What's holding you back?: Ep 006

Welcome back to the sixth episode of dentistry support the podcast. I am your host, Sarah Beth Herman. And I'm really glad you're here today. I want to talk about building a culture of continuous improvement and your dental or small business that you have or lead.  This podcast is not just for the dental industry, but it is where the most experience I have lies.  When you think about any business in any industry? I'm sure. 

You're a little bit like me. And you realize that we have encountered so many challenges and so many successes often, right? At the same time. But there's one thing that's always constant. And that is that every business is always evolving, changing, and growing. We have this amazing ability to adapt and grow, to make the success of our businesses bigger than we ever imagined. Today, I'm taking some time to help you foster a mindset of continual learning and development within your business.  This may strike a few chords you didn't know, needed to be sounded, and it might make you think a little deeper. A, way you promised yourself you would, when the new year began.  I've got some stories I'm going to share. 

And some strategies I think will mean a great deal to you as a leader. Even more so a generational leader.  So, whether you're a seasoned dental professional, you're a C suite team member. Maybe you're a newcomer in your field. I want you to sit back, relax. And work together with me to build this culture of continuous improvement. And learning exactly what your role needs to look like. 

 Out of sheer curiosity. Have you ever called a business and you couldn't get them to call you back? Or you went to a restaurant. And the manager was some punk kid who had no respect for anyone. And they were seemingly upset that they were even having to work today.  Or maybe you've been somewhere and the front office of whatever kind of business.  The employees they're shared with you, how annoying their day was, or it felt like such a Monday or their wifi wasn't working or they couldn't get their printer to work. Have you ever reached out to someone to have work done on your home or at your place of business? And it took a month for someone to even get back to you. 

And you're like, yo, I want to pay you actual money. Why are you not getting back to me? I'm literally willing to pay you.  Have you ever overheard anyone on your team talking to a client, a customer or a patient? And it kinda made you cringe a little bit, but it wasn't that big of a deal at the time. 

So you let it slide. And you try to forget about it. You don't say anything and then it happened again and again and again, and now it just happens all the time. And so you've kind of become numb to it. Maybe you're thinking it's happened so many times you couldn't possibly say something now.  Did you just nod your head in agreement with anything? 

I just said.  Well, maybe this episode was crafted just for you.  When I first started in dentistry. I was really young.  I think the younger you are when you begin in your career. The more opportunity you have to grow. And to learn about yourself, to become a better version of who you start out to be.  

While it's really hard, to be honest with myself. I have to be in order to share this podcast from a perspective where I feel like it will be meaningful for you.  When I was between the ages of 17, 18 and 19 years old. Starting my journey and my working career.  I learned a lot of different jobs because I was trying to make ends meet. That meant I was trying out careers and different industries all at the same time. And after you worked somewhere for any length of time where you're past that initial training point. Your confidence subconsciously grows and it takes your ego along with it.  We talked in a previous episode about how after  10 years in an industry, You really feel like you're the Supreme expert. 

I often think back to those first few years in leadership .  I think when you're younger time and the relativity of time have different meanings. One week, somewhere feels like you've been there for a month and you know, just about everything. One month, somewhere feels like six months and you're ready for management.  And then one year feels like 10. 

So you should probably be the owner of the place.  I don't believe that every one of you have had the same journey as me. But I do believe that we have very similar mindsets and because we have these altered viewpoints or altered vantage points of what time looks like. Maybe even an altered reality of what time really means. We are never prepared for leaders that came before us. 

For example, you might have said. Who are they to implement change? Or who are they to want us to alter our behavior? To meet the needs of what their goals are for the business.

 I'm going to prepare you for just a minute.  I'm about to share with you how I am the most annoying coworker. How you've probably worked with someone just like me. Or maybe you are someone just like me. And I'll tell you right now, you need to be honest with yourself that you are the most annoying coworker.  I was that employee who was always a rockstar.  I met every goal. 

Then I would exceed that goal by numbers. No one could ever imagine.  I remember being that employee that always had a chip on her shoulder because I knew how to talk my way out of anything, get my way through anything and be charming enough that everyone would love me. And I was smart. Intelligent. And I found ways to almost chameleon myself to my environment to fit right in.  Always making sure I was enough. 

