Kiera gives three tactical shifts to help practice owners get their time, energy, and life back, while still maintaining a successful business. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: Kiera Dent- Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. And today I want to talk about a fun topic that I think a lot of you deal with. and that's burnout. And I know we've talked about it before, I know we've talked about it in the past, and I know it's not a fun topic, but I think it's a fun one to help people not have. I think burnout, I was listening to I have a podcast that I really enjoy. It's Life Wisdom by Words of Taoism. And I just love different mindsets, different perspectives, and I think this ties really heavily into today's topic. And he was talking about how, like, so many of us are per burnout, and it's this feeling of like, I'm just spent, I'm just exhausted, like I can't do one other thing. And they were talking about how oftentimes it's not just about the work that we're doing. A lot of times it's not actually the work, it's the mental load that we're carrying or the things that we're carrying behind. And it's that is what I want to talk about today is. like the burnout and how we can get our life back without sacrificing all of it and what this looks like and work life balance and the cliche around it. But when I started thinking of like all the pieces that we do carry the stress of a team, the workload of actually doing it, stress of our families, conversations, replaying conversations in our mind, wondering if we did things correctly, like did I check the books? Did I talk to this team member correctly? D what do I need to do? There's so much weight. thinking about how oftentimes like we build these businesses, not to be prisoners of them, but to actually have freedom from them. And I think sometimes it feels cliche and it feels like we're getting the exact opposite of that. And so I wanted to talk about like why we get the burnout similar to that. Like we're caring so much. It's not the workload. I don't think most of us, I think a lot of us are fine. I think it's the how much we're caring, it's the subconscious caring that doesn't ever leave us alone. And so what causes that shift in an Hopefully just some like three tactical shifts that help you get your time, your energy, and your life back. And burnout is a lot of times a conversation we have with a lot of doctors. And I think having a coach, having a guide, having someone in your corner can help prevent that burnout sooner and quicker because we're gonna be listening to it, watching it. And I think having a safe space where you can say, like, I'm exhausted, I'm tired, like I don't physically think I can do that anymore. And then somebody questioning and saying, All right, like there's other, there's a thousand other paths to do it. Let's look and let's find that solution where you don't have to do it. But we're able to have other people there with you. and I just I think that burnout, I think stress, I think carrying it, it's at every size of practice. So please don't think like, well, people don't deal with this. No, they do. No, like there's highs and lows, everybody has it, that we've got days we've got more of it, we've got days that we have less of it. and I don't think it's like needing more motivation. I think it's like w what what do I actually do? And so kind of just going through that Dental A Team, we work with hundreds of offices across the nation. Like we've seen it across the board. I've dealt with it. I'm a business owner. I'm a multi-million dollar owner. I've built practices, I've run dental practices, I've started my own business. I've gone from scratch up. I've sold. I mergers and acquisitions, selling to DSOs, you name it. I've been there, I've done that, I've done it a lot. I've done it in my own personal life. I've built multiple multiple businesses in my own. I've built my own personal brand. The things like let's talk, let's talk as business owners, let's talk about these different things. And so I think one of the biggest things that can help prevent this burnout is to stop being the solution to every problem. I think that we carry this weight constantly of feeling like, especially founders who have built up from the ground up, feel like they've got to be the solution. You were. That's who you were. You had a GSD to get there. But that doesn't mean that's who you need to continue to be. And I'm I'm guilty of this. I watch Slack and I watch myself. And how often do I just jump in and solve a problem? Or I'm sitting in meetings and I know the answer, but just because I know the answer doesn't mean I need to raise my hand and answer. I need to have a team that can create solutions. I need to have a team that genuinely can do it. Because I genuinely believe one of the fastest paths is being the answer for everything. team members are like, how to know if this is the case is you got team members who are constantly coming to you. Every decision requires your approval and you are solving problems all day long, even minimal problems. And I know I'm guilty of this in my own company. I watch it and I'm like, why are they asking me for that? Like, how do I give them the permission to not need that? And I need to just let them be dependent. And Let them be independent and not dependent on me. I think when I see teams very dependent on an owner, including myself, I think people being exhausted. I think the practice that can't function without you, can they handle these decisions without you? But also there you think there's a flip side of can you handle them making mistakes? Can you handle letting go of the control? Can you handle if things break? I remember me and a dear colleague, we were having a very spicy conversation and I was like, what? You want me like sign off on these things and let our reputation get destroyed? I was very sassy that day. This was just like six months ago. You guys, this was not like young Kiera. This was real life Kiera. And she's like, no, Kiera, we're not like just gonna let our reputation fall apart. She said, but you do need to have things like she sent me a decision matrix and she said, You've got to make decisions like which ones really are going to destroy our business, and which ones do you need to realize are not going to destroy and you need to stop being involved in those. And to have somebody who's willing to push back on me like that, I was so appreciative of because she's like, Kiera, you're sitting here making decisions about cards and branding. That isn't like we're not gonna destroy it. And she's like, I understand in the past that might not have been the case, but guess what? If something goes wrong, your team's gonna fix it. But you have to let them, you have to trust them. Otherwise, you're forever gonna be held in bottleneck, choke hold burnout. And I think when I hear that, I think about the monkey who. puts their hand in the hole and they hold on to the nut and they can't get their hand out and they end up getting trapped. And I think about how many business owners with burnout have their hand holding on so tightly to control and wanting everything perfect that they don't let go of it that they end up suffocating themselves and burning out when it didn't necessarily need to be that way. So when I look at like doctors and how much are you answering and office managers, how much are you answering versus how much is your team able to do? This doctor I was in, we were looking at like etching glass and the team found some cool things on Etsy and the doctor's like, yep, sign off stamp. You guys do it. I know you're gonna do a great job. And it's not something where they're gonna check over their shoulder. No, if it doesn't look good, of course they're gonna say something, but that's such a small decision with such small ramifications versus they're building out the entire construction of the business on the other side. Two very different pieces. Like what is the ramification long term? And so When you're looking at it, I would say But number one, when questions come to you, start to ask your team what solutions do you think are we can do for this? And then trust them and let them run with it. Second, for yourself, in meetings, stop being the answer to everything. And then third, just look to see like what's one, two, three, four items that you don't need to give an answer to. Just sit and watch and observe. And I think for me, I almost like have the visual putting my hands, like sitting on my hands and pretend or pretend my hands have glue on them and they're stuck together. If I couldn't do anything, would my team be able to handle this without me? And I think it's a good test to see how much they're actually able to do. Anytime I go on vacation, I completely check out and I come back and I'm shocked at how good they can do. And I think reminding myself that my team wants to make me proud, that they can answer these things, that I don't need to answer it for them, trusting them they're gonna have better ideas than me. And again, them doing 80% of the work is better than me doing 100% of it. And so I think a great way for you to look at like, Start asking your team to bring solutions. You can even roll it out that guys, I'm not, I'm not great at this. So please, like everybody, this is my ask. This is my goal for the next six months. Put a bracelet on, whatever you got to do to remind yourself. Like, I literally have a bracelet this year that says no. And that's to remind me, like, no, like, don't do that. Don't say yes to this. Like, let your team flourish. Let go of that control, trust. Because honestly, as a team member, that's the greatest thing your your boss can ever do
