The Most Important Thing You Will Ever Do in Your Practice

Episode #354 with Jenni Poulos & Heather Crockett

Core values are the most important thing for the lifetime of your practice — so important that one ACT team member has them tattooed on their body! That is the kind of all-in attitude at ACT Dental. And today, Kirk Behrendt brings in two ACT team members, Jenni Poulos and Heather Crockett, to share their journeys on developing their personal and professional core values and putting them to practice. Don't wait! To start your core values journey, listen to Episode 354 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Core values are the guideposts for all your actions and decisions.

Core values are important throughout the entire process of your business.

Core values are great in accountability conversations or difficult conversations.

Core values will help you quickly move through conflict.

Core values will give you confidence in your decisions.

Quotes:

“Core values are huge. Once we leaned into and learned the importance of core values, there was no turning back. They are the guidepost by which we measure and make all decisions. They help us lean into what's really important, and when something is ruffling our feathers, when something doesn't feel right, we can always tie it back to those things going against our core values. You just can't underestimate their importance.” (00:49—1:29)

“When there's something going on in my life that's not quite making a ton of sense, it’s because they're brushing up against one of my personal core values.” (2:56—3:07)

“When I have to make a hard decision, or maybe it’s not a difficult decision but I'm just a little bit uncertain about the choice that I should make, I'm really going to pause and say, ‘How would my core values respond to this?’ It’s really great in accountability conversations or difficult conversations with team members. And this is why it shows up in hiring and firing.” (6:30—6:59)

“This brings me back thinking to March 16th. We all know that day. And in my practice, things were changing, and we were wondering if we should close, ‘Should we close the practice?’ We didn't know what to do. And I was sitting with the docs in my practice. The leadership team was all sitting in this room, and we’re going, ‘Gosh, I'm not sure. Do we close? Do we stay open?’ And we said, ‘Guys, wait a minute. What do our core values tell us?’ And immediately, we’re like, ‘Well, we close. It’s the right thing to do.’” (7:01—7:41)

“[Core values] give you confidence in your decisions. And when you have confidence in your decisions, you can move forward. And that's something that's really hard, oftentimes, is moving forward. But when I can have confidence in those decisions, I can be all-in.” (8:12—8:28)

“[Core values are] 1,000% important throughout the entire process of the whole business, from beginning to end. And letting them bake for a little while is really key, because you'll come up with them, and think about them — I mean, mine are still baking. And it’s okay to mold them and tweak them as time goes on. But the sooner you get to the concrete core values, the quicker your team can rally around them and know exactly what they mean.” (10:37—11:10)

“It’s important to make sure there's a couple of bullet points, that the team is very clear about what it is exactly this core value means. One of my teams recently came up with a core value. The title of the core value is just “zest,” which I love. I totally love this core value. The word that they are using, you just know what it means, the passion for what they're doing. So, finding a way to have your core value title really show what it means is amazing. And if it needs a little bit of tweaking over time, then that's okay too.” (11:11—11:51)

“If