Over the past few weeks, I have showcased how to go from powerless to powerful by laying out the three most harmful behaviors.
What happens in most practices (usually because of the four mindset saboteurs… self-limiting beliefs, preconceived ideas, negative self-talk, and pessimistic attitudes – more on these another time), is the team gives up their ability to dictate outcomes and actually works against their own objectives.
You give up your power when your behavior, attitude, actions, and habits are not in alignment with your mission and goals. Even if you do a number of things correctly, you counteract any potential progress being made. You’ve surely experienced this at times when you feel like you’re taking one step forward and two steps back.
The first breakthrough in any practice happens when what they stop making the mistakes and missteps that detract from your goals. This, more so than even the addition of better tactics and systems, has the most significant impact.
Last week, I broadened the ‘giving up your power’ with examples of how every practice undermines their own success with inconsistencies. I called this your kryptonite because it paralyzes your power to impact your patients and achieve your goals.
If every patient interaction in your practice delivered on continuity, congruence, and consistency from start to finish, you would be amazed at the opportunity you actually have and the success you would instantly achieve.
Once you eliminate contradiction and confusion from your practice, you’re ready for the next power-building shift which is designed to eliminate the most detrimental mistake a practice that undermines success…
Be Outcome-Focused, Not Task-Oriented
This is a team’s ability to focus on what really matters and avoid the busyness trap. The degree to which you are successful at this will determine the value of the output and the degree of success the practice can achieve. This is how you compound daily victories that move your closer to your goals.
Some very obvious examples…
A clinical team member being in such a hurry they miss the triangle of trust or completing an appointment without a defined next step, stage, component on the pathway to health.
A hygienist so busy and pressed for time that they shortcut or short change more valuable education, diagnostics, photographs, and discussions that will really make the difference in the patient experience.
A doctor running behind schedule and fails to make a comprehensive diagnosis, therefore minimizing the patient’s opportunity to achieve optimal health.
This of course goes for phone calls, insurance claims, money collected, and on and on.
All of these examples miss the entire point and purpose of the team member’s responsibility in that moment. Yes, they completed the task at hand, but did they achieve the victory?
Remember, it’s not about the task it’s about what the result of the task. It’s not about checking off a box or filling up an hour of time or occupying oneself to appear busy or getting the patient in-and-out as quickly as possible – it’s about the results that transpire.
Frequently revisiting this and assessing everyone’s performance comparatively is absolutely crucial if you want to achieve your goals and reach your potential.
This should be brought to life in a future-focused visualization in every morning huddle for every patient throughout the day. What is the outcome we expect from each patient interaction? How does one team member set up the next? It is each person’s responsibility to elevate the patient experience and bring it full circle from start to finish – not just of the experience – of the patient outcome.
All of these are examples that make you powerless and in doing so you give up your greatest response-ability to influence patients, to control outcomes, and to help more people get healthy in more meaningful ways.
It all comes back to how you define success. If a victory is complete patient health through comprehensive dentistry – then everyone is judged on their contribution to that goal.
And there should be zero tolerance for diversion. No one person gets to decide on how they will execute the patient experience or what is important today based on mood or if they get to pre-judge this patient or that patient.
Right now, think about where you stop short of success, where you fall short of realizing your practice mission. Because success is determined only by what you accomplish, not the time that has passed or number of tasks completed.
You must not stop at an exam or at problem-based dentistry or at x-rays or at insurance or at a no. What is the real result you are after?
- Not just a phone call but an appointment scheduled.
- Not just a first visit but a patient experience that educates and influences.
- Not just an exam but a state of ideal principle-based diagnosis.
- Not just a treatment plan but a full pathway to optimal health.
- Not just treatment scheduled but pre-payment collected.
And I could continue with referrals and friends and family, starting the whole process again.
It’s not about the task and the time, it’s not about the process and the protocol.
It must be about the result and the outcome.
This includes key aspects of the patient’s understanding, confidence, belief, commitment, and clarity through trust building while living out your philosophy, health pillars, and diagnostic principles.
The easiest ones that you must master in your practice are the triangles of trust, the clinical yes, and agreement on outcome. It’s not about the visit or the price or the procedure – never the dentistry instead the destination that the dentistry will take us to.
Outcomes over tasks.
Anything short of this will sabotage your success and undermine your efforts even with the greatest of intentions.
As long as you are taking advantages of your practice powers and avoiding the kryptonite that weakens it, then you are ready to breakthrough like never before.
Ready for your next practice evolution in growth?
I’ve made the complex simple with my “4 Pillars of Practice Success” that create the leverage necessary to break free from your limitations of capacity, time, and patients. I’m going to do a deep dive and take you behind the scenes of reverse engineering your practice to your next giant breakthrough and leap forward – next week.
Right now, it is vital that you and your team assess your focus on outcomes from a positional perspective, a patient perspective, and an overall practice perspective. Break it down into each team member’s top priorities and core responsibilities in order to avoid the task and busyness trap. Focus on achievement of goals and accomplishment of the most important objectives – and avoid this costly mistake.
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