Like what I could see the leaders needed in a star performer.  I knew what I was doing. I knew how to get to the very top. And that mentality as proud as my bosses may have been at me  was never going to make me as grand of a generational leader, as I was always meant to be.  There was no part of me that was ever ready to recognize that there would be a need for change.  There was never any part of me that needed to create a culture of continuous improvement. 

Are you kidding me? I was the best.  There was never a part of me that would need to overcome a resistance to change because I always just knew what needed to be done. Beat the numbers.  And there was no way I needed to change who I was.  Furthermore, there was never a part of me that needed to embrace growth opportunities, unless it meant more money. A higher paying position, a higher title. , or maybe even an advancement to a new department.  I was it. I didn't need anything more.  And maybe I kind of sound like you, or I sound like someone on your team.  

I remember at an early age. As an employee, if someone gave me an assignment, let's say they gave me a stack of papers. They wanted me to get through and they said, I want you to finish 50% of this. I was always going to do that. And 10% more. Because I wanted to hear from them. Great job. I wanted to hear you did awesome. You exceeded my expectations, Sarah Beth.  I felt that dopamine hit when someone gave me a compliment. And while working, I could control the narrative of my compliments. I could control when someone would say. You're awesome. 

You did a great job. You're the best Sarah Beth.  It is absolutely fair to say that maybe those tendencies come from childhood trauma.  But what I think is more fair to do is to approach this from the standpoint of that is who I used to be.  This if it's you.  It can be who you used to be. 

 I have learned how to be far better. Because all those moments of praise got me. Was a bunch of co-workers who couldn't stand me, bosses who praised me in public. As I watched everyone on the team, I was a part of roll their eyes. And steer as far away from me as possible because I was a brown noser.  I ultimately learned. 

Yes, I was in control of what other people could be proud of me for.  But what I needed. Was to be an employee that could work with the team. Because no one and the history of ever.  Has ever been self-made and yes, that's a soap box. I'm going to stand on. That's a hill. I'm going to die on.  To be a true leader, a generational leader. It meant I had to learn to work with my team so we could be successful together. 

 Let me give you a few examples of what it was like to be a brown noser. When I worked as a server and a popular local restaurant. We would always have these goals of how much percentage of alcohol we would sell versus how much food.  And the ratio was usually 70, 30 to meet our goals. I always made it my mission that I met 31% or more.  Or like when I worked at the bank, At the time I was in banking, visa, debit cards were brand new. And we were incentivizing our customers to get the visa debit card. Every time they would enroll  we would get $5. 

Our goal was to get 10 people to get a visa debit card every day. I always had a goal of 11 or 12.  Or when I worked at another bank, I was in my early twenties at the time. And we had to sell what were called solutions. So every day our goal was seven.  And I would always say three times that amount.  I was so ambitious, but that ambition was always to get praise just like it wasn't the previous bank or the restaurant that I worked at.  Okay. If none of those ring, a bell with you or resonate, how about this one? I worked at my very first small group dental practice in the front office. And I would volunteer to work on holidays. I would make it my goal to schedule more dental appointments in one day than anyone had ever, just so I could sit in the next morning huddle and get accolades. By then my team ignored me all day and didn't invite me to lunch with the rest of the girls because they had no room in their car to ride together or whatever other lie of a reason they would give me.  

I was always on a goal to be proud of myself. Never anyone else.  My goal was always focused on who would give me a compliment and how could I be seen as better to somebody else?  I was completely selfish. 

What I needed early on. Was the recognition that in order for me to grow.  That meant I needed to take everyone with me. Uh, lift up my team and show everyone that they could do it.  But instead.  When I reached all the goals I had at a given job.  Or when I felt like I reached the top of where I was going to go. And there was a lot more effort I would have to put in. I would just skip jobs.  Get another dollar more an hour, get another raise, experience, a better title.  Get the feeling that I was actually evolving.  

