64: How to Lead in a Crisis

Welcome to DSO Secrets. I know what it's like to be an entrepreneur in the dental industry. I've had my ups and downs, just like you. There's so much opportunity to be excited about, but so few resources to get answers. From here on DSO Secrets, we get you those answers so you can change the lives you're meant to bless and achieve your personal success.

When I was working as an associate, right at a school, I never imagined I could own these many practices with this amount of support. So thank you.

You have helped build my marketing mind

to a whole new level. You have this natural talent, this unique ability.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of DSO Secrets. I'm your fearless host, Emmett Scott, and I'm so excited to be with you today. I just came back being with the deo, the dentist entrepreneur organization. They have a new group coming through, a new mastermind group, and I got to spend two days with them. And I'll tell you, it's just very energizing. It's fun to see dentists and business partners all driving towards this idea of greater impact on patients and staff and just the world in general. It's just great energy there at the DEO and with everyone that was there. So if you were there, shout out to you, loved seeing you. And if you weren't there, you need to check them out because it's the place where things are happening. And of course, one of the topics that we were all talking about is just this human component of running a business. And so today I want to talk about how do you communicate feedback and improvements to your team? Now, I thought about maybe naming this podcast Coronavirus Cash Flow and Incompetency, the three things that scare the crap out of us. And I'll tell you, two out of those three, actually, as a business owner, we're most concerned about and that's the cash flow and the incompetency. We're way more nervous about those than I think we are. The Coronavirus. But how is it that you manage your energy as a leader and how do you communicate in times of crisis? Now, I go that dramatic and start calling this crisis because I think for many of us, though, we may be approaching our team to give them feedback or opportunities for deep down to us, we're very concerned that we're going to lose our entire business if they don't get better. Oftentimes, as I talk with other entrepreneurs and business owners, especially in this space right now, I notice their concern isn't just that X, Y and Z isn't happening, but it's a feeling that if it's not improved tomorrow, that everything's going to come crashing down. And so since there are so many opportunities for improvement in a growing business, how is it as leaders we should be, how should we be communicating that feedback? How should we be helping improvement happen in our organization? What is the right way to do that without blowing up the individuals, without blowing up the assets, if you will, that we need so badly in order to have a business? Listen, I think we can all agree that if we're going in and we're giving feedback in unproductive ways, if our timing's off, if any of these things, if we're destroying confidence, et cetera, then we know that we're not improving ultimately the business. We might get short hits of them improving, kind of white knuckling through something. But many times as a new business owners, one of the opportunities for improvement for us is to figure out how we're going to communicate feedback, how we're going to improve the individuals around us, and frankly, how are we emotionally going to be able to handle the natural growth of a business when there is so much incompetency, when there's so much lack of the perfection that we're so excited to get to, lack of the vision that we're so excited to accomplish, the frustration and fears around the cash flow component and the costs associated with so many things? How do we control, organize, lead through all of that emotion? That's what I want to talk about today. And let's be honest, it's a good time. With this coronavirus backdrop behind us and the media pushing that out, how are we going to emotionally show up for our team through whatever crisis? And if it's not one thing, it'll be another. Because if you're not growing, then maybe you're not having very many issues. But anybody who's pushing to grow, anyone who's pushing to improve, is going to feel like their business is always broken. In fact, I would dare say that the difference between a good business and a great business, both of them have issues. But the great business knows it, appreciates it, and realizes it's part of the growth process. So let me give you three leadership principles that have been super helpful to me as I've worked through scaling a business. And I can tell you that anyone who scaled a business didn't get to skip over all of the emotional ups and downs that each of us are feeling. There is no shortcut for that. I don't care who you are, how much Money you came in with or didn't come in with. Everybody is dealing with the emotions of the ups and downs of the gap in their vision versus the present realities of execution. So all of us have to deal with that. And I really believe that the difference between those who perform at a high level and. And those who struggle and hit ceilings is less about capability, like tactical capability, their ability to do tactical things really well or learn something from a book. It's less about that or even having the right platform in place in every moment, et cetera. And I think, honestly, at the end of the day, what really allows someone to scale is, is their emotional capability around leadership. Are they able to drive growth and know which things need to be improved and how to improve them, and other things, what to let go and how to organize and prioritize all this. So here's principle number one, and I'm going to say these are the principles of leadership during a crisis. Now, crisis might be, again, a little bit of a dramatic tone to it, but let's be honest. When we walk in and we see that the bank account is low, we see that the schedule fell apart, we see tray setups not being done right or whatever, it might be something we've communicated in the past, we want it