Thank you for joining me on episode seven of dentistry support the podcast. If you are new around here, I'm Sarah Beth Herman. And if you've been here for all previous six episodes, it's just Sarah Beth. We've done the equivalent of listening to a short audio book together. Or how long it's got to take you to run the Boston marathon for you to qualify to actually be in it. Or maybe even take the Concord from New York to London, fancy that. Anyways, I started this podcast because I really wanted for the world. To hear what my take was on leadership and business.
And this is not to say that I am an expert and yes, I do know that most people like to learn from their own mistakes versus actually taking advice. I think my stories are interesting and I know some of them do feel farfetched and some, I really don't want to actually revisit. I know that doing so means the generations that come after me can and will be better. I'm sharing parts of my world with you. My background is dentistry.
And if you want to know more about how I got started, Head back to episode one. It's a quick intro. And as each episode progresses, you're going to hear me improving. I'm not going to be great as I continue to begin this podcast. I do work every week at getting better. My sound, my recording, what I'm saying, trying to just really be authentically me. While I chat with you about leadership and business and all things that come with improving ourselves. My goal is to illustrate stories more effectively. And be humble as I share my journey. I'm not always proud of how I've acted, but I have learned how to be so much better as a result of everything I've encountered in my journey. I really work at not having regrets for hard stuff that's happened.
And I hope that you'll learn that too.
Communication. It's our topic of discussion today. And it is totally my jam. I love finding ways to think. Analyze and improve the way I communicate with others from an aspect of understanding how they will comprehend what exactly comes out of my mouth. Words they have meanings. And I don't think we think about that when we're talking to someone, typing a text message, writing an email, trying to get a patient to schedule landing a new client, preparing a sales pitch. We don't actually consider that words have meanings.
We're going to take a walk down a path. Leading you through communication and bringing up the top 10, most common words we overuse. Don't clearly understand, and I know you're guilty, just like I am. The top 10 words, we habitually Blab and Blab Blab all the time. I'm talking about the way you can use words better, be more meaningful and learn that communication has quite a bit of power. And where it's going to take you in your life.
The most important thing that I think you want to pay attention to today. Is that I'm going to hone in on speaking with the intention that you really want someone to understand exactly what you're saying. And I'm going to teach you that you really want to be a person who learns how to create a narrative that will go in your favor. Let me be very clear. This is not a podcast about manipulation. It's not a podcast about being a greasy salesperson. And it is not a podcast where I want you to find ways to passive aggressively communicate with your team friends, family members. Or anyone in your inner or outer circle that might interact with you and your business? Also, even though I really love communication. This week, I was really bad at it. I'm going to show you proof that leadership is an ongoing journey. We can all be on the same path to become the best leader that we ever wanted to be. But there's going to be times we fail our people.
And I did that this week. We aren't going to make the best choices in words, and we certainly won't always pay attention to how these words sound. Or how it makes others feel as they come out of our mouths. But we can be on a continuous journey where we learn to be better. Each time we interact.
I find something really interesting happens. When you confront someone, maybe it's an employee, a team member, a patient. Anyone in any category, really with something that they're not doing, you want them to do something, but for whatever reason, they didn't come through. So anyone in that kind of category. Everyone takes everything.
So personally, I have been am, and probably always will default to be a person that takes things personally, because life is very personal. And anyone who uses that line. It's business. It's not personal. Or it's not personal it's business. However you want to say that. They really lack common sense. in the fact that people are going to take things personal because everything they do and touch and handle. They're doing it with the best of intentions.
If someone is working with you, they're doing this on a personal level. We are personal beings. We have personal experiences and we want the people that work with us to accept us. When someone chooses to work with someone, their identity becomes in question in their own minds. They take things personal when someone confronts them for a lot of different reasons.
When you choose to say something is not personal, it's business, it's just making you unrelatable. It just makes the other person think that you're cold, callous, you only care about the profits. That is not a generational leader. I'm going to challenge you to be totally different from that and remove that quote from your line of thinking.
