Is office culture a real thing? Can team morale be built? What if your practice has an employee who is difficult to work with? Today, Lacie is joined by Laura Henry, who is at the helm of a successful orthodontic business, managing three offices, two practices, and three doctors; Laura has answers to these questions. Lacie and Laura will also discuss time off, office apparel and the importance of leadership. Don’t miss this powerful episode of Practice Talk. You will surely learn how to achieve a successful team in your practice.
IN THIS EPISODE:
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Click here to download this episode's printable tip sheet, "Managing Team Members (and Sometimes your Doctors)"
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for watching the video.
(00:00:00) Narrator: Welcome to practice talk, a deep dive into the world of healthcare practices, where we invite team members to share strategies to make your work life easier. Now your host, Lacey Ellis.
(00:00:17) Lacie Ellis: Welcome to our fourth episode of practice talk brought to you by people in practice, where we specialize in digital marketing, website development, SEO, and so much more. I am beyond excited for today's discussion about managing team members. And sometimes your doctors with my friend, Laura Henley. Laura is a seasoned professional in the field of orthodontics with a passion for leadership and excellence.
Raised in Colorado, her orthodontic journey began almost a decade ago. Currently, Laura is at the helm of a successful orthodontic business, managing three offices, two practices, and three very skilled doctors. And on top of all of that, Laura has been married for 15 years and has five amazing kids.
Welcome, Laura. (00:01:00)
(00:01:00) Laura Henry: Thank you, Lacey.
(00:01:02) Lacie Ellis: We're so excited. This is funny because we're actually friends and colleagues and this is, this is an exciting moment for, for me, especially. So thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Um, as, of course, as a reminder, don't worry about taking any notes today. We will put together a printable that you'll be able to download for free from our website, filled with details from today's discussion.
So at People in Practice, we understand the ecosystem in a practice, and we know that a healthy, well run practice is an important piece to our marketing success. So in my opinion, there's no better person to chat with about this topic than my friend, Laura. So let's get into it. Laura, let's talk about the culture in an office and team morale.
How do you create a positive work environment and how do you handle conflict between team members?
(00:01:54) Laura Henry: So I think team morale is one of the biggest, um, things within an office because it's what keeps (00:02:00) people and it's what loses people. Um, and really positivity within an office starts from the top down. So meaning, you know, if you come in as a leadership team with positive energy, you're Your team is going to feed on that.
If it's negative, they're going to feed on the negativity. So it's extremely important that you come in with that positive energy. So in our practices, we make every conscious effort to come across with, um, you know, positivity coming in. So we have a morning meetings 15 minutes prior to patients. It is an all staff meeting.
So our entire team is involved in this. Um, and we go through chairs. We talk about any obstacles, things like that, but we are always ending our morning meetings on a positive note. So either we have, um, we'll have jokes. They're not good jokes. They're actually dad jokes. They're pretty poor, but everybody laughs.
Um, and so, uh, because they laugh at them, you know, it just kind of creates that positive energy. But the other thing that we will often do is if we don't have a joke or we just want something (00:03:00) extra, many times we will actually end up, um, I have, I come up with questions of the day and it's nothing that I have written out.
It's just things that will pop up. Um, but I, I asked these questions to the team because it creates, um, a positive mindset kind of going into things. So I'll ask things like, you know, kind of the general, like what is on your bucket list for vacations? Or, um, one of my favorites is what's your Favorite, uh, childhood memory.
And you can kind of see those wheels really turning in their minds. And it creates, just like you can see them dig really deep 'cause they don't think about it all the time. And once they find it, it's kind of that light bulb and they're so excited to share it. Um, and so when they share it, you find something out about the team member, which is one of the reasons I do these.
But again, it creates really that positive experience, um, for them. And, and again, everybody's learning something new. Um, yesterday we had two girls who did a one minute dance off, so we turned on Taylor Swift at the end and literally they did this hilarious dance off and, and really the (00:04:00) purpose of it is yes to build the team, but when they when they leave right when they leave that morning meeting to go grab patients, they are laughing so hard and that positive energy then is, you know, is passed on to patients.
