Understanding your teammates for improved communication with Kevin Henry

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Today is the beginning of a new era with the re-branding of my podcast. I am excited to announce that Novonee on the Go is now The High Performing Dental Team! Don’t worry . . . in the re-brand of the title, new intro and new music, you will still receive the same 15 minutes of juicy content you can take back to your practice.

With the re-brand of my podcast, it was only fitting to have my first guest on the show who is instrumental in my content creation . . . dental industry expert, champion of dental assistants, influential speaker, love of my life, my husband Kevin Henry. Today, Kevin and I talk about closing the loop in dental team communication and how you can understand each other on a human level that will transform your dental practice.

If you hear something today that you want more of and you want to reach out to Kevin directly, he can be reached at kevin@kevinspeaksdental.com.  Then, for all our free content and to subscribe to my podcast go to https://novonee.com/media/

Full transcription by Riverside

Dayna (00:03.265)

Hey, welcome everyone. I’m Dayna Johnson, your host of the High Performing Dental Team podcast. And I have a very special guest for my very first rebranded podcast for today. I thought I would open it up with one of the most important people in my life, the person that helped me launch my podcast a couple of years ago.

one of the industry, dental industries, most influential industry leaders in that I know. And that’s my husband, the love of my life, the podcasting expert, dental speaker, editor in chief of Dr. Bicuspid Cuspid. I mean, how many more titles do you have, my dear?

Kevin Henry (00:55.914)

Well, that’s plenty. As long as love of your life is the first one, I’ll take that any day of the week. So it is it’s all good. I’m glad to be on here. Absolutely.

Dayna (01:04.525)

Well, thank you. This is, I figure it was very fitting to have you as my first guest on the new rebranded podcast, the high performing dental team. Are you, I’m so excited.

Kevin Henry (01:20.238)

Well, and I thank you for not calling it the high performing dental staff, because staff just nasty word. So I’m really glad that we’re emphasizing team whenever we talk about this.

Dayna (01:31.185)

Yeah, staff is an infection. And we do not talk about our amazing team members as an infection. In fact, one of your expertises is talking with dental team. And you travel around the country to all the dental meetings. And you speak on team a lot and onboarding new team members, communication, understanding their personality styles with your disc training. And you know, you have so many valuable insights that I want to hear about today. And so first, let’s kind of dive in first with you and I both are seeing a lot of team members coming on board and the dental practice with no dental experience. You know, they’re coming in from other industries, our dental practices, our onboarding new team members, they might, may or may not have a training program. So we’re seeing a lot of the assistance because you’re a champion for dental assistance. We want all of our listeners to understand that. And so you’re seeing a lot of assistants or team members that are then having to train the new team member and they are only being able to train them with what the knowledge that they have. So kind of fill us in on what you’re seeing, what kind of recommendations you’re offering to the dental practices that you’re working one-on-one with. And also when you’re speaking from the stage, what kinds of information are you passing on?

Kevin Henry (03:23.086)

Well, I think the first thing is that we’ve all got to realize that we’re all in the same boat whenever it comes to dental team shortages, whenever it comes to dental team training. Whenever I speak, one of the first things that I talk about whenever I’m talking to teams is how many of you have been looking for a new team member in the last three months, six months, whatever timing that is, and everybody raises their hand. And I have everybody look around the room because that’s the first myth that we’ve got to get out of the way is this. It’s only happening to our practice.

It’s not and so this podcast, you know, I’m really glad that you’re doing it because it’s something I think is applicable to so many Praxis around the country right now and like you said we’re having team members come in We’re filling those openings a lot of times. Let’s be perfectly honest We’re hiring heartbeats maybe rather than the perfect person for that task But we’re still hiring people to fill the needs but then what happens with the training? The biggest thing that I see is often whenever it comes to an assistant

Dayna (03:54.233)

Good point.

Kevin Henry (04:21.51)

is that the lead assistant is training him or her about how the practice works, what is expected of them, what the doctor likes, all these different things. And a lot of times they’re getting pushed right out of the nest at the very start because they need that body in there. But a lot of times the training that they’re getting is from a team member who has a certain way of doing things. It’s the way that they’ve done it for 10 years and it may not be the optimal way to do it.

Kevin Henry (04:47.518)

And that’s where I always hesitate a little bit whenever I hear from these dental assistants who say, well, not only am I doing my job, but I’m also training this new team member and boy am I burned out. Because the worst thing that I see happening is those dental assistants who are training and already doing their job and everything just keeps getting piled on there, then leaving. And then it’s a vicious circle.

Dayna (05:09.029)

Yeah, of course. And I see, you know, they’re, they’re only, they’re training this new team member with the information that they have, or they’ve gathered over the years that they’ve been at the practice. And it may or may not even be best practices. And, you know, I see a lot of practices that don’t have a systematic approach for onboarding, um, new, new hires.

