AADOM DISTINCTIONcast: Follow the Leader – A Guide to Effective Management Skills

Do you have a hard time implementing or getting your team to follow you or complete delegated tasks? Do you feel overwhelmed and not sure where to start? This course will give you real-time skills and tips on how to be an effective manager in your practice, resulting in your team wanting to follow your lead.

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Sponsored by: Kleer Membersy


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Savanah: Hey everyone! Welcome to DistinctionCast, where AADOM showcases the best and brightest minds in the dental industry from within our Dental Management Association.

I’m Savanah Carlson, Director of Member Services at AADOM, and thanks for joining us today.

AADOM DistinctionCast—it’s more than insights into dental management. It’s really a dynamic platform designed to amplify the voices of AADOM’s distinction holders by providing them with the opportunity to educate and inspire their peers.

Tapping into this expertise and with the AADOM distinction holders, they are in the trenches of everyday management. And we aim to empower and support leaders as they navigate the challenges and opportunities of running successful dental practices.

Before we meet today’s DistinctionCast speaker, we have a few words from today’s sponsor.

Sponsor: We know that when it comes to a dental membership plan, you may be asking, “Can’t I do that myself?”

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But the process is often riddled with manual tasks that can overwhelm even the most organized front office teams.

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Savanah: I am so excited to introduce today’s AADOM DistinctionCast educator, Zachary Shelley.

Zach is the office manager at Satellite Family Dentistry and Beachside Smiles Pediatric Dentistry in Satellite Beach, Florida. He’s been in dentistry for over 12 years and loves every bit of it.

He says dentistry has allowed him to use his skills to help grow two successful practices and build an amazing dental team. Zach was inducted as an AADOM Fellow in 2022, and he received his Master in 2024.

Welcome Zach.

Zachary: Thank you, Savanah. Love the intro.

Savanah: You’re welcome. I am so glad you’re here.

One thing that I love to ask our DistinctionCast educators is: How has having an AADOM distinction propelled your career or influenced your career in any way?

Why You Should Enter AADOM’s Distinction Program

Zachary: Yeah, thanks, Savanah. That’s a great question.

You know, thinking back when I was getting my fellowship, I sat there actually for probably about a year and kind of contemplated whether or not it’s even worth doing and just sat down one day and I was like, “Well, you know what? Let’s just go ahead and start the process. Let’s try and see where it goes.”

And as I got through that, it was just kind of that next level of—I felt like I accomplished a solid part of my career in elevating my skills and my knowledge because it really pushes you to go to the next level.

And after that, I was kind of hooked. You know, getting your Mastership, I really realized was like a huge step in the requirements of being published as an author and writing articles. It challenges you to constantly be better each day.

And I feel like when you do hold these distinctions, that you need to hold yourself to a higher level and a higher caliber of what you’re doing and constantly push yourself to be better each and every day.

Savanah: That’s awesome!

And speaking of pushing yourself to be better each and every day, that really lends into your topic about being a leader and following a leader and being worthy of being followed by your doc and your peers.

And with that, I am going to give you the floor, Zach, and let you go with your education today.

Zachary: Thank you so much, Savanah.

Savanah: You’re welcome.

Zachary: Alright. Welcome everybody!

Like Savannah said, my name is Zachary Shelley and I’m the practice manager at Satellite Family Dentistry and Beachside Smiles—Pediatric Dentistry.

This course and this distinction cast is really just to give you a quick overview and guide of what it really looks like to be an effective leader.

Now, when I say that, it does not mean that I do it perfectly every single day. But that’s why we’re here—to learn, to elevate our skills and to be better.

What an Effective Leader Looks Like

I wrote a few questions just to kind of ponder as we go into this, as we’re talking about what an effective leader looks like and following the leader, because what it takes to be a leader that people want to follow, there’s going to be four main points that we’ll go over.

