Your Surgeon Isn’t Mad at You — He’s Just a D

Troy (00:00:00):
You are who you are for a reason. You are made the way that you are in the role that you're in right now to make things happen, whatever that personality style may be.

Andrea (00:00:12):
Well, hi there. I am Andrea Watkins, and if you're listening to this while juggling three patient calls, checking in a couple patients, taking a payment, selling skincare, and trying to catch your doctor in between procedures, you might be working in an aesthetic practice.

Blake (00:00:26):
And I'm Blake Lucas, and this is PracticeLand. This is not your doctor's podcast.

Andrea (00:00:31):
Welcome back to PracticeLand. This is Andrea Watkins, and we are here again with T. Cole. Troy Cole is back with us. What's up?

Troy (00:00:43):
Good to see you again, Andrea.

Andrea (00:00:44):
Good to see you too, Troy. So for those of you that listened in to our episode a few weeks, maybe about a month back, we can consider Troy to be our Captain DISC. He is an expert in the DISC personality platform and comes to us from LogiCole Consulting. You're out of Fort Worth, which you were very specific last time and told us that is not Dallas. So thank you.

Troy (00:01:12):
Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Andrea (00:01:13):
Yes. Thank you for correcting me on that. As a not Dallas person, I didn't realize there was a big difference, but we're glad to have you back. Thank you so much for joining us.

Troy (00:01:24):
I am excited to be here talking about one of my favorite topics, which is DISC.

Andrea (00:01:29):
Awesome. So last time you taught us a ton. You got out a whiteboard, I think it was, and kind of showed us the DISC differences and how to read patients in 60 seconds or less. And that brought up a great topic on our last episode, which was not only do we need to know how to talk to patients, we need to know how to talk to each other. And so we want to dive in today and talk about how to use DISC to communicate effectively with our team members, with our leaders, with our employees, with our team. If you haven't already listened to the one about patients, go back and listen to that episode when you're done with what we're talking about today. So last time you said that D is about 10% of people and S is about 35% of people. And so those are opposite in our quadrant.

Troy (00:02:19):
That's right.

Andrea (00:02:20):
What about I and C? How does that break down? Are we very rare as high I's or what is that percentage?

Troy (00:02:29):
So D's are about 10% of the population. I's about 25 to 30%. S's are about 35%. That's the highest percentage of the population and S is definitely over index within all the practices that we work with. The S type is really drawn to healthcare and to caring for people. That makes sense. And then C types are about 25% of the population as well.

Andrea (00:02:54):
Okay. So the D's are the most rare, the S's are the most common. And I think what we also talked about in our last episode is that very often the D's are surgeons, doctors, those type of folks in a lot of cases. And the S's are typically the rest of us that are supporting that surgeon, supporting our patients, supporting our practice. So we have people on the opposite sides of the quadrant that are typically in the practices that we're working on a day-to-day basis.

Troy (00:03:24):
Yeah, that's exactly right. So a lot of times, so we'll come into a practice and we'll do our disc day and we'll put them through one of our assessments and our coaching programs. And what we do is we actually have them take an assessment and we'll plot them all on a circle that looks like this. And what you'll typically see is something that looks like this, where you have maybe the surgeon or the physician CEO right up here, kind of DI, big driver making things happen. And then you have a lot of support team down here in the S and some in the C and maybe a little bit of I, but this is a very common breakout that you'll see inside of any practice.

Andrea (00:04:03):
Right. So do you think last time when we were talking about reading patients and how to go about that, do you think it's harder if DISC is new to you and you're trying to really establish who are these different people I'm working with? Is it harder to identify coworkers after you've been with them for months or years or do you think it's a little bit easier because we have known them for a long time as compared to patients?

Troy (00:04:31):
Yeah, I would say it's easier. I would say it's easier. And the beauty of DISC is it's not like you're learning a bunch of new things. It's connecting the dots on observations that you already have. Oh, I understand. Oh, Jennifer's a little bit quieter. She's not trying to get in the mix on everything. She's a little bit in the background. She tends to move a little bit slower so that she doesn't make mistakes. Oh, she's more of an S type. You already know all those things about Jennifer. It's just a matter of connecting those dots and realizing, oh, here's where she is. So here's her communication style. Here's what drives her. Here's what freaks her out. And so how can I communicate with her better to help her be as efficient and effective as possible?

Andrea (00:05:15):
Okay. And so do you recommend that we maybe have our team do something like this and take a formal assessment or do you think that a team can just learn to read each other just by working together and understanding how this assessment would really work?

Troy (00:05:33):
Well, certainly you can start to understand your team just based on the last episode we did and everything we're going to go through today. You got a great leg up on that. We're fans of having the team take the assessment so that they can really get a deep dive on, hey, here's who you are, here's everything that drives you, and also to learn about one another. And we also have a tool that we use through our assessments that allows you to take two different team members who've taken assessments with our unique assessment codes, plug those in and then say, Hey, okay, Jennifer's got to meet with John. Jennifer's an S. John is a D. Here are some strategies for having that meeting that you need to be aware of so you have the most effective meeting possible. So there are a number of reasons to take the assessment, to learn about yourself, learn about the team, but it's certainly not a requirement to go ahead and start implementing this.

Andrea (00:06:26):
Yeah. What typically happens when teams do this for the first time together?

Troy (00:06:32):
What happens and what we try to make happen is to create a lot of aha moments. So when we do a disc day for our clients, we do a bunch of different interactive, fun activities to explain and really bring the whole concept to life. And part of what you see is you see people start to laugh and people start to go like, "Oh yeah, that's totally me." Or point across the room and be like, "He's talking about you, girl. Oh my gosh." And so again, it's the connecting of the dots of like, "Oh, I already know all this stuff. I'm just able to arrange it in a new way in my brain to actually make it useful." And so that creates fun. It gives you some dopamine hits and really starts to embed the concepts into the teams that we train. Everyone really enjoys it and then they start to actually use it and see it.

Andrea (00:07:23):
One thing I would ask you is how, once you kind of get this label, whether I'm a high I or someone's a D or a C or an S, how do you help people from hiding behind this and just saying once they do know their personality traits based on this thing? So basically we don't want people just to be like, "Well, that's just the way it is because I'm an I, or that's just the way it is because I'm a D."

Troy (00:07:49):
Well, you wouldn't accept that kind of excuse for anything else that's happening in the practice, right?

Andrea (00:07:55):
Yeah.

Troy (00:07:56):
You wouldn't allow someone to simply say, "Well, sorry, I'm just disorganized."

Andrea (00:08:01):
"I'm just an asshole. That's just the way it is."

Troy (00:08:04):
Yeah. "Sorry, I just tend to be late. I'm sorry. Sorry. I'm not comfortable doing the follow up." And so the way we talk about it is I want you to flip that from sorry to because. "Because I tend to be distracted, here's what I need to do to hedge against that. Because I tend to be late, I need to do X, Y, Z to be on time." So once you learn DISC, you have an inherent responsibility to utilize it. It's like, okay, you know this stuff, and so it's now your responsibility to go out and actually implement it in your conversations, whether that be with a patient or with a team member or even with your spouse at home.