It is okay to want to be profitable in business. It is okay to want to teach your people to have a healthy emotional intelligence, but you are not articulating that through such a callous statement. If you want someone to change their behavior, if you want someone to not outwardly express such a personal approach or feel attacked by you, then you need to practice setting the stage for that.
Can we just dig into this for a second?
If you start paying close attention to the conversation you have with someone, when you communicate. There's an immediate response. You can almost sense someone talking faster, louder. Nervously laughing. And given most situations that have a negative connotation or some sort of accountability attached to it. Something is kicking in immediately. Now, if you are on the receiving end and someone is holding you accountable. You might notice you are the one doing the fast-talking, the nervous replies. Your neck's getting stiff. Your hands, they're a little warm.
Maybe they're sweating your mouth, starting to get dry. You need to pace if you're on the phone or fiddle with something, if you're in person. What is actually happening. . If we're being honest, What's happening is that you're trying to quiet the noise.
You're trying to get someone to understand why something didn't happen from your perspective. You're trying to avoid confrontation. You're trying to avoid embarrassment. You're trying to find a way out. Instead of trying to figure out how to get forgiveness, how to complete the task, how to communicate back to someone and get them on your level so that you're not on an island alone. And really at the end of the day, you're trying to figure out how to move on so I can get out of this uncomfortable situation.
Your mind is in fight or flight. Now as I just said that, where you thinking, well, what did she just glaze over there? No, I really met what I just said. Instead of figuring out the whole forgiveness thing and completing the task and moving on. We do the complete opposite. Because we are trying to flee from the situation we are running because we feel doom is coming and we are immediately in fight or flight mode, which puts us in overdrive since our world around us has convinced us that even the slightest inconvenience or a moment when we are questioned means that it is Def con five or a 9 1 1 emergency. And I am here to very clearly say it just does not have to be this way.
People are so concerned with the fact that you are angry with them. You are so concerned that someone might be mad at you because you didn't do something. Oftentimes the person talking about whatever wasn't done. They're not angry at all. They're just following up.
In fact. Most times, no, one's really angry at all. We just make this all up in our mind based on tonality word, someone used or an experience we had with someone in the past that created a caution light in our brains when a similar situation arises, freak out.
The emotion is likely similar to frustration, in my opinion. If there is one emotion at all, more than likely whoever is on the confronting end. They're trying to seek clarity from a leadership perspective. They know someone didn't do something, something wasn't completely finished or something was completed, but it lacked its full completion.
The way that it needed to be done.
This other party for whatever reason, didn't come through the way they expected. A common unmet expectations moment, right?
And depending on the deliver. They may not know how to communicate well. So the progress of anything is constantly at a standstill. Maybe this is a situation of, they didn't come through and now I'm going to have to do it. And I'm irritated about it. If you're a parent of any kind, you know exactly what I mean.
When I take a moment to just process what communication means. I often think. About dental offices when they need to fill a schedule. For example, let's say I asked my front office team to fill my schedule for today. Because today is the most important day then tomorrow, then the next day. No other dates matter, but those, because that's the immediate need of the business.
And all I want them to do is fill the schedule. Well, if you think about a dental office, The easiest appointments and a dental office to schedule are those that are six months down the road. They're so easy to schedule because patients don't really know what they're doing in six months and they just want to move on from you asking them to make a commitment. So they say something like, yeah, sure.
Go ahead. Schedule it. I'm not sure what I'm doing in six months, but cool. And then their mind, what they're really saying is I don't know what I'm doing in six months, but I can cancel it then if I need to. And it doesn't really matter because I don't have to commit to anything right now or spend any money. So, yeah, schedule it.
I'm outta here. Now, if I were to go ask my front office to do the scheduling where they scheduled today, tomorrow, or the next day. And I go to check in with them and find out how their success was. I bet you nine times out of 10, they're going to come back to me after any period of time, maybe one or two hours, and they're going to give me positive feedback. They scheduled, whatever number of appointments, 14, 5, 3, whatever.
And unless I ask them when they were scheduled, I'm going to assume it was today, tomorrow and the next day, because that was my instructions. But they're not likely going to tell me. Yes. I scheduled two today for tomorrow and two for the next day. They'll likely leave out that appointments were scheduled six months from now.
