Joe Sanok 00:00:00 The group practice boss. Conference tickets are on sale now. We expect them to sell out in just a couple days. There are only 120 of these available. Head on over to practice of the practice. Com forward slash conference to read more and grab your ticket. This is the practice of the Practice podcast with Joe Sarna, session number 1122. Welcome to the practice of the Practice podcast. I’m Joe Stanek, your host, and I am so excited you are hanging out with me today. Today we are giving you behind the scenes in regards to our membership communities. And so a lot of our consultants are doing teachings every single week. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we have live teachings going on in our membership. So we wanted to give you a little behind the scenes. So we’re going to be hearing from Nicole Ball talking about what to do when referrals are slow. HR basics with Andrew. Client retention with Ashley, scaling with Nicole, Ball, choosing the right project management systems, and all sorts of other things over the coming weeks. Joe Sanok 00:01:15 I can’t wait to dig into this with you. If you want help from one of our consultants, please head on over to practice of the practice. Com forward slash apply. I’ll chat with you for 30 minutes to determine if one of our membership communities or consulting might be right for you. Now let’s get started with this episode. Ashley Mielke 00:01:32 Hi, Chris. Hi. How are you? Great. Look at you. You look lovely. Thank you. You as well. Hi, Michel. Thanks for joining. Yeah, I’m glad to be here. Yes, it’s going to be so good. It’s going to be such a great conversation. So I can’t wait to see people rolling in here. Hi, Christina. Thanks for joining. Speaker 3 00:04:51 Thanks. I’m glad to be here. Ashley Mielke 00:04:52 Yea yea. I was hoping that everyone would see my hype on circle. I’m not sure if you get the notifications. I’m like so come again every week. I’m like so don’t forget about this, come and join us. So while we wait for the others to join, I would love to hear from you, Michelle and you, Christina. Ashley Mielke 00:05:13 Us. One recent win in your business that we can kind of celebrate with you. Speaker 3 00:05:20 So for me, like, we’re new to group practice. We just started, we started group practice launch in the fall, and then we added two clinicians. I added two clinicians, one dropped off, and then I added another. So it’s been a little hit or miss. but passing 10,000 in our bank account for our business. And then like it’s just steadily growing every single month. and it’s just kind of like, this is weird, that it’s growing and, you know, like, just having that, you know, just like being in that baby steps part. But it’s just like, it feels really good that it’s even after payday for the other therapists. Like, things are still growing. So I’d say like that’s a big win for us. Ashley Mielke 00:06:08 That is amazing. Congratulations and well deserved. Well earned. That’s very exciting, Christina. Thank you. And that is I think one of the benefits of having a group practice is it just increases your revenue, especially if you’re also working as a clinician. Ashley Mielke 00:06:26 You can generate that extra revenue without you having to do all the work. I mean, that’s amazing. Good for you. Hello, Heidi. So nice to see you. You have to email me back. You haven’t gotten back to me yet. Speaker 4 00:06:39 Oh, sorry. We’ll do. Ashley Mielke 00:06:43 okay. And. Hello, April. Hello, other. Michele, thanks for joining. so Michele Dunne. Recent win in your business I think a recent win is we have the good problem of having a lot of people want to either work with us or intern with us, and we’re quickly scrambling to figure out who do we have the capacity to bring on, and trying to make sure we don’t outpace ourselves, which I feel like that’s a good problem. Right? We’re not, looking under the carpet and under sofas to find clinicians to be with us. So that’s a good one. That is amazing. That is a great problem to have. Thank you for sharing. Okay, Heidi, while we see you on the screen, what is one recent win that you can share with us that we can celebrate? Speaker 4 00:07:32 I sent out to offer letters in the last 24 hours, and so I’m getting ready to bring someone on in a couple of weeks, and then another person a few weeks after that, so. Ashley Mielke 00:07:44 Yay! Amazing. Yeah. Congratulations. That’s very exciting. Thank you for sharing. Okay. So we’re going to be getting ready to kick off in about a minute. As we know there’s about 12 or so people that have signed up for today’s webinar. But we know a lot of people will watch the replay. So we are so so grateful to have Kristen here. Oh, Esther is joining us. Wonderful. So a little bit of background because some of you there’s some like OG group practice boss members and then a lot of new members. So we’ve had Kristen on in the past. Kristen is a dear friend of mine and also my business consultant, so she’s someone that has worked with me over the years around like around these conversations, around leadership, around change management and growth. Like, okay, I’m going to open a second location. How do you support me in supporting my team through this? And like really like the people staff, the heart stuff and a lot of business strategy she has supported me with as well. Ashley Mielke 00:08:43 So she is she is a wealth of wisdom and knowledge and just honestly one of the most beautiful humans you’ll ever meet. so I’m going to plug her right now and we’ll do her bio, but at the end she’s going to plug her business as well. So it’s a little bit different than what we do as pop consultants. So as a business consultant, I really do support you in your practice strategy. And that’s wonderful and people’s stuff too. But I feel like, Kristen’s strengths really come in to the leadership piece, which is really important. And how do we make those big transitions emotionally? so very excited to have her here. She also leads team retreats, just FYI. So I’ve done that with our team where we we bring her in virtually. You could I mean, that would be she lives here, so wouldn’t be super convenient to fly her out, but she could do that virtually for you. Generating conversation with your teams as you build leadership teams in your companies. So very excited to have you here, Kristen. Ashley Mielke 00:09:47 So her her bio is on the webinar. Event. But I am going to read it because it is beautiful and you’ll get a bit of a background on who she is, what she brings to the table. And then we are going to dive right into our presentation today. So formerly a registered nurse and health care executive, Kristin Edmiston is all about engaging people’s heads and hearts. Her professional career has taken her from the front line to the boardroom, and now into a thrilling roller coaster ride as a multiple business owner and entrepreneur. Kristin is the founder of K Edmiston and Associates, or Kia Consulting, a business and management consulting firm in Edmonton that specializes in specializes in supporting corporate leaders, teams and business owners. Through her unique approach of strategy partnership, she also offers business mentoring, workshops, training, and meeting facilitation. She also provides expertise and support in the areas of strategic planning, leadership coaching, change management and workplace culture. Kristen is also the author of the author of the one book and host of the One Program podcast. Ashley Mielke 00:10:53 Her book is the all in one solution to the overwhelm for leaders, business owners and entrepreneurs. It is a tool, a method, and a system that will help you discover the power of simplification to stay