Kevin Henry (05:33.05)

And it’s one thing if you’re training them how to do inventory, training them how to answer the phone, whatever it might be, but we’re seeing this in infection control. We’re seeing this with patient communication, you know, uh, treatment presentation, you know, all these different things that impact not only the health of the patients, but the health of the practice as well. And so that’s where I really caution dental teams do not take a shortcut whenever it comes to training these individuals, because I promise you,

These new assistants, I have heard it time and time again, these new assistants are going home at night and they’re asking people on TikTok or Facebook, which way the pouch should go up in the sterilizer. They’re not getting the information from people in the practice because they’re not having the time to be trained. And that’s where I start getting very concerned for our industry is when I hear things like.

Dayna (06:22.553)

So what I hear you saying is it’s really important for our dental practices to have like step-by-step protocols and standard operating procedures, you know, worksheets and resource guides that they could use those as a, like a worksheet or a set rules and guidelines for how do we train people in our office, because it could be different from coming from another practice.

Kevin Henry (06:50.286)

Oh, sure. And I also think, yes, those are important, but I also think for the practice to invest in a membership into things like OSAP, the official infection control arm for dentistry, so that then that dental assistant or new team member can go to somebody who’s reputable and ask those questions all the time instead of relying on social media. So I think that even if you don’t think that there are resources in your practice for you to do it, and you don’t have the time for SOPs and everything else,

Talk to that sales rep about things like OSAP, about things where they can find this community and it’s actually a knowledgeable community rather than just them figuring things out on their own.

Dayna (07:31.021)

Good point, really good point. Yeah, because a lot of assistance and team members don’t know who their support system is. You know, with dental assistants, they have OSAP, and with admin team members, they have the ADDOM community. We have our own community here at Novonee. We have a community of Dentrix users. And so I think it is important to be a part of a reputable community that understands teaching best practices. But it still could be a little slightly different in your own practice, but it is good to have those reputable communities to connect with because Facebook groups and chat rooms are, I see a lot of really interesting answers in those Facebooks and chat rooms. I mean, oh my gosh.

Kevin Henry (08:19.274)

It’s scary.

Kevin Henry (08:26.562)

And one thing I would strongly recommend is making sure that assistant new team member, you know, I know we’re focusing on assistance, but obviously this can include the front desk. It could include whoever, but just making sure that they, they have the freedom to ask questions that they don’t feel like that they’re just drinking from a fire hose and all of a sudden that they’re expected to do a job. Uh, you know, I I’ve heard from a couple of assistants out there who didn’t feel like they got a day’s worth of training and then it was pretty much, okay, you should know everything, now move on. And they didn’t feel like that they could ask follow-up questions without getting in trouble or a dirty look or whatever So I think that to be a high performing team, you’ve got to always be learning from each other and be open to questions and answers, even if it goes against maybe the way that you haven’t exactly done things in that practice previously.

Dayna (09:16.925)

Of course, yeah, I hear that a lot. Well, that’s how we’ve always done it. So in addition to standard operating procedures and onboarding communication styles and communication personalities types, that also plays a really important role in how our teams function on a daily basis. And you know,

Kevin Henry (09:45.826)

Absolutely.

Dayna (09:47.473)

I remember in my own practice that I was in, I was in this practice for 18 years. And one of the most important things that my doctor did for us is bring in a coach or a personality style process so that we could understand each other better. And when we understood who our teammates were better, we communicated better. It really helped improve our workflow. It improved the way that our patients viewed us as a practice. And I know that is such an important part of what you do when you work with teams one-on-one and when you speak from the stage. So tell us a little bit about how understanding each other as a human being and as a personality really plays an important role in the dental practice.

Kevin Henry (10:47.902)

Well, could I say maybe even important as a husband and wife or as friends, you know, I mean, you know, you and I have very different personality styles and it took us a little while to really find that road where we both understand each other. And it’s a daily thing that we work on in our marriage. And it’s a daily thing that needs to be worked on in the practice as well, because how I process information is completely different than how you do. How you learn is different than how I do.

Dayna (10:55.982)

We do.

Kevin Henry (11:14.346)

And I think that that’s what we have to realize in the dental practice is that we’re not all alike and that’s okay. I’ve heard constantly, you know, wouldn’t it be great if everybody in the practice thought like me? And the answer is no, actually it wouldn’t. You would probably have a lot less tension, you’d have a lot less butting heads, but also you wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn, you wouldn’t have the opportunity to explore new ideas. And so I think we have to embrace the fact that we’re all different.

Kevin Henry (11:41.342)

and that we all learn things differently, we see things differently, but at the end of the day, we all have the same goal. We all wanna get through the day without stress. We all wanna make sure that we’re getting paid in the practice. We all wanna make sure all these different things that at the end of the day, if you had a checklist, I bet your checklist and mine would look pretty similar if we worked in the dental practice. And I think that’s where personalities come into play is that you learn that even though somebody may approach a problem or a situation from a different angle.

Dayna (12:01.677)

Agreed.

Kevin Henry (12:10.614)

It’s still with the end goal in mind that’s the same as yours.