What they're going to be proud about is that something was scheduled and they could give me feedback. That aligned with what they thought I wanted to happen.
While we're taking a minute to talk about what happens on a phone. Let's talk about patients that call to cancel an appointment, because I know exactly what happens in your dental office. I know what happens in your business if you're not a dental office. And I know that when your team takes that call in earshot of their manager, the owner, the doctor, whomever. Your team is immediately nervous and they don't know what to do. Other than to try to give you a rebuttal of, I can't control when patients cancel. But I believe they totally can. And I'm not trying to be ugly by saying that. But anybody that's giving you that excuse, man, they need to hear this podcast.
You need really good tips on how to avoid cancellations in your business, things that you can do to prevent patients from feeling like they need to cancel. Regardless of time, fear and money that might come into play. When it comes to their dental appointments.
Now some dental offices, they think that asking for a deposit means that they will solidify all of their appointments. I'm going to tell you I completely disagree.
If you ask every patient to give you a deposit on an appointment. Sure. They'll probably give it to you. But you're only appealing to the aspect of the appointment that matters to people who are worried about money. If you're asking a CEO or a multimillionaire to give you a $50 deposit. It likely means nothing to them or their bank account.
It's not going to hurt them to do that. Canceling just doesn't really bother them. Because time is likely the culprit. They are worried about time. They want to have enough time in their day to complete a million things. They probably get 800 to a thousand emails a day. And your appointment that cost them $50.
They don't care about cause they make far more than $50. And they're not really thinking about that.
When your front office team takes that call, where they cancel. And they say, oh, well, we charge them $50. Great. Now you made $50, but you really had a $3,000 appointment on your schedule. You're probably not going to get that patient to schedule again because your front office didn't realize that time was the issue. If they would have only recognized that time was the issue, they could have constructed their response to the patient entirely different so that they could get the patient to schedule at a more convenient time. Or get the patient to understand how it could work, how it was possible to see them.
And then you would have truly saved the revenue. And not just made $50.
If you just ask for a deposit, you're not trying to figure out why a patient might cancel in the future. Or what might cause them to just go dark and never schedule with you again? You think it might be money, but it's not always money. This is where communication actually comes in. This is where comprehension of communication really matters. And this is where, what you do and what you say. Create more leaders in the future generations that can learn right out the gate. How to communicate more effectively.
Another interesting thing that happens in communication. Uh, happens when we deliver treatment plans. Now, if you are in any business where you have to give an estimate or a quote, like maybe you're in an automobile industry where you do repairs on cars, Or you have to give a quote on a remodel of a house. Any time you're delivering a treatment plan, a quote for something this scenario comes up.
So hear me out. Let's say I were to ask my office manager to present all treatment plans or quotes for a single day. She knows what I expect of her. Right. Give accurate fees, go over financing options. Offer multiple appointments, all the things that go into that, that we have trained on, she's trained on.
We all know it. If she doesn't get the patient to schedule,
she's going to try to offer, to schedule just one of the items on the treatment plan to just get started. That way we at least have something started. And part of the case closed, it will be considered a success in her mind. If I'm there and I'm her regional manager, district manager, chief operating officer, whatever my role is. That office manager is going to have her emotions in high gear, depending on her emotional strength or stability. She could already be in fight or flight mode just in general, but for 100%, she's going to be in fight or flight all day. My husband said to me early on in my career, scared money don't make money.
And you've heard it too. And probably on one of your favorite social media platforms, but it's pretty true. Your treatment coordinator, treatment, presenter, office manager, whoever you're asking to do this presentation. While you're in the office. They're going to be scared. Even if they don't tell you. Even if they have the ability to just exude confidence. Even if they are a rockstar. They are going to speak fast. They're going to hit every single mark. They're never really connecting with the patient, but they're going to speak confidently. Because they know you're listening to every word they're saying.
