228 The Dangers of not Leading

Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.  

This week’s topic:  The Danger of Not Leading is the Loss of Your Success!

The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights.  This week, the show is hosted by Kats Consultants’ CEO Dr Michael Perusich, recognized as the leading expert in Chiropractic business management.  This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why the truth bomb of success has to do with your leadership ability
• Why your team will create their own rules if you don’t lead
• How even your patients need you to lead them
• Why your lack of leadership if holding you back
• How to become the leader you need to be
• …and so much more…

In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.

Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and personalized practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.

Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.

DISCLAIMER:  The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice, and represents the opinions of the speakers.  Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.

228 The Danger of Not Leading

Dr. Michael Perusich: [00:00:00] Doctors, there's real danger by not being the leader in your practice. Hi everybody. Welcome to the KC Chiro Pulse Podcast, brought to you by Kats Consultants and Chiro Health, USA. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Perusich. Today I wanna start with a truth bomb and I, I want you to listen up real close. And yes, I'm in the studio by myself today, but I want you to listen up real close, the fastest way to tank your practice.

Are you ready for this isn't bad marketing. It's bad leadership. It's bad leadership in your practice. That's what takes it down. And too many chiropractors think that their team will, will just figure it out. They don't do any development and training and if they, they do training, it's under the, really under the guise of teaching.

'cause they just wanna show their [00:01:00] staff a concept or two once in a while or have 'em read a, a training manual and expect them to just get it. But here's the reality. Teams don't manage themselves. They just don't. Leaders manage teams, and if you don't step into that role in some fashion or another, you're not just risking chaos in your office, you're risking your reputation, you're revenue, and ultimately.

Your ability to serve your patients and your success. So today I wanna pull back the curtain on what really happens when doctors don't manage their teams and don't set clear expectations. But I also wanna talk about how you can turn it around before it blows up in your practice. So before we dive in here, we're gonna take our first break, quick word from our spon sponsors.

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Dr. Michael Perusich: Alright, everybody, welcome back to the [00:03:00] KC Pulse podcast. I appreciate you tuning in. Today we're talking about the dangers of not being the leader in your practice. And I, I, I kind of tore this open just a little bit in the beginning, but there's a myth that self-managing teams happen. And they just don't, you know, everybody always asks, why did you see some, some, so much success in practice?

Why did Dr. Kallio, why did Dr. Fox, why does Dr. Kelly? Well, the reason why is because we lead our teams. So let's tackle this myth. The idea. That there's this thing called a self-managing teams doctors. I want you to, I want you to listen to me really, really close. There is no such thing when you don't give your staff direction.

Guess what they'll do? They'll make everything up as they go, and I promise you, they'll take the easy road out. I'm not talking against your staff, your team, I'm sure they're great, but it's human nature to find the easy road. And when each team [00:04:00] member makes up their own rules, you don't have a system. You have chaos.

Everybody's going every which way. And I, I see this play out all the time. The, the front desk decides their way of tracking visits is, well, just, it's good enough. It, it works for me. I don't really see the big picture, but it works for me. The building person sets their own follow up schedule and suddenly your compliance is out the window.

Chaos always costs you money. Chaos always costs you patience. Here's my second thought. There's a huge cost to not setting expectations, and here's the harsh truth. When expectations aren't clear, accountability disappears. Nobody becomes accountable for anything and your staff doesn't know what the standards are, so they create their own, and that's how you end up with missed collections because nobody knows the benchmarks.

You [00:05:00] wind up with cas skipping compliance procedures because nobody checks anyway. There's no self-auditing systems, and all of a sudden you're so non-compliant with the rules that you could be in trouble. And patients are getting mixed messages because every team member explains care differently. They explain the finances differently.

They explain the expectations of following a treatment plan differently. And when these expectations aren't set, you don't lose efficiency, you lose trust, you lose money, revenue, and worst of all momentum. And here's the kicker. It's not your team's fault, it's yours. Leadership is all about clarity, but it has to come from you doctors.

And what winds up happening is we create this culture of dysfunction. And when doctors don't manage, the team fills the void. And what fills that void? Well, some of you see this [00:06:00] gossip, drama, resentment, boredom, burnout. If they start showing up late, I mean, everything just falls apart. That's what chaos does to you, and suddenly you're spending more time putting out fires than adjusting patients and creating revenue.

Good employees quit because they crave structure. Believe it or not, they crave structure. Bad employees thrive because they love the lack of accountability. Want you to think about that a minute? Good employees want structure. Bad employees want lack of accountability. If you're not actively leading your team, you're accidentally leading them into dysfunction.

Culture is always being created in your clinic. No matter what you do, it's always being created. It's either being created by design or by default. It's either good culture or bad culture, and then how your patients feel. [00:07:00] Creates a big, big, big, big impact on your success. You know, we talk about this all the time.

