Richard J Hall of US Oral Surgery Management: Five Life and Leadership Lessons I Learned In The Military

Empower your team. Don’t micro-manage. Trust them. If you’ve been clear and have had a collaborative, reciprocal communication about what they should focus on and have put checks-and-balances in place to ensure accountability and performance, then give them room to work. There’s a saying that I find very applicable here: Eagles don’t flock or fly in formation. If you hire eagles, it’s a whole lot easier than hiring turkeys!

As a part of our series about “Life and Leadership Lessons Learned In The Military”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Richard J. Hall.

Richard J. Hall is the president and CEO of U.S. Oral Surgery Management (USOSM), a management services firm that works exclusively with premier oral and maxillofacial surgeons. A former U.S. Marine with more than 40 years of executive experience in Fortune 500 and private healthcare services companies, Mr. Hall has a unique combination of organization, discipline, leadership skills and wisdom to help companies reach their goals. In addition, he has a proven track record of building high-performing teams and is a natural networker, seamlessly connecting people together.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

I was born and raised in a little town in Central New Jersey — Hopewell, New Jersey, to be exact. My mom and dad owned a restaurant there for more than 20 years. My sister and I grew up in an apartment over the restaurant, helping out there, whenever my parents needed us. When I was in high school, the Vietnam War was still going on, and I decided to enlist in the Marine Corps. I spent four years in the Marine Corps. After that, I took advantage of the GI Bill and got my undergrad degree in healthcare administration at Penn State.

And what are you doing today? Can you share a story that exemplifies the unique work that you are doing?

Today, I am the president and CEO of U.S. Oral Surgery Management (USOSM). We started U.S. Oral Surgery Management back in November of 2017, and we were the first business of our kind to focus on oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Not only were we the first in the market, but also, we were and continue to be the largest and fastest growing management services company of our kind, today. We’re more than two times the size of our nearest competitor. We have a unique business model, with our surgeon partners being the majority owners in our company, and we provide a full suite of business services that they can take advantage of to grow their businesses and create more time for them to concentrate on patient care.

Can you tell us a bit about your military background?

I had two primary military occupational specialties. I was a security guard in Washington, DC, for approximately two years. I spent the next two years as a drill inspector at Parris Island, South Carolina, at the recruit depot.

Can you share the most interesting story that you experienced during your military career? What “take away” did you learn from that story?

One of the most important to me, in terms of where I am in life today, was my interactions with a first sergeant that I had the good fortune to serve under. He did three tours in Vietnam, and he had a family. He was on his last assignment at the recruitment depot in Parris Island, where I was stationed. The recruitment depot was a very demanding position. We’re working 120 hours a week in a high-stress situation, training recruits, and he was sharing with me how disappointed he was — after having served for 25 years and being highly decorated in Vietnam, he was struggling because he had two teen-aged daughters and the public school system in that area wasn’t that great. He was trying to figure out what to do for them for high school, and that caused me to really re-think whether I wanted to stay in the Marine Corps and make this a career or if I needed to do something else. I had a very positive experience in the Marine Corps, but despite that positive experience, I decided to fulfill my enlistment and then pursue my college degree.

We are interested in fleshing out what a hero is. Did you experience or hear about a story of heroism, during your military experience? Can you share that story with us? Feel free to be as elaborate as you’d like.

When people think about military heroes, certain images and thoughts come readily to mind. I did not serve in an active combat role, so I did not witness these kinds of acts of heroism first-hand, but I do know that there are many brave men and women, who have filled these traditional hero roles, distinguishing themselves in combat — and they should be honored for the sacrifices they’ve made and the character they have shown.

Sacrifice, acting with honor, working hard — these are all indicative of heroes — common traits that I witnessed in others and that I learned early on in life from my dad. One of the best things I learned from him about being a hero is that anyone can be a hero. It’s something anyone can attain if they have the strength of character to work hard and make a difference.

Based on that story, how would you define what a “hero” is? Can you explain?

