Keeping It Real
What kind of a leader are you? Is it time for a change? DC Mentors Leadership Assessment can pinpoint exactly how you are getting in your way and help you develop a plan of behavioral change.
Why do some Chiropractic Entrepreneurs make it look so eeeeasy? And why do so many Chiropractors look as if they were baptized in lemon juice? There is a simple explanation, so simple you may be tempted to dismiss it. Are you ready for this? It all begins and ends with the doctor’s core leadership style.
Your core leadership system determines your happiness. Your style either brings joy and fulfillment or stress and anxiety regardless of the numbers. The Chiropractic Entrepreneur who makes it look effortless is able to have thousands of relationships simultaneously because their focus is on serving those who are aware, willing and able to accept their leadership. They “serve their patients through Chiropractic.”
The struggling Chiropractor is always stressed because they have a personal agenda that is played out in the office under the guise of serving. They “serve Chiropractic through their patients.” When a patient quits this doctor takes it personally and begins the agonizing torture of the “what ifs”. They hold on emotionally to the experience and slowly adopt a pervasive feeling that they are failures. They either avoid running into these patients or wait for the opportunity to pounce on them.
Now the control game is in full stride. With one hand and leg the doctor holds onto the past while simultaneously stretching the other arm and leg toward acquiring new followers. Can you feel the tension build? Someone is going to snap. Who will be first? Will it be you, your staff, your patients, your marriage, or your kids?
Now, I am not measuring success by numbers alone, yet the smaller the practice the bigger the COMFORT/CONTROL ZONE. The smaller the practice the more stress the doctor experiences when patients quit and leave the practice. Busier doctors simply don’t “spend time and energy” holding onto the patients who left, they are concerned about “investing time and energy” into those in front of them and not playing the “How do I get them to stay, pay, and refer game?” How can you learn to think and act like a busier Chiropractic Entrepreneur? DC Mentors Fourth Way Leadership system offers the Chiropractic Performance Summit which is designed to train doctors and staff to become World Class Chiropractic offices, and Brain Spa which is crafted in order to experience a higher order of thinking as attendees strip away their limiting beliefs and behaviors.
So why do so many doctors continue to carry their patients? It all begins with a harmless phrase that represents the “Present Practice” approach used by hard sale management systems. The phrase is “New Patient Acquisition.” Acquisition is defined as the act of acquiring or gaining possession. It sounds more like a territorial game of building a fiefdom of “true believers” than building a thriving service business doesn’t it? What a waste of energy. It is the fast track to burnout and relationship conflicts.
This practice building myth or leadership style assumes that once we ACQUIRE/POSSESS these “new ones” (Objects) then all we need to do in order to guarantee our success is to restrain them or should I say retain them. No, the truth is when we approach practice with this leadership perspective we restrain them. The front door to the practice continues to shrink, letting in just the right people for the right reason, while the back door remains locked as we grow ever vigilant in protecting any and all escape routes.
What kind of a leader are you? Is it time for a change? DC Mentors Leadership Assessment can pinpoint exactly how you are getting in your way and help you develop a plan of behavioral change. There are nearly as many books on leadership as there are diet books. The best definition I have heard comes from Michael Gerber, “A leader is a person who others follow.” Leaders have power or a right to direct the actions and thoughts of others. And there is a huge difference between influencing others and controlling others. A leader can choose to INFLUENCE their followers or attempt to CONTROL them. Both work in the real world and your choice has consequences physically, emotionally and spiritually.
“POWER from you vs. POWER granted you”
Words are important symbols and they can add to or detract from this message. When I use the word power I am referring to its literal definition. Power is the ability to do or act, to inspire and sustain.
CONTROL is personal power “coming from you” and projected outwards. Its agenda is the complete and successful direction or manipulation of people. It is leadership “DOING.” The underlying philosophy of this leadership style is that the “ends justify the means.” This is a stressful game of domination, of outmaneuvering intellectually and emotionally those under your perceived control. It focuses on changing people to be what you want them to be.
By stark contrast, INFLUENCE is a personal and unofficial power “coming to you” from others. It is a natural response to your character, ability and station in life. Your INFLUENCE may be exerted unconsciously or may operate through persuasion. This leadership style attracts respect, cooperation and inspires people. There is a volitional yielding to your opinions. It focuses on meeting people where they are and leading them to where you are. It is leadership “BEING.”
So what happens when a patient escapes your control? How can you handle the loss? You can’t. Yet if you come from the perspective that you never HAD them you can never loose them. Patients are never yours. It is simply your turn to lead them, your turn to serve them by helping them eliminate problems and obstacles to their sense of well being, your turn to inspire them to become everything they are destined to be.
Keeping it real means realizing that you are exchanging your time and energy in order to create a business that works for you. And there is finiteness to both of these personal resources. Your anxious practice moments are an urgent message that if ignored seal your fate. What kind of a leader will you become? Make the decision right here right now to STOP DOING the things that don’t work like controlling and possessing people and START BEING the leader who influences people.