So the patients may be there, you know, early in the morning, not wanting to be there. It is amazing how that ripple effect really does occur. But when you set that, that initial mindset in the morning, it really sets the tone for everything else. Um, there are other things that we do. We do a lot of team building, um, team building is huge and it's not like your normal, you know, look it up online type team builders.
A lot of times it's like, let's play games together. Let's just get to know each other, you know, on a, on a different level. Um, yesterday, so every week, or I'm sorry, every month. The second half of the day on one day a month, we have staff meetings and sometimes we're doing, you know, goal setting and all those good things.
But we always add a team builder. And yesterday we had one and it was just we brought games and I (00:05:00) don't know if anybody's played the voting game. It's their little cards and essentially you decide, um, they pull out a card and somebody reads it and they say, who of the group of people that are playing are most likely to do whatever's on the card and it is hilarious, but they learn something new about each other again.
And they're laughing and it's just really building that that positive environment, which again, I love it. If you have positivity with the office, you have positivity that off to your patients, which then creates positive experiences, which then that's kind of that marketing piece, right? Because that's, that's what's marketed is that people have great experiences here.
Um, the 1 thing to really be cautious of is, is, um, you know, you want to make sure you don't have. You know, negative positive energy. So essentially toxic positivity, toxic positivity is a very real thing. And I think that people don't necessarily know that they're thinking, I'm trying to press this positivity into the office, knowing that, Hey, there's a whole lot going on.(00:06:00)
I think it's very, um. You create positivity by also identifying when things are negative, right? And really game planning for those things. So it's not just about being positive. It's not just about, you know, pushing positivity. You don't want to gaslight them into the positive mindset. It's saying, you know what?
Some days are awful, like they just, they're just awful, right? And we can come into some of those days where it's like, hey, we're crazy short staffed. And that's unfortunate, but it happens. And how are we going to game plan for that? And so we sit down and say, where is the doctor needed? What do we need to do?
Where do I need to hop in with patients? Where does doctor need to be? Um, and we buy them lunch and we make sure that they have that. You know, they have that support essentially in the back end. We communicate with patients so that they know they're not stressed trying to pull patients back on time and we do the absolute best that we can again continue to create that positive mindset.
(00:06:52) Lacie Ellis: Oh, I love every single thing you just said and it makes me think that I worked in a. particular practice once where we had a team member (00:07:00) who just had a terrible attitude and we honestly didn't realize how much she was impacting the entire team until she left the practice. So I think there's also that, like, as a manager, you're trying to make sure you don't have like the one bad apple that's boiling the bunch type of a situation, um, which probably is tricky as well, but that's, that's a real.
thing that happens in practices too. So I, I think everything you said is great. I think starting the day off with that little bit of laughter and um, I was trying to remember, I was in one office once and somebody told one of those dad jokes and I'm going to butcher it, but we're going to try. It was something like the three hardest things to say are.
I love you. I'm sorry. And Worcestershire sauce. And I was like, Hey, that
(00:07:46) Narrator: is true.
(00:07:48) Laura Henry: That is real. As a practice leader, you have to make decisions. And sometimes those decisions are the hard ones where if you have that bad apple, I do not care how well we're producing. If you have a bad (00:08:00) apple, you will never have the team and you got to be able to make those.
Those hard decisions and say, look, you're wonderful at your job, but you're awful to the rest of the team. And, you know, unfortunately you got to decide, is that something that you're willing to cut now? Um, or make those, you know, make, take the steps into that direction. If for some reason you can't change that behavior.
(00:08:19) Lacie Ellis: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's really good advice. Um, so I get a lot of questions about incentives for team members. Um, what have you found to be the best way to incentivize, um, a team? Is it as a group? Is it individual? Is it by their position or their performance? I think there are thousands of ways I've read and seen and been to seminars and heard about.
What do you guys do and how do you feel like it's working? What would you change?
(00:08:44) Laura Henry: So I, we do a group incentive. Um, I actually like both for very different reasons. So I think group incentives are great. If we're really trying to build that team, we're really trying to, um, You know, create that teamwork mentality, essentially, because it's taking everybody (00:09:00) to hit those goals.