better. And it's not better. I think our heart, our mind, our hormones all act, fight or flight, they go into crisis. So these are principles of leadership during a crisis. All right, principle number one, you've got to determine ahead of time how you want to show up for crises. If you know they're going to happen and they're going to happen again and again and again and again and again and again, you've got to determine now how you want to be through that process. If you're telling yourself, listen, I'm just going to push through for today. I'm going to get this ship cleaned up, I'm going to make sure that everybody is ready to go, and eventually I'll reach a place where the platform no longer has crises in it anymore, then you're just fooling yourself. If you're going to be growing personally or in the business, you're going to constantly have these emotions of crisis that happen. If you're going to have patience and you're going to have employees, you're going to have emotions that are going to happen. So principle number one is determine how you want to show up for the crises. In other words, who do you want to be? If this is how life is always going to be, how do you want to feel what level do you want your cortisol levels at? And I'd set this as an aspirational goal. Now, I found it very helpful to read bibliographies, to listen to podcasts like How I Built this, where you're able to hear other entrepreneurs who went through lots of crises and how they kind of had to emotionally push through. Because the more you can normalize this, the more you can take that real emotion and that mindset that's really unconscious and start to address it, the more you can get a handle on your fight or flight responses. And you've got to get where you recognize that that's what's happening. I mean, for me, sometimes I can feel it just looking at a metric or understanding a cash flow issue a little bit more, maybe seeing a poor front desk interaction happen or the back office or a cultural issue, all these things can launch that. But I have to have a bigger goal of who do I want to be and how do I want to show up as a leader. You know, there was one CEO that said that he had a mirror there at his desk, and he would just look at it before he walked out of his room, and he'd ask himself as he was looking at it, like, who do I want to be? Is my face showing that? Am I feeling that? So having that bigger aspirational confidence that, you know, come wind or rain, that I'm going to show up the same every day, I think that's an excellent goal and a great place to start. Number two, determine how you want to solve problems. Now, I found that there's two different approaches that are really common for entrepreneurs to solve problems. One, I call Sting and Zap communication and Sting and Zap communication. I think all of us know what this is, probably know what it feels like, but it's basically when the leader sees a problem and they communicate it intensely and directly and specifically right there, and that's the end of it. You know, hey, this didn't happen, right? It needs to happen, right? I need this better. Why isn't it happening? Et cetera, et cetera. Maybe Sting and Zap even happens with. Hey, Susie, can you come in here for a second? This went on. I told you it shouldn't happen. Et cetera, et cetera. And so I'll be watching for this, okay, that I call Sting and Zap communication. Oftentimes we use Sting and Zap when we're overwhelmed. We've got a lot going on, and we feel like we don't have time for the problem. It also happens when we just internally believe this shouldn't be a problem that, you know, I'm trying to build a much bigger vision here. And this problem that's happening is so minuscule, it's so easy to fix that I'm just going to sting and zap it. I'm going to tell them and they better just get their act together and get it solved. And. And they can feel our frustration. And obviously we feel our frustration that the problem even exists. In fact, in some ways. Well, not in some ways, in almost every way, we project on them that the reason the problem exists is because of them and their incompetency. But either way, in sting and zap, we make it very clear that we never want to see the problem again. The second way you can determine how you want to solve problems is to take a process and system approach. And really this comes from a perspective that you want to play a longer game, that you believe that for the most part, every individual in your organization is doing the best they can. And to the extent that they're not performing that the first place you're going to go to solve the problem is process and systems. Now, this is a mindset, right? So as people make mistakes, as issues come up, you think of the whole world as. Or the whole business world as just a progress, a progression of issues that you are going to solve. I guess a good way to say it is you actually expect problems, very small ones that should be easy to fix. You expect those to show up. You've done this enough that you know that to reach big goals always means solving a bunch of little things. And so as they happen, instead of being frustrating or instead of being overwhelming or a nuisance that they're happening, you actually look at them and say, ah, this is what building a business is like. And so we need to document that issue. We need to prioritize those. Those who know my dope system, and you can listen to that podcast, you take each of those issues as you see them, you organize and prioritize them, and then you start engaging on each of them. And I will tell you that your likelihood of solving that problem long term goes up exponentially as you follow that process. Now you have to have the emotional fortitude to live in the current moment of imperfection. You have to be able to live through the fear and the current chaos that's happening, and you have to have this level of faith that the business will continue despite these little things that are happening. Now, some people might feel that I'm Saying you put your head in the sand and you just ignore problems and not at all. What I'm saying is that you're actually taking the time to address the problems fully and give them the attention that they need. And instead