As I've studied leaders and leadership over the years, I discovered many share similar qualities and practices. I learned many of these from leadership giants such as Peter Drucker, John Maxwell, Steven Covey, and others. I've assembled those that have helped me the most in my journey and would like to share them with you. 

Leadership Qualities

1. Leaders know where their time goes. Influential leaders and productive people understand time is limited. If you think about it, time is a funny thing for humans. It's a finite resource and one in which we genuinely don't know how much we have. It's non-renewable, and once it's gone, it's gone. Yet, many of us live our lives without any regard for the preciousness of time. Think about the last bad movie you watched. What were you more upset about, wasting $12 or ninety minutes of your time? Strong leaders know how to budget and control their time. I think Steven Covey's Habit #3 sums this concept up the best. In his book, Seven Habits...

After working with many clients over the years, I've discovered there are two reasons a practice has issues, knowledge and leadership. Knowledge can be an easy fix. Often, the leaders might know they lack information and actively seek it. It can be challenging to obtain some kinds of knowledge quickly. The second cause, a lack of leadership, is much more challenging to correct. Almost every issue a practice faces after the knowledge problem is fixed is a result of poor leadership.

1. Financial issues. If you're having financial problems, it's likely because you've made poor decisions. Leadership is not about having the title of leader. It's about gathering the data and making a sensible decision. Often when I first coach leaders, they place too much emphasis on their emotions and how they feel personally. Many don't want to own their mistakes. We tend to look for others to blame for our poor performance. Your financial problems are a result of your leadership decisions. Recognize...

As a service industry, healthcare has many types of assets. Most appear on the balance sheet. However, the most crucial asset appears in the expense section of the income statement. Those assets are your people. Without people, the work of caring for patients stops. The quality of the care provided is threatened without happy people delivering that healthcare.

Employee satisfaction and happiness are of the utmost importance to you and your practice. Happy people are the ones who stick around and do a great job on your behalf. They are loyal and will stick with you even in bad times. They do so because they are committed to the mission and purpose of the practice and want to help take the organization to the next level. They are passionate or what you’re excited about. Investing in your people yields more significant intangible dividends that will push your practice to the next level.

Factors that Impact Employee Satisfaction

Many factors contribute to employee...

Initially, when I begin to work with most small practices, I discover they have been focusing on the wrong things in their business. Many seem to be obsessed with profit, yet wonder why they continue to have difficulty. At first glance, it might sound crazy, but profit shouldn’t be a top priority of a small business. Ultimately, profit is necessary for continuing growth and longevity. However, there are other important areas to focus on, and if you do, profit becomes easier to attain. If you focus on the wrong stuff, you can earn a profit on paper but still go broke.

If your first area of focus isn’t profit, what should a small business or practice focus on then? There are three important aspects a leader should concentrate on - cash, access to capital, and establishing good controls. Many small practices fail because they lose focus on one of these areas.

Cash is the lifeblood of any business. Run out of cash, and the company dies. The first area of focus for any...

Implementing organizational change has been a troublesome issue for leaders for decades, if not centuries. During the 1940s, Kurt Lewin created a model to help leaders facilitate change in their organization. His model Unfreeze - Change - Refreeze offers a simple paradigm to build your change management plans.

The simplest method of understanding the concept is to consider a cube of ice. Let's assume you made pink ice cubes as a summer treat but then thought your children would enjoy pink ice cubed shaped like unicorns. You're also out of the dye and don't want to make a special trip to the store. To create the change you wish, you will unfreeze the cubes, place the colored water into a new mold, and then refreeze the water. Creating change in your organization will a similar process. The first step of change is unfreezing the organization.

Step 1 - Unfreeze  

Change can only begin after the leader has identified the need. Only then can you begin to develop the change you...

Burnout seems to be growing among all healthcare providers, with physicians from every specialty experiencing it. I don’t know if burnout is on the rise, or we are better at detecting it and more open about discussing it. Perhaps the younger generations haven’t bought into the myth of the infallible physician and are now speaking up. In comparison, the older generations just accepted the pressure and abuse as part of the career. Burnout isn’t something that occurs overnight. Instead, it is insidious and quietly progressive, like hypertension or diabetes.

 Many have suggested having hobbies and interests outside of medicine helps reduce burnout. One of my passions is flying, and I have noticed a few lessons that pertain to dealing with physician burnout. During my training as a pilot, I learned how to recover from unusual attitudes in the airplane. These would be either a nose-high or nose-low attitude, both of which can end very badly for you if action...

Trying to lead while you are experiencing burn out is like pouring gas on the flames. You will not only hurt yourself but those you lead and your organization. We are social creatures who pick up on social cues. If you’re tired, your team will pick up on your stress and fatigue. It will affect their morale, performance, and quality. As a leader, you have a duty to lead not only others but yourself. Burnout is a slow process, but its symptoms are visible is you know what to look for.

Symptoms of Burnout

If you are feeling tired, exhausted, and have no desire to show up and treat patients, run through the following symptom checker. These symptoms by themselves are not indicative of burnout, but as they pile on, the constellation of burnout begins to reveal itself.

• You’re just going through the motions. If you haven’t any real enjoyment and just show up, you’re likely just going through the motions of patient care. If you quickly forget your patient’s...

Going into business for yourself is challenging enough when you consider the processes, the financials, and personnel issues. You’ve enough on your plate seeing your patients and running a business. What you don’t need is a lousy business partner who causes you enormous headaches and takes more than they contribute to the practice. 

Picking the right business partner is one of the most important decisions you will make as a business owner. Most of the issues can be identified early in the process of selecting a partner. The key is knowing who they are, performing your due diligence. Picking your business partner and life partner are serious decisions that should not be taken lightly nor nonchalantly. Even though you’re excited about the venture, keep in mind that it too, like a marriage, can end in heartache, lawsuits, and even bankruptcy. 

Before you sign on the dotted line and join forces (and assets) with someone, consider the values, goals,...

As you head towards the end of your career, you might wonder what to do with your business. Will you close up shop? Will you sell it? To whom should you sell it?

If you’re looking for a buyer for your practice, there are two basic types of buyers in the market - strategic and financial buyers. They each have different goals, objectives, and reasons for buying your practice.

Strategic buyers. These are buyers looking for an acquisition that strengthens their market position, expands their capacity, grows the services they offer and potentially gains access to more patients and customers.

Typically, they are already operating in your industry. A strategic buyer might be a competitor, a supplier, or even a customer of yours. They are on the lookout for acquisitions that provide synergies. They look beyond your balance sheet, revenue streams, and other financial metrics. They will examine how your acquisition will benefit them, you, and the customers. They will place value on the...

Designing and implementing a quality service involves four key ingredients. As you design your service, consider these aspects to ensure you deliver exemplary patient care.

1. It's based on a solid mission and purpose. What is the mission and purpose, you might ask? The mission and purpose is perhaps the most important concept of any business or practice. Simply stated, it is the what and why a practice exists. The what is the service you provide to your patients. It's the combination of the knowledge, skills, and processes of your practice to deliver care to the patient. The why is the benefit your service provides to the patient. The why isn't to make money. Earning a profit is an indicator of how well your core business operates. It's a metric to monitor, not an objective to attain. The mission and purpose are always rooted in the world of the patient. Your mission and purpose are what you do and why you do it for the benefit of the patient. Every process, touchpoint, and...