organized, build a stronger mindset, sharpen your focus, and help you to tap into your creative genius superpower. The one book will be the record of your journey as it unfolds over an entire year, and with each volume you complete, you’ll also be documenting your story, your legacy. Kristin is also the jewelry designer and owner of Kemba Designs, and is the co-founder of A Circle of Angels, a pay it forward kindness project launched in 2015. Through the sales of their handmade Crystal Angel charms, they have donated thousands of dollars to various charities in Canada and also spread love, hope and kindness in through random acts of kindness in the community. Throughout all of her personal and professional pursuits, Kristen is passionate about helping others follow their joy and recognize the value of the journey, not just the destination. We are so thrilled and humbled and grateful that you are here with us today. Ashley Mielke 00:11:58 Kristen, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, thank you so much, Ashley, and for your very kind words. And. Kristen Edmiston 00:12:06 you know, sharing a bit of the background that you and I have in working together. It’s been just such an absolute honor to see you flourish and grow and build out your dream. And I think it comes full circle for me as I see you paying it forward and helping other clinicians now too. And I can only imagine that you’re creating so many ripples within this group and beyond. So I’m always happy to to be a cheerleader with you and supporting you while you’re supporting others too. So it feels great to come full circle and join you and your group here today. And, you know, I think from my experience, it’s sometimes really helpful to have somebody from the outside come in to these conversations because I’ve never walked in your shoes. I’ve never been a practicing psychologist. I’ve never led a team of of other clinicians in this way. But I have a bit of a parallel path, haven’t I? As a registered nurse. Kristen Edmiston 00:13:01 So as the caregiver, as the the one that’s had to be there in a very holistic way for, for individual patients and their families in times of crisis. I used to be a PC nurse. So that’s my specialty is pediatric critical care. and although I don’t practice anymore, once a nurse, always a nurse, there is like literally a t shirt for it. And you’ll see that as we talk throughout today’s presentation, that that little part of me is infused in everything I do as a business management strategist and consultant, as an author, as a jewelry designer, for heaven’s sake. and, you know, I think there’s a there’s a quick little tidbit I’ll throw in there and, actually used it in the bio introduction. Creative genius. Superpower. this is something that I would love to just pass on to every single leader that I work with. And that is find your creative outlet because it will make you, think faster and quicker on your feet and more innovatively, it’ll make you a better leader. Kristen Edmiston 00:14:05 So whether you do photography or you cook or you write or you play with beads or you, you love to paint, whatever it is, find that creative outlet and it really can shift everything in your life in so many different ways. and, yeah. So you’re going to get a bit of that, you’re going to get a bit of the nurse, you’re going to get a bit of the process improvement. Nerd. and the MBA brain that, that I’ve evolved over the years. And you’re also going to get the, the head and the heart of everything as we talk about leadership today. So, I hope I hope it resonates. I hope everyone walks away with at least one thing today. And, at the end of the presentation, I’ll even be putting that out there and inviting you to share maybe one thing that you’ll take away from the conversation today, and it may not be from me. I would love if it was actually from someone else in the group, as we’ve been sharing experiences, because that’s the richness of being together as a group, isn’t it, that we’re bringing in that collective knowledge and wisdom where we can work together to to take away something each and every one of us? So, ash is going to control all the slides today, and I’ll just. Kristen Edmiston 00:15:15 I’ll give you the next signal, ash, if that’s okay, when we’re ready to move to the next slide. Ashley Mielke 00:15:20 So. So just one thing, Kristen, because I’m sharing my screen, I cannot see anyone. Kristen Edmiston 00:15:26 Okay. Ashley Mielke 00:15:26 So you’ll just have to tell me when to switch okay. Kristen Edmiston 00:15:29 I will do that. Perfect. So, when Ashley and I were chatting a little bit about, you know, what your group has been talking about. And, the, you know, some of the challenges that actually come up in leading a practice. we were sort of, you know, playing with, you know, like, what are those those generalized things as leaders that we need to be mindful of and be present with. And then I’ve been the challenge for me has been, how do I tailor this to a group of clinicians when I when I’m not one of you, I haven’t done what you’ve done. So the content that I’m going to be presenting with you today is somewhat 50,000 foot view, if you will. Kristen Edmiston 00:16:07 But, I mean, I have worked with clients, you know, as Ashley with Ashley all the way through to people who are in the manufacturing industry or, event planners, social media managers, government leaders, you name it. So these principles I see as very common across the bar, the board, regardless of the industry and also regardless of where we’re at in our careers. And I want to just start with that, that as leaders, sometimes we, we feel like, oh, that’s for me in five years. You know, like I’m just starting out. I don’t know if I need to like, really dig into these, these issues right now or, you know, my team is only a team of two. I just hired my first clinician in with me. And, you know, maybe when I have a team of 5 or 10, that’s when this will apply. And I really challenge you to rethink that because and I and I’ve seen this with Ashley too and in, you know, getting really crystal clear on who you are and how you want to authentically show up as a leader, whether you’re leading one or you’re leading 100, that will make it so much easier for you to be authentic. Kristen Edmiston 00:17:16 And there’s this, this tug of war, I think sometimes about, you know, how do I feel confident to show up as my best as a leader. And we really focus on building confidence, or we try to build confidence in other people. And I’d love to flip the switch on this mentality and say, you know what? If we first worked on authenticity and let confidence fall as as the next domino. I think sometimes we chase confidences as it’s going to be like a protective shield, or it’s going to be a level in, in our in our careers where we like, oh, we made it, you know. And finally, confident confidence will wax and wane. And it’s dependent upon a lot of extrinsic factors and we cannot control them. And so I think if we just general rule of thumb lead with authenticity, get really crystal clear on who we want to be and show up consistently, then the confidence will just fall into place beautifully. Okay. So next slide. Now today. Yep yep I can see it. Ashley Mielke 00:18:16 Okay. Perfect. Kristen Edmiston 00:18:17 Everybody else is good. Let us know if you’re not I see some nodding so that’s good. So leading for results. just a few things I wanted to touch on, and maybe they’ll resonate with questions you’ve had as well. How do I nurture others through my leadership? How does leadership influence client retention? Because at the end of the day, that’s what we’re here for, right? We know as we’re building businesses, the best