Anne: Hello, everyone. It's Anne Duffy and welcome to Dental Entrepreneur, The Future of Dentistry's podcast. I am so happy that you're with me today. I have a very special guest, a very good friend, and I want to tell you a little bit about her before we get started. Callie Ward is a seasoned dental professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry dedicated to helping dentists navigate the complexities of patient care and practice management as a business development consultant at Dash Dental Consulting.
She specializes in bridging the gap between effective leadership and communication, recognizing that these elements are crucial for a thriving practice. In today's fast paced dental environment. Many practitioners struggle to balance exceptional patient experiences with the business of running a successful practice.
Amen, sister. Amen. And welcome Callie Ward.
Callie: Oh, I'm so honored to be here. And thank you so much.
Anne: It's great to have you. I've known you for a long time when you were working as an intrapreneur and now as an entrepreneur. And I was fascinated, honestly, when you came up with The name of your business, the name of your consulting, and I really, kind of want to go into that a little bit.
I'm surprised you with some of these questions, but like how did you come up with Dash?
Callie: So there's, two reasons. One, Dash is my grandma name. So my grandson Landon named me Dash. Almost eight years ago. And I think that is the greatest grandma name in the world. I'm Dash, right? Like it's amazing, but I also tie it to what I'm really passionate about.
And that is, we're born on one day and we die another day. And in the middle we have our Dash and I am passionate about helping my teams and my doctors. be very intentional with their dash. It's really important to me that everybody feels great at the end of a workday and that it's repeatable and excitable.
And to do that, we have to be conscious, right? We have to be intentional. And that really is bridging that gap. What's your mountain? What do you want to climb? How are we going to climb it? And we can do it. It's just focus and intention.
Anne: Well, That's so cool. Because when I thought about the first time, I thought it was like, from birth to death.
But it's really. Every day, when you set your intention and you reach it, there's multiple dashes within a week.
Callie: for me, it's really the intentionality of am I filling my cup? Do I feel great at the end of the day? Am I energized by what I do on the daily?
There's so much negativity in our world, and there's so much negativity, you know, people saying, Oh, you don't want to be a dentist, and you don't want to go into business. And, team's terrible. And I challenge that because I think with intentional leadership with intentional.
Challenging of ourselves, identifying what our goals are, communicating that. Communication is a huge piece of it. That we can find that happiness. It's not going to be overnight and anything worth having is worth working towards, right? a perfect practice just doesn't fall in your lap.
It's something that we have to craft and be intentional with. And it's loving on your team. It's taking great care of them so that they can take great care of your patients and feeling like we're appreciated and acknowledged.
Anne: Yes, that is so beautiful to hear and I love that. That is not only well said, but also I feel that is trending in dentistry and you and I both know that this starts with culture and we hear that thrown around a but so many of us have never even had any education on how to build a culture.
So I know that's important to you. And so I know you have some specific ways that you're helping dental teams discover. What makes them feel fulfilled not only in their roles individually, but as a team, tell me how you would come in. Like, I mean, They're struggling that there's something wrong with the practice starts a culture.
So what do you do?
Callie: been a team member for 25 years for doctors that didn't necessarily grow me right. Like my education was I love Jennifer D. St. George. I had a cassette tape package, like this big old pack of cassette tapes from Jennifer D. St. George on how to answer a phone.
And then I had some local district dental society meetings. And from that and that experience, I've got a master's in education. I've left dentistry and come back. And I think what I really discovered was we have to see the human being. in, ourselves and our team members. And we also have to see the human being in our patients.
So how do we do that? And I was working with a big team and I wanted to know what made them tick. So we didn't really necessarily have a lot of money to bonus them, but I wanted to motivate them. And so we had to get clear what our goals were. We had to all know what are we trying to do What are those changes that we want to see? But then I, met with each team member on a one on one basis. And I asked them to rank these five words. So growth, challenges, money, respect, and purpose. When I knew what their ranking was, what was their number one, now I knew what motivated them. And so if they said purpose and they were an assistant, I wanted them to tell me more.
how does being an assistant fill your cup for purpose? how is that making you your most highest self? And I had one little gal who was very honest and she just. was mortified that we didn't recycle. And I'm like, okay, what do you need for that? And so we bought some recycle bins and she gave me the commitment that if ever grew tired of doing it she would train somebody to take it over.