Andrea (00:08:48):
I love that. Because I know this about myself, I need to do X, Y, and Z. Because I'm easily distracted. I know I need to put my phone in the other room when I need to concentrate on a project. Because I know that I would like to be on Instagram while I'm driving, I need to put my phone in the glove box. Whatever the case may be, you don't just use it as an excuse, but use it as a way to learn how to get a different result because of your natural tendencies. And so with the DISC, everybody's going to bring something different to the table. We all have a little bit of a blend of probably some of the letters, some of the classifications, but there's going to be a strong presence of one over the other. What is it in those different DISCs that they're bringing?

(00:09:42):
If you're a strong D or I or S or C, what is each of those people bringing that the other classifications maybe are, not that they can't, but they just don't naturally bring as strongly. Yeah.

Troy (00:09:54):
It's like what's their natural superpower, Right?

Andrea (00:09:56):
Yes. Yes, exactly.

Troy (00:09:59):
So for a D type, it's get it done, right? Make it happen, get the results, let's go. D's keep us rocking in the practice. Even when we're bogged down or we have a tendency to get in the weeds, they keep us focused. Hey, here's the result. Here's the mission. Let's stay on the mission. I types, they bring the fun. They plan the birthday celebrations. They get the patients excited. They lead. If you got a fun Friday theme day, they're really helping to make that happen. They're keeping the vibes good in the office and the energy positive. Our S types bring support. They're the support system. They're supporting the process. They're supporting the mission. They're supporting each other. They're supporting the patient. They want to make sure no patient is left behind. And then our C types, man, they're focused on the details, the data, the analytics. Our Ds and our Is, let's have fun, let's get it done. Our C types are like, "Hey, that's great. Let's make sure that this form is where it needs to be to be downloaded. What's the efficiency of our process? Can we improve this in some way?" They're making sure all the details are in place.

(00:11:03):
So you see every different personality type -

Andrea (00:11:05):
So critical.

Troy (00:11:06):
Brings something very important to the practice. And when everybody's operating in their zone, then you really have a good dynamic team where everything's getting done.

Andrea (00:11:17):
Yeah. Have you ever seen where people that are in the recruiting stage, they're bringing people into the team, they have those individuals take disc assessments prior to even extending an offer just so that they really understand what they're potentially bringing into the team, knowing what already exists on the team?

Troy (00:11:40):
100%. Yeah. It's a great hiring tool. Now I will say it's not like, okay, for this specific job, I need this specific personality type. But if you know, let's say for example, you've got a high D surgeon, you've got a lot of S team members and you got those bases covered, but you're hiring for a manager position and you need somebody who can really get into the nitty-gritty on the data side, make sure we're hitting our goals, make sure all your I's are dotted and T's are crossed. Then you may say, "Yeah, I don't want to hire an I type personality for that role. They're just not going to close the gaps that we've already identified. I need somebody with a little more natural C in them." That's where it could be a really effective tool for you in the hiring process.

Andrea (00:12:30):
Okay. I love that. That could be really helpful for a lot of folks. So if I'm like a C or I'm an I on a team, especially being on the bottom half of that quadrant and I'm working with a high D surgeon or a high D provider, how do I bring a problem to them without getting steamrolled or kind of tuned out or something like that? Because the way that I, as an S or a C might feel about a thing, if I talk about feelings because of what we know about high Ds, then it may not actually land. So what's your recommendation there?

Troy (00:13:09):
Yeah. So you're talking about if you're an S or a C, you're on the reserve motor side and you identified some challenge and you need to take it to a high D surgeon. Is that the question?

Andrea (00:13:19):
Yes.

Troy (00:13:19):
So let's say that you are dealing with a D type surgeon. Identify the problem as negatively affecting the results. So here's a problem. It's not a feelings problem. It's not a people problem. It's the results that you want, the surgical volume that you want, whatever it is, is not happening because of this issue. And then package that up with a solution to implement. So if you're going to a D and you're just bringing problems, I don't want to hear your problems.

Andrea (00:13:50):
No, no.

Troy (00:13:51):
I got enough going on. I got a thousand things. I got fires. I'm moving fast. They don't want you to come and just say, "Here's another thing for you to deal with." Bring them the problem, show them how it ties to the result that they're trying to get, and then bring a solution that you propose. "Hey, here's how we can actually solve this and I want to go get it done".

Andrea (00:14:11):
Yep. And I would even suggest a little bit additional to that, not just bring one solution. What I typically try to do is say," Here's two to three options. Here's my recommended solution. "But show that you've seen and that you've really thought it through. I've identified a problem. This is how it impacts results negatively, of course, or it wouldn't be a problem. Here's a couple potential solutions. Here's my recommendation of the one that would work the best. And when you can show that you're invested to those D types, you're invested in those results that they're looking for and in the success, I can't tell you how important that is to the D types that the people around them are motivated to find the solutions and to really make things better in the long run.

Troy (00:14:58):
And look, you also have a lot of high C surgeons. You have a lot of D C or a blend of D C or C D. If you have somebody that you know, you've identified like my surgeons, they've got a lot of C, they're analytical, they're detailed, which is common. I come from the vision world. We're literally dealing with micron level measurements on surgeries that have to be specifically customized. I mean, everyone has very specific ways that they do their surgery. So it makes sense that you have a lot of C type in somebody who went through med school, went through residency, did all those things, and is performing surgeries to change people's lives. For our C types, this is one that I struggled with forever because I'm a high I. I'm like, "Oh, let's do this. It'll be great." Trying to hype them into doing it. I got no problem picking fun at myself. I've worked with practices for the last 20 years, right? And for the longest time, I'm like this certain type of personality I couldn't get through to until I learned disc. And then I realized, okay, I don't need to hype them into it. I need to bring them the problem and show them that I have analyzed the problem. They want to know that I've looked into it and I've thought through it, and now I'm proposing a solution or like you said, a couple of solutions that we can test. Test it.

Andrea (00:16:21):
And that comes really from the scientific side too of everything they've done in their education and training, which is testing hypothesis.

Troy (00:16:28):
That's exactly right.

Andrea (00:16:29):
Yeah.

Troy (00:16:30):
So if you have a high C surgeon and your number one goal, okay, I'm going to make your life super easy. Your number one goal is to show them, I have thought through this. If you can say, I've thought through this. If we do this, here's something that could happen. Here's the benefit that could happen. And you show them like, okay, this person's actually really put some thought into this. And then you propose something to test, you will get green lights on whatever it is that you're trying to do very, very quickly. If you do not do this, you will get 20 questions where you're being grilled to see, did you actually think through this? Have you thought about these implications? You can get out ahead of that. I literally have clients that I can email and say, Hey, here's a challenge. Here's what we've looked through.

(00:17:13):
Here's what we've deep dived into. I thought through this, I thought through this. Here's the proposed solution. They will reply in 10 minutes and say, this sounds great. Go do it. Because they trust that you have thought through it the same way they would, so they know that the result that you're going to get is along the same lines that they would want to create.

Andrea (00:17:30):
That makes total sense. Get to where you want to get to faster by talking to them in the way that they can admire and respect.

Troy (00:17:37):
That's right.

Andrea (00:17:37):
So that's for things when we've identified a problem. Now, how do you think people should ask a D and even a C type doctor for something big? So say for example, we've identified we need someone else. We just don't have the capacity to do everything we need to do in a day or I want a raise or something like that. Those big things that are somewhat personal and how they personally impact me as an I, an S, a C, how do I go to that D and request those things?