of seeing them as just some kind of fly or gnat that needs to be, you know, swatted, instead you see them as real systems and process improvement opportunities and that you're going to meticulously take the time to improve them. Now, what this also means is step number three, you're going to determine how you will communicate this. In other words, you can't say I'm process and system oriented, but kind of use a sting and zap communication process. You're going to create a cadence by which you're documenting your issues and you're having these communications. Now let me tell you what kind of starts developing from this. It's really develops a culture of improvement. In fact, what you'll notice, and I think this is something you have to determine in your communication is when you're communicating with your team, you're speaking in terms of, hey guys, we're at level one, I'm really excited to get to level two, or we're at version two, I'd like to upgrade to version three. You know, we've really reached this minimum standard, but now I'm ready to go to this next level. And I think that that communication style so important because we're working with assets that are human and those humans are asking themselves, you know, one big question, which is, am I succeeding or am I failing? And if you put them in a place where they're constantly failing because the reality is the business is constantly needing improvement, then pretty soon the best people won't stay with you and you'll find that you're working with individuals who are open to the constant abuse, if you will, of communication around how poorly they're doing and how poorly the business is doing. And you'll just never get the traction that you were hoping for. And so I think in step number three, determine how you will communicate improvement, you're really determining what your culture around issues is going to be. Now this gets really fun because as you, as you get to these higher and higher levels, then as your team is freaking out and they're bringing you issues that they found. Now you're already in the mindset of deciding how you want to show up. You've determined how you want to solve problems, which is process and system oriented. And then how you communicate. Communicate changes as well. So one of the Things with my team, I've noticed as I've gotten better at this, they bring a crisis to me. They bring something that clearly isn't at the standard that we want to be as a company. And oftentimes I see their surprise when my reaction is fairly calm. It's process oriented. And you know, I have a saying which is, listen, this is a big house with lots of closets in it. We've been operating and living in this house for a long time. The fact that occasionally we kick a closet door open and find out that it's a total mess doesn't change the fact that we've been living in here a long time. The only thing that it changes is that now we know what's behind that door and we can improve it and create even a better house. And I think that that gives the team the emotional room to try to improve, to make mistakes and to bring up issues that they find, knowing that they will be approached with a systematic approach and with confidence that we're moving as a great company to higher and higher levels. Now, since the communication piece can be tricky, let me give you a few more principles under Communication that I think is helpful. One, I think that you want to ensure that there's a community, a cadence for communication already in place. In other words, if you're bringing Susie into your office and you never really talk to Susie except when things are going bad, then that's going to already set things up where you have kind of a culture that coming and talking to you is a negative experience. Versus, if we already have a regular cadence for communication where positive and feedback are both given, then it makes it not as dramatic as you move forward in your company. Number two is I think you want to batch information for communication. Now this is really helpful for dentists who are still in the chair or any of us who have are getting pulled in multiple directions. Oftentimes when we don't have that cadence in place, our team is kind of following us around almost like three year old kids wanting to hang on our leg. And what they're looking for is they need certain sets of information in order to move forward on their projects and tasks. But if they know that Thursday at 3:30 you always meet with them or Tuesday mornings at 8am you always meet with them, I would encourage you to do that cadence, but also to have them batch their information as much as possible for that. That includes bringing you opportunities for improvement, any kind of reports, etc. Other things that they need help with. If you can batch that and Protect yourself against kind of a constant barrage. I think it allows you as a leader to go to the next level because you're not constantly being drained by all these things pinging you. Number three, I would also batch feedback for the right time. And I think the biggest mistake I see here is sometimes we're trying to improve systems and projects while we're playing the game, while we're in the middle of the presentation, so to speak. And here's how I kind of break this up. I think of business like a professional sport. There's game time, then there's practice, and then there's off season. And you have to know where you're at in that day or in those moments. To me, during game time, that's when you want to keep the energy high. You want to keep it positive. Yes, there's coaching coming out from the sideline, but you're coaching for success. And you might coach small tactical items, but you're not looking to upgrade the entire system. Right? Can you imagine, like pulling a quarterback off of the field and say, listen, I really want to talk through your squatting technique because I really feel like you did a poor job in the gym the other day, etc. Etc. Etc. It's just not the appropriate timing. And you can feel this when people do this to you, when they're, when they're asking you questions or giving you feedback. And it just feels like the context is off and you're trying to retool to be able to hear what they're saying, and then