Episode #448: Top Lessons in Leadership in 2022, with Heather Crockett

Even the best dentists don't have it all figured out — and that's okay! Progress is what's important. And to help you in your journey for improvement, Kirk Behrendt brings back Heather Crockett, one of ACT’s amazing lead practice coaches, to reflect on some of the favorite lessons they’ve learned in becoming a better leader. It all starts with knowing yourself and the things you're bad, good, and great at. To hear some of the best advice for improving your leadership skills, listen to Episode 448 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

• Find out who you are as quickly as possible.
• Know your strengths and weaknesses.
• Identify your unique abilities.
• Be okay with being wrong.
• Improvement never ends.
• Learn to pause.

Quotes:

• “I learn every day about leadership and the aspects of leadership. I don't have it all figured out quite yet. My inspiration from Kirk is to get from books. And so, that's where I have been getting a lot of my inspiration.” (2:53—3:08)
• “When you're developing these other leaders, you're also leaning on them to help you in an area where you might not have the skill, the expertise. So, you might have a team member that does have that skill and expertise that you don't have. Developing them as a leader is only going to benefit you and the practice.” (5:11—5:30)
• “I attended an education workshop a couple of months ago, and one of the speakers, what she was talking about really resonated with me . . . She highlighted this book called Humbitious [by Amer Kaissi]. Now, humbitious is not a word in the dictionary. But when she was talking about it, my interest was piqued because one of my own personal core values is humility. So, I wanted to learn more about what this humbitious meant, and it’s combining humility and drive and ambition in leadership and what that looks like.” (8:24—9:04)
• “Humble people believe that they can become better people than what they currently are. And they understand and realize that they can't do it alone, and that they need other people to help them. So, what it looks like is being willing to and openly apologizing when you make a mistake or when you don't have it all figured out.” (9:36—9:58)
• “I often see with our clients and practice owners, in general, that they want their team to see them as somebody that does have it all figured out.” (10:07—10:15)
• “Everybody has room for improvement. Even the great doctors that I've worked for still had room for improvement and things that they could do to become a better leader.” (12:58—13:07)
• “[The user’s manual is] really important because it helps to identify how to best communicate with each one of your team members. And it allows for the team to start being more vulnerable with one another to say, ‘Hey, this is how I feel about something.’ For example, in my user manual, I put that I value social time. If you come straight at me and you get straight down to business on something, I'm going to feel a little bit miffed because you didn't ask me how my weekend was. That just goes along with my preferred personality communication style. So, that's how important they are. Because even though another personality style might want to get right down to the research and the business, that approach would probably offend me. And it’s nothing that they did wrong, it’s just that they didn't understand. They didn't know how to communicate with me until the user manual was created.” (13:53—14:49)
• “It’s all about identifying your weaknesses. And that's a really hard thing to do because we don't want to see ourselves in that negative light. We don't want to say, ‘Oh, I did something wrong,’ or, ‘I made a mistake,’ or, ‘I'm not as good as I could be.’ So, we really need to identify loving critics and then allow them to give us specific feedback.” (18:23—18:46)
• “Don't be afraid to be transparent with yourself and with your team. Embrace humility. Grant yourself and your team grace. Understand that it’s okay to make mistakes because you learn — sometimes, the quickest, when you make that mistake. And allow your team members to make those mistakes as well.” (30:01—30:20)

Snippets:

• 0:00 Introduction.
• 2:38 Get inspiration from books.
• 3:18 Develop great leaders.
• 7:41 Be humbitious.
• 11:31 There's always room for improvement.
• 13:43 The importance of the user’s manual.
• 18:14 Identify your weaknesses.
• 19:22 Find your unique ability.
• 21:19 Know what you’re good at and not good at.
• 22:43 Learn to pause.
• 26:02 Tell the truth ASAP.
• 29:36 Last thoughts on leadership.

Reach Out to Heather:

Heather’s email: [email protected] 

Heather’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather.r.crockett

Heather’s social media: @actdental

Resources:

Traction by Gino Wickman: https://benbellabooks.com/shop/traction/

Humbitious by Amer Kaissi: https://www.porchlightbooks.com/product/humbitious-the-power-of-low-ego-high-drive-leadership--amer-kaissi

DiSC: https://www.discprofile.com/

Kolbe: https://www.kolbe.com/

StrengthsFinder: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/254033/strengthsfinder.aspx

GaryVee Entrepreneurship Keynote | Gary Vaynerchuk at USC 2015: https://youtu.be/z5tugxy70MY?t=271

Unique Ability: https://uniqueability.com/  

Think Again by Adam Grant: https://adamgrant.net/book/think-again/

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey: https://7habitsstore.com/7-habits-30th-anniversary-hard-cover-book

Heather Crockett Bio:

Heather Crockett is a Lead Practice Coach who finds joy in not only improving practices but improving the lives of those she coaches as well. With over 20 years of combined experience in assisting, office management, and clinical dental hygiene, her awareness supports many aspects of the practice setting.

Heather received her dental hygiene degree from the Utah College of Dental Hygiene in 2008. Networking in the dental community comes easy to her, and she loves to connect with like-minded colleagues on social media. Heather enjoys both attending and presenting continuing education to expand her knowledge and learn from her friends and colleagues.

She enjoys hanging out with her husband, three sons, and their dog, Moki, scrolling through social media, watching football, and traveling.