But the reality is you're not going to hit those goals if you have low forming or low, low performing, um, team members. So I think a little bit of both is actually where that sweet spot is where, yes, you have this team. You know, this team goal that you want to mean, but the incentive really needs to be focused on individuals.
Because if you have again, those high performing individuals, you will then be more likely to hit those those team goals. And you can even increase those goals to have higher team goals. So it's definitely. I really think there's a little bit of in between. Um, I like the team mentality. You know, when we talk incentives, many times we're talking bonuses, right?
We're talking money. I don't necessarily think you always have to go that route either. I think that you can absolutely think outside the box and say, you know what, we can put, you know, money in a hat and at the end of the quarter or whatever, determine, you know, hey, we can either pay this out to everybody.
Or we can keep going and maybe at the end of the year, take a team trip or, you know, I mean, whatever your team wants to do. I think part of (00:10:00) incentives is also identifying how your team best responds to the incentive. So what incentive do they want? Do they just want time off, whether it be paid or not paid?
Do they want, um, you know, Michael Kors bags? Do they want the bonus to be able to go pay bills? Um, you really talking to your team about what is the best incentive for them is, is really going to be ideal. But again, I think overall, I think having the your team structure, yes, but I do think you need to make sure you're hitting those individual goals for performance.
And, you know, if you have a TC that's not hitting case acceptance, you're not going to be able to Meet those goals because you're not getting your starts. So really identifying any inefficiencies. Work on those inefficiencies so that as a, as a whole, you guys are able to meet those goals as a team.
(00:10:44) Lacie Ellis: Yeah, I agree.
And the practice that I worked in the longest actually didn't even have any set incentives. We didn't even get a holiday bonus like There was nothing set. What it was, was the doctor would surprise us if we had like a really hard week or if we had a really great week. It (00:11:00) would just be like random surprises.
It'd be like, Hey, meet me at the office for a cleaning day. We're going to clean the office all day. And we'd all get there in our like casual clothes. And he'd have like a limo there and we'd all get an envelope with a different spa treatment in it. And he'd be like, just kidding, it's spa day. But sometimes we'd show up and it really would be like clean the office day.
So you just never knew, but we always felt like very. taken care of. And I think that's probably the bottom line of an incentive. And he didn't want to ever to be like expected or part of a salary. He was like, I want it to be based on me feeling like you've earned this or you need a reward and a pick me up or something.
And that, that seemed to work really well in that practice. But I'm sure, like you said, based on what your team needs, that might not work for everyone.
(00:11:47) Laura Henry: Right. And we do that too. I mean, that's one of actually the big things we'll do. We'll randomly go get 50 gift cards and go hand them out at a morning meeting just to say, Hey, we appreciate you.
Um, same thing when we have those hard days, right? It's just, it's kind of nice to have something to (00:12:00) show that appreciation. You can't, you know, you can't always do everything you want to do, but doing little things definitely helps, like you said, with that appreciation piece.
(00:12:09) Lacie Ellis: Awesome. All right. Well, uh, if you've listened to the podcast before, you know that we solicit some questions from team members that we work with in other practices.
Um, and we'd like to play our first one now.
(00:12:21) Narrator: Hi, I am new to the role of office manager,
(00:12:24) Laura Henry: and I'm struggling with my doctor sometimes overriding my decisions, and I'm feeling deflated.
(00:12:28) Narrator: Any advice would be appreciated.
(00:12:33) Lacie Ellis: Yeah, that's a great question. Um, because I feel like there is a varying degree of, uh, support that people get and people need when they're in that role.
So, what advice do you have for a manager that may not have that same level of support that you may get from your doctors?
(00:12:52) Laura Henry: So I am honestly blessed in that regard. Um, all three of my doctors are incredibly supportive and they are absolutely (00:13:00) phenomenal. And so I really haven't had that, but I will say the reason we don't have that is we have very open communication.
We have, you know, meetings every single week. We are very open and our concerns and our struggles. Um, the things that we, you know, we need to do as far as growth or dealing with certain situations within the office. So I would say number one, um, make sure that you guys have that open line of communication and really kind of take yourself out of the equation, right?
