Here is a not uncommon “Doom & Gloom” scenario that has played out in lots of practices:
“Our numbers are down and it’s not looking good,” says the practice owner to his team. “We’re going to have to cut back on spending and there’ll be no raises this year unless we get the numbers up. There’s so much competition around us and I don’t know how we can overcome this. Plus there may be a recession coming. We’ll just have to tighten our belts.”
The staff sit there silently, demoralized and feeling like it’s all hopeless – after all, what can THEY do about it? They are thinking maybe they should start looking for a new job.
You can put money down as a bet that the above conversation is NOT going to result in any change for the better, right?
Let’s do an instant replay on the above scenario but in “Fun & Games.”
“Okay team, here’s where the numbers are at right now and here’s where we would like them to be. We have 3 months to pull them back up. I’ve worked out a yummy bonus for us all when we have succeeded. We need some fresh ideas for attracting more new patients into the practice, so we’ll hold a marketing meeting over lunch and I want everyone to pitch in some ideas, big or small, silly or serious, and then we’ll get going on them. We’ll try and economize on anything we can but we will spend more on marketing as we need to promote. The front desk staff and I are going to have a quick meeting tomorrow morning to look at how to reactivate any patients that have fallen away, plus we’ll see who has fallen between the cracks on the recall system and get them back in. Any other ideas?”
The staff feel very briefed and feel like there is hope that all will be well again and stop worrying about losing their jobs as they now have something they CAN do about the situation. You have inspired confidence in them as their leader and they will back you up because you are being proactive.
Don’t under estimate the power of good leadership with your team!