But let me be very, very clear with you.  You can only go so far without a support system.  I know now I wasn't creating anyone behind me. That would be grateful that they were a part of me or my network or my team. And I certainly was not creating leaders, generational leaders, or a single morsel of respect.  I also wasn't establishing any mark of a culture within any team. 

I was a part of.  Instead of focusing on how I could make an entire team better. I was always focused on myself. What I was doing, how I could be the best, how I could make the most.  So what journey was I really on?  Why did it even matter? Sure. I got a lot of compliments. Sure I was number one in everything I did.  But that isn't serving anyone else. And if I truly am a servant leader, If I truly am a generational leader.  If I am trusted to be in a leadership position of any capacity.  What was I even doing here?  Are these the same questions that you're asking yourself?  If you're not, I'm going to challenge you to.  Today, we're going to dive into the importance of recognizing when change is necessary for advancement in your business. 

When to be quiet. 

 We're going to talk about the detrimental effects of complacency. And resistance to change.  And one time. Uh, my lack of teamwork led me to the cruelest interview I ever had the biggest let down.  I am going to help you learn the need for a proactive approach to identifying areas of improvement.  You will have the confidence and your role of leadership driving recognition for your team. And fostering a culture where change is actually embraced and not feared. So let's get into it.  

 There is this common theme amongst corporations everywhere. Even private practices or businesses that you might be a part of.  Where they really want the outside world to see  they have an environment that is this team environment, this family, this amazing leadership structure. They want to do this because they have seen other businesses or other companies where there has been this particular amount of success from incorporating this great leadership or family environment or whatever they've seen other people do.  

You see your efforts for this? 

Can't just be for social media to see it. It has to be that you really want to have change. You can take all the pretty pictures you can do all of the gift giving. You can do all of the team work events.  But if the culture still remains that there's backstabbing talking in the back room about somebody rolling their eyes, that high-performers people that don't actually want to work together. All of those pretty pictures and all of that money you spent on those extra things is just a waste of your time, money and resources.  Recognizing the need for change is so important. And that is the first step, because if you are in a space where you're complacent your resistance to change, You don't have anyone in your office making a proactive approach of identifying areas for improvement. You're only going to go so far. Numbers never lie.  The reason I bring up numbers, never lie is because a business can only continue to grow in a toxic environment so far.  Maybe your business has grown really far because you have some strategic people in place that just drive business aggressively.  

Maybe you're in a dental office and you have a very aggressive dentist and they diagnose so aggressively that treatment plan numbers are there because the cases are so large. So you're really profitable.  

Or maybe the case acceptance is there because you have an aggressive office manager.  But nothing can continue to go up without ultimately going down. Unless you have some sort of change in the course of action.  So I do appreciate the very first step that we're discussing here, which is recognizing that there is a need for change. But once you've recognized that need for change. It is so important that you understand what the role and leadership is in driving and fostering that culture where change is actually embraced rather than feared.  I'm going to talk to you about a time when I went to work for one of the largest privately owned dental groups in the Western United States.  While I really want to share with you all of the experiences I had at that company.  And even more impactful story is going to be that I became the chief operating officer for another dental group. Who's owner happened to be the brother of the privately owned dental group that I initially worked for.  Which if that doesn't quite make sense to you? That's okay. 

 Just picture this. Group a is the dental group that I initially went to work for the largest dental group and the Western part of the U S then dental group B is a totally separate smaller dental group. One of the founding fathers of group a is the brother of the owner of the group B.  That's who I went to work for.

And that's the story we're going to start with. 

I'm starting with this story.  Because it's not too far off from the way I experienced working with the largest organization. But I think the smaller one. I make a little bit more impact.  

My track record in dentistry and my ability to grow dental businesses is unmatched. Of course, in my opinion.  I've grown businesses from $0 to generating over $50,000 in revenue and four weeks time.

 I'm not scared of hard work. I'm not scared of change. And I am definitely not scared of employees who are resistant to change, because I can tell you, I see it everywhere.  When I went to work for the six group practice for the brother of one of the owners of the large dental group.  He knew. He needed change and he knew that he needed to take a chance with me so I could make the change that needed to happen. There is something that happens when you start to work for someone who wants change. Recognizes change, but as resistant to change and they don't even know they're resistant to change. 

