As the owner of a practice, have you ever felt all alone and like there is no one to talk to? You aren’t the only one. Even people who have a full staff and tons of friends often experience that feeling of “no one to talk to.”
Why is that and what can be done about it?
The Real Issue
The bottom line, the real issue is that you are likely not thoroughly trained as an executive because you weren’t taught those very precise skills in your professional college. So here you are trying to run a totally smooth, profitable practice with awesome staff who deliver incredibly good service to your wonderful patients.
Uniqueness
For starters, the most obvious reason for this sense of “aloneness” is the feeling that no one will understand your practice and the unique problems it has. And it is true that every practice is quite unique. So what are your options:
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Friend or Colleague:
You could discuss your problems or issues with a close colleague who might be willing to give you ideas, but you may worry that their ideas are not applicable to your practice. And not only that, they are not you … you are the one who has to deal with your issues in your own way.
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Your spouse:
Unless they work in the practice spouses often does not really understand the issues you deal with. And even if they work in the practice, they are often experiencing the same difficulties you are. It can be like the blind leading the blind. You may also find yourself rejecting their opinions BECAUSE they are coming from your spouse (and yet they could be right in their suggestions). Even though you love each other!
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Staff:
Obviously, it is usually inappropriate for you to discuss “boss” and “owner” matters with your staff as it is not their pay grade (LOL). They are often quite willing to offer help and advice on certain matters, but they are rarely sufficiently executive trained to be able to make management decisions.
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Mentor:
Some professionals have found a mentor who they look up to and can get trused advice from. While this is often beneficial, the mentor is not usually management trained either in most cases and has not worked with hundreds of practices to see what are all the possible workable options for solving various management issues. They know “their way” and pass that on to you.
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A Consultant who comes into your practice:
Hiring a consultant who is a past practice staff member is again an option but they are not management trained either. Even if they work well on training your staff, when they finish working with your practice, they leave an untrained executive (you) behind to run things. Often, things can drift back to the way they were through staff changes.
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Trained management consultant:
The best solution is to find a consulting company that has trained management specialists who have worked successfully with many hundreds of professionals and know what works and what doesn’t. Additionally, you should get trained by them as an executive so you can make optimum decisions for your own practice from there onwards. And by the way, MBA programs do not teach you how to be an executive, an expert leader, how to management by statistics to capture the good improvements in service and make changes when the service level worsens, how to do proper treatment plan presentations, do correct marketing for healthcare professionals, how to hire and train staff and how to correct them when they make mistakes, and so on. This does not have to take long to get trained on, but it does cure the missing piece in the puzzle by putting you in full control of your own practice and feeling like you know what you are doing.
Success can be yours by learning how to achieve it!
You might also like: “Cross Training Your Staff”
