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August 1, 2014

Engaging Success, Part II

Filed under: Accountability,Affirmations,Appreciation,Attitude,Behavior,Communication,Conduct,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Fear,Focus,Goals,Habit,Inspiration,Leadership,Mindful Talk,Mindset,Motivation,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Positive Thought,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 8:00 am

August 2014

Engaging Success Part II!

I felt it was important to do a quick review just in case you missed last month’s newsletter.  I help dental teams nationwide bridge the gap between potential and performance to create a happy, healthy and high performing culture…which all depends on getting them engaged!

2013 Gallup Polls show 70% of Americans are not engaged at work! Which equals about 2/3rds of the team in an average dental practice. The downfall of not engaging your team:

 

  • 22% Loss of Profitability
  • 21% Loss of Productivity
  • 45% More Turnover
  • 48% More Team Safety Incidents
  • 37% More Absenteeism
  • 41% More Patient Safety Incidents
  • 41% Less Quality of Care

 

Just a few awesome reasons to invest time and focus on engaging your team!

This month we will cover three additional employee engagement strategies to help you raise job satisfaction, patient service and the bottom line. It really is a win for the practice owner, the patients and the team!

Purpose

I help teams clearly define their purpose. The purpose is their why behind what they do in their practice. It is important for the team to believe in the purpose of the practice. It would be next to impossible to get the team engaged if the doctor/manager’s only purpose was the bottom line or retiring. Team members also need to understand their individual purpose. Great leaders, (doctors/managers) help their team members see how their individual work connects and supports the purpose and the outcome. People are willing to roll up their sleeves and work hard together for the greater good when they feel they belong. They decide whether they belong based on how aligned they are with the purpose of the practice. Purpose helps them feel they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Reminding the team of the purpose of what they do each day helps nurture a sense of belonging and fulfillment.

Appreciation

We create a culture of appreciation and celebration in their practice. Team members get engaged when they know they are being seen and feel appreciated on daily basis. They began to feel recognized, important and cared about. It is natural for us to want to work with people who care enough to take the time to show us appreciation. The old saying, “They don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care” is true. Lack of appreciation is the number one reason Americans quit their job.

Establish an appreciation strategy that recognizes how each person prefers to be shown appreciation. I highly recommend reading the book on appreciation titled, “The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace”. It covers the 5 different ways to show appreciation and would be an awesome book to discuss at your team meeting. Practice showing appreciation daily that is timely, specific and authentic. Never give a fake compliment or you will instantly lose trust and respect. Look for fun and creative ways such as an appreciation board, employee of the month, even Ta-dahs!   Showing appreciation is not just from doctor to manager to team member. It also includes team member to team member and team member to manager or doctor. Please email me at Judykay@PracticeSolutionsInc.net if you would like to receive my white pages on appreciation.

Encouragement

We lead, manage and train by utilizing encouragement instead of judgment or criticism. Encouragement goes hand in hand with appreciation and is key in helping to nurture employee engagement. When team members know their co-workers, manager and doctor(s) believe in them, they feel empowered to face their fears, look forward to challenges and continue to strive to raise the bar! I think back to when I started my business. I knew I had my husband Steve rooting for me and believing in me even during the times I doubted myself. His consistent encouragement allowed me to take more chances and not cave to the fear of failing. Encouragement instead of judgment and criticism will help the entire team feel confident to think outside the box and challenge themselves to continue to learn and grow.

Tune in again next month to Part III of Engaging Success and more employee engagement strategies!

Contact Judy Kay today if you would like to learn more about how she can help you get your team ENGAGED and WORKING together to build a happy healthy and high performing culture!

July 1, 2014

Engaging Success! July 2014

Filed under: Accountability,Affirmations,Appreciation,Attitude,Behavior,Communication,Conduct,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Habit,Inspiration,Leadership,Mindful Talk,Mindset,Motivation,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Positive Thought,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 9:00 am

July 2014

Engaging Success!

I coach dental teams nationwide on attitude, communication, relationships and performance to improve the patient experience and the bottom line.  Which all starts by getting the team engaged to bridge the gap between potential and performance!