I know sometimes it feels like it's a personal thing that, hey, my doctor's not supporting me. But the reality is, if you're not getting support from your doctor on a management As a management team, you guys aren't on the same page or have that support for one another. You're not supporting your team. So it's really important.
I think that you pull yourself out of the conversation and say, you know, Hey, doctor, I really want to sit down and have this conversation and how we best can support the team. And I think what's, you know, it starts with us really just being on the same page. Um, and these are some of the things I really wanted to discuss with you and kind of (00:14:00) find out, um, you know, what your thoughts are and how we can can move forward on some of these items.
Um, sometimes it's, they're just not fully explaining why they're not backing you. Um, and again, I think it's you understanding the reason why I think again, many times if you say something and they veto it, we automatically think, well, he's not supporting me. There might be a reason as to why they're not supportive, right?
But again, take yourself out of the equation. Understand that as a team, if we, as a management team, doctors and managers included, if we are not on the same page. Our doctors will be able to know that, which means it's going to be the mom and dad situation. Right? If mom says no, go talk to that. So you want to make sure you guys are that collaborative effort and that you guys are forced to be reckoned with and knowing that, hey, we are on the same page.
We support whatever, you know, they say. Um, and there's really hearing that same message again. That's the best support you're going to be able to provide for your team.
(00:14:54) Lacie Ellis: Yeah, I was thinking about it. I don't think I'd last very long in the role of office manager if I didn't (00:15:00) have like a very supportive doctor and a good relationship with that doctor.
I think so sometimes maybe we have to realize maybe we're not the right fit for that practice in that role. And that might be a hard thing to realize. But, um, that might also be something to take a step back from. Be like, Is this the right place for me in this practice at this time?
(00:15:18) Laura Henry: Well, and absolutely.
And every every manager manages differently. Every doctor does his management style differently. And if it's not, it's not something that we can come to terms with, then absolutely. Sometimes the answer is maybe it's just not the best fit.
(00:15:35) Lacie Ellis: Awesome. Okay, next question. It seems
(00:15:38) Narrator: like everyone wants to take their vacation over the summer, and I get that because kids are
(00:15:42) Laura Henry: out of school, but the summer is when we really need all
(00:15:45) Narrator: hands on deck.
How can I better manage
(00:15:48) Laura Henry: vacation requests?
(00:15:51) Lacie Ellis: Yeah. Another great question. I get asked this one pretty regularly. Um, how to manage those time off requests, especially during those busy summer (00:16:00) months. Take it away.
(00:16:02) Laura Henry: So again, I think number one is setting the standard for your team, right? And saying you can only have so many people off at a certain time, um, with our offices.
So we have two offices that are part of a large DSO. We have two private offices. All of our clinical teams go to all four locations with our three doctors. Um, so it's a lot of finagling of schedules. It's a lot of making sure everybody is, is well equipped for the patients for the day. Um, but with that said, we also, you know, we talk about work life balance.
It's, it's not work life balance. Your work is part of your life. So I actually really hate that term. And I, I do think that people need time off, right? If you want somebody that's going to be happy and have that good culture. We also have to understand like, Hey, they have things they want to do to on the back end.
And quite honestly, like I get that, right? I have five kids. So yes, summer months, you want to be able to spend time with your families. Um, but there's different things you can do. So for us, it's first come first serve. Um, we always ask for at least 30 days notice, (00:17:00) um, for any time off requests. And I'm going to be honest.
If I can give it to you, if I can hop in to see patients to cover for you, I will. And I do that again because it's not work life balance. Your work is your life. Um, and so I want you to be able to go spend time with your family. Um, obviously, yes, we still have a company to run, right? So there are some things that you can actually do as far as incentivizing people to come for, you know, those, those summer months.
So if it's, hey, August, we don't want anybody to take any time off in August. Why not incentivize them? Create an incentive to say, Hey, it's 250 or you'll get 250 incentive if you don't take any time off in August or whatever it is, right? Whatever incentive you want to create, um, to really give them a reason.
