Episode 122
122: Loving the Fight - A New Way to Look at Conflict - Katherine Eitel Belt
When you are running a world-class practice, one of the things that is inevitable is conflict. Katherine Eitel Belt is here today to share practices that we can embrace to deal with conflict. Katherine has been a practice management consultant for a couple of decades, but now focuses solely on the communication aspect of dental practices.
She is a leadership communication coach passionate about unlocking human potential. Her company focuses on three lanes of dental communication. First off is patient facing skills such as the phone and financial. The middle lane is team communication, and the third lane is audience facing communication and training teachers. Katherine shares her knowledge and wisdom in handling the inevitable conflict portion of the communication process.
You can find Katherine here:
Katherine Eitel Belt on LinkedIn
Katherine Eitel Belt on Facebook
Show Notes
[01:52] Katherine has been a practice management consultant for a couple of decades. She has now narrowed her focus to specialize solely on communication training.
[02:06] She focuses on patient facing communication skills such as phone skills and financial communication. The middle layer focuses on team communication from leader to team, team to team, and conflict.
[02:34] The third lane is audience facing where they train other speakers and other teachers. The overall umbrella is coaching communication skills in all three of these lanes.
[03:21] How having a vision will get your business to its destination sooner. It also makes it a little more fun on the way.
[04:15] Having a vision and making sure it's still on track is a nonnegotiable for small business.
[04:35] The reason to create a vision is to clarify for ourselves what to say yes to and what to say no to. Owners need to write the vision. Then present it to the team.
[05:52] Greater clarity can create greater concerns. Today's conversation is about managing the concerns and objections of the clear vision.
[06:57] How conflict is everywhere and handling it in a healthy way could change the world and our environments around us.
[08:22] Knowing a few skills and reframing the conversation can change everything when it comes to conflict in communication.
[09:26] We are either faced with conflict when it comes towards us or when we have an issue. In each instance take in some internal beliefs and reframe the whole idea.
[10:17] Change your view that someone has to win the conversation.
[10:52] What if we just have a conversation to see what will or what won't work instead of having a wrong or right.
[11:37] Trying to be right all the time isn't going to work.
[12:56] Committing to your brand values.
[13:09] Have cultural values at your workplace.
[13:49] As an owner, share your values and let your people know what is important to you and how you treat each other as a team.
[14:29] Core values show you who you are and what is important to you.
[16:07] If a person doesn't line up with your values that doesn't make them wrong. It just makes them not a good fit. Managers need to clarify, so people can know if they want to align or not.
[20:17] Get clear about how you interact so that people aren't afraid to tell the truth.
[20:58] Katherine doesn't hire children, people need to be self-regulated and self-directed. People have permission to hold each other accountable.
[26:11] You have to get clear about your direction and then present it to your team in a clear way.
[36:09] When someone on your team doesn't agree with your vision acknowledge what they say in a kind way and let them know that you take responsibility for not making your vision more clear in the past. Now that your vision is clear it is up to them to decide if their values align with your vision.
[39:42] Being committed to living your life at your own choice. Not being a victim of circumstance.
[42:03] Remember there's no right or wrong and it's not your teammates fault it's just a question of alignment.
[48:33] Bless it, embrace it, and step into it without aggression. Shift into neutral, anticipate a good outcome, and if nothing else learn something from the experience.
[49:16] The ARCH System. Acknowledge and find agreement wherever you can. Request and connect the A and R with an and. Share your non-negotiables. Confirm what you think you just agreed to. H stands for Hope, leave the conversation with something positive and say thank you.
[55:59] Anybody can step into a leadership role. Teams and team members can take issues to the boss.
[56:24] Throw out an issue to discuss like scheduling. Is it fair to say we all want the practice to run on time as much as possible?
[58:03] We haven't been on time the last two weeks.
[58:17] Let's find a way to schedule more appropriately and more accurately and still make production goals and profit margins.
[59:13] Let's get some accurate timing data. Let's look at our pricing and see if we are charging appropriately.
[01:00:02] Don't go backwards just go forwards.
Links and Resources:
Katherine Eitel Belt on LinkedIn
Katherine Eitel Belt on Facebook
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