But the first questions to think about is: Do you have a hard time implementing or getting your team to follow or complete tasks that are delegated? Do you feel overwhelmed and not sure where to start?

And those are two big questions that I really hear and I feel resonate through the dental industry almost every single day.

And it’s hard because where do you start with that? And what does it mean to be followed, like someone following the leader?

I remember playing this game in the school, like Simon says, or like exactly like I said, following the leader. That person up front gives you a sense of direction and everybody falls in line behind.

It doesn’t really mean that that person in the front is always the highest elevated person. And, and I’ll dive into that more in just a moment, but they’re acting like the GPS for you and your team.

And when I say that it’s not like they’re the most elevated person—a dental office manager or practice manager is part of the team. Yes, they may have the most responsibility in the practice, I think is the best word to say, but you’re still part of the team.

And I think as office managers, we really need to start thinking of ourselves as, yes, we are managing the practice and we have the most responsibility and we work directly with the owner, doctors, and we lead the team. But you also have this role of being a great teammate and a great team member and somebody that should be building core relationships in your practice to get people to want to follow what you do.

Be Aware of Your Approach

So, first, I want to say the first point, there’s going to be four points today that we’re going to go over.

The first point is approach. I think the way we approach our staff really determines whether or not you’re even able to build those relationships.

We have to have the body language to be able to present ourselves to our team when we’re communicating through them about what we want them to do in a way that is accepted and not feeling like we’re coming off the wrong way.

I feel like when we go through our day to day, everybody talks about, you know, the day’s always so crazy. We have patients cancel and we’re trying to fill the schedule and we got, you know, patients showing up late. We got people sick and there’s all these driving factors to stress and to chaos in the day to day of your office that it can get in the way of our approach.

So, I really, really want to hone in on—it starts when you walk through either the front or back door, however you get into the practice. Your mindset and your approach and how you’re going to be that day starts there.

I like to get just kind of in that mental mindset when I’m driving to the office, because if you walk in Monday morning, you’re like, “Oh, it’s Monday. It’s going to be terrible.” You’re setting yourself up for that day mentally to be a bad day.

So, what I really am trying to hone in and get you all to really just think about and dig deep is: What is your mindset when you’re coming in the office in the beginning of the day, when you leave for lunch and you come back, or if you stay for lunch, how you’re letting your mind kind of just decompress a little bit so that you can have a good approach with your team?

Because I’ve realized in my practice where we’ve been most successful is when I’ve been able to build this relationship with my team in a way that they know exactly where I’m coming from when I ask them to do something.

Because we want to delegate these tasks, we want our staff to, or our team, I apologize, not staff, our team, to do the things that we need them to do and do them effectively and do them the way we want to do them. We have to have a good approach going into that.

It takes trust. And when your team starts to see how you’re coming to them in a way that’s gentle, it’s kind, they are going to want to do things. They’re going to want to fulfill those tasks that you’re delegating to them.

You also need to think about when these tasks are delegated and when you’re trying to lead your team is have that positive reinforcement when they’ve done something, how you wanted to do, thank them.

“Thank you and a great job. I appreciate you doing that exactly how I asked you to do it. “

Those go so far and your whole day to day with your team, you will be blown away how much things start to settle and feel like you’ve got the support you need.

Clarify Your Intentionality

The second one is a big one, and I kind of honed on this a lot and been thinking about it a lot lately.

And the second point is intentionality.

Intentionality is doing something with a point and a purpose. You don’t just haphazardly walk through your day and just kind of fling things one way, fling things the other way, and then just be done with it. I think that’s one way we create a great amount of stress in our day and chaos.

I think about intentionality in so many different ways:

  • I hear it in parenting.
  • I hear it in leadership.
  • I hear it in friendships.
  • I hear it in relationships.

And, if you really think about it, when we’re here in the dental practice, we’re the first face most people look at on our team for a solve to a problem.

If we’re not intentional. We’re not being true to ourselves. If we’re not being intentional, we’re actually disservicing our team.