And then that little gal recycled and on recycle day, she was on absolute cloud nine, so fulfilled, so happy because I saw her, I saw what she felt was a need. I helped her figure out a strategy, how to solve that problem. And it gave her so much satisfaction. And that's, that's the thing. It's like taking the 20 minutes.
did this exercise with a client and she had team members who had worked for her for 20 years and we asked these questions. She's blown away. They walk out and she goes, I never knew that about her and how much deeper her relationship was with those team members. Just by knowing what's important to them.
that's the difference. So, Yeah. It's doing those kind of exercises. It's clarifying. How do we agree as a team to show up? a lot of people have their mission and vision on the wall. Good for you. But are you integrating that every day? Are you integrating that how you treat your employees?
Are you integrating that how we handle a conflict with a patient? We need to work together as a team. What are our core values? What are our top three things? Is it integrity? Is it honesty? Is it kindness? What are our core values? And then how do we bring those alive every day? And that's where The team members not only feel seen and heard in their practice, but they're acknowledged as a human being and they feel more fulfilled, which means their relationships outside of the office are better.
So it's that ripple effect that goes out just by some intentionality of connecting with who we are.
Anne: honestly, I didn't even know I could connect with myself until I was in my 40s. So I mean, this is such a gift, not only to the leader of the, practice, but to each and every one of those team members, you know what it reminded me of, honestly, Callie I just read the five love languages.
And when you clicked off those five things, I thought, they say that's so important because some people, again, they work for money. That's just, Who they are or they work for, a number of things that you ticked off and I was like, that is so rich for them to get that knowledge that somebody cares about him, hears them and would want to answer that to have them jump out of bed in the morning and not lay there and say, Oh God, I've got to go to work again today.
You know, That's going to make everybody In the team and especially, flow out into the patients because they're gonna like being there. everybody wants to feel like they belong and that they're contributing.
Callie: there's neuroscience behind all of that. I mean, You think about, cortisol is the opposite of the feel good and cortisol just, you know, when somebody, stepped in dog poop on the way to work, like they don't even have to tell you, you feel it.
So how do we counteract that intentionally? And part of that is the communication process. It's having agreements in place, how we agree to show up, and it's having the safe environment. And if you think of Maslow's needs. Our hierarchy of needs, we have to have that safety feature. So if you're in a practice and it doesn't feel safe, how do you overcome that?
And it's by having these intentional conversations, but it's also having Regular team meetings where we have opportunities to work through those challenges and then our morning huddle. And when we start at the morning huddle, I want somebody different every week running it. So it doesn't get monotonous.
But then what can we celebrate? Who can we acknowledge from yesterday who did their job? That we pay them to do every day who did it amazingly that deserves a shout out. when we're acknowledged for doing what our job is, man, that little pat on the back from your peer just makes you feel amazing.
And so often when a consultant comes in. We're trying to change things. We're trying to improve. And what happens? We focus on the deficiencies as opposed to our positivity. where we are killing it already. And just as dues, the answers in the room, they know how to solve their problems. They just don't have the tools.
figured out how to communicate that and how to make it stick. And so my goal with working with teams is not to be the answer. It's to help extrapolate the answer from the team where they already feel an opportunity. And now they're more likely to do it and to follow through. And when we focus on the celebrations and we identify opportunities, they're more likely to see.
Change
Anne: and keep the change, right? And keep looking for ways to get better. I mean, It reminds me of strengths because the strength finders that we based do on, it's lean into your strengths and, don't concentrate on fixing what doesn't work in your life. funny because even the first edition, we had strength finders in a dental office.
I think it's valuable because you see who's good at what and then Let that person, flourish in what they're good at and let somebody that is good at something else flourish in what they're good at. And then you bring everybody together. The other thing I love about what you're doing is holding them accountable.
And how do you do that? Because feel like consultant is just not a one and done come in and, you know, give the spiel and then leave. So tell me, how does that work with your business?
Callie: love that you say spiel because, the doctor has a spiel every time they go to present treatment and case acceptance is the same as what you're asking me here.
How do I get the case acceptance with my teams? What's that buy in the accountability? And I think it's really helping them navigate. Who is their go to person there in the practice? So who is our leader? If we don't have an office manager, how is the doctor at holding people accountable? And is that across the board?
