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October 1, 2014

Assumptions!

Filed under: Accountability,Affirmations,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,Orange Energy,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Positive Thought,Relationships,Strategy,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized — Tags: appreciation, Assumptions, attitude, change, Coaching, communication, conflict resolution, cusotmer service, Decision making, dental, Dental Coaching, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, drama, energy, experience, focus, gossip, Habits, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, positive energy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, service, show your shine, success, sustain, team, team building, Thoughts, value, weeds, wow — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 8:00 am

ASSUMPTIONS!

HOW CAN WE STOP MAKING ASSUMPTIONS?

WE MAKE ASSUMPTIONS EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY.

SOMETHING HAPPENS AND WE INSTANTLY ASSIGN MEANING TO IT.

THAT IS AN ASSUMPTION.

We start imagining what other people are doing, what they’re thinking, what they’re saying about us. We invent an entire story based on assumptions and we believe it. One assumption leads to another assumption; we jump to conclusions and we take it personally. Then we point the finger and blame other people. We usually start gossiping to try to justify our assumptions. Almost all conflicts are based on false assumptions. Assumptions are nothing more than false stories that we are telling ourselves. This creates a big drama for nothing because we don’t know if it is really true.

For example, when we haven’t heard from a close friend in a while we start to wonder if anything is wrong. The more we worry about it the more reasons we find to support our belief that something is wrong. And instead of picking up the phone and calling to ask if everything is okay we justify why we shouldn’t and put the blame on them. We continue to build our story and stress. Then our friend finally calls and we find out they have just been swamped in the busyness of life! All that negative energy and drama for a story we made up from assumptions.

It may be correct or it may be incorrect. We won’t know unless we take the next step. That step is a simple three letter word. ASK! Sounds easy but it’s not. We often fear that if we ask, we may open ourselves up to an emotional reaction. I call that emotional reaction an eggshell. Eggshells spawn many of the assumptions in our lives and in our dental practices today. It’s the fear of these potential eggshells that stop us from asking and allow us to start assuming.

Some of the eggshells I am referring to are:

Anger
Judgment/Criticism
Retaliation
Hurt feelings

We can’t let fear stop us from asking if we want to avoid assumptions. We don’t know what someone meant by their actions or words or the way they said something. Sometimes even what they say or the words they use can mean something different than what we believe them to mean. And just because someone felt a certain way in the past doesn’t mean they still feel the same. Stop making assumptions and start asking questions regardless of potential eggshells.

When you get that twinge in your gut and you think “Hmmm – I wonder what they meant by that, or I wonder why they haven’t…?” Or you find yourself saying “I think they meant this” – you don’t know! Stop yourself immediately from wondering and speculating and ASK! You will be surprised how many of your initial assumptions are incorrect once you hear their intent.

Ask with care, concern and respect. Some simple questions to ask are:

I am not quite sure what you meant, please tell me more?
I am not quite sure what happened. Can we talk about it?
Is everything okay?
Are you okay?

Continue to respectfully ask questions until you understand the other person’s true intent. If you are still thinking “I think they meant…” you are assuming. It is important to continue to ask more questions to achieve a deeper understanding!

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September 1, 2014

Engaging Success! Part III

Filed under: Accountability,Affirmations,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,Orange Energy,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Positive Thought,R.I.S.E. Philosophy,Relationships,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized,WOW Philosophy — Tags: appreciation, attitude, Coaching, communication, conflict resolution, cusotmer service, Decision making, dental, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, drama, energy, engaged, engaging, experience, focus, gossip, Habits, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, o.r.a.n.g.e, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, positive energy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, R.I.S.E., service, show your shine, success, sustain, team, team building, Thoughts, value, weeds, wow — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 9:00 am

September 2014

Engaging Success Part III!

This month we will cover the final three strategies to help you get your team engaged and bridge the gap between potential and performance! Just in case you missed the last two newsletters… here are the statistics to support why getting your team engaged is not fluff stuff! It’s how I help teams nationwide create a happy, healthy and high performing culture!

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

Open to Opinions

We encourage open communication to allow everyone to voice their opinions pertaining to the patients and the practice. Doctors, managers and team members are often surprised when a co-worker who never participates starts speaking up at our workshop. I have often found that when a team member doesn’t speak up it’s because they feel they have been shot down in the past. They believe their opinion didn’t count so they stopped sharing. When team members feel their opinion is welcomed and valuable they become more engaged.