And I’m truly passionate about that because intentionality plays such a big role, not in just management, but like I said, being a parent. Being an intentional parent, this is a skill that we can use every single day, not just in the dental practice.

And I think what it does is it builds so much character. It builds a sense of confidence because nobody wants to go into your daily tasks and your—what am I looking for? Just all your interactions that you go through and just be lost.

So, I have my team up front. And where I’ve seen intentionality play a huge role is teaching our team how to talk to patients, especially patients that are upset or not wanting to pay a bill or, you know, not getting the appointment time they want.

And what I’ve done with situations like that is I’ve actually pulled my team in and say, “Hey, you’ve asked me to take this phone call with this patient because you’re not getting anywhere with it.” And what I’ve done is I’ve had them sit in with me and listen to these conversations and how I’m talking to our patients.

And then what I like to do after the fact is say, “Do you see where I used the certain verbiage, or I really like laid into the fact that I wanted to get to know the patient before I even asked them what the issue is?”

Because I already knew what the issue was. The patient doesn’t know that I’ve been updated yet, but what I’m trying to do is build that relationship and be intentional about my questions, but then also come back and talk to my team and say, “What I’ve done here is trying to lower that barrier and getting these patients to really tell me what their true problem is and also get the patient to feel like I’m actually trying to get to know them.”

And that’s the next part of intentionality, which is getting to know your team.

One thing that I love to do, and I’ve said this on another podcast and it’s worked so well in the practice, and I felt like our team has grown exponentially from this is: one, I truly care about my team. I don’t bad mouth them any way whatsoever, anywhere, no matter where I’m at.

I take time every single day to ask my team how they’re doing. And it’s not just like, “Hey, how are you doing?” It’s literally, “How is everything? How was your weekend? What did you do?”

We have staff, our team in here that is getting married. They’re getting ready to have babies. There’s big life events that they’re going on vacation. School just started, so those are all nice, exciting things.

So I’ll go around and say, “Hey, how’d the kids have a first day at school? Did they enjoy it?”

I like to be involved in my team in an aspect that’s a little bit more on a personal level, showing them that I care because I truly do. And what I feel like that starts to do is once again, we’re going to harp on that whole trust factor is they see somebody that is not only a teammate, not only a practice manager here or their boss, but somebody that actually truly cares about what’s going on in their life.

Because I can tell you a lot of the root problems that we deal with day to day are things we don’t even realize are going on, but the byproduct of that is negativity, it’s stress. It’s a gossip and drama and nobody likes that. And we don’t want that in the office.

So one thing that—I’ve seen this is get on the level of your team. Figure out where their pain points are, figure out what they’re celebrating, figure out what they enjoy to do.

My team knows I love to fish. So, when I get in every single Monday, “Did you fish this weekend, Zach? Let’s see some pictures.”

And I love it because what we start to see is the investment back into you—that team support. And we spend, I talk about this all the time with my friends and they’re not even in the dental industry, but we talk about work all the time.

And it’s like, we spend so much time together—a minimum of 40 hours a week. Spending time away from our families, away from our children, away from our wives and husbands. And some of us are just not happy. And that’s so much of your life that really needs to have joy.

So, having that intentionality mindset with your team from your day to day, pouring into them, the amount of fruit that you will see come back is exponential.

So, that’s point number two.

Learn More Today

The Importance of Good Communication

Point number three is a big one and it’s one that I have been working on for a very long time. It’s one that I have to be working on daily. It’s one that I kind of will fall short on, if we’re being honest.

And I think that’s one thing that you guys can just kind of really think about real quick as I said that. Be honest with yourself because we are going to fall short. We’re not perfect in this. It’s what you do with those mistakes and how you move forward with them is how you’re going to be able to be successful with your team. Own your mistakes.

So that’s communication, is our third point. And it’s going to start right there.

