Leadership tips for staff development, making changes, or making a wholesale change
“I WASN’T ABLE TO GET TO THIS.” “I thought [other] was supposed to do it?” You think to yourself, “Why wasn’t it done the way I wanted it to?” Staff development and managing a team can be a headache.
Beyond bringing in a consistent flow of patients, one of the hardest parts about growing a successful chiropractic practice is attracting and developing the right team. And yet, it’s one of the biggest areas of opportunity to get to a place in your business where you’re helping more people and making money without you always having to be there.
You can’t make as big of an impact if you don’t have a team. You were taught how to be a chiropractor, but you were likely never taught how to be a CEO and a leader in school. If you’re tired of babysitting your team now, or afraid of hiring anyone to help you (even though you’re tired of doing everything yourself), here are a few tips that can help you:
Staff development: setting clear expectations
This is a common mistake many chiropractic practice owners make — not setting and communicating clear expectations during staff development, whether it is related to the timeframe deadline or standards to be upheld. It can be easy to overlook the reality that others may not have a similar way of prioritizing or think the same way related to the standards that you may have about doing things.
An important key to freeing up your time and having things done the way you want is to set clear expectations and define what success looks like.
In addition, remember to share your vision and why that vision is important for the practice and the people you’re helping. Tie your vision whenever possible to what you are requesting others to help you with, so they are inspired about your vision and the big picture of how it helps others.
Context vs. delegating tasks
Another common mistake many chiropractors make is delegating tasks vs. providing context to the big picture whenever delegating.
When a new hire starts, the temptation is to delegate things to have them take things off your plate. This can be a wonderful feeling as your new hire does different tasks for you. However, if you notice yourself getting tired of telling your staff what to do, part of the problem may be that you may not be setting the context regularly.
This can lead to your staff not understanding the big picture, so it is harder for them to make decisions. As a result, you may feel you are needing to tell them what to do more than you would like. If you always make it a point to set context and continuously give them ownership and the authority to make decisions during staff development, it will set you free sooner rather than later.
Training, systems and procedures
Do you spend time training and fostering the growth of your team? Or do you just hire and expect them to start taking things off your plate without much supervision? Do you have a 90-day onboarding plan? Or do you wing it?
It is amazing how much faster and smoother new hires get up to speed with a staff development comprehensive training plan compared to not having one in place. Even if you have one in place, is it created in such a way that it can start becoming more hands-off for you, so it doesn’t have to be so time-intensive to train them?
The right position, the right person
Hot tip: If you’ve performed all of the above systematically and you’re still babysitting team members, it could be that you simply don’t have the right hire.
The best systems, structures and leadership from you will not replace the fact that you don’t have the right person. They may be a wonderful person, but just not right for your practice, team dynamics or situation. Instead of holding on to someone who’s not working out, it may be time to pull the plug and start looking for a new hire.
CHEN YEN is a national speaker and founder of Fill My Holistic Practice, providing introverted visionary chiropractors a step-by-step process and specific guidance to grow a six- to seven- figure practice that runs without them. Clients include a past president of the American Chiropractic Association Sports Council, a recent president of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and a board member of the American Society of Acupuncturists. Yen can be reached at mentor@fillmyholisticpractice.com or through introvertedvisionary.com.