And that's where I want you to pause and reflect for a minute.  Because you can be ready for something new to happen. You can be ready for your business to turn a corner. And you can be ready for your team to be energized in a whole new fashion. But if you aren't willing to face what the challenge is, Or what they will be. When you implement that change to get where you really want to go. You will ultimately fail and  go back to what you were doing before, because that's comfortable.  And that's exactly what happened to the dental office.   My first goal as chief operating officer of this six group practice. Was that we had to get rid of everyone who had a bad attitude. Everyone who had a problem with absolutely everything that was going on. 

They had to go because attitude is everything for me.  If you are not willing to change your attitude and be at my level and be a go getter and fight for the greater good of the thriving business, you can not be on my team. I have no room and no space for a bad attitude.  I don't have space for negative talk behind my back. I don't have space for anyone chattering in the ears of other employees, about how much money they should make. How much money they don't make or how much money they could make if they went somewhere else.  I don't have time or energy to entertain the thought that I go into a room. I speak about our dreams and our goals for this business. But the second I walk out, someone is texting someone who isn't, they're talking crap about me and my leadership.  I don't have energy for that. So the very first thing I need to do is get rid of all of that bad behavior and those bad attitudes. 

And so we did. But this owner.  Was really stuck. On the high-performers that he thought he had at various offices. He thought that high production at dental offices meant high performing or high caliber team members. But instead what I uncovered was that yes, at their highest performing location, they had a manager who had been there for seven years. But the production at the office was so high because there were so many providers. 

And when you actually got down to the nitty gritty of how many treatment plans there were. And how many were actually accepted. The case acceptance was below 5%. They were pumping out patients as quick as they possibly could. And they were producing. But if they were even close to 10% or more, I mean a 10% increase or more. They would have taken their practice from producing $250,000 a month to north of 315,000 per month in just one month. For just 10%.  You see, in the previous episode, we talked about the Babel effect and people are really good at selling who they are.  They're really good at selling that they should be in a position that they're in or they're really good at displaying their confidence. But if you actually get down to it, And you look at what people are doing from a numbers aspect, not from a personal aspect or the Babel you hear.  This owner was never going to be willing to let go of this office manager. 

Never. He didn't want me to go into this office and even talk to her because that office was the bread and butter. It was the one that was the highest performing. It was the only one that he was actually able to take a profit from and run the other offices.  

 Here's the thing and a business. You can be producing a lot. But you can also be losing a lot at the same time. When he brought me on, he told me all of his dreams and where he wanted all of these six offices to be. But he wasn't ready to make the tough calls to get the right people in place to actually grow the practice. He also, wasn't willing to realize how much money he was losing on a monthly basis from bad attitudes, lack of followup. And the Mirage that this office manager had created for this location, because they were the highest performing.  I think as important as it is to have dreams and goals.  An as important as it is that we want to grow our businesses. Many of us begin our journey in generational leadership. We're in leadership in general, thinking that communication is key. But what I want to challenge you to realize is that comprehension is key. You can communicate all you want, but if your team doesn't understand you, everything around you is just silent. 

Chaos. 

There are times I wish I could go back and turn the clock back just a couple of years. And say, why don't you just listen to me for a minute? Because you're losing money every day that you accept this poor behavior.  Or you're losing money every day. You choose not to say no and say, yes. Instead.  

Here's what I want you to remember.  

If you've gotten yourself to the point where you understand change needs to happen. You have to be willing to let go.  Let go and let an expert help you get to the next level. 

 Of all of the tips I could give you when it comes to creating a culture that has. Everyone on the same page of continuous growth, continuous improvement, and the change that actually needs to happen. Is to recognize that once you let an expert in, or once you bring on a team member, who's going to make change for you to get your business profitable or to the level you want it to get to.  Make sure. That you are never allowing a team member or someone who has a small portion of ownership in your business.  Who has never been where you want to go, who has never been where you need to go, or who has never been where you dream to go stand in the way of your progress. 