Communicating the things that you’re falling short on with your team will once again, build that trust. But they’re also going to have that sense of like, “Wow, they’re the real deal,” because nobody likes a person, especially in leadership that doesn’t own what they’re doing.

I’ve sat in meetings with our team. I’ve been one on ones with my team and I’ve had to admit and saying, “Hey. I missed that. I fell short. I told you that I was going to do that and I didn’t.” And that’s not a fun feeling at all.

And nobody likes having those conversations, but let me tell you, when you start having those conversations, especially with your entire team and everybody’s sitting there and even the owner doctor, there’s one thing that really comes from that when you own either a shortcoming or something that you’re supposed to do, they start to say, “Hey. This is somebody I want to follow.”

They want to follow somebody that is real. They want to follow somebody that is honest with themselves, that they lead with humility, that they lead in a way that others can relate.

Because I can ask any single office manager that’s watching this video, “Tell me one time you made a mistake, and I can guarantee you there’s not a single person that will say I’ve never made a mistake?”

It’s okay to do that. And it’s okay to own them because it doesn’t make you weak, but you have to communicate that.

Communication is really hard because it takes effort.

I’ve noticed in our practice, we have a very large team. We have five doctors. It’s two practices under one roof where we’re jamming all day long. So I have a large team. And like I said, when I came on to this practice about four years ago, one of the biggest things that resonated when I talked to my team members, whether it was a review or we were having a staff meeting, the one thing that resonated every single time was communication.

“I want more communication.”

So, with communicating in an office, there’s some things that we feel like as practice managers, office managers that, “Oh, it’s not that big of a deal.”

Like I have a sub coming in today for this hygiene column. And so, you know, I’d put it on the schedule and just roll with the punches and just go on.

But what I started to learn is even though it’s not pertinent to maybe one of the other team members jobs, little details of a sub coming in or, “Hey, this doctor brought these treats for the whole team in the back,” has created just this sense of “I’m in the know, and I’m important enough to know this information.”

And that makes these team members feel like they are more of the team because of that. And some of it sounds silly because I’m like, “Man, it’s not really that big of a deal. Like, it’s something so small.”

But what I started to learn is when I didn’t communicate certain things to the team, they felt like they were unneeded or they weren’t important enough to the practice to know that information—which really wasn’t the case at all.

But what I’ve learned is that the lack of communication can start to bring in so many different types of cancers in the office of wondering, and what if this or what if that, or why didn’t they do this or why didn’t they do that? And it really just creates so much more strife in the practice.

So as the years have gone by, I’ve learned clear communication and effective communication with our team really fosters so much growth and trust between each other, and it really makes your team feel valued. Nobody likes to go somewhere where they don’t feel like they’re valued or they’re important enough to know something.

And I do want to kind of caveat that whole communication point with this: there is information that certain team members don’t need to know. There are things that we don’t share with them, and that’s okay.

But there is a lot that we can share with them to make them feel part of the team, part of what’s going on in the growth of the practice, especially if you’re running a practice right now that is just booming. There’s lots of change.

We went through so much change and adding more providers. We’ve doubled the size of our pediatric practice. We’ve added other general dentist associates. And that type of communication when things are coming in is super, super important because if your team is not on board with what’s going on, it’s because there’s a lack of communication.

I talked about, you know, do you have a hard time getting people to follow tasks that are delegated? Communicate with your team, set expectations to exactly what you want to see done, but also give a little bit of information of what part does this play in the day to day?

I like to tell my team all the time why we do certain things. I put a guide together for my front desk on clinical procedures and why we do them, how they are performed and how it affects the tooth and the parts of the tooth, because I think it’s super important to know why we do certain things, because otherwise we’re blindly following.

And if you think of somebody doing follow the leader and everybody behind them are blindfolded, you can just imagine that picture of the leaders going one direction and everybody else is spread out kind of like ants, just going one way to the left, one way to the right. You need to have their eyes unblinded to be able to see the direction that you’re going.

