Let Your Values Decide

It’s a given that as a dentist you have to make critical decisions daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. The results of those decisions impact your patients, team, family, finances, and future—sometimes it’s too much to think about. There’s an increased risk of anxiety when you have the tremendous responsibility of running a practice and making all the decisions, but there’s a secret weapon at your disposal: your core values. 

I’ve had so many conversations with clients who are having trouble making a decision, and the first thing I always do is ask them to circle back to their core values. It’s amazing how much clearer they make the picture so you can make the decision more easily. 

What Do You Value?

You may wonder how an ideal you hold can help you make everyday decisions. First and foremost, however, your core values aren’t some lofty, intangible goals that hang overhead, forgotten by everyone. They’re the behaviors that are non-negotiable, the things that are deeply ingrained and make you tick. At ACT, we have six core values:

• “All In” Attitude
• Results Driven
• Always Be Growing
• Walk the Talk
• Give is Greater Than Get
• We Before Me

We live and breathe them every day, because you’ve got to keep them alive. It won’t do you any good if they’re stuck in a drawer, so let them out! 

• Give team members a shoutout when they do something that embodies one of your values
• Make core values medals to hand out
• Make t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, etc. with your core values on them

Core values merchandise may sound a little silly at first, but it truly helps remind your team what’s most important.  

Your own values are probably very different, so think about what you care about and can build your business, team, cause, and calling around. At the end of the day, they need to be something you can be proud of. Distilling your values down to the ones that guide your every behavior is not an easy or quick process, but it’s so worth it. Like Kirk says, finding our core values was “the single most important thing I’ve ever done in business.” If you need help, email me! 

Avoid the Fatigue

Decision fatigue is something that wears us down as humans. We have thousands of decisions that we make each day, and each one takes a toll. The more we make, the more fatigued we get, and as a result, it becomes more difficult to make decisions. This is why people make their lunch plans or set out their clothing the night before—they’re decisions they must make, but they don’t necessarily want to make them all in one day. It helps your mental strain when you’re able to clear just a few decisions from your plate. 

Similarly, falling back on your core values helps ease this fatigue. If we automatically pull our core values into the conversation when we’re faced with a tough choice, it becomes that much easier to make the right call quickly. As your guiding principles, your core values act as the third person in the room you can run things by to help make hard decisions. 

Put it in Practice

Saying your core values will help make decisions is one thing, but what does making a core values-based decision look like? While preparing to record a podcast episode recently, Kirk and I encountered a technical issue. We thought about pushing it off to another day and delaying the episode, but we believe in being Results Driven. That means we need to get results for our company, clients, and community of listeners, so the decision to move forward immediately became clear. We must remain committed to what we said we’d do, and a little technical hiccup couldn’t get in the way of that. 

As a further example, another of our coaches, Jenni, helps manage a perio practice in Denver, and when the pandemic was looming, they faced the decision of whether to close or stay open. Bear in mind that this was before the ADA made their recommendation that offices close. Jenni worked with the team and brought it back to their core values, and ultimately, they made the decision to close prior to the ADA’s recommendation because it was the right thing to do based on their values. 

You’re going to face many choices this week, so I challenge you to ask yourself the ultimate question whenever you have a decision ahead of you: “What do our core values say?” Let them guide you through any decision, and I guarantee it will cut down on the stress associated with making it. It will be easier, quicker, and you’ll feel good about the decision you’ve made. If you need help creating your core values or using them to make decisions, schedule a call with ACT and let us show you how great it can be. With your core values in place, you have the tools to make quicker, easier decisions and use them to create a Better Practice, and a Better Life!

Heather Crockett is a Lead Practice Coach at ACT Dental