Owning a practice certainly can have its ups and down and trials and tribulations. For sure! And, you may find yourself busting your butt every day to just get through the day and service all the patients in your schedule plus all the emergencies. Sometimes it can seem endless and like a treadmill. It can all get a little serious.
Or it can be under control, light-hearted and full of care and compassion … AND FUN!
Chicken or the Egg
The difference between the two scenarios above (we’re pretty sure you will choose to have the second one) has everything to do with the relationship between you and your team.
On the one hand, if you are a downer and are terribly serious about everything, this will infect even the most upbeat staff you can hire. And on the other hand, if your staff are dull or bored stiff and are just “putting in the time each day,” it may drain any enthusiasm you might have for the improvement of your practice.
However, whether you are the chicken or the egg doesn’t matter … the fact is that YOU are the trend setter for the practice because you own it and, bottom line, it is your responsibility. It is up to you, starting with yourself, to get everyone inspired and put some fun and games into the practice and make it upbeat so your patients and clients walk into a very enthusiastic environment where they will receive your service and walk out happier than when they came in.
Your Team Needs You!
You have hired staff to help you deliver your unbelievably valuable service to your patients or clients as you cannot do it all by yourself … it takes a team to have a good practice of any size. Hopefully you have hired the right team players. Now you have to train and guide them in the way you want things done in your practice. In lots of cases, you may learn systems from staff that have worked in other practices and may have some good ideas. But you are the guiding force behind it all.
Team Meetings
Many types of successful businesses have brain storming sessions which can be quite productive as ideas bounce around the table and feed off of each other. Let everyone know in advance what the item is that needs brain storming so they can come prepared with some ideas … e.g. marketing ideas, better service, how to wow the clients or patients, what hours would be best for the clientele of your practice, etc. These ideas can be worked right through and formed into a written plan.
One-on-Ones
In addition to group meetings, it is a wonderful thing for you and each member of your team to have some one-on-one time at least once a month … on lunch time, after hours for 15 minutes, before work starts or whatever works best.
In these, you can put your heads together to work out ways and means to improve their own aspect of the practice. Or the staff member can go over some of the more difficult clients or patients they have run into recently so they have someone to vent to (rather than to the whole team). You may put your heads together and figure out how not to have that happen again or a better way to handle or defuse it next time.
The team member may have ideas about other aspects of the practice that they are too shy to bring up in a group meeting. Many of your staff are positive geniuses that are untapped. Getting to know them in a one-on-one setting can be very enlightening and fun.
The Personal Touch
Practices are ever so much more intimate (whether there is only one staff member or 32) compared to big companies that have hundreds and where it is impossible to know everyone. Healthcare practices are very personal and the owner should be completely interested in every team member and you should make sure that they all feel you are totally approachable.
Most clients or patients can totally feel or observe if a team is having fun and all on the same page or if there are rifts and splits and disagreements. They will only refer to the practices that they feel inspired by and where they feel that they got the best possible care.
So make your practice a fun and enjoyable place for everyone to be by caring for your team!
To learn how to permanently handle the problems of your practice and make it more fun.
Call now for a free Practice Analysis(in person, Skype or Facetime), contact us!
Call 416-466-6217
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