Dental Practice Heroes

The Three Essential Conversations Every Dental Practice Owner Must Master

• Dr. Paul Etchison • Episode 592

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True leadership in dental practice means empowering your team through the right conversations rather than trying to be the answer person for everything. Mastering three key conversation types – vision, accountability, and problem-solving – can solve 95% of practice problems and prevent owner burnout.

• Vision conversations connect daily tasks to meaningful patient outcomes and team benefits
• Creating purpose helps team members understand their work impacts patients' overall health and quality of life
• Accountability conversations establish clear expectations and maintain practice standards
• "You will get what you tolerate" – addressing small issues prevents them from becoming destructive habits
• Focus on specific behaviors rather than making assumptions about the person
• Problem-solving conversations involve the team in finding solutions together
• Collaborative approach increases buy-in and implementation success
• Create psychological safety for team members to share ideas without fear
• Recommended resources: "Start With Why" (Sinek), "Crucial Accountability," and "No Bullshit Leadership"
• Don't wait for perfection – having these conversations consistently is more important than doing them perfectly

If you want a practice where your team handles day-to-day management while you take time off, we have the experience to show you how to do it.


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Paul Etchison:

When I first became a practice owner, I thought leadership meant being the smartest person in the room and having the answer for every single thing. If a problem came up, I was the one that was going to jump in, fix it and be the hero. And at first it felt really good. It felt good to be in charge. It felt good to be the answer person, the one that always knew what to do, no matter what the situation. But as time kept on going, I started noticing myself really starting to resent my team for asking me questions, and I also noticed that the same questions, the same problems kept coming up and they would bring me issues that I know they knew the answer for or problems that I know that they could solve on their own. And then my team got so large that these questions just came at me nonstop, which contributed to burnout me, being depressed, me resenting the practice and, essentially, me not living the best life that I knew was possible. And this was my fault. It was because of the way I had set things up. I became the bottleneck, and that's when I realized that leadership it's not about doing more. It's about talking less and having the right kinds of conversations that can make your team capable and confident enough to solve the problems without you, so that you don't have to do everything, but you can ensure that everything gets done exactly the way that you want it. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. I'm going to teach you the three most powerful types of conversations you should be having as the leader and the practice owner. If you can just nail these three conversations, 95% of your problems will solve themselves. All you got to do is make sure that these conversations are happening at your practice.

Paul Etchison:

Now, for those who don't know, I'm Dr Paul Edgison and you are listening to the Dental Practice Heroes podcast. I'm an author of two books on dental practice management, a dental coach and the owner of a large multi-doc practice in the south suburbs of Chicago. I am here to teach you how to create a team-driven practice that allows you to make more money, take more time off and take amazing care of your patients and your team. So if you're looking to make an impact on the people around you, as well as your family, through practice ownership, you are in the right place. Now let's talk about these three conversations. The first one is vision conversations. This is when you're telling the team here is where we're going Now.

Paul Etchison:

I remember when I first opened my practice, you read somewhere that you're supposed to have a mission and a vision and core values and all this stuff. So I sit down one day and I do this and it ends up being a bunch of words, like most people's are. You know, we are here to take amazing care of our community. We are going to change the world through amazing dentistry and delivery of care, and you read this and it sounds good. But then when you zoom out and you look at it, you say is this real? Is this like too over the top? I mean, is this something that someone can really get behind and feel like they're making a difference? So that led me to really sitting down and saying how can I give my team something to get behind so that when they wake up each morning and someone says, why do you do what you do? Questions like that they can give an answer that's not just because I need the money. They can give them something that is more purpose driven, something that they can jump out of bed and be excited and feel like they're contributing something to the world.

Paul Etchison:

If you don't provide this vision as the leader of the practice, your team is going to default to the just show up and do my stuff and go home. But if you can give them a bigger reason, they can then connect the dots between everything they do daily and the practice's mission. So how do you have these vision conversations? You want to tie everything we do at the practice to patient outcomes and team benefits. So you'll hear me say this a lot is that Every single thing we do at the practice, it's got to satisfy two things One, it's got to take care of our team and two, it's got to take care of our patients. So what we want our team to understand is that every little thing we do at the practice makes a difference. The way that we do it, the way that we answer the phone, the way we greet people, how clean our practice looks, the way that we talk about treatment and financing every little thing makes a difference and it either helps the patient say yes to treatment or gets them to a point where they say I've got to think about it, I'll call you back, and usually that results in them saying no to treatment.