Growing up, my dad was always my hero because of the things that he taught me, what he expected of me, and the examples that he set for me. That’s what a hero is. Heroes teach and lead by example. Heroes work hard to accomplish their goals. They provide for others. They sacrifice. My dad was old-school. He felt that a man’s job, first and foremost was to be a good provider. He had a restaurant that was open from seven in the morning until 11 at night, and he was always there. He had an incredible work ethic and took his responsibilities very seriously. He’d work seven days a week, and in the 20+ years that he owned that restaurant, I don’t think he ever took what most people would call a real vacation. He never took more than a few days off.

When we were kids, I remember that we used to go down to the Jersey shore in the summers. We had some relatives that had a house there that would give it to family members for a week, and that’s where we went for our vacation. My dad would close the restaurant at 11 o’clock at night, would drive an hour, hour and 15 minutes or so, down to the Jersey coast. Then he’d wake me up and he’d take me night fishing. Then he’d get back in the car at five a.m., so he could drive back and open up the restaurant again at seven a.m. the next day. That was his vacation.

Does a person need to be facing a life and death situation to do something heroic or to be called a hero?

I think there are many different ways that someone can be a hero. A hero is someone who cares enough to assume personal responsibility for something — it doesn’t have to be life or death — but it does involve someone who steps up and takes responsibility in a situation, where others are simply observing or witnessing events. Heroes take action. It can be life or death — such as in a military or first-responder situation — but it doesn’t have to be. There are many instances where everyday citizens become heroes by taking responsibility and by trying to make something good out of something bad.

Based on your military experience, can you share with our readers 5 Leadership or Life Lessons that you learned from your experience”? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1 . The first thing that we learned in the Marines is that you lead from the front, not the back. You lead by example. If someone isn’t doing the things that they’re supposed to do, they can learn from your example, regardless of aptitude or how much training, experience or education they have. You have to model the behavior you want others to emulate. That’s something we do every day at USOSM.

2 . People who have never been in the military might not immediately think of organizational skills as being a particularly “military” thing, but it was absolutely integral to our success. We even had a certain way that we had to make our beds! Being organized means that you are always ready, that you’re prepared not only for the task at hand but also for any possible outcome. You’re ready to act swiftly and decisively, despite the circumstance, which is extremely important for any leader. This applies to both big and small things, whether it’s getting ready to go into battle (or a negotiation!), or keeping your bunk and locker (or your desk!) organized, so that you can find your gear quicker.

3 . Another import skill that I learned in the military that can be utilized for success — particularly in business — is time management. You have to have a sense of urgency to complete the task and the ability to manage your time wisely, so that it can be accomplished in an acceptable timetable. Time management can encompass many things, such as delegating to others, prioritizing the most important tasks, and having a strong work ethic.

4 . In the military, you work as a unit, a team, toward a common objective or goal. You’re given a mission to carry out, and you do it. It’s the same thing in business. If you want to be successful, everyone needs to work as a team, toward common goals. And just like in the military, everyone on that team will need to make sacrifices from time-to-time to make that team function at high level and achieve the team objective. This does not mean you have to make the ultimate sacrifice, the way you might have to in the military, but it does mean that you have to be willing to give up something for the good of your team.

5 . Last, but not least, is to have an unwavering commitment to the mission, which is essential for success, both personally and professionally. Once you’ve set the plan and agree on what the objective is, nothing should get in the way of that. In the Marine Corps, if we were given a mission, there was no room for indecision or half-hearted commitment. You’re either in, or you’re out — there is no half-way. I’ve tried to carry that over into both my personal and my professional life, and it’s always served me well.

Do you think your experience in the military helped prepare you for business? Can you explain?

Even as a kid, I gravitated toward and sought leadership positions in places like athletics and school, but it was really the military where I learned the most about leadership. I have applied so many of those lessons to my professional life, from the very beginning, as well as today.

After the Marines, I went to college with the hopes of being a hospital administrator. For my program, Penn State required a semester internship at a healthcare facility. I did mine at a VA hospital in Fortuna, Pennsylvania, and the CEO there gave me a phenomenal experience. He shared everything with me transparently and included me in meetings that really opened my eyes. As a result, I figured out that I did not want to be a hospital administrator.

At the time, I was tending bar at a restaurant in a country club like setting, and one of my frequent customers was an executive search recruiter. He pointed me in the direction of companies that support the healthcare industry, like American Hospital Supply Company, where I ended up working.