Troy (00:18:09):
Well, everything has to come back to the results, right? Yeah. Now, the beauty of DISC is it's not like you necessarily have to stop being you. And I want to make sure that we haven't really discussed that today, but the goal is not for you to not be yourself. I'm not trying to take an S and turn them into an I or a C and turn them into an I. It's a matter of understanding how to utilize your personality, but in a way that speaks to whoever you are talking to. So if you're a D going to a D type surgeon, be direct and be to the point, right? Present your request confidently, focused on the results, focus on the benefits. Hey, I've identified this tool that's going to increase our efficiency by 20% and we're going to need that if we want to hit your quarterly surgery goals. Can we go ahead and allocate the budget for it? For an I type, you're excited, you want to create a great experience, you want to have fun.

(00:19:04):
You can use that enthusiasm and focus on the positive impact of your request, highlighting how that can improve team morale or patient satisfaction. Hey, imagine how much more we could achieve with this new hire without everyone having to be pulled in every different direction so that we can hit those goals that you're after. It's going to boost the team's energy. It's going to boost their output, improve the patient experience. I know you've been trying to increase our in-office conversions. This is going to pour directly into that.

Andrea (00:19:33):
Got it.

Troy (00:19:33):
For our S types, steady and supportive. You can still be you. Emphasize the stability and the long-term benefits of your request. Hey doc, adding this tool is going to help us maintain the high standards that you've set for our practice and ensure consistent patient care as we continue to grow and try to increase our surgery volume. So you can see every single one of these is still coming back to the result that the surgeon wants. And then for our C types, you're going to be a little bit more detailed naturally, right? You're going to have some data to support that request. That's good. D types are task oriented. C types are task oriented. "Hey doc, I've done a cost benefit analysis here. This tool's going to save us 15% in operational costs over the next year. That's going to help increase our profitability. So I'd like to go ahead and get this taken care of and get this implemented with the team.

Andrea (00:20:26):
What all that comes down to is not escaping yourself, just knowing your audience.

Troy (00:20:30):
That's right.

Andrea (00:20:31):
No matter what you're doing, if you understand your audience, you're just going to have a lot more success in what you're trying to accomplish because you're going to be able to speak to them in a way that resonates with the person that you're speaking with.

Troy (00:20:43):
Yeah. If you can just get someone to think," Okay, this person's thinking about it like I would think about it. "If that clicks in their head, then you're going to get so much more of what you want.

Andrea (00:20:55):
Got it. Okay. So what about docs that aren't Ds? Because we've said a lot of docs, a lot of our surgeons, they're also on the high C side. It's pretty rare. Sometimes you might find them in the I or the S, but more so I think over in that C quadrant. So just a few examples of how we might approach them for those big things like raises or adding people to the team or buying a new software or something like that.

Troy (00:21:22):
Yeah. So we've talked a lot about our D type surgeons. That's very, very common. There's a lot of I type surgeons, right? There are folks who they're big visionaries and they're excited and they want to change the industry and they want to change people's lives and oh my gosh, this is so fun. They need to get hyped. If you're trying to get something done, get them excited about it. If an I type's not excited about what's happening, then they're just not going to be that interested and then they're going to get distracted, something else going to attract their attention

Andrea (00:21:51):
Squirrel.

Troy (00:21:51):
and you're not going to be able to get the thing done. Exactly.That's exactly right. Get them pumped up. Our S type surgeons, I've got a couple of these. They need to see how whatever it is that you're proposing is going to affect the team. How's it going to affect morale? How's it going to affect the patient experience? What is the feeling going to be if we go in and we implement this? And so you really need to paint that picture and be patient with your S type surgeon. They're usually not going to make a snap decision. Even if they have all the info, they're going to want a little bit more time to process it. But how is that going to affect everybody involved? That's how they make decisions. Something that's also very common.

(00:22:30):
I mentioned that we're all a blend of all four of these. And depending on the situation you are in, certain aspects of your personality are going to come out differently. If you go to a ball game with your friends to... If I go out and watch the TCU horn frogs, go frogs, play a football game and hopefully win a few this season, I'm going to be just naturally in more of an I, outgoing, have fun, cutting up with my friends, cheering, getting loud kind of a demeanor. Even if you're naturally an S type person, that's where you're going to be in that environment versus if you're sitting down to take some kind of a continuing education course or you're going through surgery charts, even if you're more of a high I, you're going to be in more of a C-type, detailed, slowed down, reserved motor, focus on the task at hand type of a mode.

(00:23:23):
Your surgeons are the same way. So for example, I do have a couple surgeons who are high I. One in particular comes to mind.

Andrea (00:23:32):
In ophthalmology, impressive.

Troy (00:23:34):
Yeah. So again, big visionary, really excited about the technology and changing people's lives and the patient's stories and all of those things. Likes to be involved in the marketing campaigns. He's always down to get on camera and be on social media, right? Very high I naturally, except on surgery day. On surgery day, this guy clicks into a very high D mode, which makes sense. It's like, look, we got patients coming in, we got surgeries, we got to make sure that everything's loaded into the lasers correctly. We got a lot of details we got to cover. Let's get on point. And one of the challenges that they were experiencing was their team knew him as the high I fun surgeon involved guy and they would continue that on surgery day And he would get frustrated because it's like, no, we've got stuff to do today.

Andrea (00:24:32):
This is a serious day. This is not in the party day. This is a serious day. Got it. Okay.

Troy (00:24:37):
Exactly. And so we had to work with the team to help them understand, all right, be aware of what day it is. Do we have a bunch of consults today? Is it a clinic day or is it a surgery day? And they had to learn how to make that adjustment. If it's surgery day, I am not going to show you the three social media shorts that we created for you to post. We'll save that for tomorrow. I'm not going to try to pull you aside and tell you some long story about a concert I went to last night. I'll save that for another day.

Andrea (00:25:08):
Got it.

Troy (00:25:08):
And they had to understand, hey, he's not mad at you. He's not frustrated. He's just in this mode of, hey, we need to be focused on the patients and make sure all these surgeries go off without a hitch. Okay? That's good. Just save this other stuff for another day. And it was very transformative for them to be like, oh, okay, I get it now. And it's very easy to do once they understood it. But be aware of your surgeons and what mode they're in, depending on what's happening. That may change at maybe different times of the month or different days of the week, depending on what's happening in the practice and what the schedule looks like. So just be aware of that. You may need to adjust because they put on a different hat depending on what's happening in the office.

Andrea (00:25:54):
That is such a good point and a huge takeaway for everyone that's listening right now, which is not only be aware of who you're speaking with, but be aware of what hat they're wearing that day too. Especially as a leader, you have to wear so many hats. I absolutely love that.

Troy (00:26:13):
Yeah, it's huge.

Andrea (00:26:14):
Mic drop for T. Cole. Captain DISC. Okay, cool. So we talked about how to communicate up with our leaders, with our surgeons, with our business owners. Now leading your team, managing down using disc. As a surgeon or a manager, practice administrator, I was a chief operating officer of a large team for a long time. How do we give feedback as leaders if maybe we're a D or whatever type we are to people without crushing them? For example, an S, who's much more of a feeler than I am as just who I am as a person. I'm more driven by logic and reason and data and things like that, even though I am an I than I am by feelings. So what do you suggest there?

Troy (00:27:06):
Well, again, it's your responsibility to remember who you're talking to and meet them where they are. Okay?

Andrea (00:27:13):
Love it.