What you can do is you can sit down with that team member or that partial owner and let them know that you are going to have a challenge, prepare them for what is to come. 

So they aren't blindsided and they can get on your page or leave the bus and go to another bus. 

And Hey, if they're going to stay and they're on this journey with you. Awesome. You've got the right person.  You may even know that this person is really great at saying that they're going to support you and whatever's going to happen. But I still want you to have this key conversation. I want you to have the conversation that this is going to be an open communication environment. And that feedback channels exist. And allow them the opportunity to know you care about whatever concerns may arise in this journey.  Make it clear that even if they come to you. You're going to evaluate what you will be evaluating, what they have to say, what they want to talk about, what their concerns are.  But that, regardless of what their concerns are, it doesn't mean you will ever stop the journey you are on change will happen. 

The future of the business is going to grow. And it depends on their 100%. Buy-in.  

The next really important and key aspect is to let this team member know, or this group of team members know that they are going to have a part in creating the change, creating whatever it is that's going to grow or get your business to the next level.  In the end, you are all on the same journey, but you want to give them ownership in development and delegation so that you have their buy-in. 

You want their implementation and follow through to be so on point. And make it that it is actually necessary for this whole plan to work.  

 At this point. You might be worried that today's episode is long or that it's all about me. And maybe I just have a lot of free time to jibber Jabber. 

 Or that it's all about me telling you things like you really need to foster a culture of continuous improvement. You really need to learn to overcome resistance, to change. You really need to embrace growth opportunities and all of that fancy stuff that leaders talk about when you scroll your favorite social media app.  But I actually want to talk to you about things that are unique.  That people can start doing right now. And if they would have just thought about these aspects before. They wouldn't be rehearsing the same words that you scrolled past a thousand times. Or the same words that you've heard someone speak to you in other podcasts or  business conventions that you've been to.   Yes. All of this stuff that I've talked about is really important.  I want to talk to you about doing more than just leading by example, though.  Providing education or training or having open communication and transparency.  I want to bring you into this generation of talking to people and doing things like. Be a successful dental office that prioritizes creating psychologically safe environments where your team members actually feel comfortable sharing ideas. Or suggesting that you can do better or taking calculated risks. 

 Creating a culture of innovation where your team members are constantly thinking of new ideas and you welcome those new ideas.  They know that you have the end say, but you also encourage them to share with you. Things that you might say yes.  Many unsuccessful dental practices that I've met over the years. 

They actually stifle their own innovation by maintaining this hierarchy structure where team members don't really want to speak up or suggest changes. Because there's so much criticism that goes on or favoritism that goes on in a workplace.  I want you to think about how often you have team brainstorming sessions,  or if you have 360 degree performance review programs  where team members receive feedback, not only from their peers or their supervisors, but also from your patients or customers or clients. That way there's actually this comprehensive feedback process. Where your team members see how other people see them from different vantage points. I want you to think about mentorship programs internally and externally. We're seasoned team members can help newer ones, less experienced ones get to go to their next level. I want you to think about pairing unlikely pairs together. So that they can learn from each other and develop a stronger relationship. 

 In 2014, when I first started my company dentistry support. We did eligibility verification only. And it was just like a side thing. I did it wasn't really anything. Great. And then I branched into trying to find temporary workers for dental offices in immediate need in 2017.  From 2014 to 2017, I learned a lot about what dental offices really needed. And so my goal was to instead work towards eligibility services, dental billing services, and phone services. There were a lot of dynamics that go with that and a lot of different team members that you need and quite the leap of faith to even do all three of these from a virtual standpoint, because virtual team members weren't really, really popular at this point. But I knew that I saw a vision of where things were going and I knew I was onto something.  In 2019. I had pretty much 95% of the same team members I had in 2017. Just adding on, but it was all the original ones.  And that's what I decided I wanted to do medical billing for dental. In addition,  And also offer credentialing.  When I introduced that to my team, all they saw was more work for the same pay. They didn't see how we would be growing the company as a whole creating more jobs for other team members, creating a way for dental offices to be more profitable. They didn't see what my vision was. Yes in the beginning, I would need my existing team to learn these new roles because I only trusted my existing team to train new team members. So, yes, I would be asking them to do more work, but there was a benefit beyond themselves and that's what I wanted them to see. Uh, 



 I really love to speak about leadership. It makes me  happy to think about. What generational leadership really means that we can think beyond who we are and that everything we're doing right now. Is for the benefit of someone else, a future generation that we may not even know right now.  

