POWER LEADERSHIP
Ideas to develop the leader within
By Heidi Farrell

Every doctor has a vision of a perfect practice — a practice that exudes energy, fun, and teamwork, and is flawless in procedure, simplified in paperwork, and empowered with educated patients.

How are you doing with that vision? Do you realize that your team wants the same thing? Or, are you so too caught up in the day-to-day hustle and bustle that you have forgotten that leadership starts with the person in the glass and radiates out to the team.

Here are some ideas that both you and your CAs can implement to empower the leadership in your team:

1. Be on time. Do you want your employees to be punctual? Then lead the way. Set the example. Show up early to get a great start on the day. Watch how your life and practice start to come together because of that one congruency.

2. Hold team huddles every morning. Prepare the team for a big day. Since “no plan is a plan to fail,” create a simple plan each morning and then again each afternoon.

Convene a short five-minute huddle to address your morning and afternoon goals and your “sub-goaling” (including referrals, testimonial requests, etc.).

Review progress evaluations, special procedures, and new patients scheduled for the day. If you don’t have any new patients, then include in your huddle a process of cosmically thinking “new patients.”

When you do this as a team, you will be amazed at what you attract! End each huddle with a positive affirmation statement to start a powerful day as a powerful team.

3. Give team reviews. Evaluate your team regularly. Start with a weekly review of new employees during the first 30 days. Then review monthly for the first three months.

Continue with a quarterly review for the remaining first year. After a new CA’s one-year mark, review every six months, then once a year thereafter.

Your staff needs to know how they are performing. They need constructive criticism and praise. Balance each evaluation with both.

Tip: Ask your CAs to evaluate you. If you are seriously committed to team improvement and growth, then who better to tell you how you are doing?

4. Train as a team. Every powerful athlete trains hours on end to be great. Why would your team be different?

Role-play and work your strengths just as much as you work to reduce your weaknesses. A recommended training schedule includes:

• A biweekly team meeting. This 30-45 minute meeting follows a structured agenda that includes discussing goals and stats; acknowledgement of new patients; attendance at patient-education seminars; your ideal patient statement; testimonial development; and new business from each department.

Follow this agenda format and you will find this time invaluable.

• Biweekly team training. The week that you do not have a team meeting, schedule 30-60 minutes of training.

Because this training is about action, role-playing is necessary. Outline the topics for 12 months, and assign a leader to take responsibility for leading the meeting and training for a two-week stint.

5. Demonstrate a positive attitude. Your attitude is everything. It’s not the five positive people on a six-person team who bring the one negative person up. Rather, it is the negative person who brings the entire team down.

Sometimes that negative individual is the doctor. So, watch your attitude.

Your attitude attracts people, it attracts growth, it attracts financial success. However, it also attracts neg-ative when negative is what you emit.

Leadership is not confined to one person; every member of the team has the ability to be a strong leader. Some say leaders are not born, but rather are made. If this is the case, what are you waiting for? Make yourself a leader!

Heidi Farrell is CEO and head coach at Chiro Advance Services, Inc., which provides practice development services. She can be contacted at 715-635-5211, by e-mail at hfarrell@centurytel.net, or at http://chiroadvanceservices.com.