Troy (00:27:14):
The very first thing you can do, that's very, very easy. You remember on our circle, the first line we drew was our motor line across the middle, right? If you know that you're going to talk to an S or a C team member, somebody that's in the reserved motor - Break it down. And you're a high D or an I, literally just downshift. And that might mean walking up, taking a breath before you walk into their office. Literally in your brain, you need to downshift into a lower motor. That's all automatically going to set you off on the right path.

Andrea (00:27:44):
No sugar, no caffeine before these conversations.

Troy (00:27:46):
That's right. It's just like, all right, this is who I'm talking to. For an S type patient, going back to our story about the tornado doc, "Hey, do you have a minute to chat? I've got a few items to go over with you." Or shoot them a Teams message, "Hey, I've got a couple of items I want to review this afternoon. I'll be by your office around two o'clock." Give them some forewarning. Let them know, "Hey, this is coming," so they can start to wrap their head around that. Our I's and our S's, both people oriented. We want to acknowledge and appreciate what it is that they're trying to do and then give them that feedback.

(00:28:23):
Remember, our S types move more slowly and our I types tend to be distracted. Both of those need to be acknowledged for what they're doing, but then go ahead and ask them, "Okay, so how do we take this thing that you're working on and activate it to make it happen? You're a D, you want to get results. Hey, this is all great. Appreciate the work that you're doing. Appreciate what you've done on this. I love it. Yeah, the marketing campaign looks good. How does this get deployed to get us back on track for getting the results that we want?" You still want the results. And then for our C types, our C types, if you're meeting with them, acknowledge the level of detail that they've put into this.

(00:29:01):
"Wow, you've really done a thorough job gathering all of our surgery data over the last three months. If you need to correct a C type on something, C types love to be correct and they love to be accurate. They do not like to be wrong. So rather than correcting them, tell them that you'd like them to look more into X area to see if there's opportunity for something that we're missing. Hey, I appreciate you going through the data. I see what you have here. I'd love for you to look more into this subset of patients because I think our conversions there could be higher than they are. Do you mind digging a little bit further into that?" You kind of know it in your head, you got a pretty good idea what's going on. You've told them where to go look, you've baited them without saying like, "Oh, you missed this." Because for a C, it's like, "Oh God."

Andrea (00:29:53):
That crushes them.

Troy (00:29:54):
As much as we say C's aren't people oriented, they do feel about that, right? So steer them in the right direction and then it's like you kind of point the dog and you say, "Go sniff over there." And then dude, they'll do the sniffing. But you point them in that direction.

Andrea (00:30:10):
Instead of just saying flat out, "Your data is crap and this is wrong." Yeah.

Troy (00:30:14):
This is wrong. This is bad. Why did you do it this way? It's like, oh my gosh, sorry. And then you end up with this, which you don't want, unless you're two D's. If you've got a D, let's say you're a D surgeon and you've got a D sales manager, just do this all day. "Hey, what's going on with these numbers? What's the problem? "And then they'll say," Well, here's what's going on with the numbers. John was out sick for three days last week. I was filling in for him, but we're catching up on the follow-up. Here's what's happening this week. Trying to get some more consults on the books. We're doing a re-engagement campaign to fill some of these holes in the slot. We're going to get there. All right, good. Then let's get there. All right, doc, I'll get there. Dink, dink, dink. Bye.

Andrea (00:30:54):
Yeah.

Troy (00:30:55):
And so look, some of y'all are watching this and you're like, oh my gosh, that sounds terrible. Doesn't sound terrible to the two D types that were just meeting.

Andrea (00:31:01):
So the two Ds are like, we got shit done and we're out.

Troy (00:31:03):
That'd be awesome. Two minute meeting, we almost yell at each other and then we go make stuff happen. Yes, please. More of that.

Andrea (00:31:10):
So again, knowing your audience, understanding what's going to be effective, because again, how you speak with people and how you communicate, interact, if you want to get things done and you want to have a better day and a more productive day, it's not just about you and how you feel and how you're experiencing the world. It's about the person that you're trying to work with, which all of us have to work with others for now until AI takes over and we're all dead. We do have to have this communication and it's kind of like what attracts more bees flies or flies honey. What is that old saying? I'm so bad at bees.

Troy (00:31:47):
I think we want to go with the bees and the honey one. Not the flies to whatever flies go to.

Andrea (00:31:52):
Oh, that's what it is. Flies and there we go.

Troy (00:31:55):
Yeah. Yes.

Andrea (00:31:56):
I knew there was something there. Perfect. Well, all of that definitely helps and makes sense when it comes to giving that feedback to people that you are leading. So what about when I'm a leader and I need to delegate to people, which took me a long time to really learn because I suck at delegation so badly, but I need to delegate to the different types of personalities. What's the best way to do that?

Troy (00:32:25):
Yeah. So for our D types, tell them what you need and expect them to get it done. The worst thing you can do with a D is try to micromanage that process. D's like challenges, choices and control. And so if you're trying to micromanage them and you're trying to control them, they're not going to be effective at whatever you assign them to do. So set clear expectations. Here's what I want to happen. Here's what I want it done by. If you need anything, give me a shout. Otherwise, I'm going to trust that you get it done. That's what a D wants to hear. They'll go make it happen.

(00:32:55):
I types, get them excited about the thing. Hey, we have an opportunity to do this so-and-so campaign. Or hey, I want to do this new patient care initiative where we've got a VIP lounge and patients get to sit in massage chairs before their surgeries. And I want you to be the one that heads that up. Get them excited about it and then ask them how they're going to track that progress. They're going to need some kind of a system or a plan. They'll get pumped. Oh man, this sounds great. It's going to be so fun. Okay, great. Walk me through how you... And you can give them time like, Hey, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go think about this because I'm sure you're going to have some great ideas on it. Go think about this. Let's reconnect this afternoon and I want you to walk me through just the phases of this and how you see this being implemented.

(00:33:41):
Force them to think through that process and think through those details. So you're not only making sure the project gets done, but you're also helping them be better at organization even though they're naturally not. So you're developing your team at the same time that you're being efficient. For our S types, sell them on the benefit to others. Why is this thing going to be beneficial to others, to other patients?

Andrea (00:34:04):
That totally makes sense because they're always so worried about others. Okay.That totally makes sense.

Troy (00:34:08):
That's right. And then naturally, they are going to move a little bit slower. So go ahead and set some deadlines for them for check-ins. So this isn't like a project deadline that says, "Hey, work on this. Let's connect on Friday so that I can see how we've done on this, any roadblocks that you're running into, and we can keep the thing moving forward." You don't want to say, "Do this in two weeks," and then two weeks comes and it's not done and now you're kind of frustrated. So set some little touch bases along the way so you can keep them moving forward. If you are delegating a project to a C type, tell them what you want them to do. Tell them here's the project, here's what we're trying to accomplish. Give them the deadline. And then this is very important. Give them parameters so they don't get stuck in the weeds.

(00:34:56):
I don't want to delegate this project and then have you ask me 10 different random questions, eight of which you probably could have figured out. So if I say, "Here's the sandbox that you can play in. Look, if the budget's under 500 bucks for this, you're good. You don't need approvals. I'm fine spending some money on this." Or if this means that we've got to write some new email templates or do whatever, just tell them what you're okay with so that they feel empowered to go do it. They're not getting stuck in the weeds and they're not coming back at you with a bunch of detailed questions that you don't really want to deal with anyway.

Andrea (00:35:29):
Good point because they are the detailed person that-

Troy (00:35:32):
That's right.