I believe that many leaders just don't get it because they're stuck in their own ways and their own head. They're stuck walking through the thick of the weeds and what they only see in front of them. And they never take the opportunity to rise above and see things from a 30,000 foot vantage point.  I think generational leadership depends on our ability to actually see comprehension and others as we implement change. 

And as we seek to create this environment where continuous improvement is accepted.

 Leadership. Is about the importance of letting go of bad attitudes and those that bring down morale. And making space for those who are supporting the journey you're on. I   learn to lean in to the fear of confrontation, the fear of change. Don't let your mind trick you into thinking. 

I don't have time for this. I'm too busy. What I'm doing now is good enough.  And stop taking advice from your team members who have never been where you are, where you're going, or where you are goal going.  

Suggestions, brainstorming and ideas. Those are not advice. Know the difference. Learn to have confidence and the journey of continuous improvement, even though it stinks or you don't like it, or you don't want to do it.  But you still do it.  That consistency that comes from all of that sticking to it. Despite all of the challenges. Learned to have confidence in that.

 This last story. 

And then I promise. We're going to close this episode up pretty quickly. As when I worked at a really large bank. I was a personal banker and I had been at this bank for about two years. I was newly married at the time in my early twenties.   I had a really rockstar branch manager who groomed me to being a stellar personal banker. My numbers were higher than anybody's in our district. 

And I  felt like I was pretty well liked. This branch manager was almost like a best friend to me when I worked there.  

She eventually did so well at this location because she groomed me to a higher level of performance. And because of that, she received a promotion. She went on to work at another part of the bank and the position of branch manager became available. So I applied for it.  The position I applied for was actually three different promotion levels above personal banker. 

But I thought for sure they were going to pick me because I was the highest performing and sales generating, personal banker that we had in my region. And there was no way they would overlook me, especially because I was excelling at this location.  And now this location was another tier higher as a branch.  The first step for me was convincing the district manager to interview me. I had never been a manager before, and I had never been a leader before. And the only experience I ever had was working in a dental office and being a waitress and being a teller at a bank. And. Now I'm a personal banker, but I was doing really great. 

So I sent her an email very well thought out, very well, put together, showing her all of my track record. She sent me an email back that I can apply and see if they will interview me. So I applied for it through the internal website. I received an email stating that I could interview and preparing for the interview meant a lot to me. 

 The interview would be two weeks from now.  Between the time of the interview and the date of the interview, we had an interim branch manager. Her name was Claudette. She was going to be supervising everybody in this branch and keeping everything going while my branch manager left.   Claudia and I, we didn't see eye to eye. 

I didn't care for her. And I mostly think I didn't care for her because she presented herself so confidently. And I had never really had anybody that worked with me. In a similar place or at the same place. That displayed that level of confidence. And perhaps as I look back now, I was threatened by her  ' cause I thought. She would be better than who I was. 

And I didn't like that. I always want it to be number one.  

Over the course of the time that I was a personal baker here. I definitely had my fair share of run-ins with various employees.  From employees that I had to file a sexual harassment complaint about two people I didn't get along with. Caddy branch office drama. That didn't really matter. 

People arguing over who was going to get an office. And then I got selected to have it, a lot of different things. It didn't really matter. 

. So let's fast forward to the day of the interview.  I drove to downtown Denver, where I was interviewing with the regional manager.  