2013 Gallup Polls show 70% of Americans are not engaged at work! Which equals about 2/3rds of the team in an average dental practice. You may think, how big of a deal is it really? You can count on then to show up most days and get their tasks done. You decide! The difference in not engaging your team:

  • 22% Loss of Profitability
  • 21% Loss of Productivity
  • 45% More Turnover
  • 48% More Team Safety Incidents
  • 37% More Absenteeism
  • 41% More Patient Safety Incidents
  • 41% Less Quality of Care

An engaged employee out produces and is more profitable than their non-engaged colleague by 22%…in essence you could have 4 engaged employees instead of 5 not engaged and cut your overhead by an entire salary! A $20 per hour employee working 32 hours per week would save you $32,000 per year.   That number does not include taxes and benefits. Realistically you would save more like $40,000 per year.

Even better…focus on engaging your team and get all 5 employees engaged to produce 21% more. Let’s say for simple math you produce $100,000 per month…you would now produce $121,000 per month ($21,000 more per month) equaling an annual increase of $252,000! Imagine what you could do with an additional $252,000! Not fluff stuff!

My newsletters over the next few months will focus on developing an employee engagement strategy to help you raise job satisfaction, patient service and the bottom line. It’s a win for the practice owner, the patients and the team!

Ta-Dah!

It is important to understand and be able to identify the different levels of engagement. There are three levels of engagement; Engaged, Not Engaged and Actively Disengaged.

Engaged Employees – are passionate about their work and feel very connected and loyal to the practice. They are always looking for ways to improve performance and patient care. They are focused on the big picture of helping the practice succeed. They base their success on the practice’s success!

Not Engaged Employees – are essentially checked out. They can be difficult to spot. They are just coasting through their day by putting in time without energy or passion. They are thinking about lunch, who just called on their cell phone, or what they are going to do when they get off work.

Actively Disengaged Employees – are unhappy at work and demonstrate it in their words and actions. They monopolize the doctor/manager’s time (always having to issues that need addressing), have more on-the-job accidents, create more quality concerns, are sicker and miss more days. They undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish and sabotage the practice.

In this blog I will focus on three strategies I use to help get teams engaged!

Clear Expectations

We start with an open and candid conversation clarifying expectations and the results desired. Go deep enough to explain what, who, when, where, why and how. So often time’s things are left unsaid and assumptions are made resulting in frustration for the doctor, the manager and the employee! If the employee is not clear on expectations they can’t possibly deliver.   If you are thinking, they should just know that, or I already told them once…so I don’t need to tell them again…you are setting the employee up to disengage!

“If you don’t ask for what you want don’t be angry when you don’t get it.”

 

Appropriate Equipment and Supplies

Next is making sure the team has the appropriate equipment and supplies to maximize efficiency and get better results.  It also demonstrates to the employee that their work is valued because you were willing to give them the support they need to do their job. For example, a specific instrument to aid your hygienist in safely cleaning around dental implants. It is important to ask employees if they have what they need to be able to do their job efficiently and effectively. The initial cost is outweighed by the ROI of increased performance, service and productivity.

I have found men are usually much better at getting the right equipment and supplies whereas women will try to make do. This summer my husband Steve and I went a little crazy with filling our deck with pots of flowers, succulents and evergreens! Needless to say it became huge watering chore for me because we did not have a hose up on the deck. I have been traveling a lot more for business…which means Steve has become the water boy! Surprise! I came home to find a faucet and short hose up on the deck. Watering is now so easy it is actually fun! What used to take me 1/2 hour or more now takes under 10 minutes! We have just tripled my productivity and increased job satisfaction by having the appropriate equipment and supplies!

 

Strength Focused

We focus on identifying and building on each team member’s strengths. This one step alone can change productivity by as much as 12.5%. The best opportunity for people to grow and develop is to help them discover their innate talents. It just naturally creates a feeling of wellbeing when we can do something well. We enjoy our work more. Focusing on a team member’s strengths is a far more effective and positive approach than constantly focusing on their weaknesses.   When employees know and use their strengths, they are more engaged, have higher performance, and are less likely to leave the practice.

Research shows that the management style of focusing on the positive strengths reduces active disengagement to 1%. Whereas a negative focus management style produces 22% disengagement. Surprisingly, being ignored causes the most damage at 40% disengagement! The old saying, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all!” is not a successful management style. It delivers to the most negative outcome of all.

Which response would your employees say best reflects the management style in your practice? It’s time to ask!

  • My manager/doctor focuses on my strengths or positive characteristics.
  • My manager/doctor focuses on my weaknesses or negative characteristics.
  • My manager/doctor doesn’t say anything at all and I feel ignored and invisible.

Engaging success starts by asking questions!

Tune in again next month for more employee engagement strategies!

 

Contact Judy Kay today if you would like to learn more about how she can help you get your team ENGAGED and WORKING together to build a happy healthy and high performing culture!