And even if you aren't listening to every word that they're saying, They think you are because you're there. They think in their mind. You're listening. You're running down a list mentally. Did she offer this? Did she do that? Did they remember this core aspect of this? Were they accurate? Did they do it the way I wanted them to do it. In reality, when I'm asking this office manager to do this. I'm trying to find out where the disconnect is. I'm looking to see if they connected with the patient from the standpoint that they wanted the patient to understand. They wanted the patient to schedule. They were actually trying to figure out how to communicate effectively. Instead of just glossing over each of the steps to go along with the treatment plan. And then giving me some excuse, like we weren't able to schedule, I can't control it. I'm looking for my team member. To know the primary concern is always serving the patient and doing so by seeking first to gain understanding second, to make someone proud. When you ask your team members to do a task that you know, they know how to do. Their goal is to make you proud or figure out how to get out of the uncomfortableness. It is very possible to do this with our team members. We can do this by communicating first that no matter what the outcome is, The patients will always come. The money will always find its way to us. The phone will always ring. And our confidence needs not to be diminished if a case isn't accepted today. Because it is highly possible. Uh, case acceptance will grow beyond 40% just by simply communicating more effectively. And giving your team the ability to communicate at their highest level.
If you are someone that actually wants your team to communicate at their highest level. The next time you're training the next time you're following up the next time you're observing before you even begin. Make sure your team trusts you. Make sure they understand that you're not looking for perfection.
You're looking for progress. Make sure your team understands that you're already proud of them. They're at that level. Now we're just leveling them up. We're getting them to where they need to be, to be the most successful. And at the end of the day, we want them to be proud of themselves.
Let me tell you a story about myself.
We all go through so many different scenarios on a daily basis. We think we're on an island by ourselves. And we don't realize that many people in similar roles, maybe different businesses. But in leadership in general, all go through the same things. We say the wrong thing. We do the wrong thing. We have terrible timing. We act the wrong way. This is more common than you think. This very week. I screwed up with my team. My communication was terrible.
You may recall from a previous episode. I always change names, locations, and a couple of specific details about those that are in some of my stories. I blur out the details that could identify someone in a story. Because I do respect them. I also appreciate that my experience has gifted me with so many opportunities to reflect on moments. Where I just didn't measure up as a leader. I could have been a whole lot better, and I know that. Many people out there don't really like advice from someone else, because like I said earlier, They like to live it out in order to really understand the situation. In parenting.
This is so common. We try to tell our children. Don't touch that hot stove. But as soon as you say, don't touch that hot stove, the first thing they want to do is touch the hot stove. If I could help even one person pick something a little bit better to say. Choose a tiny bit better timing. Or take a pause before they respond. I I believe I'm doing everything I've been on a mission to do since leadership became the most important thing in my career.
Last week, our team was working really closely with one of our dental groups.
Whenever you are dealing with a dental group, there are so many different dynamics that come along with supporting them virtually. Because there are different nuances to each location.
And so it is such a monumental feat. To support each of them individually, but then in full alignment with what the group, as a whole has as best practices. We have an incredible operations team. Our leaders in general are fantastic. But sometimes we get really challenging group practices to deal with.
And this week, We definitely had quite the experience.
This week, the CEO of this particular dental group. Has been really tough to work with. The disorganization of their group is a level. I really don't want to rehash. It is really intense. It's hard because sometimes CEOs really understand the business and how a business should run. But they're out of touch with what's actually happening.
They listened to a lot of blabber and really well-crafted responses from their teams. That continue to make them out of touch with what's actually going on. This group has been with us for about 18 months our team desperately needed to have a followup call with them, just to review changes, some challenges we're experiencing and make sure that we're all on the same page. That call was the disaster of all calls. We have had multiple conversations with this office.
They're very familiar with our systems. We communicate very well. This one day, they happen to not be able to get their computers to work at all. Our team was all online and ready. This was the only time this office could meet with us. And we ended up having to reschedule the meeting. The group was I rate.
When you're in a dental business like mine. Every single client matters. There isn't a single client. I forget about, I don't like. I don't wish I had. I appreciate them all for the different challenges that come with them. I've learned over the years that even if I find myself thinking, I don't like one of my clients. I need to still treat every single client or group practice we have as though it's my only one. They're that important. Every time, there's an issue with even one of them. I always want to make sure that my team is at their very best. I always train my team. To run their positions as though they own the company. Not like they work for a paycheck. This way, all of the best practices I have. Our duplicatable. I want them to work every day. Like they actually own it.