Like I said, it’s like a GPS. You’re giving them the roadmap to the day to day. But without that, they’re lost. But if you really just close your eyes and you really think about what a GPS looks like when you have set your direction to go wherever you’re going, there is a detailed list of directions, one after another, and they’re clear.

It tells you: “You’re making a left turn here in 500 feet, 400 feet, 300 feet.”

This is the way you need to be able to lead your team, to be able to have effective leadership and then to want to follow you.

There’s No Need to Micromanage Your Team

Now, don’t misinterpret this as micromanaging your team. This is not you sitting every step of the way, behind their shoulder, and watching every single step that they do. No, empower your team members, give them clear direction on what you expect, what you want done and how you want it done.

And one thing that I’ve learned is have them report back to you. Say, “Hey, when you’re done with that, can you just let me know that you’re done?” And it brings that accountability back and forth.

And I think that utilizing that style of management, you will see great improvement in your team and you will grow confidence. Your team will see, “Wow, there’s something different about them today.”

And have fun with it. Management should not be miserable. Enjoy your team. Have fun with your team. Smile with your team. Win together, cry together—all that.

Why You Need to Follow Through with What You Say

So, the last point here is: Follow through. And follow through, I think, is going to either make or break you as a dental office manager.

If you don’t follow through with what you say, you’re full of empty promises.

I can tell you, I used to work for a restaurant when I was younger in high school to pay, you know, for my car and my car insurance and gas to go do my fun things. I had to get a job to be able to pay for things.

And I had a manager there that I worked under and he kept promising things. And it’s like, “Oh, it’ll be this time. It’ll be this next paycheck. You know, you’ll get a raise. Oh, you know, I didn’t get it over to HR. It’ll be on the next one.”

And that kind of went on for months. And I really just thought like from the beginning, I was like, “Was that even real? Or was that just you to just kind of get me to the next stage, to get me to the next point of, you needing me where you need me to benefit your career?”

And I really just think about like, if we don’t follow through with what we say, we’re not effectively leading at all.

Um, and it’s a hard point cause I’ve been guilty of it. And, like I said earlier, how you deal with those situations will make a big difference.

If you’re constantly not following through on with what you say to your or even your doctor, we start to see a decline in trust. We start to see that there’s questioning happening.

There’s just something, but not quite sure what they can pinpoint until they start saying, “Oh yeah, he said we were going to do this, and we didn’t” or “He said we’re going to do this and we didn’t.” Or, you know, “We’re implementing this new system and he asked me to do it, but he’s not watching how I’m doing it, so I’m not doing it.” It works both ways.

So, if you’re implementing a new system in your practice and you really want to your team on board, you have to follow through with the training. You have to follow through with checking up on things. We can’t just put a system in place or give somebody a responsibility and say, “See you later.”

There’s not a one-time, you know, implementation, and then we just don’t look at anything. That sense of ‘set it and forget it’ does not work. It may be for a time, but then what you’ll start realizing is not only do you have one system failing, but you have multiple systems failing across the practice, and then you don’t know where to start. And we find ourselves in this position where we’re like, “I am so overwhelmed. I don’t know where to go.”


Ready to see the full version of this DISTINCTIONcast and elevate your skills?

Join AADOM now to access the full video and a world of resources. Your next big step is just a click away!


 

Learn About the Presenter:

 

Profile ofZachary Shelley, EFDA, MAADOM

Zachary Shelley, EFDA, MAADOM

Zachary Shelley has been in the dental field since 2009.

Starting his career as a Dental Technician doing fixed and removable. He transitioned to the clinical side in 2020 as the office manager for Satellite Family Dentistry and Beachside Smiles Pediatric Dentistry.

He attended the University of Florida for his Expanded Functions in dental assisting and achieved his FAADOM in 2022. Zachary just received his MAADOM in 2024.

On his time off, Zachary enjoys spending time with his three boys and his wife, Brittany.

 

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