Andrea (00:35:33):
Okay. That totally makes sense. All right. So we've figured out how to delegate and to talk with our different personality types. They do a great job. We've done a great job communicating. They've taken the project on, they have knocked it out of the park and it's time to give them recognition.

Troy (00:35:52):
Oh, nice.

Andrea (00:35:52):
Yeah. So does everyone, what's the different ways to give different classifications praise? Does everybody want to shout out in a team huddle?

Troy (00:36:03):
Yeah. So your D's and your I's love a good shout out. D's want people to hear that you've gotten something done. They got this done. This project shipped. We deployed the new EMR. Great job, Sarah, on getting that taken care of. Nice work leading that project. I types, they're down for any kind of recognition they could ever get. Oh, you picked up a piece of trash and threw it. You straightened the magazines in the waiting room. Great job. Great job, Susie. And our C types are down for public recognition when you're acknowledging how smart they are. Great job. John finally cracked the code on what we need to do to get more efficient on our surgery schedule. Great work getting all that done. Our S types generally don't.

(00:36:48):
They are by nature our background support team. They're not trying to be on a pedestal. They're not trying to win a star in front of everybody. And so actually it can be, I'm not going to say detrimental, but it's actually could be worse for you to sit there and say, "Come on up here, Jennifer. Let's give you a round of applause." And Jennifer's like, "I just did the thing. They're not comfortable doing that." But if you pull Jennifer aside and you say, "Hey, look, I know it was a crazy morning. I saw you jump in on the consults to keep everything running. I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate that." And certainly our patients appreciate that as well because we're being respectful of their time. And I know the team appreciated that too. So thank you for doing that. You pull them aside, do that one-on-one, they'll go to the mat for you.

Andrea (00:37:36):
I love that.

Troy (00:37:37):
Yeah. Some different ways to go about the recognition piece. Yeah.

Andrea (00:37:40):
This is every aha moments coming around every corner. I love it.

Troy (00:37:44):
This is good, man. I hope ya'll are taking notes while you listen. You have to re-listen to this one, y'all. There's a ton here that you can take and implement. So love it.

Andrea (00:37:52):
Yeah. And it's interesting. Simon Sinek is one of my favorite all-time organizational leaders. And he always talks about how communication is the foundation of any result and anything that you're trying to accomplish if you're ever going to have a relationship with other people. And these tools right here help you to elevate those skills so that we can get more done and actually enjoy it. Okay. So one more on the leading, leading change with every type. So we know that any new thing is going to get pushed back. Change is hard. People hate change. So different people are going to push back in different ways. Everyone needs to help each other through these. So provide a few examples of how you can lead change with the different types of people.

Troy (00:38:50):
Well, I would say the biggest thing to keep in mind here, especially when it comes to change or changes in the practice, introducing a new EMR, launching a new study, whatever it is that you're doing, you're doing some kind of a change. Your number one marketing audience in the practice is not the patients that you are trying to attract into your practice. Your number one most important marketing audience is your team. Your team has to buy into whatever it is you're doing before you can ever go sell it to somebody who's going to come in and have the treatment. So on that note, you have different personality types on the team. How do you get them to buy in on whatever change it is that you're trying to affect? Well, for our D's, they need to be able to see here's how the change ties to getting results.

(00:39:40):
If you've got a D team member who's on the hook for creating 20 surgery cases every single month, how is this change going to help them do that better? Because if you're going to change something that helps me get the results I'm responsible for, I could probably get on board with it as long as I can see that. For our I types, help me to see how it's going to make my job and my life more fun and more enjoyable.

(00:40:07):
You're trying to sell me on a new EMR, it's like, well EMRs are boring already and this sounds way boring and now I'm going to have to learn something. It's like, well, you know how in our current EMR you have to click through eight screens just to do that thing that we make you do with the notes? All right, so this EMR is like three screens. So it's super efficient. Yeah, it's going to be some boring learning, whatever, but at the end of the day, you're probably going to be spending half the time in here that you currently spend, which means more time hanging out with patients, following up with folks and doing all the fun stuff. Tie it into how it's going to make them more efficient so they don't have to jack with the boring thing anymore.

Andrea (00:40:42):
Got it.

Troy (00:40:43):
Like you said, for our S types, we want to make sure that they understand how is this change going to affect us and the team and the patients as well. Hey, everyone's been frustrated with how the EMR has been going down once a week and then we all have to scramble. It creates a lot of conflict and a lot of frustration. This is a much more stable system. We're not going to have to deal with that anymore. So we're going to have a lot more peace and harmony around the office and a lot less conflict and frustration and running around with our hair on fire. An S type doesn't want to run around with their hair on fire. Your D types wake up in the morning, pour lighter fluid all over their head and set it on fire.That's how they get going.

Andrea (00:41:21):
Let's F'in go.

Troy (00:41:22):
That's right. Exactly. And then for our C types, how is this going to affect the data, the analytics, the details, the process, the procedure? Hey look, we've talked about improving our patient journey process for a long time and we've already identified that this is the bottleneck. We're going to bring in this new technology that's going to squeeze that. It's going to automate half of these things. So it's going to make that process much easier. You are instrumental in identifying those roadblocks in the first place. Thank you for that. We have found the solution. I just need your help getting this implemented and getting the team bought in so that that gap is closed.

Andrea (00:41:56):
Love it. So again, know your audience, who you're talking to, how they're going to see the benefit through their eyes based on the type that they are, and then pitch it that way of how it's going to help them and what their priorities are just in their life naturally based on who they are.

Troy (00:42:15):
And look, that might mean you pulling folks aside and doing little one-on-ones. Depending on your practice and your size, it may not be enough for you to do an all hands and say, "Hey guys, we're switching EMRs. Good luck." You might need to pull in the manager of this department or somebody that's a team lead that's like, "I know they're influential among this small group and be like," Hey, let me walk you through why we're doing this. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. I know on the surface it may seem like a lot, like it's a big change, but I think it's going to help you guys. Let me explain why. "So get the buy-in of the key folks on your team, selling them based on their personality types so that can then go and infect everybody else and get everybody on board.

Andrea (00:42:55):
Okay, perfect. So I think also what's really important for us to touch on right now is not just how do we lead different types that are different than ourselves, but how do different types actually lead? So me as an I, how do I lead compared to how a D would lead, an S would lead and S C would lead. So give us a rundown on that real quick.

Troy (00:43:15):
Yeah. It's good to just have general awareness around the different leadership styles so that you can know like, okay, here's what I normally do and here are the adjustments I may need to make. For a D type, D types tend to lead from the front. You think about leading the charge, running into battle, it's a very much a D type thing. Everybody follow me. We're going to go make it happen. I types tend to lead from the middle of the group. Think about somebody walking in with their homies, with their entourage into the club, let's go, we're going to have a good time. They're in the middle. Come on guys, this is going to be great. Let's all go together. S types lead from the back. Think of a mother hen.

Andrea (00:43:57):
Pushing.

Troy (00:43:57):
I've got all my chicks. I'm right here. No one's getting left behind. I'm going to make sure everybody's taken care of. And look, if that means we got to move a little slower because we got my little chicks here, that's okay because taking care of everyone's the most important thing. And then for our C types, our C types lead from the side. Think about going to army bootcamp and marching cadences and everybody in a line or marching band, that leader's to the side, making sure everybody's lined up, everybody's in lockstep, everybody's in rhythm, everybody's moving the same direction and the same pace with precision.