June 1, 2014

Team WORK!

Filed under: Accountability,Affirmations,Appreciation,Attitude,Behavior,Communication,Conduct,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Inspiration,Leadership,Motivation,Patient Experience,Performance,Positive Thought,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 8:00 am

 “Team WORK – It is the fuel that allows common people to obtain uncommon results

Team work!  A phrase so often used with so many different assumptions of its meaning!  The dictionary defines team work as cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause.

The team part happens pretty easy.  Once we belong to a group or organization we automatically become a part of the team.  The WORK part of team work is not so easy!  It takes work to build happy, healthy and high performing team relationships.

This month’s newsletter is dedicated to the WORK part of team work.  BTW…this message works for your marriage as well.

I have spent years coaching dental teams on how to create happy, healthy and high performing relationships.  Successful team relationships don’t just happen by accident.  They take work just like any relationship.  Yet the assumption is that we should all just naturally get along.  If that were true I wouldn’t be so busy.

Communication is the first core fundamental in team work. It would be very difficult to work together as a team for a common purpose without it! The right hand would never know what the left hand was doing nor what was needed or expected. The team’s success would be limited to only what each person could accomplish individually.

It is important for the team to create standards on how the team would like to communicate with each other and patients to build successful relationships. The work part is the ongoing focus and commitment to support the standards even when we may not feel like it.

Successful team communication includes:

  • Communicate Clearly – Clarify expectations by defining who, what, when, where, why and how.
  • Communicate Positively – Smile at each other and speak in a warm and friendly tone.
    • Avoid negative sarcasm and gossip.
  • Communicate Respectfully – Always consider how your words may impact the other person. Ask yourself; how can I say what I need to say and be respectful of how they may feel?
  • Communicate Professionally – Use words such as yes, no, please and thank you.

Collaboration is the second core fundamental needed to enable the team to successfully work together. It is important to remember that there is more than one way (our way) to do things. Collaboration means:

  • Sharing thoughts and ideas about what works and what does not.
  • Being open (think outside the box creativity) and willing to listen to new and different ideas from others.
  • Agreeing on a solution that serves the best interests of the patients and the practice instead do any individual.
  • Trying again and again and continue to be flexible and to adjust until it does work.

Celebration is the third core fundamental to successful team work. It is important to celebrate daily. Even the little things. If our focus is always on the next patient or task we will miss the good in the present moment and eventually we will lose our joy for our work.

Celebrate by:

  • Looking for and becoming aware of what is positive in the present moment. Right here right now what is good?
  • Being grateful for what is instead of complaining about what isn’t.
  • Showing appreciation for your coworkers and your patients. Celebrating in the moment with a physical gesture for example a big smile, thumbs up, high five or even a Ta-Dah!

Implementing these three core fundamentals will empower your team to WORK together to build happy, healthy and high performing team relationships.

Contact Judy Kay today if you would like to learn more about how she can help your team WORK together to build a happy healthy and high performing culture!

May 1, 2014

Gossip – The Poison Triangle of Mistrust!

Filed under: Accountability,Appreciation,Attitude,Behavior,Communication,Conduct,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Gossip,Habit,Inspiration,Leadership,Mindful Talk,Mindset,Motivation,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Philosophy,Positive Thought,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized,WOW Philosophy — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 9:00 am

The Poison Triangle of Mistrust is toxic and can destroy the team and the practice culture!  What is The Poison Triangle of Mistrust?  In simple terms it is gossip. I refer to it as The Poison Triangle of Mistrust because it often involves two people talking negatively about a third person behind their back.  When the third person learns about it they no longer trust the two people involved.

This month is dedicated to learning how to create a culture that no longer tolerates Gossip – The Poison Triangle of Mistrust. 

I often hear the following statements regarding gossip:  It’s a woman thing, women just have to gossip, it’s really not a big deal because everybody does it, and you can’t stop it even if you try.

Gossip is not just a woman thing…men do it to they just call it something else.  It is a big deal and you can stop it if you are serious about having a no gossip office culture.  The reality is that gossip will continue to exist in our dental practices as long as we allow it to exist.  If we truly comprehended the negative impact from gossip it would no longer be tolerated.

 Gossip affects:

  • Trust
  • Communication
  • Team Performance
  • Morale
  • Patient Experience
  • Bottom Line

That’s just to name a few.  Gossip is not fluff stuff.  It is really big stuff!  Why would we continue to allow anything this poison to be a part of our culture?