Paul Etchison:

So I want my team to understand that whether or not the patient gets dentally healthy is dependent on all the things they do at their job, and I also want them to understand that dental health is important for their long-term health. It's important for their psychological health. Dental health is important for their long-term health. It's important for their psychological health. It's very difficult to have visual dental problems and it's very difficult to have functional dental problems when you can't eat the food that you want. So I want to tie all these things together that having your teeth makes you healthier. You being healthier allows you to be around in this world longer for your kids, your spouse, your parents, everybody around you, your community.

Paul Etchison:

So it's not just presenting another treatment plan, it's not just answering another phone call. It is us helping our patient reach their fullest potential within the confines of what we provide at a dental office, or it's helping them not meet their fullest potential. So I want my team to take that seriously. So make sure that you are having the vision conversations that get your team excited and help them realize that what they do every day is more than just a job. It matters. All right, the next type of conversation you got to be having is accountability conversations, when we're saying this thing needs to change, or you need to change when you want people to do things a certain way. So, as the leader of the practice, it is up to us to create the standards of how we do things at the practice and make sure that everybody is upholding that standard.

Paul Etchison:

Now a lot of practice owners they will look at their team and they say you know what?

Paul Etchison:

I just don't have the right people. I need to get the right people. I just can't find good team members. And I would disagree with that. I think most of the people on your team could be all stars. You're just not pouring into them enough. You're not giving them the training that they need. You're not giving them clear expectations of how you want things to be done, and it's not your fault. You might have not even thought about how you want things done. This is what we help practice owners do in our coaching packages, as well as our upcoming mastermind that's starting in September. We're teaching you how to think about the way you do things in your practice and how to express that and implement that with your team so that things get done. But ultimately, at the end of that, you're giving clear expectations. You're saying how you want things done, but you've got to hold them accountable. And if I could teach you one thing, and one thing only, is that you will get what you tolerate at the practice Small issues. If you leave them alone, they will become bigger issues and they will become bad habits and they have the effect to tear down the culture at your practice. If you allow things because you're scared to address them, you're scared to have this accountability conversation, you are sending the message to the entire team that whatever this person's doing or not doing is acceptable. You get what you tolerate.

Paul Etchison:

So this comes back to something my dad used to say all the time, so I can never, ever forget it Say what you mean and mean what you say. Make your word golden. So how do you have these conversations? First of all, before you start telling somebody you want them to do something differently or you want them to not do something that they're doing is, you've got to be clear about what you want, and I see so many practice owners. We just don't even do it. We don't know what we want. We know we just don't want that. I'm not sure what I want you to do, but I don't want you to do that and that is not a way for anyone to operate. It's hard to be the employee in that situation and it's really hard to be the owner, because you're going to be constantly upset.

Paul Etchison:

So when you start having these conversations with your team, I want you to be specific. I want you to focus on the behavior. So often us, as practice owners, we focus on the person. This is what I call playing over the net. We are assuming, because of whatever behavior is happening, that this means that this employee is lazy, or maybe they're stupid, maybe they're not the smartest, or maybe they're not thinking. We don't want to make the conversations about what it means for that person personally.

Paul Etchison:

Stay with the behavior and get curious, ask questions. For example, if you notice a hygienist isn't doing their chart notes, I've noticed that some of your chart notes aren't getting done and this is a problem because and I know that's not like you, so I just want to understand is there something getting in the way of you doing this? Let me know what I can do to help you, because this is a non-negotiable practice. We have to do our chart notes, and the thing that sucks about a lot of these conversations is we've got so many bigger issues we want to address, and sometimes it can feel like we're addressing these little tiny things that are just draining all the energy from us and that they're a complete waste of time. But the thing is is when you allow things and when you're inconsistent with your team, it puts you in a difficult position for the situations that are important. So you need to maintain that consistency. Your team needs to know that you're going to stand behind what you say and that you will uphold the standards of the practice. So as soon as something's not lining up, as soon as you get that inkling that you got to have a conversation with someone, just have it, have it privately, have it with consideration for the other person's feelings and just make it about the behavior. All right. Number three the last one problem solving conversations. And this is when you want to figure this out together. We want to involve our team in the way that we do things at the practice, because when we involve them, they are more likely to get behind it and they are more likely to carry that system through and make sure it works, and if it's not working, they're more likely to figure out a way to make it work.