They're very good, usually with the back because that's who they work integrally with, but the front desk, they just don't know what they don't know. And there's that divide. So it's helping them find out where their strengths are, where their weaknesses are, where their opportunities are. And then set behavior goals.
So let's say we wanted to change three things in the next six months. We would be tracking those KPIs, but I'd be assigning something to everybody. So every team member would identify what are they going to do differently to try and reach that goal. And then we're going to hold, weekly meetings, monthly meetings, whatever their comfort zone is to have that.
And then identify each of us report back. This was my KPI. This is where we were. This is where we're at now. This is what I've tried. What, do we think we could do differently? Like where's our success? Most often it's just getting them to identify that I actually am following through with doing something differently.
And if the leadership of the practice thinks they're great, that they don't need to change anything, they're probably not a good fit for me. Because. We all can change. to walk into that uncomfortable, which anything different is uncomfortable and model the way may be on different levels of severity, things that we need to change.
But when I ask a doctor to do their exam, just a little bit differently by pausing to meet the human being first, make one on one eye contact. Slow down, get to know them before I go to dentistry. That is massive.
Anne: Yeah. We
Callie: have to try, right? Like we have to slowly work towards it. And how we do that is the next day at the morning huddle, the team gives them feedback.
Gosh, these two patients you did amazing. I heard you, really try and make some connections. They need that just as much as the team members do. And so when we're all co creating, The conversations and the change and we're celebrating that and being acknowledged it once again solidifies that safe environment and we're more likely to do more.
Anne: Yeah, and just the idea of a leader wanting to, make it better. I mean, It's great if they're in a good spot in some regards, but it's like good to great. Because a lot of offices and a lot of leaders just need that one degree shift. They don't need, a total overhaul. And I think that's what people are afraid of when a consultant comes in.
I mean, We've seen it. They come in and they, you know, you don't need this person, you need that. well, if something is not working, they can use your help because you can find out who wants to buy in. It's, Also interesting that you made the comparison with the treatment plan and having your team buy in.
It's almost the same thing and same even verbiage and all that. We want everybody to want to win.
Callie: It's exactly the same. And we make those. Conversations where we can associate it with the dental business, right? We can see the comparisons and it makes it more realistic. And I think that there's a lot of fear around communication, crucial conversations.
Catherine Itelbel is, like a queen of that. And it's so true. We have to be willing to have tough conversations. But I also think we have to be willing to celebrate who we have. And our greatest challenge in dentistry is finding team and keeping team. And COVID destroyed so many things.
in my fifties, did I ever think that I was going to start my own business and become an entrepreneur? Heck no, but I did. And so when I think of what were my motivators, what pushed me into it, it really was. I was feeling great at the end of the day I wasn't feeling that where I was at, and I wanted that and we deserve that nobody gets a job just to have something to do the bottom line, we're all trying to earn a living to take care of family when we have that, and it feels good.
Now it becomes so repeatable and our positivity pushes off on the others around us and we look at longevity of team and. It's when we're a leader and we see them as a human being and recognize that some days are great is amazing and other days are great sucks. And do we give them grace to be human didn't give myself grace That's a hard concept. But when we're a team like that, and we've got clear goals, and we've got clear core values, and we've got communication and expectations that are open and, healthy communication piece, we tend to see people more engaged, the 20 percent that do 80 percent of the work, right?
Like we're, really committed to Feeling great at the end, like it's addicting to feel great at the end of the day.
Anne: Yeah,
Callie: And how does the practice win? Like the money follows all of that. But if, you're going through a team and, you don't know why they're leaving and you're thinking, it's just because I can't pay salary that they want.
Wrong, salary is important. Benefits are important. But how do we make them feel? you don't know how to. See them as a human being. First, that's where you just get some help of, working through some exercise, working through core values together and really being willing to hear some feedback.
Hey, you're doing great here. I really love this about you. And I think we've got an opportunity here. And if we look at it as an opportunity and not a negative and not a personal attack, it becomes much more of a problem to solve than a roadblock. that's the human piece inside that I'm just so passionate about.
