Qualities of a Great Leader in a Vision Practice

As many experienced doctors know, learning and applying the technical aspects of optometry or ophthalmology is only half of what it takes to be successful. Whether a doctor is running his or her own solo practice or working as an associate alongside many others, leadership plays an enormous role in setting the course for your professional career as well as the future of your practice as a whole.

Here are some leadership qualities we often see successful vision docs portray in their own practices:

1. Have a clear vision - If a patient were to walk into your practice a year from today, what would be different? What about five years? Or ten? Having a written, clearly-defined vision for your practice not only help set future goals and objectives for sustaining and improving patient care, but it also gives your team a target to shoot for each and every day.
2. Get your team motivated - Motivate your team in a style that matches the vision of your practice. Setting clear goals and measuring success through performance targets is a great way to increase productivity and keep everyone on task. Learn how your team responds to different stimuli as well. If you sense your morning routines are becoming drab and motivation is low, consider having special days, change in dress, or activities that involve patients to help shake things up.
3. Don’t settle for less – With competition at an all-time high in the vision industry, now is not the time to sit back and coast when it comes to providing excellent care each and every time a patient is in the chair. Excelling in all areas of your practice, from friendly customer service when a patient walks in the door to the actual treatment itself and your own bedside manner, will all play pivotal roles in determining the success of your practice.
4. Continuing education = continuing success – Continue to challenge yourself to grow professionally and personally every day. Whether its books and articles, classes, or professional peer groups, find a way to continually develop and hone your leadership skills.
5. Be a good example – When it comes to your actions, attitude, and reactions, how you control your own emotions will become a clear indicator of how the rest of your team should control theirs. Maintaining a positive energy and treating each team member with respect are key elements in developing your role as a successful leader.
6. Clearly communicate your expectations – This is an area where many doctors (and bosses in general) really struggle. Developing great policies and procedures for your practice is great in theory, but if none of those ideas and expectations are communicated effectively, they become useless. Reinforce your expectations in employee handbooks, morning huddles, and one-on-one meetings with staff regularly. Hearing the same expectations daily reiterates their importance and helps keep everyone on-track.

Becoming an effective leader doesn’t happen overnight, and it most certainly doesn’t come without intentional effort. How successful you are at becoming an effective leader ripples through every aspect of your vision practice, and can in many cases make or break the success of your team as a whole. With some patience and practice, though, any optometrist or ophthalmologist can mature into a great leader and set their practice on course for many years of success and prosperity.

 
ETS Vision is a Vision Recruiting firm specializing in finding and placing Optometrists, Ophthalmologists, and Vision Staff throughout the United States. www.etsvision.com

Grow Your Practice in the Upcoming Year with a Business Plan

 

The theme of my articles around this time of year always revolves around planning and goal setting.  Like it or not, we are just 60 days away from the end of 2013.  It’s in the books, and that’s all she wrote…

Practice owners: If you don’t set time aside to write out your business plan or set your personal goals by November 15 it’s probably not going to happen this year.  Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away, followed by Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years.

 

Associates and practice owners: Set your personal goals for 2014 by November 15. Whether it is improving your clinical skills, planning for retirement or your kid’s college, or getting back in shape, the time to set your 2014 goals is NOW!

 

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of articles, books, and blogs have been written about the importance or writing a business plan and setting personal goals.  I’d like to share a few of my favorites:

 

Eleven reasons to write a business plan:

 

1.     Achieve your long-term goals by developing a road map that details specific short-term goals and milestones.

2.     Prove to associates, employees, family members, and bankers that you’re serious about growing your practice.  It allows them to see where they fit.

3.     Share your strategy, your priorities, and your plan of action with those who will hold you accountable, such as associates, employees, your spouse, and business advisors.

4.     Determine when you will have to say “no.”  There is no shortage of good ideas.  Each year it’s better to pick a few and execute them well, rather than saying yes to everything and not giving any of the ideas the effort they deserve.

5.     Understand your patients, your competition, and your opportunities better in order to grow.  Writing a business plan forces you to do research on your market and the needs of your patients.

6.     Make your practice more attractive to potential buyers-- five, ten, or twenty years from now.

7.     Making a plan gives you a reason to stop doing things in your practice that don’t make sense anymore (or never made sense in the first place).

8.     A plan determines your financial needs.

9.     It allows you to assess new revenue opportunities as well as rejuvenate old ones.

10.  It also gives you a chance to make mistakes on paper, or to prevent you from repeating those mistakes that you’ve already made.

11.  Establishing daily and weekly goals simply makes it more fun and rewarding to come to work in the morning.

If you have never written a business plan before, you will find the following article helpful:

 

8 Simple Steps to Preparing a Business Plan

 

Twelve reasons to write down your personal goals.  (Today!)

1.     Writing transforms your goals from thoughts to tangible objectives.  Once goals are written, they are easy to remember, track, and accomplish.

2.     Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. (Washington Irving)

3.     First you write down your goal; your second job is to break down your goal into a series of steps, beginning with steps which are absurdly easy. (Fitzhugh Dodson)

4.     One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is better than half-a hundred half-finished tasks. (B.C. Forbes)

5.     All you have to do is know where you’re going. The answers will come to you of their own accord. (Earl Nightingale)

6.     A goal is a dream with a deadline. (Napoleon Hill)

7.     Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor. (Brian Tracy)

8.     You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change. (Les Brown)

9.     A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder. (Thomas Carlyle)

10.  The path of least resistance is the path of a loser. (Phil Weltman)

11.  Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk. (J.C. Penney)

12.  You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures. (Charles C. Noble). 

Written by Mark Kennedy, Owner/Managing Director of Executive Talent Search (ETS Dental, ETS Vision, ETS Tech-Ops). To find out more, call ETS Vision at (540) 563-1688 or visit us online at www.etsvision.com.