way to do that is to retain the clients we’ve worked so hard to recruit and and bring in to our sphere to help them. And then how does leadership help build rapport with clients? And it’s a bit of a jump, right? When we think of leadership, we’re like, oh, well, I’m directly leading to my team. You know, the clinicians that work with within my group, my group practice. But all of that will have a ripple effect onto the people that they serve and the people that they are providing care to. And so when we think about those broader ripples, I think it really does frame the relevance and the importance of why we need to be so present and so focused on how we are leading. Kristen Edmiston 00:19:18 The impact doesn’t just stop with the people that are on our team. It will roll over into the people that they are treating and then the people in their patients lives as well. So the ripples go far and wide. Yes. You are that important as a leader. Next slide please. So the question is, you know, where are you right now. And I’ll give you a bit of a personal reflection here. knowing that I was a registered nurse and you’ve probably figured out that the stakes were pretty high if it was pretty pediatric intensive care. you know, I prided myself on my skills, my knowledge. I was looked to as an educator, to junior nurses, and to mentor them into the role. I did clinical practice improvement, workshops. I was involved with research. I was involved with the most acutely intensive patient care situations, you know, getting patients right out of heart surgery with their hearts still open and their chest just covered with a single clear bandage. But I could still see the heart beating beneath. Kristen Edmiston 00:20:26 You know, I was entrusted with this level of acuity for little tiny people, and I took great pride in my work. But I realized that while that made me stand out as a clinician, and it made me look like an obvious choice to be mentored into different management roles, I learned very quickly and very humbly. I am not a good manager, and all of those skills that made me a great clinician didn’t really help me when it came to supervising and managing others. But what it did do is it teed me up with this potential and this capacity for leadership and mentorship. So I say this and I share this with you because, you know, typically the high performers are the ones that take that path to grow and expand. Right? And I suspect everybody in the room and everybody that sees this, you’re in that bucket of high performance and that’s great. And it’s so wonderful that you have found yourself in this position. But that leap from where you were just, you know, really focused on individual patient care to maybe supervising others as they come in under your wing to now maybe managing them and mentoring them. Kristen Edmiston 00:21:33 Those skills that have made you successful in your career so far may not be enough. And so if you feel like you’re struggling at all as you build out your practice, it’s perfectly normal. It just means that there’s another skill set here that you might want to explore and expand upon, and you’ve got all of that potential to build with. But it doesn’t always come inherently or naturally. And so just a quick check in you can do with yourself right now. And, you know, where do you see yourself in terms of the progression to where you want to be? If ultimately leadership of a larger team is where you want to be? Are you there? Do you feel do you feel like you’re able to authentically lead right now and feel confident in that? Or maybe it’s at that mentorship level where you’re you’re starting to get your feet beneath you and, and you can see yourself as a mentor and you can see how you’re improving and helping others, or are you just starting out and you’re like, no, you know, my strength. Kristen Edmiston 00:22:26 My strong points are still on that. That management, you know, the scheduling, the the the business bookkeeping, the all the other things you’re doing in the background to run a business or is it still at that supervision level? Right. I say this to to remind you that it is a journey, and there’s not a light switch where you can suddenly go from just a clinician practicing to suddenly a leader without there being some change, some growth, and some learning as you go. next slide please. So there are 1,000,001 different theories and philosophies, philosophies around leadership out there. And I like to kind of pick and choose pieces that resonate for me and bring them together for the group that I’m talking to. And as I was reflecting on your group here today, I was like, okay, caregivers truly. but also on that business leadership side of things, how could we simplify this into a model of thinking? And what would those, really those characteristics that we should strive for bringing forward, what would they look like? And so I call it the the four e leadership model. Kristen Edmiston 00:23:37 And I believe that if we can consistently show up with these four elements, we will be on that path to success that we’re looking for. We’ll be able to weather the storms as well because let’s face it, nothing is ever linear when it comes to leadership or to business ownership. And so it may seem obvious, but when you really think about these four E’s, you can actually ask yourself when you start your day, what is one action I could take to demonstrate empathy, to empower others, to engage others, and to energize others? And then at the end of the day, you could do like a quick self-reflection or a journal entry. Did I do what I set out to do with expressing empathy and showing up with empathy? How did I empower someone? How did I engage others and where did I infuse energy into my team? And you know, this is such a each of these ingredients are so powerful on their own. But I swear that collective union of where everything intersects, that’s where you build a team who has a bigger purpose than just the job. Kristen Edmiston 00:24:40 They’re there for more than just I’m a clinician and I’m here to practice, and this is where I’ve hung my hat. This is no, I belong here. I want to contribute to the bigger picture. I want to be a part of this team. And this then leads to not only, clinician retention, which is also an important factor in all of this, but subsequently client retention. So we go to all this effort to bring a team together to. And I heard today already, you know, putting out offer letters to people and onboarding new team members that takes a great deal of energy and time. We want to keep them right. So we want to give them good reasons to stay. And with that, they’re going. Ashley Mielke 00:25:21 To. Kristen Edmiston 00:25:21 Retain their clients as well. And your clients will be receiving, support through your practice. So the ripples really do start here. So I’ve hopefully simplified it in such a way where you can just sort of recall in your back pocket, just pull it out the for ease, empathy and power engage energy. Kristen Edmiston 00:25:39 And this is what gets people to stay. next slide please. So I also like to really emphasize the importance of positive leadership. And in terms of the opposite wouldn’t be negative leadership, but it could be, almost an apathetic leadership where it’s like, I’m going to give you the tools and, and give you the systems in place. Now it’s up to you. You’ve got the autonomy now to go on versus I’m going to give you something to aspire to. I want to create emotions and feelings for you that are going to make you want to perpetually improve and grow, not because I’m telling you to, but because there’s an intrinsic element here. So I think, you know, here are five things that we can do as leaders and