Isn’t it time to add No-Gossip Culture to our Communication Standards?  You can read more about implementing Communication Standards in April’s Newsletter on Drama.

I teach my clients the 5 following steps to create a No-Gossip Culture and end The Poison Triangle of Mistrust!

Step One – Start with a team meeting with the entire team including the doctors.  Share with the team the impact gossip has on the team and the practice and that in the future it will no longer be tolerated.  Ask everyone individually to verbally agree to support a No-Gossip Culture in the practice.  For example, I agree to support a No-Gossip Culture.  Once they verbally agree they can’t say I didn’t agree.  I just didn’t say anything.

Step Two – Define what gossip means in your practice.   I define gossip as anything that is negative or private about another person that they do not want others to know.  As a team agree on a word or phrase to use if someone starts to gossip about another team member to them.  It could be something as simple as peace (as in keep the peace), please take it to the source, please stop, or remember we said we weren’t going to gossip anymore.   It doesn’t really matter what word(s) you use.  What is important is that everyone knows what it is and agrees to use that specific word or phrase.

Step Three – Establish consequences for gossip.  I suggest the same consequences as any other behavior that sabotages instead of supports the standards of the practice.  Establish consequences that you know you will be willing to carry out.  It is very important that the entire team understand what the consequences will be for gossip.  If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of my white pages on consequences please email me at Judykay@PracticeSolutionsInc.net.

Step Four – It’s time to actually stop the gossip.  This will take doing a few times before it becomes more comfortable.  FYI if you are on the receiving end of gossip you are just as responsible as the initiator. You play 50-50 role because if they have no one to tell the gossip stops. If a team member starts to gossip to you or you over hear two people gossiping about another team member say the word or phrase.  Please be mindful of your tone of voice and attitude.  Always speak from a place of care and concern not judgment and criticism.  If they continue to gossip remind them once more by saying remember we agreed as a team we would not gossip about each other.  Old habits die hard and we want to be supportive and help each other to stop the gossip.  If they are gossiping to you and they refuse to stop physically remove yourself from the conversation.  If they continue to gossip to another team member inform them that if they do not stop you will inform the doctor or manager (whoever handles conflict resolution in the practice).

Step Five – The doctor or manager holds the team member accountable by following through with the consequences.  It is important the entire team understands the consequences for participating in gossiping.  Yes you can terminate a team member for participating in gossiping.  It is very important to make it crystal clear what the consequences are for gossip and include as a part of your written communication standards.  Following through with consequences is where the line is drawn in the sand.  It will determine whether you succeed or fail at creating a No-Gossip Culture.  Gossip is really big stuff!  It affects trust, communication, team performance, morale, patient experience and your bottom line.  Isn’t it time to create a No-Gossip Culture and end The Poison Triangle of Mistrust?

 Contact Judy Kay today if you would like to learn more about how she can help you end The Poison Triangle of Mistrust in your practice!

April 1, 2014

Drama, Drama, Drama!

Filed under: Accountability,Appreciation,Attitude,Behavior,Communication,Conduct,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Eggshells,Elephants,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Gossip,Habit,Inspiration,Leadership,Mindful Talk,Mindset,Motivation,Patient Experience,Performance,Philosophy,Positive Thought,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized,WOW Philosophy — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 9:00 am

Drama has become a just a normal part of the day for many dental teams.  The dictionary defines drama as a situation or sequence of events that is highly emotional, tragic, or turbulent.  Drama starts to unfold when there is a difference of expectations or opinion on who, what, when, where, how or why something should be done.  It escalates when there are no clear standards in the practice on how to address these differences. 

This month’s newsletter is dedicated to setting Communication Standards to derail the drama in your practice. 

I often ask my audiences for a show of hands if they have established standards for communication for their practice.  A total of two people was the most I have ever had raise their hand.  We set ourselves up for communication failure when we don’t establish standards. Here is why.  We all come from such different backgrounds with unique and individual experiences.  Therefore, are expectations on what is appropriate and what is not is skewed by our personal experiences.  Our personal experience create our personal truths.  How we view and judge the world on what is right or wrong.  

We expect each other to think, act and respond the same. These false expectations get us into trouble when we think; others must behave in the same manner as we do or their behavior is wrong or another person’s behavior must mean the same as if we did that same behavior…and haven’t we all had an encounter with a brother, sister, parent, child, or spouse where there was disagreement because of a difference of opinion. These are all examples of expectations based on our personal truths.  Personal truths are why communication fails and drama starts to unfold.  We can derail the drama by establishing clear communication standards.  Communication Standards will eliminate the drama of who is right or wrong and clarify the standards for the practice.  Everyone on the team will have the same expectations.   