I mean, really, what is the reason we provide to them not to take the time off? Right. Like, because the company is busy. I mean, again, that's not their entire lives. They do have something outside of that. So, um, I think incentives are huge. I think again, understanding, Hey, you can have, you know, two people off at any given time or (00:18:00) whatever your office will allow.
Um, and making sure that you stand true to that and say, you know, it is first come first serve and so and so's off. So unfortunately we do need you here.
(00:18:10) Lacie Ellis: Yeah. I, um, I've worked in a few practices and the one that ran the smoothest with time off request was exactly that it was first come first serve and we also had a big wall calendar in the back office that had the whole year on it.
And when somebody requested time and it was approved, that was marked off and you would know, like, In pre planning your next thing, like, does somebody already have a request in for that exact time? And you would just know, well, I won't be asking for that time off because it's going to get denied right now.
So, that was
(00:18:41) Laura Henry: helpful. No, that's awesome. I love that idea. Alright.
(00:18:45) Lacie Ellis: Yeah, it is helpful as a team member to be able to see it kind of in your face and know. You know, what's possible, I guess, out there. Um, okay. So my last question and probably the question I get asked the most on the management side is (00:19:00) how do you handle team uniforms?
And is that different from the front to the back office or is it the same? How do you guys manage that?
(00:19:09) Laura Henry: So team uniforms are a hot topic. It seems I feel like every office is, you know, they ask that same question. Um, for us in our office, we have the clinic where scrubs, um, and they are, you know, they're joggers.
So they're, they're good looking scrubs. And then the top, the front office, all of our admin team is business casual. I don't love scrubs, Scrubs are not anytime you put on scrubs. It's much like putting on sweats, right? You almost create that mentality. So when you, when you go and you put on a suit, right?
You're not, you don't think about all just throw my hair up and not worry about doing my makeup kind of thing, right? You're not throwing on tennis shoes. It's just. very different mentality as you get dressed up, right? Um, so for clinic, obviously, yes, just to make sure we're laundering things and whatnot.
We put a, we do scrubs, but again, they're, they are well kept scrubs. (00:20:00) They look really good. They're all embroidered. Everything is very professional. Um, but I love for the front office to have, um, we don't currently do this, but I actually want to do this this year is get lasers or cardigans. Um, just to have something that is embroidered that again, kind of their own.
Uniform, um, so to speak, but business casual. So we don't do jeans, we don't do leggings, nothing form fitting, nothing obviously low cut. Everything has to be well kept, right? Um, hair done, makeup done, things like that. So essentially how you come in your interview is how you should present within the office.
Um, I don't know for T. C. Even that. very much. There is a very different feel between patients in the T. C. If she's wearing scrubs verse wearing something that you know, like a button down top, it is you just get different feedback. So you're actually more likely to, you know, get that case acceptance if.
You are presenting as if you're presenting the 7, 000 case fee, right? So
(00:20:58) Lacie Ellis: yeah, yeah. (00:21:00) Yeah. Um, I've seen this trend happening lately where it's like Everybody has office t shirts that they're wearing and then like the same style of jeans So it's like no holes in them They're all like kind of picked in that line that has a wide variety and then everybody's wearing the same like type of tennis shoe But they can pick the color that they're wearing and that's like what everybody's wearing Which I think in some offices it works really well.
They've got a casual vibe, like that just fits their model. But I think overall in the orthodontic industry that you're absolutely right. That like business casual just sets a different standard and then having the back, yes, I, I did feel like I was wearing my pajamas when I had scrubs on. So that was kind of nice sometimes, but yeah, but definitely, I think.
That makes the most sense overall, but I'm not, not to say that the offices that are doing like a jeans. T shirt vibe. If that fits the office culture and (00:22:00) model and it makes sense for that practice, I say like, go for it. But that's not really the overall arching way that fits for most practices. Um, and I, we did always get to wear jeans on Fridays because Usually that was an admin day anyways.
So it was like we had jeans and an office t shirt. So we all had the same t shirts on. We all had nice jeans. There was like standards set for what those could look like. Um, and that was kind of a little treat at the end of the week. So maybe a little balance with that.