show up with to really come up with these results. So we’re looking as leaders, typically in a team to build trust, to motivate the people that we’re working with, to inspire them to keep going and and to grow and improve on their own, and then also to build out their own practice. Kristen Edmiston 00:26:41 Right, because our success is going to be dependent upon our team members growth and how they build out their practice. So I’ve narrowed it down into these five, five sort of approaches, and we’re going to dig into them, each of them a little bit more. But again these are things to just focus in on. And you can start with some self-reflection. You know after today’s session, you can sit back and say, hey, you know, want to on a scale of 0 to 10, here’s how I’d rate myself in terms of showing up with honesty, showing up with vulnerability, inviting collaboration, encouraging curiosity, and then approaching things from a needs based perspective versus a problem based perspective. And we’re going to dive into that a little bit more. So give yourself that tangible rating and then maybe evaluate yourself. Go back and journal once a month. Hey how have I improved. What has changed? What are some examples of how I’ve shown up with these things? And is it actually moving the needle with building trust, motivating, inspiring and encouraging our team members to build out their practice? so it’s a bit of a tool to give, to give you something to work with here. Joe Sanok 00:27:55 Do you often find yourself overwhelmed by the influx of client calls you receive? Receptionists are expensive, but you can’t afford to let your patients go to voicemail. You care for your clients, so you try to phone them back. But more often than not, it’s too late. They’ve gone to another practice. When you partner with well-received, you capture every opportunity. Your calls are answered by professional medical receptionists 24 over seven, and they can support you with more than just message checking. They offer new patient intake, after hours service, bilingual services, medical appointment scheduling, medical live chat, and so much more. All this at a fraction of the cost of an in-house receptionist. Your patients are well received priority as a practice of the practice listener. You can get an exclusive 50% off your first two months of service. Head on over to well received.com/joe to start growing your practice today. Kristen Edmiston 00:28:56 So let’s dive in to each one of these topics a little bit more. Starting with the next slide on honesty. So here’s what I mean by honesty. Kristen Edmiston 00:29:04 Getting to really know your people and for for you to be able to know your people, they also need to get to know you. And this is where that office authenticity piece really comes in. so getting to know a little bit about their background, what makes them tick, what are their real passion? What are they really curious about? Where do they see their strengths and where do they identify their areas for improvement? And, you know, exploring current practices. You know, what how they approach their client care, how they approach intake, how they approach all the different pieces of of treating their patients processes, systems, their attitudes and beliefs, get really curious about all of it and encourage that honesty and authenticity. And the people that you’re sitting with, you know, it’s really difficult to work with with anyone who is has not being truly honest with themselves. And I believe to to elicit honesty, we have to first create safety, right. And so as leaders, we can demonstrate the honesty to inspire safety. Kristen Edmiston 00:30:08 And then hopefully our team members will be more likely to open up and be honest with us when they’re honest. Now we have something to work with. Now we know what are those levers that we can actually pull? How could we create a mentorship plan knowing where their passions are, where are their strengths are, where they want to improve. So very closely related is the next slide on vulnerability. And you know this can be really tricky when we’re trying to show up at our best as a leader, because sometimes we think we have to be the strongest, the most resilient, the one out in front that’s just taking all the hits and never gets knocked down. but it’s a complete, it’s a misnomer. It’s it’s the opposite is true. In fact, when you look at the research out there about, even the fortune 500 companies that are out there, they’ve done a lot of research on, the C-suite, leaders of fortune 500 companies looking for certain characteristics that would be common amongst those who have been most successful out there. Kristen Edmiston 00:31:08 and two of the most common characteristics are vulnerability and humility. Ashley Mielke 00:31:13 So the first. Kristen Edmiston 00:31:14 To take the blame and the last to take the credit. You know, that is such a key learning for me around leadership and in showing up with that vulnerability and humility. It’s okay for our team members to see us in our weak moments. In fact, it makes us more relatable and more human, and it also encourages them to rally with us. and so they don’t feel like there’s always this power differential, but they’re subscribing to something where they can, they can be an equal and they are contributing to something bigger than just themselves. So being honest about, you know, your genuine strengths and your areas for improvement. That whole concept of confidence versus authenticity, which one are you chasing? You know, and very often when we’re trying to chase that confidence, it comes across as a bit of a facade. And, you know, you’ve seen it in other people. I’m sure you’ve felt it where it’s like, well, I don’t know. Kristen Edmiston 00:32:05 Do you genuinely feel confident or is this a bit of a show? The whole fake it til you make it. And we could also feel it when people are being truly authentic. And I think this is especially true in the day and age of social media that we have right now. Right. And I think I call it our BS meter. You know, like we’re just highly sensitized to, you know, what is authentic and what is kind of fake, because we’ve had to try and interpret this in the digital world of social media. So if others are really, you know, fine tuning into this as well, they’re going to pick up on the fact if you’re not feeling or if you’re not acting in an authentic way, and if you’re, you know, overdoing it, if you will, to try and appear confident as a leader. So it’s okay. It’s okay to be vulnerable and not be a 100% on point all the time. That does require that self-awareness and and being sure that you’re nurturing yourself and being kind with yourself and giving, allowing yourself that grace and space to be a learner while also being a leader. Kristen Edmiston 00:33:01 And I think the best leaders are the leaders that choose to continually learn, continually improve. So it’s okay if you’re feeling a bit vulnerable. I think it’s actually a great thing to admit we are all there, all of us, at some point. Okay, the next slide is collaboration. And I know this can feel like a bit of a buzz word, but it’s so critically important because it does tie back into engagement, which we’re going to talk about a little bit more too. But collaboration, you know, it really does begin at that client therapist relationship, doesn’t it. No one party, the patient or the or the clinician can really make this, this work. until both come together, there needs to be that collaborative effort. Well, the same is true between a leader and a team member. and so it can be collaboration needs to be a focus with client therapist relationships, but also across the team how team members are relating