Last week, I emphasized the single greatest determinant of your success being your FOCUS.
Any Doctor Owner knows – if they are honest – when they are distracted results suffer, struggle soon ensues, momentum stalls, and dips happen. This is the opposite of purposeful success where the only victories are accidents and sporadic.
I shared several examples and then brought back the theme of forced progress and self-imposed discipline. Coupled with your focus, and this is formula required for success in any business, especially dentistry.
So where should you put your focus? We are going to review the five key areas of your practice that act as the central gears to impact everything else.
Each is a source of leverage within your practice that becomes its own linchpin to success. If you master the control of these five levers, you can manipulate all other facets of the practice. Done properly, these can be X (multiplication) factors instead of just + (addition) factors.
What I’m talking about is not just understanding how to be successful but putting into place structured systems and control mechanisms that ensure the predictable outcomes that will drive your results.
I call this “The Power of Cause and Effect In Your Dental Practice.”
And YOU do have the power. That is, if you choose to take it and not delegate it.
The get started, here are the three concepts that allow us to control the Cause and Effect Power in your practice (in other words, these are three skills required of you before we can wield this influence over the practice’s inner workings) …
Beginning With The End In Mind: knowing the outcome you want for every aspect of your business.
Reverse Engineering: taking each desired outcome and working backwards to reliably orchestrate (very important word) a deliberate result.
And then we have my philosophy and tactical approach to implementation I call…
Proactive Action: instead of being reactive, taking the necessary steps to prevent problems, address challenges, and set yourself up for success. If we want to solve a problem, let’s find a way to avoid it in the first place. If we want better patients, let’s create them. If we want a more effective schedule, let’s take ownership over it. If we want a high performing team, let’s have an action plan to bring it to life.
Everything here is dependent on one overriding principle of success… BEING IN CONTROL
Now, this all starts with “vision,” which you do have to have. Without it there is nothing to base your decisions on (call it vision, mission, purpose, whatever you want). If you don’t have a bigger picture in mind, you are just self-employed showing up and going through the motions of a job. You deserve better.
However, if you want more, then you are going to have to take responsibility for it.
Your best is possible and it doesn’t have to be hoped for; it can be CREATED. It doesn’t have to be accidental, it can absolutely be ON PURPOSE.
If you want a refresher on BEING IN CONTROL rather than at the mercy of circumstance, I just completed a virtual training on this very topic.
You can still watch the replay of my latest Whiteboard Session on Private Practice Threats. Everything I’m about to say will make a lot more sense if you have taken time to actually watch the replay, take to heart the examples, and focus your energies on the leverage points of success.
Watch The On-Demand Replay of the Practice Success Whiteboard Session…
Let’s get started on a dive deep into the five core leverage points of practice growth, practice autonomy, and practice consistency. I’ll show you how these things break down and become predictable, if they are done right. In doing so, I’m going to open your eyes to specific ways you are sabotaging yourself and actually putting limiting barriers on your practice growth.
Today, I will walk you backwards into the CAUSE that is the result of the most common frustrations, sticking points, roadblocks, and growth inhibitors for each of them. Then next week we’ll get into a few more specifics about the EFFECT.
First, Effective Scheduling.
The key about the schedule is that it usually just happens. It gets filled or doesn’t. No rhyme or reason. Even if there is a plan, usually the plan itself is not one that would ultimately lead to and serve as a catalyst for daily goals.
Everything about scheduling is thought of backwards. Often the greatest communication facilitator from front to back should be the schedule and yet it is usually the biggest frustration and stressor to both sides.
Inevitably, the cause of the schedule is not just about how it is filled but what it is filled with. Master better scheduling protocols to elevate your hourly value, have more productive patient visits, and reduce wasted time that doesn’t lead you closer to your goals.
Second, Case Acceptance.
You ought to know by now that I say that the battle for case acceptance is won before it is ever fought. Yet, I’m not even talking about that because the key to case acceptance is NOT getting the acceptance in and of itself. It is not difficult to get someone to “accept” treatment, it is harder to get them to believe enough about it to PAY in advance for the complete treatment plan.
The real question is: WHAT ARE WE GETTING ACCEPTANCE FOR. Case acceptance stems directly from diagnosis. Lacking in diagnosis and you will probably have great case acceptance but it will be meaningless.
All too often people are working on the wrong problem. Not getting yeses just for the sake of yeses but instead asking yourself what are we trying to get yeses on. Getting case acceptance first stems from building cases which is an effect from the cause of the diagnostic approach and overall vision.
That is the origin of case acceptance. Start there. Go to work on this and experience effortless growth.
Third, Take-Initiative Team.
I’m talking about a self-managed, go-get-em team that is dialed in every single day executing the vision you set forth. Well, the key to the team is motivation but it goes beyond motivation and is always about one thing…
Clearly defined expectations and detailed quantitative victories.
Here is what you are responsible for.
Here is how to do a great job.
Here is what a victory will look like.
Here is how we are going to track it.
Here is the reward you get for it.
The most motivated team in the world can’t grow your practice unless they know what growth looks like and how to do it.
Management and leadership is one the biggest cause and effect culprits because people will only be as great as the culture and only as effective as the systems they have to run.
Oh, there will be more on this, just you wait.
Four, Quality Patients.
I beat this one up all the time so I am going to keep it simple here. You BUILD better patients. You can’t be at the mercy of what your patients want to pay for and what they value when they walk in.
Instead, you want to be the CAUSE that helps your patients value dentistry. That is done through education, an interactive experience, and helping them take ownership over their problems. Then, once you unlock the ability to create better patients, everything else becomes easier.
Fifth, Doctor Autonomy.
Okay, so finally we get to you. And the best part about it, it is usually defined by working less and making more, but to each their own – is that it is 100% completely about making the decision to change whatever it is you don’t like.
Feeling like you are in command and not at the mercy of your practice is critical. Nothing will ever change if you aren’t dictating the terms by which your practice operates.
There is a way to do everything you want to do. I assure you. You have to first be clear on what that is and then you have to be willing to question what you believe to be possible.
You see, cause and effect works the other way too. We will go to work changing the cause (not the effect) and we get to the ROOT of the problem.
So many doctors come to me and worry about falling into old ways or going back to bad habits. I say don’t worry because we aren’t just relying on you or your habits, you are human, instead we are getting at the foundation of everything and making lasting, sustainable improvements. That is be-CAUSE of this very concept I’m writing to you about today.
Now, you are ready for the next step in my Applied Focus for Forced Progress and Profitable Growth series so you can exert more control over your business and thereby cause the effect of a better lifestyle for all – more so than you have ever thought possible.
A whole lot more to come… but these key leverage points are the foundation for your FOCUS – where to put it and what to do with it in order to get more of your desired results.