Dayna (12:14.921)

Exactly, exactly. I think that’s a really good point. And I also think it affects the way we might storm into somebody’s office or when we walk into the back. Like if I’m an admin team member and I walk into the back and I need to talk to my dental assistant, understanding that my dental assistant has a different personality style than I do,

You know, like you know, I’m a high D, so I’ll storm into someone’s office or I’ll storm into the back. And you know, I have a tendency to kind of steamroll over people, and I have to really kind of take a step back and understand, okay, I’m a D and she’s an S, and so I need to kind of change the way that I talk with this person differently than if I was gonna talk to another D.

You know, and so tell us a little bit about the D’s and S’s because not everybody might even not even understand what I’m talking about. So and you’re so much better at that than I am.

Kevin Henry (13:13.068)

Right.

Yeah, and well, and certainly anybody can reach out to me at kevin at kevinspeaksdental.com and I’m happy to give you a quick 60 second disc test. So you can understand the D, the I, the S and the C but just using those two letters that you just used, D stands for dominant and like you said, steam rollover people, not a lot of time for chit chat. You don’t want the gray, you want black and white, you know, and that’s okay. And again, that’s something I’ve had to learn because I’m an S.

I’m that other side. I’m that kumbaya can’t we all just get along and eat s’mores at the end of the day kind of guy, you know, and, and I avoid confrontation. You know, it’s something that if I know that it’s a very dicey situation, a lot of times I’ll have to take a step back or two to think about how to approach it. Whereas you’re running right into the room. Now, neither way is better than the other, but it’s something that we all have to, you know, we have to figure out in each other.

Kevin Henry (14:09.778)

And if you’re getting mad at somebody and they’re not answering you, they’re tearing up, you know, all these different reactions that there can be, that’s when you have to take a step back and realize that how they process what you’re saying is completely different than how you’re saying it. And that’s where, like you said, we’ve got to know who that other person is in the office. And that’s why I love doing personality workshops with dental practices is that they learn about each other. Tonight, I’m doing one with a practice in California.

Dayna (14:25.733)

Exactly.

Kevin Henry (14:38.498)

you know, 20 some team members. And this is the first time that I’ll pull the veil off and they all understand what that other person’s personality type is. And we’re gonna go through how to talk to each other, how to work with each other and how to understand each other because like I said earlier, at the end of the day, it’s not about what makes you different, but it’s about the things that make you the same in the practice and focusing on those much more than, well, you’re not listening to me or you don’t understand what I’m saying. They might, they very likely do.

Dayna (14:48.119)

Yes.

Kevin Henry (15:08.214)

but they’re just processing the information in a completely different way.

Dayna (15:11.469)

Exactly. And I think that’s important to realize that it’s not right or wrong. It’s just different. And being a D isn’t better than being an S. It’s just different. And so we don’t want to compare ourselves to another person. We just want to understand the other person so that we can build better communication in our practice, on board new team members in the best way possible. And we can close that loop of communication. Like my good friend Claire said in our podcast a couple weeks ago, she talks about closing the loop and closing that loop of communication so that everybody understands and everybody’s on the same page.

Kevin Henry (15:58.666)

Agreed. And I think that that’s important because everybody knowing that they’re on the same page, even when the schedule goes nuts, when people get upset, if you have that in your back of your head, hey, we’re all on the same page, we’re all working towards the same goal, all those different things, that helps to lower a lot of the whole finger pointing and everything else that you and I both see blow up and practices and really cause things to go south in a hurry.

Dayna (16:22.661)

Exactly, exactly. Oh, good. This was really good information. Thank you so much for being my first guest on the High Performing Dental Team podcast. Previously, Novonee on the go. We have just changed the name, but same great content. And so I really appreciate you being on with us today, Kevin. So if anyone resonated with this, topic, how would they reach out to you directly?

Kevin Henry (16:54.754)

Kevin at kevinspeaksdental.com. It’s an easy way to get ahold of me. I’m happy to answer any questions, whether it comes to the mindset of dental assistants as we head into 2024, disc, whatever it might be. Certainly glad to help. And hey, if you’re at Greater New York, Yankee, Chicago, Hinman, absolutely. I’m on the speaking dockets of all those meetings and I’d love to have you in the audience.

Dayna (17:15.917)

I know, and you do a lot of book giveaways at those meetings as well. I know.

Kevin Henry (17:19.682)

Thanks for your credit. Absolutely. So you’re right. So you will be there probably smiling with me as I sign a few books. And my book is battling and beating the demons of dental assisting. So that’s available on Amazon as well as that’s one of the lectures that I’ll be doing at upcoming shows in 2024.

Dayna (17:38.209)

Well, thank you so much again. And if this topic resonated with you, if you want to share it with your colleagues, your study group, your Facebook chat group that you’re in, please share our podcast, rate it, review it. That’s how we are able to get our message out to more people. So I hope that you have a great rest of your day, and I look forward to watching your journey of becoming a Dentrix Super User. Thank you.