Adopting the Leadership Mindset

Moving a practice from its current reality to a better, more desirable destination requires strong leadership.   And at its core, leadership is about two things: an unwavering commitment to relationships and a relentless focus on results. We need both if we hope to lead a change in our practice.  Together these two attitudes make up the Leadership Mindset.  If we fail to prioritize either relationships or results, any hope of guiding our practice to greater success is doomed to failure.

An Unwavering Commitment to Relationships

Building a team is about building relationships. And building relationships within our team has to start with us.

Our staff responds to us primarily not by what we “do”, but how we are “being with them.”  And it’s not just about having the right “people skills.” We can have all the right people skills, but if the staff senses that we’re only trying to manipulate them, it won’t have the same impact. So, it’s actually possible to do the “right thing” in the wrong way. 

Our staff will respond to us so much more if they know we care for them as people, and not simply for what they can do for us as employees.

But it’s not enough to just care.  If we want to motivate our team, we must know what’s important to them, and appreciate them for their individual efforts.  Also, we must empower them by providing them with great systems, an optimum working environment and removing any barriers that prevent them from performing to the best of their ability.

So effective team leadership is not only about our behavior, it’s also about our approach and attitude.  It’s about our way of “being” with them.  It’s seeing them as partners in the process, not obstacles to progress.

A Relentless Focus on Results

Many of us have great relationships with our staff, but that’s not enough to achieve significant improvements to our Practice.  To be a more effective leader, we also must have a relentless focus on results without jeopardizing those relationships. This means being relentless in the pursuit of clinical & administrative excellence while stlll being sensitive to the well-being of each member of our staff. 

The best way to get better results AND create a more vibrant team is for everyone to work together to overcome the “Next Greatest Challenge”.

What is the “Next Greatest Challenge”?  It’s the single greatest obstacle to our practice’s success or progress. It’s the specific issue that our practice must confront that demands better performance from ourselves and our team. Unless this major challenge is met, the Practice will not be as successful as it can be.

This obstacle can be either external or internal. We can have an external challenge such as a new competitor in town or a difficult economy. Or we can have an internal challenge like staff infighting, ineffective collections or patients who are unhappy because they are waiting too long for their appointments. 

The Next Greatest Challenge becomes our top leadership priority. It motivates everyone to change. We realize that we have to work together more effectively if we want to overcome this obstacle. It gives us a compelling reason to overcome the frustrations we may have with each other and come together as a team.

But before our staff is willing to fully commit and gel as a team, they must believe that the problem is real, understanding how it adversely affects them.  Also, as their leader, we must communicate a sense of urgency about it, define the problem in solvable terms and present a strategy to solve it. Finally, we must express optimism about their ability to successfully meet this challenge if they are willing to work together.

Adopting the Leadership Mindset is essential before we endeavor to build a team or improve our Practice. Because it is the foundation for success, it is the principle reason that attempts at team building and practice improvement either succeed or fail.