They care about every single thing that happens. Because I operate this way. Sometimes my leadership comes out as a secondary feeling. I don't make it personal. I make it business. And I actually think that I'm meaning for it to be primary I'm meaning for it to be personal I'm meaning for it to come across that I really care about them. But we're in a situation and we're problem solving and sometimes it just doesn't come out that way.
This week, I rattled off to my team about how they had made errors with this client. I immediately jumped into overdrive to remedy everything right away. Which for me that meant whoever is accountable needs to fix it. It was 6:30 PM. I was frantically messaging my team. And the group practice, their CEO was messaging them back and forth, back and forth. Everything was chaos.
I was constantly getting screenshots, being tagged. It was wild. I immediately told my chief operating officer, she needed to call the client and explain what she did. I called her out. I called out the team. I was foolish. I was in fight or flight mode. Over this issue. That was really a non-issue. As I watched the bubbles on the screen showing me that my chief operating officer was texting me back. I was actually envisioning that the text was going to pop up and say, I'm calling now.
I'm on it. Instead the message that she typed was I'm at my daughter's birthday dinner. That was the moment that I realized that I was such a jerk. First of all, I was taking a non-urgent issue and I made it urgent. I was not honoring the boundaries of my team. Or their time with their family when they were done for the day. I made my fear of losing a client over a non-issue more important than their own mental health. I never stopped paused, reflected, or considered the fact that I could have called the client myself.
I could have calmed the entire situation down. Instead. I just made everyone feel attacked. I jumped to conclusions. And I was the worst leader.
What I did. Was made my team at fault for everything that happened because of how the call went. But the reality is if I would have taken the time to make sure that my team was more prepared before that meeting. They wouldn't have made the errors in answering the questions the team had while they were on the call. The office wouldn't have had an issue logging in.
If I would have assigned one of my team members to make sure everything was good before it started. My team would have been more prepared. And more successful. Had I been more prepared for them to be successful.
All of this to say. Communication. And thinking of how others could, would, or may feel. Is far more important then making a, non-issue a really big issue. For no reason.
Now this isn't to say I'm a terrible leader because all of this happened. But what makes me not the best leader in this situation is that I chose to do things after hours. My company is a 24 hour company. We have team members who work. Three different eight hour shifts. And when certain team members are offline. I choose to respect that. But in this situation, I did not. I chose to make comments and communicate after hours. When my team was already done for their work for that day.
And they were with their family. I interrupted my team when they were on their time. And that's where things began to go wrong.
My team is so loyal that they will always respond to me. If they see me message. Because I've respected their time. And typically we don't do that. It's not okay to do what I did. We should all be of the mindset that our team members and their quality time with their family is the most important thing. At the end of the day, their job is just their job. Their children will never remember what they did for a living. Or how successful they were in onboarding a client of mine. They're children. We'll remember when they were there for them. The birthday parties, they never missed the sporting events.
They were always at. The time that they had with him after work. We always have to be there for our team. So that our team can be there for their families.
I'm not trying to get a pity party here. Like, well, Sarah, Beth, you couldn't have known everything. It's really not that big of a deal. Or maybe you're saying I would have done the same thing. If I was at risk of losing a $200,000 a year client. I'd have to interject. I disagree that you should have been, like, I was. If you don't see it, like I see it. You have a big problem in leadership. Any time I choose to put the business before my team. I'm at align. Any time, I don't fully prepare my team for what to expect. I am the problem. I should have known. That's my job to know. Any time, my team doesn't have all the resources at their fingertips and a team ready to support them.
If there's an issue, I'm still the problem. Those are weaknesses that I have as a leader. Those are areas that I, we, you and me. We can improve on. Yes, dentistry support has hundreds of dental offices that I've worked with us, and that continue to work with us. That doesn't mean that times change things change, and we need to be ready to bend, move mold, and go with the flow with what changes come to us. We have to be willing to evolve as a business and move with what happens.