Everyone on the team has the right to express their opinion and be heard without being criticized or made to feel stupid. Instead share constructive feedback with the team member why you feel it may or may not work. Being open to opinions means we at least consider the idea. Considering a team member’s input can often lead to better decision-making. This is because the team members are often the ones directly doing the task, process or service and understand the limitations as well as the possibilities. When team members feel they are involved in decisions, they take greater ownership for the outcomes. Ownership is a sign they are engaged!

Constructive Feedback

We actually schedule feedback time with team members. If we don’t schedule the time chances are it won’t happen. Many offices schedule annual employee performance reviews. Meeting and discussing progress, achievements and goals on an annual basis is not enough to get engagement. How engaged or involved would you be in a relationship where you only had a deeper conversation once a year?

What works well is a quick (5 to 10 minute) monthly or quarterly Checkup with the manager or doctor touching base on their progress, achievements and goals. Questions to ask are:

What where your goals for this period?
What accomplishments would you like to celebrate?
What are your goals or projects for the next period?
How can I best support you?

We also establish an open door meeting policy where team members can request to schedule time as needed. Scheduling time helps avoid constant interruptions and creates a more focused agenda. Giving timely constructive feedback will help keep your team engaged.

http://youtu.be/GvoLvQtF0c8

Opportunity for Personal and Professional Growth

We create opportunities for every team member to continue to challenge themselves to learn and grow both in their personal and professional life. We ask them to create a list of topics they would like to learn more about in the next year at their annual review. The doctor/manager also add topics to the list based on what they feel will benefit the team member most. Together the team member and doctor/manager prioritize the list and agree on completion dates. The progress is reviewed at their monthly or quarterly Checkup meeting.

We also start a monthly book club in the practice focused on personal growth. Everyone on the team is asked to participate in suggesting books. Great books for team meeting discussions are the Simple Truths books at www.simpletruths.com. Or my book Rise & Shine and soon my next book Ta-Dah, www.practicesolutionsinc.net/book.html! The book is discussed at the team meeting. Lengthier books can be discussed in chapters. There is open dialogue on the benefits and how it can be applied in the practice as well as their personal life. Creating the opportunity to learn and grow will help to keep your team excited and engaged.

Engage your team by being open to opinions, giving timely constructive feedback and creating an opportunity to learn and grow!

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!

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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: appreciation, attitude, change, Coaching, communication, conflict resolution, Decision making, dental, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, drama, energy, experience, focus, Habits, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, positive energy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, R.I.S.E., service, show your shine, success, sustain, team, team building, Thoughts, value, weeds, wow — 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!

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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: appreciation, attitude, change, Coaching, conflict resolution, cusotmer service, Decision making, dental, Dental Coaching, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, drama, energy, experience, focus, Habits, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, positive energy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, show your shine, success, sustain, team, team building, Thoughts, value, weeds, wow — 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!

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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: appreciation, attitude, celebration, change, Coaching, collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, cusotmer service, Decision making, dental, Dental Coaching, dental management, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, energy, experience, focus, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, motivation, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, service, sustain, team, team building, Team work, Thoughts, value — 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!

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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: appreciation, attitude, change, Coaching, communication, conflict resolution, cusotmer service, Decision making, dental, Dental Coaching, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, drama, Dysfunctional, energy, experience, focus, gossip, Habits, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, o.r.a.n.g.e, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, positive energy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, R.I.S.E., service, show your shine, sustain, team, team building, Thoughts, value, weeds, wow — 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!

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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: appreciation, attitude, change, Coaching, conflict resolution, Decision making, dental, Dental Coaching, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, energy, experience, focus, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, positive energy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, R.I.S.E., success, sustain, team, team building, Thoughts, value — 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!

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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: attitude, change, Coaching, communication, conflict resolution, cusotmer service, Decision making, dental, Dental Coaching, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, drama, energy, experience, Feelings, focus, Habits, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, o.r.a.n.g.e, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, positive energy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, results, service, show your shine, success, sustain, team building, Thoughts, value, weeds, wow — 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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November 1, 2013

Delivering W.O.W. Service!

Filed under: Accountability,Appreciation,Attitude,Communication,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Habit,Leadership,Mindset,Orange Energy,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized,WOW Philosophy — Tags: appreciation, attitude, change, Coaching, communication, conflict resolution, cusotmer service, Decision making, dental, Dental Coaching, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, drama, energy, experience, focus, Habits, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, o.r.a.n.g.e, Patient experience, performance, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, service, show your shine, success, sustain, team, team building, Thoughts, value, weeds, wow — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 9:00 am

This month’s is all about delivering W.O.W. Service! I might as well confess right here right now…I am an acronym addict! I absolutely love them! W.O.W is an acronym for Weed Out the Weeds!