Anne: The other thing is it's, free to implement, it's not like it costs any money. You don't have to give everybody a Birkin bag if they had a good month. I mean, You have to understand each other. And that's the other thing, this kind of. coaching and consulting helps you understand yourself and understand those around you and it, trickles on to each one of those employees and that actually trickles out into their family life.
pretty much, it's across the board. We have to learn how to work as a team every aspect of our life and to recognize other people's gifts We don't want anyone to be miserable and, oh, it's just, so easy, but you have to have somebody that's sometimes on the outside looking in, because when you're in the middle of it it's a mess or you're leaving every day feeling awful, or even not fulfilled.
I mean, It doesn't even have to be awful. And let's, tweak this. Let's, Get some help before it gets to that point where you're in burnout mode and nobody wants to work for you and nobody wants to come to you and you don't want to do it either.
Callie: well, if you think about it I love using teenagers as an example, successfully raised four children.
They're all. Good, independent, own homeowners. Like they're doing amazing. Like my greatest accomplishment ever, but look at our team members. They're like teenagers. And when I look at my clients, I think of them as teenagers, right? They don't always hear what the parent has to say, but your friend.
So who do we surround ourselves with? Your friend could come in and tell your daughter, the same thing that you've been preaching. And the daughter's like. oh my gosh, she told me this and it's so amazing. And you're like, I'm telling me that. It's sometimes just the different perspective. my goal is to help them figure those things out.
But if I'm successful, they don't need me after 18 months, right? we go through, we identify, they can always come back. But think a job well done is when they can fly on their own and be independent. And that comes from, getting that system implemented there for their leadership, filling their cup with each other, not some external.
I mean, I'm honored to be a thought partner, but I think that really, the goal should be that they should be able to do this on their own with maybe a few.
So it's, important to me that they feel like they're the ones coming up with the solutions and that they can do it without having me there forever.
Anne: I also love the relationship that you can build with a practice and go in help for a while. teach them how to fish, right?
And then, they might have another boat that they got. They need a little bit more you know, information on, two or three new team members, right? So, And then you could bring them back because you're familiar, you know the practice, you know the owner.
And that's when magic starts to happen between, I think, when consulting and coaching merges. And I think a lot of consultants that we know, like Linda Miles and Kathy Jameson, through their history, they've had offices that have, you know, worked with them from the beginning.
They were the dash of those operations. And something else you said, and if you're listening out there, you're, and you're a dentist, the best leaders are humble leaders. And they know that they don't know everything and they know that they need a little bit of help.
And again, if you're a leader out there, you're a dentist and you're not fulfilled, nobody's fulfilled in your office because it always trickles down from the top, right? The leader starts. And it also goes in with the. office manager and, sometimes you don't realize that there's a toxic person in the office.
And again, we don't know, maybe it was because they, nobody was recycling and that was just driving them crazy. You don't even know. Sometimes it's a funny small, example you gave about that, but that could turn somebody's head around and say, oh my gosh, I'm proud to work for this office because it fits in with.
One of the things that's important to me, I know you talk a lot about morning huddles, in my experience, you do the morning huddle and then it starts to get a little lazy and you forget some of the things. So what are the, key things that you think need to be happening every morning when people get there before the first patient gets in the chair?
Callie: Well, I think we need to agree what the start time is. We all need to be there. Doctors included, right? We've got to show up on time. We've got to be there. And I think we always look back to yesterday. What was great? What can we celebrate? What went well? Where did we do what we are trying to do?
And then. Were there any opportunities? did we run behind schedule? Did we schedule differently? we didn't have a lab case? Like, what error was there that we can learn from? And so if we can process that in 30 seconds to two minutes. If we can solve that problem from yesterday, great.
But if it's going to take us more than two minutes to solve that problem, have list next to the deck, and this is my parking lot for our next team meeting, and we need to unpack. X. We put it on our parking lot and the team knows that we're going to resolve that problem. We just aren't going to do it today subtle because we have to stay on track for our day.
So then we look at got yesterday. Where can we celebrate? What? can we learn from it? Where are we at today? What human beings are coming in today if you're an adult you can read the schedule I don't want you to tell me we're taking bite wings. if I can read it drop that. underneath there?
What do we need to know that isn't there? Do they take a long time to get numb? Are they really chatty? All of those different details. Tell me about the new patient When was the last time that they were in? Have they ever had worn a mucosa guard like All of those details that need to fill in those blanks.