(00:22:29) Laura Henry: Well, and I think that this day and age, quite honestly, a lot of the norms are changing, right?
I mean, even like business casual wear, if you try to go look for business casual wear. There's many times crop tops. And of course, for in my mind, I'm like, that's not business casual, right? Like, that's not what I would, would think of as business casual, but there are some of that, you know, some of the mindset is shifting as far as, like you said, the jeans and shoes.
I mean, I've been in offices before with, you know, shorts and, and. You know, they have like Hawaiian shirts on. And so it (00:23:00) just totally depends upon the doctor. And it depends upon, like you said, kind of what your demographic is. Um, and that works as long as it works for them. That's, that's great. But I do think you set the standard and you set the standard based on what, you know, you and your doctor want that, that, um, You know, essentially what you want the public to see when they come in, because that is the first, the first voice or the first face that they see the first presentation of your office is when they first walk in.
(00:23:30) Lacie Ellis: No, I definitely agree. Um, any other tips, tricks, wisdom, anything else that you want to share? Um, I covered a
(00:23:38) Laura Henry: lot, you know, that, honestly, I know that this day and age with being a practice manager, um, especially in dental, it's hard, it is, it is rough and there's a lot of people that I see even good friends of mine that are, are hopping ship just because.
It is exhausting. It's the burnout is very real, but know that you're doing a great job. If you are doing the best that you can, you are (00:24:00) doing a great job. Um, know that, you know, as a practice manager, as long as your team knows that you are there to help support them and encourage them and, you know, you know, they really, you really are their wingman and, and helping them become successful, not just in a personal, you know, understand that obviously they're people.
So, um, Yeah. Yeah. You know, make sure that you are helping them excel in all aspects of their life, whether it be professional, personal, know your know your team and what drives them and know something personal about them. Um, that's really what creates that, you know, that good office culture and good team morale overall, because they understand that, you know, you're not just there to manage, you're there to actually lead, which are 2 totally separate things.
(00:24:41) Lacie Ellis: Yep. And actually, with that being said, just to kind of close out, um, a thought that came to me that you said so perfectly when you were talking about, you know, time off requests, you will jump in anytime the team needs a fill in. And I think that speaks to who you are as a person and as a (00:25:00) leader. When you say, you know, if I can jump in and do it and be helpful to you, like I am in this with you.
This isn't me managing from up here. This is me managing from. We're all right here and we're all trying to accomplish the same goals. I also think, um, in a practice, we start to feel like I do the same thing every day, especially in the clinic where you're changing ties and changing wires. And I think we forget that we're also changing smiles and like we need to like broaden our vision of what's the bigger picture and why are we doing this?
And I think I know as a manager, you understand that and help your team remember that. But I think that's like. One of the big things to keep bringing your team back to is like, we're changing somebody's smiles. This is a smile they're going to have for the rest of their life. This is not a little thing.
And it's such a gift and a, you know, something great that we're able to do as a job and a career and a profession. Like, how cool is that? So. Anyway, well, I really hope (00:26:00) that everyone enjoyed this conversation as much as I did today. Thank you for sharing with us, Laura. You have so much knowledge and you're so talented in what you do in so many areas.
Um, but I knew that this would be valuable for a lot of people to hear. So thank you so much for your time. Thank you
(00:26:15) Laura Henry: so much.
(00:26:17) Lacie Ellis: So our goal with this podcast is to give you truly tangible items that you can use in your day to day life at the office and to elevate the voices of people that actually work in the office and sit in the same chair that you sit in every day.
On our next episode, we'll be talking to a wonderful chair site assistant and discussing her tips for running an efficient clinic. Send us your anonymous questions and stories to practice talk. com. Please subscribe and share this episode with your friends and family that might find these conversations helpful or interesting.
And don't forget to listen to our original podcast called the golden age of orthodontics. Hosted by our founders of people in practice, Dr. Leon Klempner and Amy Epstein. Until next (00:27:00) time. Thank you for joining us on practice talk where your voice has value.
(00:27:05) Narrator: Thank you for listening to the practice talk podcast, head over to practicetalk.com to ask us questions or tell us your stories until next time.
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