It is important to create Communication Standards that are specific to your team.  I would suggest to start by having a team meeting and ask for participation from the entire team.  How do they want to communicate in their work environment?  What do they feel they need from their co-workers to feel safe and comfortable communicating?  The following video is an interview with Kevin Henry in 2011 talking about my session on Drama at the AADOM Conference in Nashville.

Here are some examples of Communications Standards!

 

•           Listen

•           No Judgment of Criticism

•           Have a Thicker Skin – Be Approachable

•           Believe in Positive Intent – Give Benefit of a Doubt

•           Avoid Sarcasm

•           Be Respectful

•           Support a No Gossip Culture

•           Positive Tone & Body Language

•           Be Open Minded

•           No Buts

•           Be Understanding

•           Time & Space Appropriate – Avoid Fly Bys

•           Ask Don’t Assume

•           Address Issues Concerning Patients & Practice Not Personal

It is important to go deep enough to clarify what each standard means in words and actions.

For example, Have a Thicker Skin – Be Approachable; could mean:

•           We are open to listen to what others have to say.

•           We are willing to talk about even difficult issues as long as it pertains to the patients and the practice. 

•           We don’t act hurt or say that hurt my feelings to stop the conversation from happening.  

 Establishing Communication Standards with your team will help you derail the drama and create a happy, healthy and high performing office culture! 

Contact Judy Kay today if you would like to learn more about how she can help you derail the drama and raise the level of communication in your practice!

March 1, 2014

The Power of Affirmations!

Filed under: Accountability,Affirmations,Appreciation,Attitude,Behavior,Communication,Conduct,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Habit,Leadership,Mindful Talk,Mindset,Orange Energy,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Philosophy,R.I.S.E. Philosophy,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized,WOW Philosophy — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 9:00 am

Affirmations are powerful!  They can either set us up to succeed or to fail.  Yet very few of us consistently practice positive affirmations.  The dictionary defines affirmation as: 

  • The act or an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed
  • The assertion that something exists or is true
  • Something that is affirmed; a statement or proposition that is declared to be true. 

This month is dedicated to learning how to practice daily positive affirmations to drive our future happiness and success!    

Affirmations are like planting seeds in the ground. It takes time to go from a seed to a mature plant.  It takes consistency and time from the first declaration to the final demonstration.  You can’t just say something positive once and expect it to appear.  

 

 

Here are five steps to help you succeed at practicing daily positive affirmations and live a life you choose!

Step One – Just get over yourself!  We are so afraid we may look silly or weird if we say positive things out loud to our self.   So what if someone hears us.  We are all weird.  LOL, for me it is normal to talk to myself…as I often work alone.  The key is making sure that the conversations are always positive.   

Step Two – Start your day by defining how you want to feel or be today.  Choose words or a phrase to describe that feeling or state of being.  It could be words like happy, successful, healthy or awesome!  When I am about ready to present I think of how I want to be with my audience.  I practice words like connecting, loving, authentic and present.  Stand in front of a mirror and make eye contact with yourself. Okay, I know this seems a little weird…but it’s a good weird!  It is important to say it loud as if it already exists.  I am…  It must be I am not I want.  It is more powerful when said out loud and your mind believes it already exists because you stated I am.  For example, I am happy, I am awesome, I am going to make positive things happen today, I love my life, I love what I get to do, I am going to make good decisions today,  I like how I look today, I am going to rock it today, I am going to have an awesome day!  You can say as many things as you want.  There is no limit to positive self-talk!  

Step Three – Say it with conviction and attitude!  Just like little Jessica in the video above.  Think about the level of happiness and success you want to attract. The more energy and emotion you put into it the more you attract!  It’s the Law of Attraction in action.  Like seeks like based on the frequency of energy emitted! 

Step Four – Replay the same message over and over throughout your day.  Ask yourself; do my words and actions support those feelings or state of being.  Reset if necessary to align your words, actions and state of being.  Replaying and resetting will enable you to overcome the negative noise distractions from the world and instead focus on what you want.  

Step Five – End your day by saying out loud how you felt or state of being for the day.  I was happy today.  I was awesome today!  I made a difference today!  I made others smile today.  I helped someone today!  I changed someone’s life today by giving them a new smile!   

Contact Judy Kay today if you would like to learn more about how she can help you become a better leader, get your team to work together better and create an office culture you can’t wait to go to every day.