And what are our opportunities? Who owes us money? Who isn't scheduled for their next hygiene visit? Who has family members that are unscheduled? So much easier than making those bloody phone calls if I've got the patient in front of me. So seize the moment for today. Where can we go? And then also looking at our flow.
My dad was an air traffic controller and I think of this as our air traffic control. Where does it look like maybe he's going to run behind schedule on exams? If we have multiple doctors and I know that this doctor is going to be buried in a high production case, hey doc, I need you to be aware to come over here and do this exam.
You know, Look at our flow, look at how to make sure that it's going the best. If we've got two emergency phone calls, where do you want us to put them? that's Murphy's law, right? Like, we don't know where to put them, they're going to call. And if we identify them, then at least we've got that clarity.
So making today as productive as possible. And then future pace wins the doctor's next major block openings. And when they go in and do that exam, Why don't they direct them to their next major opening so that we're not scrambling to fill the schedule? The urgency coming from the doctor is massive.
Identifying that, do we have all the lab cases tomorrow? Are we prepared for tomorrow? And if we're not at goal today or tomorrow, guess what? It's all hands on deck, which means I expect my assistants, my hygienist, if I don't have a patient in front of me, and we're not at goal today or tomorrow, everybody should be on the phone, trying to fill the schedule.
We win together, and it's not, staff, it's team, right? We're all part of it and the dentist. Are part of the team, we all have to be in the trenches together. And that means if our production goal is $8,000 and we're at six, and I could squeeze in a crown prep to get there, but maybe it's gonna take 10 minutes of the doctor's lunch.
They have to be willing. To do that too. Mm-hmm . . Because they're the producer, right? Like they have to be just as committed to hitting the goal as the team is. And when we see that, we move forward. So huddles are just really important for safety, for conversations, for celebrations, for coming together. And I've got a lot of teams who say, well, you know, I've got two different sets of teams.
We've got a group that comes in at seven in the morning and a group that comes in at night handle that a couple of different ways. Have representatives. somebody from the morning huddle, share what they did at the later huddle or
Anne: in, or you record it you just share the video.
Callie: Like we have technology. That's amazing. That's kind of a lame excuse to get out of doing a huddle. But if we're showing up and we're going. All right, I've got five patients today and we're doing prophy exam and we're going to do bite wings and Susie doesn't like fluoride. Forget it.
Anne: Yeah,
Callie: that isn't engaging and that's why I like to have different team members run the meeting.
need variety.
Anne: Well, Not only that, it gives everybody a chance to be a leader. And those are things that, you know, that's a little push, that's a great thing for people to be able to do, to lead a small team just within life. and you get that opportunity there.
And if if the culture is sound, then you all are looking for everybody to win in that situation. And it's wonderful when somebody like you comes in And gives them a blueprint again, tweak it just a little bit so that people are loving what they do. We want that.
We want that for dentistry because They had been leaving in droves. I think we're putting a little turnaround on that now. And I think that consultants and coaches are going to be busier this year. Because I think people realize they can't Wear every hat and this is a hat of culture and of systems that.
They're not that good at they're good at other things. And so somebody else that's been doing this for a long time, seeing the success, and then let that pour over into you and to your, team and to your patients. So Callie last words how do we get in touch with you?
Callie: well, thank you so much. adore what you've done for dentistry and empowerment. I think it's really important that we empower
Callie: it makes us feel good. I can be reached uh, my website is dash dental consulting. com. And I would love to offer everybody a free morning huddle worksheet.
So I'll send you a QR code that they can. Click on it. It'll take them right to my landing page to get morning huddle worksheet. And happy to visit with anybody. No strings attached to see if we might be a good fit to help give them some confidence that things can get better.
Anne: Yeah, things can get better.
And you can look back on this long career it and say, that was a great ride. especially when they partner with you. So thank you, Callie, so much for being with me. I adore you. I've seen you just thrive and you're one of those people when you speak, people listen.
So thank you for being with us today. really appreciate your expertise. I love the honor. Thank you so much. You're welcome. And if anybody is thinking about getting in touch with Callie, please reach out and remember most importantly, everyone to keep doing you. Thanks so much. And I'll see you next time.
Bye.