In those days, they had a reputation for hiring a lot of junior military officers or people coming out of the military because they liked that profile. You had a lot of responsibility at a young age, you were taught to lead people effectively, and you had character traits that they looked for in their selection process. It was a great fit for me.

One of the most important lessons I learned there was this: When you’re hiring, look for people with those character traits that you can’t teach. You can teach people how to do a certain job or role, but you can’t teach things like integrity, energy, sense of urgency, sensitivity, compassion, how to be results-orientated, etc. The role or job description didn’t really matter. What mattered were those core character traits — traits that are common in military culture, and in business, culture is everything. It trumps experience. It trumps execution. You can’t have an effective team if you don’t have culture.

As you know, some people are scarred for life by their experience in the military. Did you struggle after your deployment was over? What have you done to adjust and thrive in civilian life that others may want to emulate?

I’ve been fortunate enough not to have had any permanent issues. I didn’t deploy in a combat situation and didn’t suffer the same kind of trauma that many who have served have gone through, but I certainly served with many who did and have known many people throughout my life who did. PTSD is truly a terrible thing. You may come back fairly healthy, physically, and still have debilitating post-traumatic stress. As a family, we have a lot of experience with it. My daughter currently manages a PTSD program for the state of Virginia and my dad served in WWII and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, so as a result of that, we’ve always been very veteran-oriented and sensitive to veteran’s issues. I’m pleased to see that there are a lot of resources out there — charitable organizations and private foundations that are helping to address things like this. Obviously, the VA does what they can, but I think it’s the private foundations that can make the biggest difference.

Helping veterans to adjust back to civilian life is extremely important. The general public only sees a glimpse of what our service men and women go through to fight for our freedom, and there’s a monumental gap between the support that’s needed and what’s available, so I try to help bridge that gap whenever possible — both personally and professionally. I do that by supporting programs and foundations that help veterans, like Operation Restore Oral Health, which is a nonprofit organization founded by Dr. Ray N. Lee, an Air Force veteran and one of our surgeon partners. Operation Restore Oral Health provides pro bono dental and oral surgery services not covered by the VA to honorably discharged U.S. veterans from all branches of the military. In addition, it provides wisdom teeth extractions to children of U.S. Special Forces soldiers who were killed in the line of duty.

At USOSM, we also try to employ former military, whenever we can. We actively recruit surgeon partners, who have served, and are expanding those recruiting efforts to other veterans. In general, people who served in the U.S. military have those core characteristics that we value. It’s an attractive pool to recruit from. They’re used to working in teams, they’re flexible, and they’re used to being onsite — not remote — which is definitely a plus in our line of work. They also have a transferable skill set that could enable them to easily assimilate from their role in the military to their new role with USOSM.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We’re working on many exciting projects at USOSM that will help people. Two that come to mind that I’m particularly excited about. The first is our Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Centers of Excellence program. It’s the first program of its kind in the oral and maxillofacial surgery specialty. It’s designed to recognize USOSM partner practices that consistently deliver superior patient care and clinical excellence, encourage those characteristics in other practices, and spur additional practice growth. We announced the program about a year ago. Since then, we’ve established criteria for that program; identified a third-party to vet those facilities; and as of a few weeks ago, we have our first two official Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Centers of Excellence. Each passed our rigorous internal inspections and quality assurance criteria, as well as the official accreditation process by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), which is the recognized leader in ambulatory health care accreditation. Both practices passed all requirements with flying colors, and we’re very proud of them. Centers of excellence are not common in oral health, but they are common within the healthcare industry as a whole. Patients and referral sources understand that they signify exceptional quality, particularly when it comes to patient care.

The other thing that comes to mind is our patient experience improvement efforts. For us, there’s nothing more important than creating a positive patient experience. That isn’t just the quality of care that patients receive and the outcomes that they experience — it is those things — but also so much more. It’s how they’re greeted on the telephone, their experience when they first walk through the door — it’s their entire interaction with our practices and our people. We put a lot of emphasis on how we engage our team members. We’re constantly asking what we can do better to engage them and keep them engaged, because of the significant impact it has on patient experience.

What advice would you give to other leaders to help their team to thrive?

