Most practice owners have a number of staff (or a hoard) and find themselves in the hot seat as the leader who is expected to know more and be better at everything than their staff. The irony is that the majority of practice owners have had zero management or leadership training and are winging it.
Cute joke to illustrate a key point: A kindergarten pupil told his teacher that he found a cat. She asked him if it was dead or alive. He told her it was dead. She asked him how he knew that. He innocently replied, “Because I pissed in its ear and it didn’t move.” The teacher
What is “curiosity,” and why is it so dangerous that it killed the cat? And then there was Curious George who was always getting into trouble by being curious (though he always got back out of it too)? Is curiosity, then, a bad thing? Curiosity is “the desire to learn or know about anything;
A seasoned healthcare professional that I recently met said to me, “All this talk about going to the next level does nothing for me. I don’t even know what that means specifically. What I want is just to be happier with my life, work less, be more efficient, not feel so exhausted, and have a
Have you ever felt like things in your practice (or your life) have gone a little out of control? Have you ever been frustrated trying to run your practice efficiently, yet you find yourself running into procrastination, slow starts, assignments or orders not followed through on, tasks dragging on forever, etc.? Many people feel that
Never underestimate the care it shows when you thank your staff for a job well job or for going the extra mile on something for the practice. There are many, many ways of showing appreciation, from just a straight, “Thank you for doing a great job this week!” to meaningful rewards and recognition. It raises
Don’t you hate it when you ask someone to do something and they say “No” point blank as the first word out of their mouth? Or they say “I can’t,” or “I won’t,” or “never,” or “impossible”? Negativity is very off-putting and individuals who get into this way of handling things are often avoided
Once upon a time, the Practice Owner looked at her stats for the last week and gasped in dismay as she discovered a $4,000 drop in Billings from the week before. (Just the fact that she was paying attention to such a thing put her in the “above average” category as a CEO of a
There it has sat, for over half a day. The lonely, empty, unloved, discarded pop can left behind on a chair in reception by one of the many visitors to your practice today. While it is not a sin that no one on the staff team disposed of it, the fact is that it should
Doctor, the reception computer just burst into flames and there’s no back-up. Hey boss, half the day just cancelled or rescheduled their appointments. Sorry, but I’m giving you notice that as of 2 weeks from now, I am retiring. There’s a really upset client on the phone, would you like to take the call? The
In looking for a great quote to head up this week’s help column, we came across so many good quotes from really excellent executives that we decided to just give you a bunch to inspire you and possibly head you in new directions. Look them over and see how you could formulate a higher degree
One of the staff at your office is demanding you do part of her or his job without pay or credit. What do you say to them? A patient rips your face off when you presented the bill to him? How do you handle it? Your father constantly criticizes your work and tells you what