February 1, 2014

Dysfuntional to Dynamic!

Filed under: Accountability,Attitude,Behavior,Communication,Conduct,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Eggshells,Elephants,Energy,Fear,Focus,Gossip,Habit,Leadership,Mindset,Orange Energy,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 8:00 am

 

My newsletters are often a reflection of what I observe when working with dental teams.  The phrase “we are just like one big family” is used by many dental teams to describe their office environment.  One would assume it be a positive statement.  However, I have found in many cases the opposite is true.  They were indeed like one big family…one big dysfunctional family! This month’s newsletter is dedicated to changing your team’s relationships from dysfunctional to dynamic!  

 

The dictionary defines dysfunction as a behavior pattern that undermines team stability.  Some examples of dysfunctional behaviors are being tardy, unreliable, dishonest, unsupportive, disrespectful or unkind. When I was in grade school we received progress reports or as we called them report cards.  There was an entire section on conduct.  Conduct was broken down into 5 areas. 

  • Observes regulations
  • Works and plays well with others
  • Respect for property
  • Respect for authority
  • Is courteous in speech and manner 

You either received and S for satisfactory or a U for unsatisfactory to rate your behavior.  Thankfully I received all S’s!  I know I am really dating myself here. Many of us seem to have forgotten or maybe have never been taught that we are responsible for our conduct at work. It is not the doctor(s) and manager’s responsibility to make us play well with others!  It is OURS!   Here are three behaviors to shift dysfunctional patterns into dynamic patterns and start playing well together.

Filtering – For some reason we feel once we say we are a family we don’t need to filter what we say to each other.  We justify it by saying we are just being honest or we have to be authentic to our feelings.  After all we can’t help how we feel!  (Oh really…read my December 2013 newsletter) We lose our politeness and kindness towards each other.  Our words are often direct and hurtful.  We believe because we are like family it is okay to behave in this manner.  That our co-workers should just be able to handle whatever we say.  The reality is words cut deep and can destroy even real families.  Don’t we all know someone who no longer speaks to certain family members…maybe even you?  It is important to think before you speak to avoid jeopardizing the relationship.  Be respectful of how the other person might feel.  Treat each other with the same kindness and politeness that you would if you were on your best behavior with a stranger.  After all why share the best of you only with strangers…why not give your best to those you work with and care about most.  

Apologizing – If you make a mistake, be sincere and apologize as soon as possible. Don’t try to hide it, ignore it or pretend it doesn’t matter.  When we don’t apologize for our mistakes or wrongdoings as they happen we leave unresolved issues.  It is human nature to store unresolved issues.  Some of us our so good at storing our issues that we have an entire storage unit full.  Until finally one day a blow up happens…and the storage unit gates fly open and every unresolved issue comes hurling out.  Try to apologize the same day if at all possible to resolve issues and keep them from being stored.

Forgiving – In order to move forward and work together in a functional relationship we need to forgive each other.  I can’t tell you how many times I observe two team members who don’t work well together anymore because of something that happened years ago.  I would like you to consider forgiveness in this light.  Imagine the worst thing you have ever done in your life.  What if it was written on your forehead in permanent marker for all the world to see?   That was your reputation and what you were held accountable to forever.  In essence that is what we are doing when we are unwilling to forgive others.  We are holding others accountable for the worst behavior they ever did to us.  The best way to forgive is to stop trying to agree on who was at fault in the past.  Instead focus on the future and what you can change or do differently to make the relationship work.  

Implementing these three positive behaviors will help you change your dental family from dysfunctional to a dynamic!

Contact Judy Kay today if you would like to learn more about how she can help you change dysfunctional team relationships into dynamic team relationships!

January 13, 2014

Dealing With Conflict at Work

Filed under: Attitude,Behavior,Communication,Conduct,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Eggshells,Elephants,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Gossip,Habit,Leadership,Mindset,Orange Energy,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 11:30 pm
I invite you to listen in on my interview with Shirley Gutkowski on Cross Link Radio about Dealing With Conflict at Work! Thank you Shirley!    Dealing With Conflict at Work!

 

January 1, 2014

Performance Standards

Filed under: Accountability,Appreciation,Attitude,Communication,Conflict Resolution,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Leadership,Mindset,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,R.I.S.E. Philosophy,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 8:00 am

I thought writing about performance standards was a great way to get started in 2014!  Performance standards are really to provide the team with specific performance expectations. They are the observable behaviors and actions which explain how the job is to be done and the results that are expected.  The main purpose of performance standards is to communicate clear expectations.