The first thing is to hire people with the right character traits. In addition, make a point to keep learning; keep improving. I’ve been doing this for 43 years now. I’ve worked in nine different executive-level roles for private-equity backed businesses, and I can tell you with great certainty that I’m still learning, every day. No matter how much experience you have or how much you know, or how good you are at what you do, there’s always something new to learn. Always focus on getting better, developing both personally and professionally. Never stop learning. Don’t worry about reaching a final destination. It’s about the journey.

In addition, be authentic and transparent. Most people respond to a leader that understands that they aren’t perfect. They don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. They don’t need to be the most accomplished person in the room. Surround yourself with talented, committed people, and treat everyone with respect. If you do that, they will respond as a team, working together toward shared success.

What advice would you give to other leaders about the best way to manage a large team?

Managing a larger team comes with different challenges. For example: it can be easier for smaller teams to gather everyone together in the same room. Leading a large team over a large area may require a different kind of interaction, communication and skill set to keep everyone engaged. I would encourage leaders of large teams, especially, to establish a strong culture. Always lead with that culture. Be clear about what you are trying to achieve together and spend enough time to ensure that the team understands the why — as well as the how — for achieving their goals. Have the necessary resources readily available. Make sure the team is aligned around common goals and that they understand how they will be rewarded for meeting those goals.

Last, but not least: empower your team. Don’t micro-manage. Trust them. If you’ve been clear and have had a collaborative, reciprocal communication about what they should focus on and have put checks-and-balances in place to ensure accountability and performance, then give them room to work. There’s a saying that I find very applicable here: Eagles don’t flock or fly in formation. If you hire eagles, it’s a whole lot easier than hiring turkeys!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I am grateful to everyone I’ve worked with along my career path. I couldn’t imagine myself in this role 20-to-30 years ago, and I wouldn’t be here today, if it weren’t for all the great people I’ve worked with along the way. If you keep your eyes and ears open, you’re going to learn from both good leaders and bad leaders. From good leaders, you learn what to do, and from bad leaders, you learn what not to do. I’ve learned from both in my career, and I am truly grateful for them all.

There’s one person in particular that comes to mind. I would characterize our relationship as “love-hate,” at times. On one hand, I would go through a wall for him. Other times, I couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him! That’s because he cared enough about me to challenge me and get me outside my comfort zone. That challenge helped me to grow tremendously — both personally and professionally — but it was not comfortable. It was a hard process. He always gave me constructive criticism and challenged my thought processes and decisions. It was extremely frustrating, but it helped me to think about things a little differently and helped me to grow significantly.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Personally, I have tried to give back through various charities and mentorships. I enjoy being a mentor and helping younger people develop and grow. I support several charities and am actively involved with them, particularly Folds of Honor, Christine’s Hope for Kids, The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation and Operation Restore Oral Health.

Another way that I try to bring goodness into the world is through USOSM. At USOSM, we provide operational, financial and administrative support services to enable our surgeon partners to focus entirely on what they do best — caring for patients. This gives our surgeons better life-work balance and the resources they need to provide patients with the best care and experiences possible.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

As a whole, people tend to separate oral health from overall wellness, particularly in the United States. I think a lot of people don’t understand just how much oral health impacts your overall health. It can have a tremendous impact on things like your cardiovascular health, diabetes, eating habits, nutrition, mental health — oral health is key to all of that and more. One of the things I’d like to do during my tenure at USOSM is to help more people to understand that connection on a deeper level.

I’d also like to help people to understand the differences between the type of work that a board-certified oral surgeon does versus what general dentists do. Both groups are competent in what they do, but their training, education and specialties are not the same. No matter what oral health issue you’re facing, you want to be able to choose the care professional that’s right for you, and that begins with understanding the differences between providers and their specialties.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of the quotes that has always resonated with me is this: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” My dad used to say that to me, growing up, and it’s been somewhat of a family motto for us. It’s something my dad believed in, and I believe in, and it’s something I’ve tried to instill in my own kids. My dad had an unbelievable work ethic; one that I like to emulate. Work hard and you get luckier: it’s a great recipe for success.

Thank you so much for these amazing insights. This was truly uplifting.