I very vividly. Remember this day.  I remember wearing a black suit with a white colored shirt. My hair done just perfectly. I walked in. I sat in the waiting area of the bank lobby. And the regional manager came to get me. I followed her to her office, which was located in the basement of this branch. We take an elevator down. I sat across from her and this overly large office. I immediately start talking and she cuts me off politely, but strong enough that I knew I shouldn't have started talking. She asks me quite a few questions. Most specifically questions about leadership and different trainings that those who are looking to be a branch manager go through.  Questions that there was no way I could answer,  I look back now and I think she wanted to show me that I wasn't ready for this branch manager role.  We met for an hour and a half. 

I gave her my presentation. She continued to ask me really hard questions. Like how was I going to lead someone? I had filed a sexual harassment complaint against. Or how was I going to handle the office drama with the assistant manager who I didn't care for, and obviously had contention with.  Questions. 

I didn't actually know how to answer. Leadership things that I have never heard of before never dealt with before.  I left that interview feeling  sad. Like, you know, that was kind of crappy. And I couldn't believe she did that to me. But then the really confident or egotistical part of me. I was super confident that I got through it. 

I stood my ground and there was no way she wasn't going to pick me because after all my sales were the best.  I thought my track record was just going to win me a spot there.  Maybe there were no other people that interviewed.  She told me she would call me and let me know the next day.  

Well, that didn't happen. The next day came and went , and then it was two and a half weeks inside out of the interview. I finally get a call at my desk. It's the regional manager. She begins to tell me that she interviewed me out of a formality.   There are a certain number of interviews that are required before they make a selection on a position like branch manager. Because of that, they allowed me to interview, but there was no way they were ever going to hire me. I haven't had the experience. I hadn't completed any of the classes  and the most important thing was I needed to know that now wasn't my time. 

Now as Claudette's time. And Claudette who I didn't care for. She was being chosen and selected and already announced that she had had the position and they wanted to call me to make sure I understood. I didn't get the position. I wasn't going to be selected. And I didn't even stand a chance in the interview.  A week later cloud at fired me.  She totally set me up and fired me from that job. 

That story is one for a future podcast episode.  What I learned there. As that I talked way too much.  I did that for the first five to seven years of my working experience. I talked way too much. I want it to be the center. I want it to be the best.  You know, in the book of job, if you're a believer, it says, let your silence be your wisdom. I think of that often. Let my silence be my wisdom.  Sometimes when you're trying to grow and you have a really hard team member or a really challenging team.  Or maybe you want to get to the next level. You have to learn when it's your time to talk and when it's your time to grow. And when it's your time to speak. And when it's your time to lead.  And when it's your time to move on from an experience that you know, you're not going to Excel in because it just isn't the time for you.  It's someone else's time.

 Let's go grab our TGM your that's good moment.  Generational leadership. It hinges on our own capacity to recognize and foster potential in others, especially when we walk through the continual movement for change. And cultivating an environment where continuous improvement is actually embraced.  It means relinquishing the detrimental attitudes and disengaging from people who undermine morale.  Making room for those who champion the journey.  

It requires you confronting your fear of confrontation. And the discomfort of change head-on.  It means right now, I need you to learn to resist the deceptive allure of complacency with excuses. What I mean by that. Is the common things that run through your mind. Like I'm too busy.  What we're doing right now, it works well enough.  Or that office it's really high producing. 

So that manager is really great. Leave her alone. Work on all the others, except for that one.  Why fix something that isn't broken. 

Uh,  

it means discerning between suggestions and genuine advice.  It means you stop taking counsel from people who lack relevant experience.  Hit means having confidence right now.  It means the path of continuous improvement, even though it might mean you're uncomfortable. Even though you might have a little bit of reluctancy.  It means change equals growth and all of that. Is cultivated through your unwavering commitment to the growth of your business and you as a generational leader.  It means regardless of your own personal reservations. Or the reluctance of your team. You keep going.  As we wrap up today's episode. 

I want to thank you for being here. For committing to building a culture of continuous improvement. Remember.  The journey towards excellence and leadership is ongoing, ever evolving. It continues to change.  With dedication, perseverance, and commitment to learning together. We can navigate this. We can make our professions the best they've ever been. Until next time. 

This is Sarah Beth Herman.

Signing off from dentistry support the podcast. I'll catch  you on the next episode.