 The higher the standard the higher the performance!

It is just that simple…right?  Wrong!  Just because you set high standards does not mean you will get better performance.  Doctors and managers often struggle with getting the team to support the practice standards.  Yet they continue to set new and higher standards in hope that they can raise the level of performance in their practice.  Raising the level of performance is really dependent on the following principles.   Here are four principles that will help you nurture a culture of top performers!

The first principle is Leadership. 

Model the waddle you want to see.  In other words walk the walk! If leaders don’t “lead by example,” it is next to impossible to raise the level of performance. How can anyone trust a leader who says one thing, but does another?  We don’t support people we don’t trust.  People will do as you do not as you say.  Everything really does come from the top down. Set standards, don’t allow double standards; live and maintain those standards. If you want your team’s focus to be what’s in the best interests of the patients and the practice, yours must be as well. Actions always speak louder than words. If you say one thing and do another they will start to doubt and be suspicious of everything you tell them. They may lose trust that you’re doing the right thing, or that you even know what you’re doing. They will stop following your lead.  The vision you’re trying to make happen will falter when your team doesn’t trust or respect you anymore resulting in plummeting performance.

The second principle is Precise and Consistent Expectations.

A team meeting setting works best to get everyone on board. Don’t generalize be specific.  Define clearly what you want.  Go deep enough for everyone to understand the who, what, when, where, why and how behind each standard.  What does it mean in words, attitude, actions, body language, and tone of voice?  Discuss any potential obstacles and a plan of action to overcome.  Allow input from the entire team to create immediate ownership.  Once the team has agreed on a standard, title it and print it out as your Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).  A simple 3 ring binder with clear sheet protectors works awesome as an SOP Manual.

The third principle is Accountability Monitoring and Feedback.

Monitor results on a daily basis.  Your daily huddles are what I refer to as accountability meetings.  They allow the team to discuss and get feedback on what is not working or not being done in a real time basis. Utilize a white board to list any reminders that need to be addressed instead of waiting for the team meeting.  The team is responsible to review the white board prior to the huddle.  A white board will help you to communicate effectively even if you have different shifts.  If it is specific to only one or two team members list their name and who to check in with to discuss further.  Otherwise, just list it on the board for everyone.  Monthly team meetings are great to review benchmarks in terms of quality, quantity, or timeliness and give feedback of how the team and practice is doing.

The fourth principle is Commitment.

It is necessary for every team member to commit to supporting the practice standards in attitude, words and actions.  Whenever you are implementing something new or changing an existing standard, system or protocol ask each team member to verbally commit their support in front of the entire team.  (A team meeting setting works great for this as well.)  Sometimes even when you utilize the first three principles; you can’t get that one team member on board.  The reality is they have their own agenda and therefore are unwilling to commit to supporting yours.  Performance standards are based on best practices for the greater good of the patients and the practice and not any individual. If they are only willing to do what they choose and are only concerned about WIIFT it is time to have a line in the sand conversation.  If they want to be a part of the team it is necessary to support the team standards.  Otherwise, wish them well and let them join another team that may be a better fit for their standards.  Yes I know, they may be extremely good at what they do when they want to be.  In most cases they are and will use it as leverage to hold the doctor hostage.  However, if you allow one team member to not support the practice standards you sacrifice the entire teams performance!  The bottom line is that if they are not supporting they are sabotaging the practice.

Embracing these 4 principles will help you raise the level of performance in your practice!

 Contact Judy Kay today if you would like to learn more about how she can help you raise the level of performance in your practice!

 

December 1, 2013

Change Your Feelings Change Your Results!

Filed under: Attitude,Communication,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Eggshells,Elephants,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Habit,Leadership,Mindset,Orange Energy,Patient Experience,Performance,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized,WOW Philosophy — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 9:00 am

This month’s newsletter is dedicated to the touchy feeling stuff! And it’s big stuff!  Our feelings are what drive our actions and our actions generate our outcome!  

 Something happens, we assign meaning to it, the meaning creates a feeling, the feeling drives a reaction!

 We can change our results when we recognize how our feelings affect our outcome and learn how to control versus be controlled by them! 