to each other, even though the practice is so individual. And there may be different styles or methods or, even processes for that matter, how we interact with one another does matter when we’re building out a team. Kristen Edmiston 00:34:11 Collaboration also requires general openness. And what I mean by this is, you know, as a leader, how do we foster open mindedness, right? And that could be open mindedness to new practices or new best practices or the latest research, or to rethink how we do our processes or how we use our systems. So just that general openness, because so often, you know, our, our cynical nature will judge the heck out of a new idea before it even has a chance to see the light of day. Oh, that didn’t work before, or I’ve seen it happen somewhere else and it was a total flop. There’s no way that this is going to work well. That closed mindedness will never foster innovation, and it will stifle out inspiration and and motivation to. So demonstrating general openness to ideas is a great way to foster collaboration, as if you’re the leader, but also to encourage your team members to be open. Open to change. Open to feedback, opportunities and challenges. Right. And something as simple as saying, hey, I know it’s been a tough day. Kristen Edmiston 00:35:16 I know that the outcomes aren’t really, you know, what you had hoped for with this particular situation. But I believe in you and what we have in front of us here is a challenge. It’s not a roadblock. It’s not a dead end sign. This is merely a challenge. Let’s be open to that. Let’s reframe it. And I believe in you. So let’s figure out a way to overcome the challenge and and work together with you. You’re not alone. We’re going to work together on this. Now, when we repeat this again and again and again consistently, and we get everyone else on the team or the majority of the team members to be operating in this way, what we do is we create a culture, a positive workplace culture, and that’s when we know we’ve hit the magic sweet spot. And ultimately that’s what we’re trying to get to. And yes, you can have a culture with a team of two. Right. it’s important to keep that in mind. So this is relevant. Kristen Edmiston 00:36:09 No matter how big your your team is now, it can get more complicated the bigger you get. one of my my last role as an executive with our health care system here in Alberta was, workplace culture. It was around patient safety and quality improvement. And we had a grand total of 98,000 employees. And in my title, for what it’s worth, it was around culture, fostering culture across the organization, around patient safety. Well, how the heck do you influence culture for 98,000 people, right? It felt so daunting, but I realized it wasn’t me at all. It was about fostering the relationships between all the other individual pockets of people and removing barriers, like silos, to encourage and foster collaboration. And that’s how you move the needle on culture. So truly, I played such a small piece in all of that. but yes, as a leader, you can do it for infinite team sizes as well, if you have the right tools in the toolkit. All right. Next slide. Curiosity. Kristen Edmiston 00:37:16 Oh, this is a fun one for me because it does definitely tie to that creative side. And one of my favorite questions to ask my clients right now is to dig deep on what excellence looks like. And I challenge you to to just sit back and reflect on this for you as well. And you could you could pare it down. You could say, hey, what does excellence look like for me as a parent? Or what is excellence look like for me as a business owner or as a leader or as a mentor or in a supervisory capacity? You get to pick the context. But I find the first time I ask someone this question, their first answer is often they’ll list off what they do, but when they’ve done it, well, you know, you know, excellence was showing up with compassion and empathy. And, you know, I was, I was able to really dig down to the issues at the heart of the matter with my with my client and, gave them some tools to move forward and, and deal with what they’re going through. Kristen Edmiston 00:38:18 And I said, well, that’s great. That’s amazing. But isn’t that not what every other clinician is doing? Or is that not what every other business coach is doing, whatever it may be. And I get the oh, I’m like, no, what is the wow factor? And we’ve all experienced that in customer service, right. you know, we go and we sit down with someone, we have an experience and we sit back at the end of it and I go, oh, man, I did not expect that. You know, that was you gave me so much more than I even expected coming into this, so much so that I can’t wait to get in my car, drive away and call my friend, my sister, my husband and tell them about this because my like, my socks were blown off. My head’s just like, overwhelmed with how great this was I’m talking about getting to that level of excellence, that wow factor where you become a legend in people’s stories. Now that can be daunting as well, but not really. Kristen Edmiston 00:39:12 You know, it’s a trajectory for us. Shoot for the moon. Land in the stars is how I like to, to put it. So getting really crystal clear on what excellence is. And it is not status quo, it is not meeting expectations. It’s the wow factor. And getting really curious about what that could look like in your practice. Now, that’s also going to mean that you’re going to be doing things maybe a little differently than others. You’re maybe innovating. You’re bringing something extra to the table. Now, the beauty of this is that you will naturally and inherently stand out as a practice. If you do that, you think about what goes into marketing a business or, you know, attracting new talent to come and work with you or to attracting new clients as well. It takes a lot of effort to get the word out about us, Right? Well, if you’re just showing up authentically with something that no one else has, and this bar of excellence that no one else has really paid attention to, you’re attracting people organically. Kristen Edmiston 00:40:09 It’s just a no brainer for people to come to you so you’re not even having to compete. Right. and this is also something that can be sustainable because with continuous quality improvement, you’re always setting the bar a little higher, a little higher, a little higher. And that’s how we get to stay in the game. So what is the status quo and how do you feel about it getting really clear on, you know, what is the experience of someone working with you, working within the practice, being a patient within the practice? What does that look like now? What could it look like in the future if you were to elevate it to the next level? And really getting curious about the what if, you know, what if we did do some more group sessions, what if we did tackle on a different area that was needed? We’ve never done it before, but what if we brought in some experts to train us on this other topic. What if we adopted this new method or model of care? What if, what if? Let’s not judge the ideas before they’ve had a chance to actually come to light and breathe a little bit? And then I like to stress the importance of hope and fear. Kristen Edmiston 00:41:13 And I suspect this is going to be just preaching to the converted here. But we know that there are actual physiological responses to these two emotions, right. So when we feel hope, we know that there’s a release of dopamine and serotonin. We can measure these amounts clinically. and we know that when there is fear felt adrenaline is released. Right. So we know that there are measurable markers physiologically when we experience these emotions. So as