Here is why! I work with General Dentists as well as Specialty Practices (Oral Surgery, Periodontal, Orthodontic, Endodontic, Prosthodontic and Pain Clinics) to help them create an exceptional service culture. What I have found is once we eliminated the weeds in their practice they were able to deliver WOW Service! A weed is anything that can make a patient feel uncomfortable or unwelcome or could possibly destroy a relationship.

Your patients will forget everything except how you made them feel!

In order to create a W.O.W. Service Culture it is important to focus on the patient’s experience. This means one-sided practice focused rules and procedures have to be eliminated. It is necessary for the entire team to be trained on how to deliver W.O.W. Service. It only takes one untrained person to create a weed experience and lose a patient. I teach a 3 step process to help my clients Weed Out the Weeds and create a W.O.W. Service Culture. A team meeting setting works awesome.

The first step is for the team to define their ideal service culture!
The next step is to list all the obstacles that may get in the way!
The final step is to discuss service strategies and implement SOPs to overcome the obstacles.

It is important to remember the reality behind exceptional service. Service is a triangle. If you want to deliver exceptional service it usually requires additional time, money or people or all three! If you are unwilling to invest in the 3 the level of service you deliver will be limited.

Here are the TOP 10 Service Standards for Delivering W.O.W. Service!

1. Smile – Seriously…this is the simplest, and the only standard that does not require extra time, money or people and gives the biggest ROI! Yet I can’t tell you how many people struggle with smiling. For some it’s like pulling teeth!

2. Slow Down – Yes I know you are trying to be efficient and effective and raise the highest PPH (Production Per Hour) to pay overhead. When it comes to service…if you don’t take time for your patients…they will go to an office where someone does! This is one of the biggest complaints patients have regarding service. How effective and efficient are you if you are losing patients. Do you know what your monthly net patient count is? Research shows it costs 6 to7 times more to attain a new patient than it does to retain an existing patient.

3. WIIFTP – Always ask yourself when you are interacting with a patient…what’s in it for the patient…how I can serve them best at this moment.

4. Own It – Four magic words in service…I CAN HELP YOU! Even if that means that you reach out for assistance from someone else. Don’t refer them to someone else. Because it is YOUR JOB! Your job is whatever legal, ethical and is within your licensure that will help to create a W.O.W. Patient Experience and help the practice thrive!

5. Help Each Other – In other words team work! It means you ask for help when it could enhance the patient’s experience. You say yes when someone asks you for help unless you are already with another patient…even if you don’t like that person! Part of team work means we play well together and work for the greater good. How ironic that playing well together was expected starting in first grade…even a part of the report card. Now it often ceases to exist even in the most professional of environments!

6. Be Professional – Professional can mean many things to different people. Leave nothing up to assumptions…Establish guidelines and standards for appearance, communication, attitude, and behavior. I suggest a team meeting and have the team define the standards. When the team establishes the guidelines and standards they are much more likely to embrace and own them!

7. Protect the Privacy of Patients, Employees and the Company – We are all familiar with HIPAA. Privacy also means no gossip! You can stop gossip in your practice if you don’t allow it! NO…women do not have to gossip!!! That’s a whole other newsletter! J

8. Maintain a Sparkling Clean Environment – You may have a janitorial service to assist at night. During the day it is everyone’s responsibility to maintain the office. If your patient sees dirty gauze on the floor they will assume that the office is not clean/sterile. If they see a messy and coffee stained reception area they will assume the office is not clean/sterile. If you see it, clean it or pick it up!

9. Be On Time – I know that you can’t predict everything to be able to schedule every appointment appropriately. Nor can you just stop working on the patient once their time is up. Although there are times we may wish we could! However, if you consistently run behind it is time to evaluate where you run behind and the time you are allowing for those appointments. If your patient always has to wait it becomes a very big weed that could eventually destroy your relationship. They will believe that you don’t respect them or their time. I know of practices where their brand is just being on time and they are thriving because of it!

