As a practice owner, you have no one as your boss who can lead you, challenge you and inspire you to greatness … except yourself!
(Even staff and associates often are not lead by a practice owner who is a good executive who leads, challenges and inspires his or her team. So you may have to do this yourself or help your boss do it.)
So how do you challenge yourself?
Preconceptions
What inspired this article was a photography article written by a very professional photographer who was describing how to see things differently with the camera than the traditional ways we are “trained into.” These are called preconceptions of how things should be done. An example: We tend to look down on dogs or straight at them if they are posing. What if you got down to the ground and looked up at them with the camera instead? A different perspective. His message was to imagine different or alternative ways to look at things.
And so it can go with a practice. You have ingrained habits or traditional ways of doing many things from management to technical protocols and delivery. You have always done it “a certain way. “
What if …?
Well, what if you look at every “traditional” system and pattern in the practice and re-imagine how else it could be done? Open up your mind and get feedback also from your team, do research online, talk to colleagues who have progressive practices, etc. Think outside your box … explore!
For example, some practices are having people book their own appointments online or at least request an appointment on the practice website. We are not saying you SHOULD do this; it is just an alternative way of doing things that will work for certain practices.
Making Changes
Make a list of all these possible changes that you and your team have re-imagined, and prioritize the sequence of change.
Caution: When you try to change things, you may even get people saying plaintively, “But we’ve always done it this way.” Don’t let that slow you down. Just be sure not to try to make all the changes at once. Instead, implement them one at a time … you might even be best off to start with a small change and grow into the bigger ones as you go.
You may find some of your changes don’t work so well. Try it a different way. The whole idea is to exceed your patient’s or client’s expectations about your service and to give them the ideal care they deserve to have. All your changes should be in that direction.
So CHALLENGE YOURSELF and have some fun and shake things up!
