Trust the Rules

When trust is low in your office, it shows. There’s a lot of unhealthy conflict, which affects everyone’s performance and makes the office an unpleasant place to work. Trust is incredibly important in any business, so much so that Patrick Lencioni places it as the foundation of his pyramid of cohesive behaviors. If you’re going to create a healthy culture in your practice, you need to make trust a priority; not just any trust, either—true, vulnerability-based trust. It’s the ability to open up and be honest with one another about making mistakes, needing help, or expressing fears—it takes ego out of the equation and lets everyone bring their thoughts and opinions to the table in a safe and constructive environment. Before you can have this deep level of trust, however, you need to lay down some rules. 

Look to Your Values

It’s one of Kirk’s favorite sayings, and it’s so true: “All roads lead back to core values.” They’re so much more than values you embody though—they’re the rules for everyone’s behavior in the practice, and you need them in place. Without the rules, how am I supposed to trust you and know you’ll behave in a certain way? Simon Sinek gave a fantastic speech about why you need core values, and in it, he made the point that your values can’t be ideals—they must be verbs because you need something actionable. We have six core values at ACT:

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

They’re all behaviors, and because everyone knows they are rules, we all instinctively trust that they’re going to be followed, which allows us to be vulnerable with one another.

Not All Conflict is Bad

The goal of vulnerability is to have healthy, productive conflict in which you hold one another accountable. I’ve found that so many people in dentistry are S’s on the DiSC Assessment and tend to be humble, nurturing, and caring—to the point where they hold in their thoughts because they’re afraid of hurting a team member’s feelings. It’s admirable, to a degree, but the problem is when we don’t share our thoughts, feelings, and opinions, we’re actually doing the team more harm than good. In not wanting to create conflict, they’re creating more by not calling out the truth and allowing mistakes to continue. When you can call people out and they acknowledge you’re right, it’s incredibly powerful, but it’s not happening if there’s no trust. It's the biggest hurdle for many team members to get over, but when your team is able to speak the truth from a place of understanding, without fear of personal attacks, they’ll create healthy conflict that only serves to improve the practice. 

Work doesn’t have to be a four-letter word—it can, and should, be a fun word. Lead the way by establishing the rules for behavior in your practice, and then be the first one to be vulnerable. All change processes start with the first step, which is telling the truth, so find that area between vulnerability and confidence and show your team how to admit mistakes, express fears, and ask for help. We always say, “As goes the leader, so goes the team,” so it’s up to you to lead by example. It’s okay to admit when you’re struggling, and the coaches at ACT are here to be your change experts. Whether it’s with creating the rules, implementing them, or making sure they’re being followed, reach out to us for help. Our goal is to help you build a Better Practice, and a Better Life, and that starts with creating a strong foundation for a healthy culture. 

Heather Crockett is a Lead Practice Coach at ACT Dental