Expand as new scenarios. Pop-up. Because no two businesses that work with mine. Are exactly alike and not a single one of my client's work is more important than another. It's also not more important than my team members. And that's the generational leadership you need to be in alignment with.
My biggest bit of advice for you. Is to be a leader that always make sure you have boundaries and that you have as much preparedness as you can from when do I contact my team members to what is an actual emergency? And then preparedness. If someone has a meeting with a vendor or an important meeting with a patient or a client, or they have a special presentation.
What are all of the things that might come up. How could you think differently? How can you try to see 10 steps into the future to be prepared for what could go wrong? How can you put the mental health and the betterment of your entire team before your business? So that they stay with your business so that you don't have to worry if they're quitting because of what you just did. So you don't have to worry. If your top person is going to make the choice to jump ship, because they're just done with your crap. How can you improve your communication in words? And actions so that you are trustworthy because words have meanings and actions speak the loudest. That's what I want you thinking about.
I have one last thing that I'm going to share today. We're going to wrap this up pretty quickly. I promise. Hang with me.
My last thoughts on communication in this episode. Is what happens when you give someone a review? If you have been in leadership for any length of time. You have been faced with an opportunity to talk to someone about their performance. This might be in the form of a review or maybe just a meeting about their performance. You are team members probably have nervous giggles and laughters, as soon as you pick up the phone or enter the room.
Their hands are probably sweating. Heart is racing. Blood pressure is a little higher. They're nervous. You are nervous probably, but maybe only from the standpoint that you don't want them to ask for a raise, you just want to confront them on performance.
Here's a little secret. All your team members thinking is when are you going to tell me how much more money you're paying me? Are you firing me? When are you firing me? Are you going to pay me two weeks? Severance? Are you gonna pay me severance at all? .
I have been doing this job excellently and all of my team members and my friends have been telling me, you don't pay me enough. I looked online and I should be making this dollar amount and you need to give me a raise to that. And if you don't give me any more money, then I'm going to go to the next business down the street.
I'm going to get a dollar more an hour, which is all I really wanted you to pay me. Can we just get through this meeting? I know that's a lot. But it's what's happening.
How can we be better? You guys? How can we be better? I bet, you know, these next 10 words, I'm going to talk about. The ones that people say the most in everyday conversation. But they quickly. Become the worst words. These are the top 10 words in the English language that are overused. Misused, habitually used. And I'm going to go in reverse order. We're going to talk about these words that you're using, that your team members are using. And we're going to try to use them better.
Number 10 on the list. Fine. We use this word to say something as satisfactory, right? Fine. Fine. Fine. C tonality. It changes everything fine.
It can be interpreted as neutral or negative. Instead, I want you to think about using a more descriptive word like that is acceptable. That is satisfactory. Your goal should be to convey a clear message.
Number nine. Just. I use that word all the time. It actually diminishes the importance or the complexity of a task or a request. So any time you write a sentence and you say, I just wanted to follow up or it's just a simple procedure. You're actually downplaying the significance of whatever comes after that. Instead. Provide context or details. That way you're not trying to diminish exactly what happens after that.
You're actually conveying clarity. The next one soon. This word is really subjective. I find that it leads to misunderstandings regarding actual timelines. So instead of using vague terms, like soon. Give a specific timeframe for a deadline to manage expectations of your team. We're going to meet soon. We're going to talk about that project soon.
No. When are you talking about that project? When are we meeting? When are you following up? I'll talk to you soon. No, absolutely not. You need to set clear expectations and then follow through on them so that your team can trust you. It makes more meetings important. It makes whatever you're talking about a priority. The next one is the word.
Okay. Now, this seems like an affirmation of sorts, right? But it can sometimes imply indifference or maybe lack of enthusiasm. If you're an emotional person and you get the text. Okay. Sometimes you take it from an emotional standpoint. You're worried what? Okay. Really meant. Try to use words. Like I understand.
I agree. Again, The goal is clarity and what someone else is going to interpret that word to be. All right. To get to our halfway point here, the word, but. This word can, how do I say this? Unintentionally? Undermined what was said before it, so again, like the word just, but as the same, right? We want to transition between words with, and, or however, instead that way. It is a more smooth or positive communication flow.