(00:44:36):
So every different personality type has different tendencies in how they lead. And you could imagine as a D type leader, let's go guys. And then you look back and you got a few stragglers back there who aren't in the mix because maybe they're S types and they needed more support. It's like, okay, I might need to adjust for that. For I types, I'm here getting everyone excited. All right, we're all moving, but half of us don't really even know what club is this we're going into? How long are we going to... Are we going to bounce? Who are we?

Andrea (00:45:06):
It's all right. We're all together. Let's go.

Troy (00:45:08):
It's like, well, who cares, man? We're having fun, right? Yeah. So for our S types, it's like we're back. It's like, come on guys, let's go. And then you got some D's out front that are just hollering butt and it's like, wait, you don't know where we're going yet. Hang on. And so just being aware of that is going to help you identify the gaps in your leadership style and where you either may need to make adjustments personally or where it's like, all right, I am this, this is what I'm good at. This is what I rock and roll at, but I've got an administrator. I'm D leading the charge, but I've got a great S type administrator that's going to make sure that nobody's left behind as well.

Andrea (00:45:47):
For everybody listening, these are real world tips you can take into your practice when you stop listening to this. Get back from your walk, take your earbuds out, and these are things that you can implement immediately.

Troy (00:45:59):
100%.

Andrea (00:46:00):
Yeah. We've talked a lot about leading or managing up, managing down, but I think this is where more of the people that are listening today are going to find a lot of value, which a lot of the conflict that we have and the challenges that we have with communication, a lot of that just comes with peer-to-peer. What's it look like when we're peers? It's not me managing up to my boss and it's not me managing down to my team, but it's peer-to-peer and maybe we've already established you and I are both kind of high eyes and I'm trying to have a productive conversation with a C billing coordinator or something like that. How do I approach that?

Troy (00:46:49):
Just understanding that somebody is different is 80% of the battle. If you don't know this stuff, if you've never heard of DISC before, the situation you end up with is that you think the billing coordinator is like a no fun stick in the mud, and then the billing coordinator thinks you don't take anything seriously. Seriously. And you're like a floozy. And it's like, what's her problem? Well, what's her problem? But once you know, it's almost like if you went to another country, but you didn't realize there were other languages and somebody started speaking to you in a different language and you're like, "What is this? I don't even know." But once you realize, "Oh, y'all speak a different language. I can probably get the hang of this," then you're at least hopeful and positive that, okay, I can make something out of this. You're not frustrated. So just knowing it is 80% of the battle. It's like, "Oh, you're different than me. You have different priorities than me." That's okay. I mentioned superpowers earlier. We call it superpowers and kryptonite.

(00:47:51):
So everyone's got some innate superpowers, and that may be personality traits. It may be things that you're really, really good at. It could be skills. And then you have kryptonite, which are for you, a high I, building a spreadsheet might be kind of a kryptonite thing for you. Or there might be certain skills in the practice that you're like, "I'm just not proficient at this." Everyone's got some superpowers that they can capitalize on. Everyone's got some kryptonite that they can work on. So a high I superpower is connection. Your kryptonite is a schedule and a budget and details. That high C billing coordinator, their superpower is details and accuracy. Their kryptonite might be just letting loose and being cool. So all that to say, when you realize who you're dealing with and you try to meet them where they are, I need to go meet with this high C individual.

(00:48:41):
I'm going to downshift my motor and I'm going to try to be more focused on the details that they're asking me and giving them the details that they want, and then vice versa. And you can always bring this back. It's like, oh, you need to meet them where they are. It's like at the end of the day, that's still more beneficial to you.

Andrea (00:49:01):
Exactly.

Troy (00:49:02):
Like for me, high I. If I sit down to talk to a C, I can think about showing up with the details and presenting all of those, or I can not, and then I can have them ask me 20 questions. Well, what's more boring to me? What do I really not want to do? I definitely don't want that combo to be twice as long as it needs to be with me answering a bunch of detailed questions that I barely know the answers to. I'd rather just show up ready to rock. So just thinking about meeting people where they are ultimately is going to get you more of what you want.

Andrea (00:49:37):
Exactly.

Troy (00:49:38):
For a D, it's quick meetings, getting back to getting results. For an I, it's get this thing done so I can go back to having fun and making people's days. So just commit to doing it because you're going to get the results that you want to see too.

Andrea (00:49:51):
Exactly. I love it. 100%. So how do each of them kind of act when they're stressed out?

Troy (00:49:58):
So every single personality type has a way they operate when they're under control and a way that we operate when they're out of control.

Andrea (00:50:06):
Okay.

Troy (00:50:07):
And one of the ways we talk about this is every personality type has a secret fuel. When you're getting your secret fuel, you're rocking and rolling. For a D, their secret fuel is getting results. I've said it three or four times already on this podcast. Getting results is what a D is all about. I want to get results. I want to make things happen. If we are getting results, great. If we're not, what are we doing? We're wasting time. So if a D is not getting results, they can tend to come across as rude or even arrogant, right? So that D out of control is like, dude, you're kind of being a jerk. You go beyond direct to being a jerk. For an I type, their secret fuel is having fun, having fun. If we're not having fun, dude, if you got me in a CE thing all day, learning this new EMR for eight hours, they might get emotional. They're definitely going to be unfocused, right?

(00:51:03):
They're going to be drawn all over the place, even more distracted than normal. But you have I types on your team and you know who I'm talking about because some days they'll be here. It's like, oh my gosh, it's the best day ever. And then other days it's like they're all the way down. And so you got to be able to recognize that and maybe pull somebody aside. I've got some great surgery schedulers who are high I's and when they're on, they are freaking on. And when they are off, it's like, okay, we got to time out. I need to talk to you. What's going on? Did you spill your coffee on the way in this morning? What is happening? You got to get into that, get into the feels a little bit, get them back on pace.

(00:51:41):
For S-types, they're all about peace and harmony, peace and harmony. That's their secret fuel. If there's conflict, if there's frustration, if there's high tension, S-types will literally try to remove themselves from even being around that. So secret fuels for S-types are peace and harmony, everything flowing nicely. If an S-type does get out of control, they're going to be indecisive and they're going to be very, very slow. So they're going to freeze up. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. I don't know who to call. I don't know how to move this project forward. And then you're talking to them a week later going, "How have we made progress on this?" And they're like, "Yeah, I didn't really know what to do, and so it's not done." You're frustrated, they're frustrated, everything's bad.

Andrea (00:52:21):
Are the S-types more like the empaths who also feel all the things that are going on around them?

Troy (00:52:29):
Yeah, I would say that's an accurate description.

Andrea (00:52:32):
Okay.

Troy (00:52:32):
Definitely. They're tuned into that, man. They can feel it. They can sense it. My oldest son is a high S and that's very much how he is. If we're disciplining one of the other kids, he will remove himself from the room. He's not even involved, but he's like, "I don't want to be around this."

Andrea (00:52:48):
Experiencing that energy.

Troy (00:52:50):
Yep. 100%.

Andrea (00:52:51):
And so it just takes the energy that they do have and just brings it to your point of what you said earlier where the turtle just kind of pokes his arms and heads and just retracts into the shell. It's like, "I can't have all of these feelings going on." So if you have a toxic work environment, if you have a toxic practice and there's people going at it with each other all the time, and there's leaders that are angry at people or nothing's ever good enough, it seems like those S-types, they would just almost be paralyzed because they're experiencing the negative emotions as well.