10. Practice – Your patients aren’t test sites, guinea pigs or experiments. Please practice before you ever take anything out on the floor to try on your patients. Practice verbal skills, role playing and even the physical walk through. I can already feel the push back on role playing. Ick we hate that!!! If you can’t say it to each other how in the world can you say it to a patient? You will avoid fields of weeds if you just practice! In Real Estate the 3 magic words are location, location, location well in delivering W.O.W. Service its practice, practice, practice!

I ask you to think about what steps you are willing to take to make a difference for your patients. Implementing Service Standards will help you nurture a W.O.W. Patient Environment! Bottom line is that no matter how great of a dentist you are…your patients will forget everything except how you made them feel! The secret is delivering W.O.W. Service!

Research shows that dentists who build their office environment around the patient’s experience own and dominate the market.

If you would like help creating your ideal W.O.W. Service Culture please contact me to learn more about my 2 day onsite training “Delivering W.O.W. Service”!

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October 1, 2013

The Cost of Trust

Filed under: Accountability,Attitude,Communication,Conflict Resolution,Customer Service,Decision Making,Dental Practice Management,Energy,Fear,Focus,Goals,Habit,Leadership,Mindset,Patient Experience,Patient Focused Practice,Performance,Strategy,Success,Sustainability,Team Building,Team Relationships,Uncategorized — Tags: appreciation, attitude, Bottom Line, change, Coaching, communication, conflict resolution, Culture, cusotmer service, Decision making, dental, Dental Coaching, dental management, dental office, Dental Practice, dental Practice Management, Dental Team Performance, Dentistry, drama, energy, experience, focus, Habits, Judy Kay, Judy Kay Mausolf, leadership, Manager, Patient experience, performance, Philosophy, positive energy, practice management, Practice Solutions Inc, purpose, service, social virtue, success, sustain, team, team building, Thoughts, Trust, value, weeds, wow — Judy Kay Mausolf @ 9:00 am

One of the biggest signs of low trust is when the leadership team has difficulty getting the team on board and excited to follow their lead.

Imagine a culture of trust where:

• Leadership was by example

• Everyone could rely on each other to work together for the greater good

• Co-worker’s didn’t question each other’s intent

• Open communication was the standard

• Gossip ceased to exist

• Accountability was self-maintained

• Honesty was the only policy

Trust is the foundation of a happy, healthy, and high producing culture. There is a cost to low trust!

How much more productive would your practice be if your team truly trusted each other?

The dictionary defines trust as instinctive unquestioning belief in and reliance upon something. The culture of trust I am suggesting is not one of blind faith but instead one of confidence! Confident trust is based on good reasons, definite evidence or past experience.

Think about the people in your life that you trust the most. Why do you trust them? Confident trust does not just happen overnight. It takes time to nurture and grow. However, breaking one’s trust can happen in a heartbeat. The great news is that building trust is a skill set that can be learned. Once we can learn how to build trust we can prevent trust breakdowns!

I would start by having a team meeting to talk about the level of trust in your practice. Discuss the benefits of having a culture of trust. It is also important for the entire team to understand how much a low level of trust affects the practice and the bottom line. Such as having to add steps to compensate, extra staff to cover for lack of accountability, and redundant systems and processes.

Let me give you an example of low trust with patients. You may have some patients that no show or cancel last minute. Therefore, you decide to implement the following protocol: All patients must sign a form that states they will owe $ if they don’t show or cancel last minute unless it is an illness (with a doctor note) or death in the family. The cost is that now all patients are subjected to a protocol that shows you no longer trust them and makes them feel unwelcome…which could ultimately destroy the relationship resulting in them leaving the practice. It is an insult to your patients who are responsible and accountable and the ones who are not will just ignore it! The same holds true with your team. When you add extra steps for everyone to compensate for the inadequacies of the team members you can’t trust…you may end up losing your good team members.

The next step is to ask the team to share what they feel they need from each other to build trust. Use a large easel pad and write down all the answers being shared by the team. Cross out any duplicates.

Some examples might be:

• If you have an issue with me talk to me first

• Help me when you see I need help

• Finish what you say you are going to do

• Focus on the greater good instead of WIIFY

• Tell me the truth but be compassionate

• Don’t be late or absent for trivial reasons

Put your list together and label it Trust Culture Guidelines. Next print it, frame it and put on display for future reference. It will be important to review whenever you hire someone new or…because old habit die hard; whenever someone’s behavior deems it necessary!

Ta-dah…your team has just established their guidelines on how to build the level of trust in the practice! The awesome part is that when people create it they own it!

The bottom line is that trust is not just a social virtue it greatly affects your bottom line!

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