leaders, what can we do to minimize the fear and amplify the hope and and even just thinking about actions you can do on a day to day basis or something you do once a month that will elevate the hope and always be on the lookout for those things that are creating fear. It’s incredible what we can do to to bring people together and, and just want to stay and be a part of our practice. When we think about the the emotional side of it. All right. We’ll head on to the next slide. This is the last one. And this is a reframe around when things aren’t going so well. Kristen Edmiston 00:42:19 Because, you know, we could talk about all the rosy stuff and all the inspirational stuff. But the reality is things don’t always go well. And sometimes there may be performance management issues that come into play. or, you know, someone is just struggling to get their practice to the next level and they need your support as a leader to get there. I think reframing things from problems to needs is the best way to go. When we talk about there’s a problem with our system, there’s a problem with this process. Something isn’t working. We often use words like broken or inefficient or Ineffective, right? We label it as a problem. And that causes us this, this sense that we have to fix something. And I like to flip that instead into what is the real need here. So maybe the process we won’t we won’t talk about performance around people, but maybe it’s a process that you have in your business and you know, it’s just resulted in too many errors. Could be a, you know, a administrative process that’s resulting in a lot of errors. Kristen Edmiston 00:43:19 Instead of trying to fix the holes, what if we instead refocused on what are the needs here? You know, so our needs are that we need the the system to be or the process to be accurate. We need it to be, time sensitive. We need it to be responsive to us. We need it to be flexible. So if someone needs to tweak it here or there, it needs to have the, you know, that functionality built into it. And now what we’ve got is a list of things needs to satisfy versus problems to fix. And that immediately flips it from a negative connotation to a positive optimistic connotation. and I associate hope or optimism with hope. Again, it comes away from from that whole fear factor and more so into the to the sphere of hope. So needs based solutions. We resist that urge to fix problems. We identify the needs, not the problems. And then what do we do with it? I suspect you’ve heard of Smart goals in the past. I have a philosophy that I don’t love the acronym Smart goals. Kristen Edmiston 00:44:19 I think they’re way too restrictive. And so I instead go with OTH goals. And it’s another acronym. It stands for objective based. So we’re not just we’re talking not talking just about, the destination. I will have, you know, 12 new clients brought in to the into the clinic within the next month. It’s know we will be expanding our services and helping x number of people. We’ll be, reaching others outside of our usual practice parameters, we will be empowering our clinicians to, to improve their patient outcomes. So it’s not so specific as a number or a financial target. It’s more outcomes based. A stands for aligned and aligned means aligned with your vision, your mission, and your values as a business, as a company. And that’s a topic I could cover on another day. But it’s a huge one and something that Ashley and I started out with in the early days about, you know, really, who are we as a business and what are what is my vision? What is my mission? What are my values? And I think all roads need to lead to Rome. Kristen Edmiston 00:45:29 And so making sure that our goals are aligned with, with our bigger picture, so critically important goals that are timely and also goals that are heart held and head held. So goals that make sense to both your head and your heart, I think are critically important. And then lastly is appreciating that when we talk about needs there’s going to be intrinsic and extrinsic influences. Right. So there’s those that a clinician that you’re that you’ve brought on board. They may have their own you know internal needs, whether it be building out on some of their areas for improvement or a sense of belonging, or they need more confidence or what it may be, but there’s also those extrinsic needs, those things that are outside of them. And that’s like your processes and your systems and, you know, the flexibility or the team dynamics that are happening outside of them individually, but they’re being influenced by them. So just being aware that when something isn’t going right, it’s not always the individual. There could be other factors at play and looking at the environment also. Kristen Edmiston 00:46:29 So we don’t just immediately point a finger of blame. All right. So challenges and change. And actually I love how you you mentioned you know as teams are growing and people bringing on new new therapists, that is a change right. And sometimes we don’t really diagnose a change appropriately. And and this can result in us kind of ignoring that there’s an emotional element to change. And then we wonder why there might be some resistance. we make assumptions that, you know, everyone’s going to just see it our way and agree that a change in a process or a platform or email exchange, everyone’s gonna be like, yeah, I’m on board, this is great. And then we see people kind of drag their heels or they they don’t get with the program. And we’re like, well, that’s on them, right? It’s actually not. So as a leader, we need to be really cognizant of, change management. And this is something I’m very, very passionate about. And I’ll pull on my clinical side here too. Kristen Edmiston 00:47:29 But there are different types of change. And it’s our job to diagnose that change so that we can pick pick the right treatment method. So for example, a transitional change that would be let’s say moving from one email system to another and transitional would mean that their steps. Right. So we’re going to maybe go through, the first group of five people. We’re going to get you transitioned over. We’re going to make sure you’re settled, and then we’re going to get the next five people, and we’re going to transition you over. So it’s not all all said and done, but we know at the end outcome is right. So it’s a very methodical step one step two. Step three. Step four. transitional change versus something that might be transformational and a transformational changes. Oh like this is survive or die. And we just know we have to radically shift everything. And we don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like. But we have to literally transform our mindset around this. We have to transform the way we interact with one another because it’s do or die. Kristen Edmiston 00:48:36 If we don’t, we’re dead in the water. and if we do, it could be a whole other next level for us. Right. So our approach to change will matter based on the type of change that we’re dealing with. And, being cognizant of that and understanding the the head and the heart of change, people need cognitively to accept change. They need to understand it. They need to know how it impacts them. They need to know what their role is. Right? So cognitively, that’s what we need to adopt a change. But emotionally we also need to have self-efficacy. We need to believe that us as individuals are capable of making this change successful. We also have to to feel positive about it. We need to feel hope, not fear. Right? So as a leader, for someone that’s guiding and stewarding a team through change, asking yourself, how do I speak to their heads? How do I speak to their hearts? What are their needs