Troy (00:53:28):
Yep. Yeah, that's exactly right. And then our C-types are all about accuracy and correct answers. That is their secret fuel, being accurate and having correct answers. And if they're not getting that, if they're not getting their secret fuel, they can come across very just ice cold, very ice cold, very critical, very like, "Why is this like this? No, you made this mistake." Very critical on the team. So we want to make sure everyone's getting their secret fuel and everybody's operating under control in their personality type, not out of control.

Andrea (00:53:59):
Absolutely. How in the hell is anyone expected? We're so different, but yet a little similar and we all kind of encompass a little bit of each of these, but there's one strong one. So how in the Tarnation do you run a meeting or a morning huddle or whatever you're doing, how do you run a meeting with all of these four types and make sure that everybody's feeling like you're touching on what's important to all of these types of people?

Troy (00:54:31):
Yeah. So this is a good marketing lesson just in general. Let's say you send emails out to non-converted patients. Can you hit all four personality types in one message? The answer is yes. So D types need to know the result or the result that we're after. So start that meeting with like, "Hey, here's what's going on today. Here's the plan. Here's what we're trying to do. It's surgery day. Everybody buckle down. Let's rock and roll." Get to that right at the beginning. Our I's and S's need a story. I wanted to call out this five star review we got yesterday from Mrs. Johnson, great job team. They want to hear the stories and be a part of that. And then C types need some data or some kind of specificity. "Hey, we've got seven consults on for this morning and then we've got four more evals this afternoon.

(00:55:17):
Here's what we're trying to hit. Here's what our goals are for the day. Give them the specificity. So that in a nutshell, and you can do that with marketing too, you can send out a marketing message. Here's the message, here's a patient story, here's some data about 80% of people who had this surgery, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're hitting all the different personality types in one message.

Andrea (00:55:37):
And then if we're in those team meetings or we're in those huddles, we're developing our messaging so that we're hitting on what's meeting the needs of all these different types of people. How do we get them to also be involved in the meetings? Because my biggest pet peeve personally is I don't want to be a talking head sitting there just talking at people. I want it to be interactive and make sure that they're contributing to the messaging and to the overall meeting. How do I pull them in different ways based on their personality type?

Troy (00:56:08):
Yeah. So you're talking about having some kind of meeting where you want interaction, not just like a, yo, let's prep for the day, but like, hey, we need to talk about some things. I want everybody's input. And certain personality types are more than willing to jump in and talk forever when others may be really smart and have something great to say, but not be inclined to do that.

Andrea (00:56:27):
Exactly. You're going to run into that with every single team.

Troy (00:56:31):
That's exactly right. So your D's and your I's just tend to be more like contributors, right? They're just naturally going to speak up more, which is great. Our S types are the ones that are the least likely to share. And you may have somebody, man, they've been in your practice 20 years and they know all the ins and outs, they know all the stuff, they know all the implications of anything you're talking about. And you're like, I really want you to weigh in here. Call them out. Call them out. And I don't mean like call them out. Call them out in a way that lends itself to their personality type. For example, Sarah, S-type Sarah. "Hey, look, I'm curious. You're the one meeting with patients during their pre-op. You're really tuned into how they feel and what that experience is like. So I'd love to hear from you how you think this proposed change is going to impact that portion of the patient journey.

(00:57:27):
You're teeing her up to say, Look, here's your superpower. Let us know what impact that's going to have based on your superpower. If I say," Sarah, what do you think? "She's going to be on board with whatever. She likes peace and harmony. Why would she bring up any conflict? She's not going to have much to say, but if I'm very pointed in how I ask for that feedback, she will likely contribute something that's more useful for the crew. For a C type, kind of a similar situation. "Hey John, I like this plan, but I want to make sure that we can maintain efficiency through this transition. What's your take on that?" They're going to have some data efficiency process procedure oriented thoughts. I want those thoughts coming into the meeting because everyone's already excited about the thing, but we haven't really talked about the implications of it. So I'm going to tee up my high C to give us feedback on the real world implications of rolling this thing out.

Andrea (00:58:23):
One last point as far as communication within the team. I think on our episode last time that we talked about communication with patients, you kind of touched on how you can read personality types even through text messages and how the I types usually use exclamation points and emojis and guilty as charged, and how people that are Ds, they are much more direct to the point. It's a concise little text. So do you think that that also carries over into written form with our teams? Because a lot of us use Slack, we use Microsoft Teams, we use different types of things like that to communicate and chat back and forth. Do you think it's similar?

Troy (00:59:06):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely similar. Yeah. That writing style is going to be similar between texts, Slack, Teams, whatever. The thing to remember is once you know this and your high D surgeon slacks back something that sounds pretty direct into the point and is like a sentence fragment with no punctuation, they're not mad at you. That's just how they communicate.

Andrea (00:59:30):
So don't read into it. Do not read into it. Yes.

Troy (00:59:33):
That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Do not read into it.

Andrea (00:59:37):
You have the tool that AI helps to write messages based on disc type. So don't you have that tool that helps you with those patient communications? Yes. Do you use it for internal communications as well?

Troy (00:59:50):
Yeah, we use it for internal communications, client communications. Teams use it to reach out to patients. And it's a custom AI bot that we have trained on all of our disk... Stuff so that it can give you those types of responses. Here's a good example here. You might be a high S individual who needs to send an email to your high D administrator about a new system that you want to implement. And you send that email and then two weeks later you haven't heard back and you're like, "Wow, why didn't they email me?" But then you go look at the email and you realize it's six paragraphs long. It kind of didn't say anything and there wasn't a clear question in it. And your high D administrator opens it and immediately goes like, "What is this? I'll deal with this later.This ain't a problem."

Andrea (01:00:39):
Wall of text goodbye.

Troy (01:00:41):
And so on the point of our tool that we have that helps compose these things, but even on the written communication in the office, realize, because a lot of what you're doing isn't just face-to-face, it is on Teams or you are emailing somebody or emailing someone at a different office or a different department. If you know who they are, you know what you need to include in that email too. If you're emailing a high D for something, it's fine that you have some details, but put the request on the top line. I'm asking for 20% of our marketing budget to go towards TikTok ads this month. And then you can explain why, but here's the thing that I want. Make it really, really easy for them to consume. So know who you are messaging and adjust your messaging to them too. And yes, we have a tool that makes that really, really easy.

Andrea (01:01:26):
Does your tool, and I'm not trying to get into a big pitch here, but I'm just very interested in this. So does your tool just take the ideas from the person and they say, put this in a format that would be appropriate for a D or an I or an S or a C? How does that tool even work? Because that sounds incredible.

Troy (01:01:43):
Yeah. It's be like, "Hey, I need to email my high D surgeon about getting a subscription to a new editing software, but I don't have the budget approved for it. It's going to help us double our output for social media videos. Can you give me an email to send them?" And then it's like, boom, here's the thing.

Andrea (01:01:57):
You're shitting me.

Troy (01:01:58):
Yeah. No, it was awesome.

Andrea (01:02:00):
How do I sign up for that? That's incredible. When did you guys build that out and launch that? That's so cool.

Troy (01:02:06):
Yeah, that was within the last year. I mean, there's so much cool stuff happening with AI right now and then we just train it and optimize it around everything that we're talking about here and for medical practices. So patient communications and all that. But yeah, the clients we have that use it love it. Anyone in our coaching program has access to it. It's included as part of our suite. It's like this makes it so easy. And not only is it a great tool that makes you more efficient with those comms, but you get better at DISC when you use it because you're like, "Oh, this is what I would say to that person." So it's teaching you while it's giving you the output that you can then go and implement. We'll put something in the show notes, a link about we're finding out about that or about our DISC stuff.