you got to go retool to get back in the game. And I think this is something that's a high leadership skill to learn, which is how do I keep the energy high and positive during game time and then. And do minor coaching here and there, but batch the other things for later. Now, one of the techniques that I use is I will oftentimes write things down when I see opportunities for improvement. And this goes for a thousand different things. Let me give a couple examples. Let's say I'm going through a practice. Maybe I'm there to meet with the practice manager around some initiative, etc. And I see other opportunities for improvement. I might write those down and batch those for a later conversation, or feed that over to the regional, sit down with them and say, hey, here's some things that I saw. Go ahead and put these on your project management system for future improvement, or do you have more feedback on that, et cetera, et cetera, to lay that on the practice manager every time I Come in for a different reason. You can see how after a while they're like, oh man, here comes Emmett and he's gonna hit me with 10 different things. Now you might be asking like, so when do you do kind of feedback for process improvements? And if you think about this in terms of sports, it's practice time, right? So you want to set aside training time and again, to the extent that you can make this a cadence that you can say every day at noon, we're going to do some training time, or you know, once a week at this time, we're going to do training time again. You're going to document things during game time that you notice are opportunities for improvement. Man, I want that tray set up better. Man, I'd really like to see this improve, etc. Etc. You're going to document those, you're going to prioritize them and you're going to bring them to practice time. And it's during those trading times, if you've got that regular cadence, that it's a place that you can stay focused on fundamentals and you want to keep practicing to keep improving. Now what about the big stuff? What about the stuff where you want to change the strategy, you just don't like how somebody's doing something at all, you want to go a different direction, et cetera? Well, that's kind of off season, right? That's where you want to build the big strategy and vision. And you know, maybe that's the annual meeting, maybe it's semi annual. If you have the right team around you, it could be as often as weekly. But you have to have the people who have the resources and time to talk at off season level. And you know, I've often seen for us, these are the conversations that we're having at the executive level with leaders. But you've got to make sure that the right people in the room and that they have the bandwidth to be in the right mindset. If somebody's buried deep in some tactical things, if they're emotionally, you know, feeling overwhelmed on some things that they're working on, practice or game time issue type stuff to then up the game and go into big strategy and vision, you're just not going to get the response you wanted. You're not going to have the person you need showing up to have that conversation in all of this. Just remember, it's very easy as a leader to give the constant impression that you, your team and the business are all failing. And it can become a cultural thing where you look at it as striving towards vision and your team looks at it as never good enough for Emmett, never good enough for the leader. And eventually they say I'm just not cut to be able to help out and you'll start to see the turnover or again, you'll see the individuals that you really don't want on the team stay. So my last piece just kind of from a mindset perspective here is you don't want to let your excitement for the future create a culture of failure in the present. And you don't want to let your fear of the future create a culture of failure in the present either. Both of those things, the excitement and the fear of the future can end up being dragged into today with this belief that today, this moment, things are bad. I think you always want to be in the mindset of winning and I have a podcast around the anxiety cycle versus the success cycle I'd strongly encourage you to listen to. If you haven't listen, I'm talking about always being progressing towards the ultimate goal, which is personal development. We always want to be learning and growing. But part of the learning and growing isn't just the business getting better. It's about us getting better to appreciate where the business is today and know how to gently move it along towards that idealism that we're all excited for. Let me leave you with this. Anxiety doesn't go away based on changing your environment. Anxiety doesn't go away based on changing your environment. In other words, well, once I have a big team, then everything will be easier. Once we hit this productivity goal, then everything will be easier. Once so and so finally does this, then everything will be easier. Anxiety doesn't go away based on changing your environment. Anxiety goes away based on changing your mindset. And hopefully as you apply these principles, you'll find your confidence increase and your fortitude to be able to lead your team with a positive perspective of success will just grow within you. Listen, all of us are dealing with this every day, maybe hundreds of times during the day. They feel like little missiles coming at us. Someone just walks into our office or says a word and we realize that it kicks us into fight or flight. And hopefully some of these principles will help you as you look to deal with that, look to lead through that and really provide an environment of success and a culture of success in your business. I hope these are helpful. I'd love to get your feedback on our Facebook page at DSO Secrets. And until next time, keep smiling.

Thank you for listening to DSO Secrets. Join our community on Facebook at DSO Secrets. And get answers and resources to some of your most challenging questions. If you want to get a copy of the seven secrets of any DSO, go to our website at DSO secrets.com and we will get that emailed to you. Remember, don't go at this alone. Let us be your team while you build your team.