going to be? And being very deliberate, writing the prescription for what that treatment is going to be that makes a huge, huge difference. Kristen Edmiston 00:49:38 And that’s your role as a leader. So the next slide is closely related and that is engagement. You know, I you know, it’s wonderful to have a team of high performers who, in their individual practices are just knocking it out of the park, but if they’re not actually engaging with each other, and if they’re not contributing to that entire team environment, it’s not going to be sustainable. You’re not creating an environment or a culture where people want to stay. And so engagement is one of those, it’s a it’s something you can watch for signs and symptoms to tell you if you’re on the right path or not. And so, you know, how are how are we going to know if our team is genuinely, genuinely engaged? What are those signs to look for? How do you approach disengagement and when do you take action? So whether it’s on your current team or if you can reflect on any other team that you’ve been a part of, does anyone want to offer something that they’ve seen as a behavior that would say, something’s not right here with engagement. Kristen Edmiston 00:50:36 People aren’t aren’t really demonstrating that they feel engaged. Does anyone have anything to offer up? I’ll give you a starting point. Social engagements. Right. So, you know, hey, we’re all going to head out for lunch on Friday, you know, or, you know, bring your bag lunch. We’re going to go out to the park, and we’re going to sit down and just have, like, a Friday out in the park for for lunch. And, you know, you’ve got two people that show up and you’re looking around, you’re like, oh, I guess, you know, the other eight people were just really busy or, you know, they had something else going on. And, you know, if this happens the next Friday and the next Friday and the next Friday, right, people will start to actively disengage from the things that are not required or mandatory. So that can certainly be a sign of disengagement. another one could be, people not bringing forward their concerns anymore. Kristen Edmiston 00:51:29 Suddenly things just seem to be going really smooth. Nobody’s got any feedback. And, where people were trying to bring up problems and solutions, now people are just sort of Apathy, right? Apathy is a huge one. I would say that’s a red, red flag. If you start seeing apathy across your team, you’re you’re looking at some disengagement, right? one that we sometimes overlook. And, you know, we think it might be an isolated incident is gossip. And I see this in in if I get called in to a larger team setting for workplace culture. And if I’m hearing that one of the problems is that there’s gossiping or there’s rolling of the eyes or there’s, you know, little whispers as someone walks in, I’m instantly like, okay, let’s do an engagement survey. Like, people are checking out here and they’re not coming to the table to share their thoughts and ideas. They don’t feel safe for whatever reason. They’re disengaging from the group, and they’re now starting to to pick up these really toxic behaviors. Kristen Edmiston 00:52:30 And once you’ve got gossip in a, in a team setting, you’re in trouble. You know, like, now we’re getting into the real red zone here. And there needs to be some immediate intervention. And it’s not just the whac-a-mole, it’s not just the person who started the gossip. It’s not that we just sit down with them and deal with it and performance manage it. We’ve got to look at the entire ecosystem that they’re operating within. So, you know, gossip can be a big one to look for. and, you know, I think, how do we approach disengagement? You know, surveys are one way of doing it. it’s hard to sometimes get honest feedback when people are just apathetic or they just they don’t even care to let you know. So bringing in a third party to do an objective, confidential assessment, meeting with team members and exploring what the issues are getting to the root cause, not just the smoke you want to get to the flames. that’s another way to approach disengagement. Kristen Edmiston 00:53:24 The worst thing you can do is ignore it. and as a leader, I think it’s important for us to just get really curious if we’re starting to sniff out signs and symptoms of people. Check it out. Any questions on that one? Or now that I’ve offered a few examples around disengagement. Anything else you’d like to add? And that’s okay. I’m gonna hope that that just means everyone’s team is super engaged, and this isn’t something you’ve had to bump up against in the past, so we’ll think that maybe in the future you’ll you’ll have this in the back of your mind if you ever need it. All right. So this all now accumulates into the final slide here around culture. And I think what I’m going to do actually, actually is invite you to talk a little bit about what culture has meant for you in building out your business, because I’ve just seen it in such a as a beautiful example, through your leadership and the culture that you have have created on your team. So why has it mattered? Like, let’s just go through the the the W’s here, start off with like, why is it mattered? And then the who what, where, when? What does that look like for you? Ash? Ashley Mielke 00:54:27 Gosh, it’s really, really great question and a big question and I, I think I want to start with just things that you touched on before in this presentation today. Ashley Mielke 00:54:36 Kristin, that really hit home and conversations we’ve had around, you know, from the very beginning and from the stage where many of you are at in your business. I’ve been in business for 11 years. We have two locations. We have over 20 clinicians. from the very beginning, it was really important for me to be authentic. And I’m a very heart centered, person by nature and also, very open, very vulnerable in terms of how I relate to people. So vulnerability, building relationships, all of that. Brené Brown stuff around vulnerability, connection, belonging really is who I am. So that, I would say, is what has been at the core of the culture that I’ve been building since day one, probably without even knowing it. Like I didn’t know what culture was, until years into business. And I’m like, oh, that’s what this is, that’s happening in our practice. So, once we started to grow and establish this thing called culture and recognizing what it was. Then I became really aware of how important that is. Ashley Mielke 00:55:37 So, I don’t know. What was the question, Kristen? Just. Well, why. Kristen Edmiston 00:55:43 Does culture matter? No. It’s good. This is. Ashley Mielke 00:55:45 Okay. Great. Kristen Edmiston 00:55:46 So why is cultured matter? And then like, what have you done to like, once you realized it and focused on it, what did you actually do? Ashley Mielke 00:55:53 So when I became aware of what that was to me, number one, the people were always first that people first culture for me. So really, nurturing those relationships with my clinicians and hiring for the right fit has been really key. So becoming way more aware of it’s very important to hire the right people, not just the clinical skills and experience, but do they align with our vision mission values? And I’ve shared this before in group practice, boss. And if you’re a consulting client of mine, you’ve already gotten this tool, the Fundamental Five. That’s Kristin’s work around vision mission values. So that alignment has been key in building that and maintaining that culture and just prioritizing relationships. Ashley Mielke 00:56:38 Prioritizing those connections. And when you create that sense of belonging and people feel really valued and you invest in