Andrea (01:02:52):
Yeah, that would be incredible. I would love that. And for the listeners obviously as well.

Troy (01:02:58):
One more thing I want to add on this. We've talked a lot about understanding yourself and meeting people where they are. And it's almost like you need to modulate a little bit to the folks that are around you. And that's definitely part of this. But going back to the superpowers, realizing what you are really, really good at and leaning into that is also something that probably needs to happen more in your practice. Meaning if you're the high D in the practice and you're a get it done, make it happen kind of person, I don't want you walking away from this going like, "Oh, I need to be less of that." No, you need to continue to be that because that's what's driving the business forward.

(01:03:42):
There may be certain situations where you say, "Okay, when I go meet with this person or when I run the all hands or when we do our quarterly whatever, whatever, I'm going to adjust a little bit." But I don't want you to think like, "I need to lose who I am." For me, the role that I play with most of my clients, certainly there's an I aspect of it, but really I put on more of my D hat. Most of the time, because I work with practices all over the country, my role is let's freaking do this thing. Let's go. We don't need to wait anymore. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Because they need more of that. So I don't want you walking away from this thinking like, "Ah, I probably need to tone it down. I probably need to do something different." That's not the big takeaway here.

(01:04:26):
You are who you are for a reason. You are made the way that you are in the role that you're in right now to make things happen, whatever that personality style may be. So continue to lean into that, continue to rock with it. Now you should understand, okay, here's what I'm really good at and here are some areas I'm not that good. What do I need to do to cover my bases there? Do I need to turn more over to my administrator or to a team lead? Do I need a new checklist system because I get so distracted? But don't not be who you are because you're very special and you're very important to the practice that you're in.

Andrea (01:04:58):
I love it. So let's close it up and I want to just think back. I don't even know how we can summarize this episode. It truly is like a masterclass in communication and disc and how to apply this in real world situations with your team. But can you give listeners one thing that they can do tomorrow morning with their team in order to implement some of the things we've been talking about today?

Troy (01:05:28):
Yeah. One very simple takeaway. If you're just like, "This all sounds cool. I don't know about the DISC stuff yet," whatever, you can literally do this tomorrow. Match your team's motor, specifically a team member. So meaning if you have to have a meeting or a one-on-one or a chat outside someone's office tomorrow, match their motor. So if you're a high outgoing motor and you're meeting with a reserve motor person, do that downshift that we talk about. Don't go in guns blazing on somebody who's a reserve motor. Just take a breath and literally in your brain, just downshift before you go into the convo. If you're a reserved motor and you've got to go have a little meeting, a little chat with somebody who's an outgoing motor, get to the point. Get to the point. Get in there and get to the point.

Andrea (01:06:16):
I love it. Thank you so much, Troy. I really can't.

Troy (01:06:22):
This was fun.

Andrea (01:06:22):
I mean, for my own learning myself, I mean, I love learning every single day and have learned so many things just through our chats offline and online in today's episode. Where can people learn more about DISC for doctors and teams and you and all that?

Troy (01:06:38):
Troycole.com is my website. We've got info about our DISC coaching programs on there, other bootcamps. So we do coaching for practices who either want to build a better culture, a lot of them want to increase their conversions, get better at sales without being salesy. That's our specialty. And so you can find all that on troycole.com.

Andrea (01:06:57):
Troycole.com. Thank you so much. One last thing before we go, you know that we always have the segment. I think we did it last time when I had you on, but she/he did what? So last time I think you shared a story with us about if Papa Can't Fix It t-shirt. So I would love if you could share something with us today that maybe had something to do with either a staff clash due to poor communication or how they turn it around after they figured out each other's styles. You've shared a few already today, but is there anything like there was a very specific inter... I have one that I'm more than happy to share, but anything.

Troy (01:07:40):
Tell me yours.

Andrea (01:07:41):
Okay. So there was some things going on in the clinic and without getting too deep into the story, I basically had a very, very high S nurse communicating with her leader who was more of a high I. They didn't see eye to eye on things. And the high S, very quickly after some not so great communications, was very uncharacteristically not a S anymore and took a keyboard and threw it across the nurse's station. And I literally, when someone came into my office and explained what happened, the words of the segment, she did what? Were exactly how I responded because it was so out of character for her and I knew obviously there was a lot of digging that we needed to get to. It got resolved. We all kissed and made up eventually. It was a stressful time. There were a lot of things going on in the practice besides just this communication between the two of them. But yeah, a throne keyboard, I guess that's one disadvantage of not having them that have plugs into the wall. You can just pick them up and throw them. But yeah, that was probably the most volatile thing that had ever happened and it was definitely a sheeted what? What about you?

Troy (01:09:10):
I don't have one.

Andrea (01:09:11):
It's okay.

Troy (01:09:12):
I mean, I don't have one that that's cool. But you know what? To your point on that, it's easy to think like an S type's like, "Oh, they're peace and harmony and they're whatever." But think about what they're all about. They're all about the people around them, the people they care about, their family. If an S type feels like someone's threatening their family, they'll go ape on that person. A great example we see every Sunday is like an offensive lineman in football, typical S type. They're not on the billboards, they're not out making the great catches. They're just playing a role. They're being a part of a team. They're not trying to be in the spotlight.

Andrea (01:09:52):
They're protecting their main guy. They're protecting.

Troy (01:09:55):
That's right. But somebody gets through and puts a cheap shot on the quarterback. It's not like your S type O lineman's like, "Oh no, what do they do?" They run up and they'll just punch a guy. You're not going to hit my QB like that. They'll get kicked out of the game by punching somebody in the face because they laid a hit on the quarterback. An S type can get turned up if you push the right buttons. So it's really interesting when you think about the drivers of the different personality types and then what happens not only if they don't get that, but if you threaten that. That's a great example.

Andrea (01:10:34):
I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming back and spending so much time with me. I know how useful it is to our listeners. And I actually was just at a conference in Las Vegas over the weekend and had a couple of the docs that I work with saying how much they enjoy this. And a couple of them specifically even pointed out, I listened to that disc episode and it's really helped them. Even though it's technically-

Troy (01:10:58):
Nice.

Andrea (01:10:59):
A not your doctor's podcast, here are the surgeons telling me it actually really helped me identify how I need to approach different patients based on what I'm vibing from them once I walk in the room with them. Yes, it's not your doctor's podcast, but this is for doctors, this is for front office and how we can all really elevate our skills to, again, tame the chaos, get things done. And I just want to point one more time back to troycole.com is where they can find you. They can also find you on LinkedIn. I know that we're homies on Instagram as well, so I know your name.

Troy (01:11:33):
Yeah, Instagram for sure.

Andrea (01:11:34):
Yep. So just share this with your whole team because for every single one of us listening today, it would just be great to have better communication with our team members. So thank you so much for joining us and thanks for listening and we'll be back next Tuesday with more great stuff to help you through your day.

Troy (01:11:53):
Yes, ma'am. Thank y'all.

Andrea (01:11:54):
Bye, Troy.

Blake (01:11:57):
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation? Send us a message or voicemail. If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here.

Andrea (01:12:09):
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. New episodes drop weekly on YouTube and everywhere you can listen to podcasts.