All right, the next one is the word.
Try. Saying, I'll try to get it done. I'll try to do that. I'll for sure. Try or I can try. It suggests that you really aren't committed to something. You have some sort of uncertainty. Instead, I'm going to challenge you to say. I'm going to do my best to complete that by next Tuesday. Or I'm going to do my best to complete this and the next 20 minutes. Instead of using the word.
I'll try. I'm challenging you to say, I will.
The next one is the word. Should. I've said it, even in this podcast episode. Using the word should. Gives the illusion that you're judging something. Or you have an expectation of what someone should have been doing. You're actually making the listener feel pressured and criticized. Instead, I want you to convey things like a recommendation, like you might consider blank, or have you thought about blank? This next one. My husband confronted me on this very week. The word, sorry. Why do you always say, sorry, you don't have to say, sorry. Apologies are important. But excessive or insincere uses of the word.
Sorry. It dilutes the meaning. Save your apologies for genuine mistakes. Or times when you've caused harm to someone. I want you to consider. Expressing empathy or understanding instead of defaulting to sorry for minor inconveniences.
The next one. Actually. This word. This word inadvertently. It can phase like surprise or correction.
It also undermines the listeners confidence or knowledge. Don't say, actually I wanted you to do this. Actually she should have done that. Actually I'm going to go there first. Actually, I'm going to conduct the meeting. Those aren't very nice ways to say that. Let's get that word completely out of our vocab. The very last one is probably one that I see the most common in my business. Whenever someone asks for something.
I promise you say it to. No problem. Now, this is commonly used and our everyday jargon to express willingness or agreement, or to try to say that. We're totally fine. We got this no problem. Or when someone says thank you to me. No problem. But we don't want to downplay the significance or the request of whatever someone asked us to do. We also don't want to insinuate that it may be a problem for someone else, but it's not a problem for me.
And my company, we have this phrase that we use at the end of all of our emails.
We have it on our website and all of our marketing. Happy to help. Because we're positive. We appreciate our clients. We want to convey that we are happy to help. We don't even bring up the word problem, but I see it internally when I ask my team members to do something and they say, no problem.
Let it be a challenge that you communicate with your team and your team learns to communicate with you, your patients, your customers. By saying happy to help. We're always happy to help.
Let's wrap this thing up. Your TGM for today is something important that I teach my leaders when they're communicating with other people. Or when they're communicating with a patient.
Every day. Whatever comes out of your mouth. That's what you're practicing. That's what you're practicing to get to perfect. You are never going to be perfect. But that habit, those things you do without even realizing you're doing them. It's what you're practicing to get there.
Let me give you an example. If you're calling every patient and you're desperate for them to schedule. You are practicing, being desperate.
If every time you go in to review a team member, You're rushing through the meeting to just get it over. You're practicing hurriedness.
If every time you call a client, you're stressed out anxious. Worried about money. You just want to close the deal. You're practicing scarcity. Scared money doesn't make money. Even if you don't have a single client. A single new patient this week. Every time you communicate with your team. Even if you have no patients this week, no new patients next week. If every time you communicate about your schedule or whatever it is that grows your business, that stress and anxiousness. It's scarcity. Scared money doesn't make money.
Don't teach your team to be that way. If every time an emergency comes up in your business, you jump to conclusions. You speak fast. You fight the conversation to make your point. You're practicing the priority of business over personal.
I want my team around me to practice who they want to be every single day. If you want to be trustworthy. Practice being trustworthy. If you want to be kind. Practice being kind. If you want to be silly, laugh a lot.
If you want to schedule patients. Practice scheduling them. If you want to be a great leader. Who have got to practice it every single day.
If you want to communicate well, then you better start practicing. You have to leave out everything else that you don't want to be. If you end up accidentally doing something you didn't want to do, move on from it, practice recovering from whatever it was that you did.
And every choice, every practice you try, you are communicating that to everyone you meet without even knowing it. I'll catch you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to this podcast for the dental industry.