Paul Etchison:

Now what if you don't you become that answer person. You become that person that the team is so dependent on. They cannot make a decision without you. And I did this for years and years and years. I just I was the answer person. It was like death by a million paper cuts. My team kept growing and it got to the point. I was answering so many questions and making so many decisions. At the end of the day, I was just exhausted. You don't need to do that. Your team is more than capable of making decisions on their own. You just have to empower them and you have to let them do it.

Paul Etchison:

So when you identify an issue at the practice frame the problem what is the goal or the solution that we're looking for? So, for example, if we're talking about cancellation policy maybe we're talking about the $50 charge or something like that You'd say, hey, what is the goal of this? And people might say, well, it's so we can charge $50 and cover the hygienist's time when they fail their appointment. No, the goal of this system is to get the patients to show up. We just want them to show up. We don't want to charge them. We don't want to get revenue for doing nothing. We would just want them to show up. So we frame the problem clearly. There are patients that are not keeping their appointments and it is costing us time and money. So we want to solve this problem. Where do we start? We've got to get curious.

Paul Etchison:

Ask your team what do they think is going on? And what do they think is going on and what do they think is the solution? Brainstorm it together, get your team involved and when people share something, even if you think it's the dumbest idea in the world, just thank them for sharing, because realize this, when your team starts putting themselves out there, they start contributing and collaborating and coming up with ideas. It is a beautiful thing, but sometimes your team members are going to say some things that aren't the smartest. That's okay. You say things that are not the smartest. A lot of times, too. We all do that. We want them to feel safe. We do that by the way that we react.

Paul Etchison:

So, for example, let's talk about hygiene, running behind schedule. Hey, we are running behind schedule. And hygiene what do you think is happening? What do you guys think we can do to make this better, instead of saying, hey, hygienist, I need you on time, make sure that you're staying on time and what we might find out is that it's not them running behind. Maybe they're waiting on the doctor for the exam, maybe we need to tweak our system or somebody else needs more training. There's a lot of solutions to the problems, but what we want to do as leaders is foster that collaboration, foster that conversation and get things out in the open and make it safe to contribute.

Paul Etchison:

So those are the three conversations. We're talking about vision, we're talking about accountability and we're talking about problem solving. If you're looking for some great resources and books, I love books, start With why by Simon Sinek. That's a great one for vision. Crucial Accountability and Crucial Conversations is a great one for the accountability piece and for the problem solving one. I really like the book no Bullshit Leadership. I think that is such a fantastic short read that really summarizes what it means to be a leader at the practice.

Paul Etchison:

So when we're saying that we need to work on our communication, we need to become better leaders, it doesn't have to be this big giant task that seems insurmountable.

Paul Etchison:

It's a few conversations and what I really want to stress with you it's not so important how you have these conversations as it is that you have the conversations you will get better at this over time.

Paul Etchison:

Don't let perfection and analysis paralysis get in the way of you having these conversations, because, as long as you're having them, and you're having them in a way that your team feels safe talking to you, that you're not getting defensive, no matter what you win, never, never, never put off having these conversations, and this will be the difference between a successful practice owner and somebody that has chaos, turnover and has a practice that's just stuck. And this is exactly what we teach at Dental Practice Heroes. This is what makes DPH special, and this is exactly what we teach at Dental Practice Heroes. This is what makes DPH special. We are actual practice owners that have actually led large teams through issues, through conflict and through growing large practices that allow us to take a ton of time off while the team takes care of the day-to-day management. So if you want to practice like that, we have the experience to show you how to do it. Thank you so much for listening and we will talk to you next time.

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