I’d like to share with you a secret of developing championship teams. It’s one that most people do not know and when they do, they ignore it (mainly because it requires a lot of work).
It will seem simple yet the power is in it’s execution.
Championship teams are made through the development of INDIVIDUALS!
Most people think they can say… “Okay team, this year we are going to work harder, we are going to run faster, we are going to do more, and win big.”
That’s vague, not strategic, and really gives no clear vision or specific thing to work on. Even saying “you have to keep the schedule full” or “let’s get more money out of hygiene”.
These random ambiguous statements will only go so far.
What will work on the other hand is sitting down with each person and identifying what will take their individual performance to the next level. Then, going to work on this. Because when you grow the individuals you grow the team.
It seems kind of obvious but it really doesn’t happen. When you take big broad brush strokes across your team, you have some minimal impact. The goal of a Championship Practice is to segment out each person and elevate the performance within each position and each patient contact to create success on a small scale that becomes replicated and amplified by everyone else.
Think in football, there are quarterback coaches, lineman coaches, running back coaches, special teams coaches … everything is broken down so they can hone their skills and techniques of their game time execution.
I have always said, focus on developing team members within each position, no matter how much cross training you do (which is wonderful), you still will only be as good as you are ‘best’ at each and every individual position.
Championship teams don’t have average performance across the entire practice, they have championship performance in every area, every patient contact, every key daily leverage point for success.
This also keeps it fresh for your team and gives them individual challenges to help them grow, stay motivated, keep pushing forward to improve and feel great about their accomplishments.
Of course this means you want measurable results you can track and benchmark in order to let them play a game against themselves to see their progress.
There is no “I” in team as the saying goes, but every team is made up of individuals working together in concert and you will only be as strong as your weakest link – which could be a different person, department, action within the practice at any given time. Make the individuals stronger and make your team champions!
Hey, get to it, and have a great week!