Haven’t we all at one time or another reacted to something negatively because of how we felt at the moment and regretted it later.  It can happen to even the best of us.  However, when we continue to allow our feelings to control our reactions we become what I refer to as an emotional reactor.  Emotional reactors allow their feelings instead of their mind to be in the driver seat of their actions!  They often lose control and lash out in volatile explosions of anger, judgment, criticism etc!  They are extremely dangerous and difficult to be around because you never know when they will erupt.  Often times they hurt the ones they love the most.  Their path is strewn with the fallout of damaged and broken relationships.  The good news is we can end the emotional reaction cycle by understanding it and putting our mind back in the driver seat!

The Emotional Reaction Cycle starts when we assign meaning to an experience.  Our reality is based on what we believe to be true about an experience at the time it happens and how we label it.  Our mind filters the world we live in.  Our reality is really just our perception.  A group of people could share an experience and have a different reality based on how they filter the experience.  The two filters that affect our reality most often are Generalization and Distortion. 

Generalization is when something is similar or familiar to a past experience and we assign the same meaning.  It can greatly contribute to limiting beliefs.  For example, all people with blonde hair are not smart.  (Just thought I would throw that in as I am blonde…or at least that is my current color of choice).   Another example is when someone reminds us of someone we know and we either instantly like or dislike them based on the other relationship.  Or we are unwilling to try something because it is similar to something we failed at before.

Distortion is changing an experience from what it actually was to some modified form of what it is.  Distortion happens when you remember a moment of an event as representing the entire thing. Usually it is something negative that over shadows everything else.  For example you receive 10 positive comments and one negative comment from your patients and you focus only on what you are doing wrong.  Or you define your day by the one thing that was difficult versus the 100 things that went well.  Or we define other people only by their mistakes or by one characteristic we dislike. 

Once we realize that our reality is really only our perception of the experience based on our filters we open ourselves up to other possibilities and can change how we feel.   

 The awesome part is it takes less than 60 seconds to change your feelings to change your results!

 Here are 5 steps to help you change how you feel and stop the emotional reaction cycle.   

 The first step is recognizing how you are feeling.  Actually ask yourself; how do I feel right at this moment.  Identify the feeling or emotion by saying I am feeling…frustrated or tired or angry or helpless or afraid or jealous etc. 

The seconds step is to visualize the negative feeling as a little monster sitting on your right shoulder dictating how you should feel.  (My monster looks a lot like the little green mucus guy from the Mucinex commercial.)  Then address your monster and send it packing. I say to my monster “I see you and you have no control over me” and then I physically flick it off my shoulder!  You may have to flick the monster off several times…they are pretty persistent little devils.  Let’s be honest sometimes it feels good to let off steam.  However, a moment of release is never worth hurting someone and even possibly destroying the relationship.  Words do hurt and are very powerful.  Words can destroy relationships even with the people we love the most. 

 The third step is to re-hardwire how you are feeling by not taking things so personal.  Life doesn’t happen to us personally; it just happens.  People behave towards us based on their limiting beliefs of reality.  Yet we often take it as personal.  Have you ever said, “Why does this always have to happen to me?”  It didn’t happen to you…you chose to own it.  It isn’t like the game Dodge Ball where some universal force picks you out of all the people on the rest of the planet and decides to throw something at you!  It may sometimes feel like it but stuff happens and it’s not personal.  There are just a lot of flying balls out there and we occasionally run into one. 

The fourth step is to re-program how we feel.  A physical emotion only lasts 30 seconds.   We extend the emotion when we continue to rehash our feelings over and over.  To change how you feel choose words to describe how you want to feel.  Now it’s time for the physical reset.  Slow down your thinking in order to stop spinning.  Start by taking three deep breaths in and out to become present.  Say out loud the feeling(s) you want to feel.  “I feel happy or I feel at peace!” Now imagine a time when you felt that emotion and immerse yourself in that experience.  Give yourself at least 30 seconds to really enjoy that memory. 

The fifth step and final step is to choose how you want to react.   Ask yourself, “How would I react if I were being my best me or the person I want to become?”  Aristotle said it best when he said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit.”   How would the person you want to become or the people you admire and respect most behave in this situation! 

Ta-dah!  You have just changed how you feel, how you reacted and your results in less than 60 seconds!

My hope for you moving forward is that whatever may come your way you will come from a place of curiosity instead of judgment and criticism.  Please be careful about what you label things. What we label it is what our reality becomes.  Label the experience or event interesting instead of good, bad, right, wrong, negative or positive.  We really don’t know until we have reached the end of our journey.   It is only than that we can look back and see the outcome and whether it brought us success or failure.  Often times it may feel grueling and difficult short term.  However, it may be just what we needed to shape, change and help us grow and empower us to live our dreams.  Happy feelings to you!

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