S5 Episode 5: Leadership in Action: Green Flags Only

In this episode of Inside Dentistry Support, CEO Sarah Beth Herman delves into the nuances of effective leadership, focusing on the differences between green flag and red flag behaviors. She emphasizes that true leadership goes beyond titles and permissions, showcasing the importance of small habits and integrity when no one is watching. Green flag leadership is characterized by discipline, clarity in task assignment, and maintaining accountability, whereas red flag behaviors include vague instructions, poor follow-through, and avoiding difficult conversations. Herman urges leaders to lead by example, consistently set the tone, and uphold the culture of Dentistry Support with clarity and integrity.

Transcript

   📍 Welcome back to Inside Dentistry Support. I'm your host and CEO, Sarah Beth Herman. And today we are going to talk about one of the most important conversations of all leadership and leadership and action to be more specific. Because leadership isn't just about titles or Microsoft teams, channels, or specific chats you get to be in or permissions you get to have.

It's about how you show up when no one's watching. It's about your small habits like clocking in on time, staying aware of your team's schedules, assigning tasks with clarity, and knowing when it's time to walk into tough conversations. This episode is about how we lead with Green Flag Energy and why Red Flag leadership just doesn't work here at dentistry.

Support leadership isn't about being in charge. It's about being accountable to our culture. Whether you manage one person or a department, leadership is about how well you actually set the tone. You are responsible for owning your schedule, respecting other people's time, assigning tasks with clarity, keeping our offices happy, following up with grace and accountability, communicating with the ethics team when something feels off and holding yourself and others to the same standard consistently.

So let's talk about red flag leadership behaviors. Let's just name them. These are patterns that break trust. Clocking in late without saying anything and expecting others to stay on time, not knowing when your team is off or scheduled for appointments, assigning tasks vaguely, Hey, can you look into this with no deadline or clarity?

Avoiding hard conversations when someone underperforms letting standards slide because they're new or they're having a hard week, or they're not feeling well, not following through when tasks are left hanging. Red flag Leadership teaches your team to lower the bar, not raise it. Green flag leadership.

It's totally different. So here's what it looks like when you lead like a pro. First, you clock in on time, even if no one else is looking. Your discipline sets the tone. You check your team's schedule at the beginning of your day, so you're not chasing where people are, who's off, who's working, when are they coming back?

You assign tasks like a partner, not a passer. For example, can you please call this patient regarding their estimate today by 3:00 PM They're unsure about their coverage on occlusal guards. You follow up with kindness and firmness. I noticed this wasn't completed yesterday. Let's talk through what happened.

When will it be completed today? You reach out to the ethics team. When you see repeated red flag patterns with offices, team members, or leaders, you don't sweep things under the rug. You lead with integrity and you own your communication. You don't get to stop growing just because you're in a leadership role.

Leadership isn't a free pass. It is a constant commitment. In fact, your self-awareness and personal responsibility need to double As you grow as a leader, your team watches how you handle stress, mistakes change and accountability, and they either trust you more or less based on what they see.

Here is a real world scenario, a leadership task assignment that could go red flag or could go green flag. So here's your red flag example. Hey, can you take care of this? Drags and drops a screenshot of a patient's overdue balance, green flag example. Please call Mr. Lopez today before 4:00 PM regarding his balance of $74.

Ask if he'd like to pay by card or needs a payment plan. If he pays, notate the Dentrix software system and close this task. Make sure you update the daily recap report. If not, let me know so we can tag our billing team for escalation now that is leadership. It's also clarity and it's also ownership. Our ethics team isn't here to play.

Gotcha. They're here to protect our culture. So green flag leaders bring issues up daily and early. Don't protect poor performance out of guilt. Know when to reset expectations or escalate with grace. If someone is consistently not following through, it is your responsibility to address it before it becomes a pattern.

That is leadership. If you are in a leadership role at Dentistry Support, it means you've been entrusted with more than just tasks, daily recap, reporting and schedules. You've been entrusted with our people. And the best way to honor that is to keep showing up with clarity, with consistency, and with accountability and with green flags, only when you model the behavior you expect from others.

That's really good. When you say the hard thing with kindness and hold the line with confidence, that's really good. And when your team knows what's expected without guessing because you led with clarity, that is dentistry support. Really good.  📍 I'll see you guys in the next episode.