Northeast Delta Dental’s Community-Centered Approach to Sharing Leadership

A Client Feature

Northeast Delta Dental, the nonprofit leader in affordable dental insurance and one of our previous leadership coaching clients, “does the work” of social impact. For decades, they have been on the journey of sharing leadership, power, and community-centered decision-making before it was trendy or motivated by crisis. They activate their commitment to “bring beautiful smiles to everyone’s faces,” starting with their employees and an organizational culture rooted in service, integrity, teamwork, communication and quality. In fact, they have been awarded year after year as one of the best places to work by organizations like the Great Place to Work Institute—and most importantly, by their “brand ambassador” employees. 

When Tom Raffio, President & CEO, joined Northeast Delta Dental in 1995, he thought his tenure in New Hampshire would last only a few years. Now, 27+ years later, Tom reflects on the opportunity to use a mission-driven organization as a vehicle for community-building and service. 

“I joined Northeast Delta Dental when it was a very successful, very small, quiet company. I knew it was the perfect place to get involved in the community because they already had relationships and respect,” Tom shares. “I knew I could be in service to a team of leaders, supporting community leaders.”

Tom had experienced various leadership styles throughout his career, but the models he found most effective brought people together and made everyone feel respected, heard, and valued for their contribution. With learnings rooted in the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework, Northeast Delta Dental is very intentional about nurturing, incentivizing and measuring their culture. In his recent book with Diane Schmalensee, Prepare for Crisis – Plan to Thrive, Tom writes, 

“I believe that our [Northeast Delta Dental] honest and consistent communication with our employees, as well as our caring policies, have been responsible for us maintaining our excellent results in the annual employee engagement survey conducted by Business NH Magazine.” 

According to the 2021 survey results, not only did Northeast Delta Dental maintain their employee engagement scores—they increased them. 

“A great culture ends up with great results,” Tom says. “Our human-centered culture impacts our customer experience, too.” 

The data doesn’t lie. Northeast Delta Dental retains 99% of its customers (compared to the industry average of 87%) ranking them the highest in the country for customer retention. 

So how have they built a great culture? And what types of results are they experiencing? It all comes down to principles of service and communication. From dentists to policy makers to local nonprofit leaders to customers, Tom’s commitment is to serve, listen to, and communicate with as many stakeholders as possible. 

Here are just a few examples from the Northeast Delta Dental model for how you can practice sharing leadership, power, meaning and responsibility with your team and community. 

1. Prioritize Your Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Journey
Twenty years ago, Tom and former VP of Human Resources, Connie Roy-Czyzowski knew the white-male dominated make up of the team and board needed to change. He wanted his organization to reflect the local community so that Northeast Delta Dental was actually leading and supporting initiatives his neighbors needed. Today, they celebrate that 50% of their board of directorsare women and 18% of their team areBlack or Non Black People of Color—and they know they have more work to do. “We make better decisions now,” says Tom. “The Board reflects our organization and today we are more collaborative, more relational.”

2. The People Closest to the Decision Make the Decision 

There is no rule in our Shared Leadership Framework that eliminates hierarchy or roles. Many of our clients, like Northeast Delta Dental, live out the principles of shared leadership inside of traditional business structures. Northeast Delta Dental structures the organization in cross-functional teams so folks hear from one another across the system. 

“In practice, this means team development: empowering the people closest to the decision to lead the decision-making process, and ultimately, make the choice,” Tom says.

3. Pay Your Team to Contribute to Nonprofit Boards
Have you ever heard of a nonprofit raising money for and supporting other nonprofits? With a focus on relationships and meeting community needs first, Northeast Delta Dental encourages and helps place employees on local nonprofit boards. This helps them understand what’s happening for their customers across a variety of issues, and supports their employees in developing professional skills. It also supports their brand awareness and marketing efforts, simply by being at the table.

4. Become a Community Policy Leader
Just before the end of 2022, Northeast Delta Dental celebrated the passing of an important policy and the signing of a significant contract. For 20 years, they led and supported the state-wide, grassroots organizing of Medicaid legislation which will help 88,000 people receive access to dental care, instead of going to the emergency room which puts a systemic pressure on hospitals. This legislation will help the most vulnerable populations in New Hampshire, like veterans, have access to dentists and contribute to their overall health.

5. Measure Your CEO’s Performance Based on Culture & Employee Happiness
Half of Tom’s job performance is based on the health of the culture at Northeast Delta Dental. The board is continually working to improve measurements of culture success. Tom attributes their bottom line success to this key factor: a healthy culture produces more profit and more innovation.

“We spend a little on advertising, but we really don’t have to. Every employee is an ambassador. We populate nonprofit boards and we generate positive brand awareness by our activity in the community,” says Tom. 

Thank you to Tom for sharing his story with us, and for exemplifying what shared leadership looks like at Northeast Delta Dental. We hope you put their practices into action. We also encourage you to read Tom’s book in collaboration with Diane Schmalensee about their response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Prepare For Crisis  Plan To Thrive. It’s a deep, worthwhile look into their very intentional culture. 

Many of our clients start their The Shared Leadership Journey™ because they’re unsatisfied with current leadership training programs and executive coaching services. Our leadership courses and leadership consultants are here to support your team development through healthy, positive group coaching that works.