bio:
Adriana Booth is a Lead Practice Coach who partners with dentists and their teams to cultivate leadership skills, build practice growth, and streamline business practices. After spending nearly two decades in the dental industry working with top-notch dental teams, Adriana came to ACT to share her passion for professional growth, high-level training, and systems creation with our clients. As a dental hygienist with a love for continuing education and personal growth, helping a practice become successful is at the heart of her passion for dentistry.
Adriana has a B.S. in Dental Hygiene from West Liberty University/O’Hehir University. By being involved in several Columbus, Ohio, study clubs, Adriana maintains strong relationships within her local dental community. She enjoys a variety of fitness activities, family time, good books, and at the top of her list, her fur babies.