them by spending time, you know, buying thoughtful gifts, getting to know their loved languages, being present. it sort of takes on this life of its own, where you see that buzz and that energy and the collaboration and the that’s ethical support that we need as therapists. Like, that’s what I see is everybody goes to everybody for that support. There’s a trust and a safety that, hey, I screwed up and I need help or how do I handle this situation? There isn’t that sense of fear of, am I going to get into trouble here? Or how do I work through this professional issue? so yeah, really focusing on people first and then building the team out so that who we hire really aligns with who we are at our core. Kristen Edmiston 00:57:37 For sure. And I think that’s such a specific thing that we can walk away from this with. You know, and and it goes down to your recruiting practices. Kristen Edmiston 00:57:45 It goes down to, creating that safety and that trust across the, across the team where people are encouraged to come forward with things that they don’t feel great about and, and ask for feedback, ask for input on a professional level, you know, professional to professional, human to human. You know, how can we relate in a vulnerable way and trust that we’re going to be caught by the people that are in this practice environment with us? Ashley Mielke 00:58:13 Another thing, Kristen, sorry I don’t interrupt you is to want to forget. So you had mentioned earlier too, about the vulnerability and humility of leadership. And I have learned we’ve been through, I mean, a number of difficult seasons in business, whether it’s like I had to fire Or someone, whether it was, you know, someone leaving and exiting, growing the business and the transition of that and then opening another location, like positive things, but things that create, create different emotions and conflicting feelings for people. So something that I’ve done that I want to share is, again, that vulnerability of going first and saying, like, this is really hard or I don’t know what to do, or I’m really struggling and, like creating that space for people to share how they’re feeling or even just to see the humanness in me, crying and sharing tears. Ashley Mielke 00:59:07 Like just allowing them to see that humanity in me has been really important. And I, I think also is that permission giving for them. So when when a therapist is going through something hard, they don’t hide it from the team like they are. They come to us, they share. This is what I’m going through, my personal life. You know, I’m going through a divorce or my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Like, we know what’s going on in each other’s world. And I think that is so key for that performance piece. Right. This week is talking about client retention. And I think that’s really important to recognize. Like this is going to have an impact on their clients and on those relationships and thoughts on your business. So it isn’t just a business that we’re running and how many intakes can we get? It’s how do we nurture our teammates so that they can create the best exceptional experience for their clients as well, and feel so supported by us? Kristen Edmiston 01:00:04 Yes, absolutely. Ashley Mielke 01:00:07 I know people are starting to trickle out. People are going into sessions, so I know it’s nothing personal to us. Kristen. People do have to get ready for their next sessions. so let’s wrap up with the people that are remaining here today. Kristen Edmiston 01:00:21 Sounds good. Yeah. That’s it. I think in the slides, and I think everyone has access to the handouts. There’s a list of books that I thought would be relevant and maybe of interest. Some of them you maybe heard of, some maybe not. So that’s there as a resource for you as well. And my contact details are just the very last bit of the, of the whole presentation. So that’s it for me. And thank you everyone for, for hearing me out today and, and being a part of the, the whole, the whole presentation here and very happy to take any questions or if you do feel like you have a moment to share something that you, you would take away from this, then, I’m all ears. I’d love to hear that too. Speaker 3 01:01:00 No, I think this has just been really helpful because, like I’ve been since, you know, I’m pretty new to group practice is just I’ve had to challenge myself a lot lately with, like, my leadership because I was never taught that I could be a leader. Like, it was always like, no, you could be a good employee and like, that’s it. You know, everybody else is about you. So, like, you know, this week I’ve been like, you know, like, I really need to step up my game as far as like leadership skills and where I’m at. So this has been incredibly helpful and like right in track with like what I’ve been eating. So I appreciate your time and like this has been incredibly helpful. Kristen Edmiston 01:01:33 I’m so glad to hear that and congratulations for taking that step forward. That’s it’s a very bold thing to do. And you’ve got this. Does that insight already. It tells me you’ve got this in spades. So thank you. Awesome. Ashley Mielke 01:01:47 Thank you Christina. Ashley Mielke 01:01:47 That’s amazing. The other thing I will post on the webinar is Kristen’s fundamental five handout as well. The vision mission values purpose goals piece if you haven’t had access to that. And again Kristen’s available if you did want to hire her for that extra leadership support or really getting down to the brand of who you are, that was key for us and really helped with our growth strategies as a business. So I do encourage you to connect with her. If, if you’re ready to work with her or sometime in the future. And thanks for being here, Sabrina. So nice to see you. Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Kristen, it’s a pleasure as always, and we hope to have you back again in the future. Kristen Edmiston 01:02:30 My pleasure and I wish you all the very best. You’ve got this. Thank you. Ashley Mielke 01:02:34 Thanks, everyone. Enjoy the rest of your week. We’ll see you next week. Bye for now. Joe Sanok 01:02:48 Well, thank you so much for listening to the practice of the Practice podcast today. Joe Sanok 01:02:52 These trainings are available in our membership communities. Now we’re going to be opening up our membership communities more than just when we’re opening Level Up week. So if there’s one that you are interested in, I would love for you to head on over to practice of the practice. Com forward slash membership where there’s more details and you can get notifications when those open up. So if you are in solo practice just getting going, if you are building and sustaining a sustainable solo, practice, next level practices for you. If you are looking to launch a group practice, group practice launches for you and group practice bosses for all those group practice bosses out there. Our sponsor for today’s episode is well received. Oftentimes, you know, people are calling through all the phone numbers, and if someone answers the phone, those are the clients that actually get in. If you want help getting every single phone call answered 24 over seven, you need the support of well received. They do new client intakes after our services, bilingual support and so much more. Joe Sanok 01:03:49 You can get 50% off your first three months over at well Received Combo to start growing your practice today. Special thanks to the band Silences Sexy for that intro music, and this podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the producers, the publishers or guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical or other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.