We have to create the wow factor in our practice, and what does the wow factor mean? Well, patients have to be excited about coming to your practice. They have to find trust in it, and all those kind of things that we talk about all the time. So let's connect the dots to your patients here on what we're doing when we create chaos.

Patients aren't blind. They notice when your staff isn't aligned. They hear the mixed messages, they feel the tension, and they wonder is this doctor, does this doctor have the ability to manage this team or not? And if they can't manage the team, how can they manage my care? And so, and. That's where retention begins to tank because patients, they, they feel the spin of the practice and they, they spin off like a carousel and that's why referrals dry eye up.

That's why reviews start to kind of [00:08:00] sting. Leadership behind the scenes creates confidence in the treatment room. So what's the fix? Well, we have to lead with clarity, and I'm gonna pause right there and we're gonna, we're gonna do a quick note, another, uh, little, little time out here to hear a word from our sponsors again, but I wanna talk about leading with clarity and why that's the fix.​

So we'll be right back.

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Dr. Michael Perusich: All right, everybody. Welcome back to the KC Chiro Pulse podcast, brought to you by Kats consultants and Chiro Health, USA, we are talking about what we're [00:09:00] talking about, the dangers of not leading your team. And I, I, right before this last break, I talked about leading with clarity and that's the fix.

So the fix, it's not complicated, it's just being clear with your leadership and here's what it looks like. Clear leadership is one where expectations are set and the expectations are clear. You're clear with roles, responsibilities, performance standards. You write them down, you hold everybody accountable, including yourself.

You manage with consistency. You have daily huddles, weekly team meetings, quarterly strategic planning sessions, one-on-one feedback with each other. You train regularly. You never assume once is enough. See once. Training. I'm using air quotes. If you're just listening. Training once is nothing more than teaching.

We need to train, retrain, and then train again, as if we were a professional sports [00:10:00] team and we have to lead with vision. Everybody on the team has to know what your vision is, so we remind the team of the bigger why. The why behind our work. Why do we do this? We don't do this just for profits. We do this so that.

We can spread good health and healthy nervous systems through our entire, entire community, our entire county, our entire state, if that's our big vision. So here's some practical moves that you can bring into the practice today, tomorrow, but bring 'em in. Bring 'em in immediately. So start holding daily team huddle huddles.

I'm telling you, daily huddles are a game changer. They don't have to be long. They're less than 10 minutes, but you're focused on alignment and goals and what's happening in that day part. Have written job descriptions in standard operating procedures and adjust these constantly. Just because [00:11:00] somebody starts in a certain job with a certain description doesn't mean it doesn't grow over time.

And the same goes with your procedures. They have to grow with the practice, but do this. So there's no question about who does what and how they do it. Schedule regular performance reviews with your staff. Not to punish them, but to guide and coach them. Be, be the, the bigger, if you will, be the leader.

Share your business goals openly. Shared goals on collections and patient visits and retention and whatever your KPI markers are that you are watching really close and are part of your goals. And I hear doctors say all the time, oh, I don't, I don't wanna talk about collections with my staff docs. I'm here to tell you they see your collections.

So bring them into the know, because the team that knows is the team that has the winning edge. Here's the truth. Unmanaged teams create confusion. Managed teams create profit, period, end of [00:12:00] stories. End, end, end of the story, and doctors, let me leave you with this idea. If you don't manage your team, you're managing decline.

Leadership is not optional. Expectations are not optional. If you want a practice that thrives, you have to step into the role of the leader, the manager, and the visionary. Your staff, your team, they don't need another boss. They need a coach. They need a guide. They need a leader with clarity, with who has clear vision and sets clear exp.

Expect clear expectations. I'm so excited I can't even talk. So here's your challenge. After listening to this, here's what I want you to do. I want you to set one clear expectation with your team and hold them accountable. Get used to doing this. You'll be amazed at how quickly the chaos begins to turn into confidence.

So I appreciate all of you tuning in each and every week. Usually it's Marissa or Dr. Fox on here, or sometimes Dr. [00:13:00] Callo or Dr. Kelly, but sometimes I like to jump on here by myself with just a quick little message just to hit home with you on things that you can do in your practice that are gonna drive results, and that's what we do here at Kats Consultants.

We help you. Drive results. Your profit profitability is our why. So go to Kats consultants.com, check out all the free downloads and the things that we're doing for practices and helping them manage the business side of the practice so you can see great revenue and profitability and sustainability like you hope you do.

So thanks for tuning in. If this hits home, please share like and share. We're growing like crazy because of you guys out there. So like and share, and. Let us help you build profitable, powerful chiropractic practices. So until next time, clarity is leadership, and leadership builds thriving clinics, and we want you to be one too.

Alright, from all of us here at Kats Consultants and thank you Chiro Health, USA for being our sponsor. [00:14:00] We'll see you next time.