Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership
By Tracy Dowdy, CVPM
You walk into the back door of your practice and within five minutes you find out two employees have called in sick, which happens often in your practice and yesterday you had one employee give their resignation just as they were getting trained to “how it should be done in your practice.” Does this scenario hit a little too close to home with your staff situation? John Maxwell in his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” Many veterinarians who love animals and medicine go into business for themselves but lack the leadership skills to influence people in a positive way. It is easy to assume that the staff problems mentioned above are due somehow to a fault in the staff whereas more times than not, its because the leadership in the practice is lacking. There has been a wide misunderstanding about what leadership really means. As a matter of fact, many books have been written supposedly about leadership when in reality they were more about management. The main difference between management and leadership is that leadership is about influencing people to follow you while management focuses on maintaining systems and processes. There are many myths about leadership. The first step to becoming a better leader is understanding what leadership is not:
Knowledge Myth:
Sir Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power” which leads people to believe power is the essence of leadership and they naturally assume those who possess knowledge and who have high IQ’s are leaders. However, you can go to some of the most prestigious universities in the country and meet brilliant research scientists who have a very high IQ but their ability to lead others is very low.
Position Myth:
Another great misunderstanding is people think leadership is based on position but it’s not. Stanley Huffty affirmed, “It’s not the position that makes the leaders, it’s the leader that makes the position. Veterinarians, practice managers and supervisors have to realize that because they are in a position of authority doesn’t mean they are leaders. They must have the skills and qualities that will make them an effective leader in the respective roles.
If your desire is to be successful with your team, your clients and you want to make a positive impact in your world, you have to focus on becoming an effective leader. The core value of a leader is sacrifice. If you want to have people follow you and be motivated by you, you must lose your rights and increase your responsibilities. You do not have the right to come to work with a grumpy, negative attitude. When you act grumpy, you have just told the staff this is an acceptable way to act at work. You do not have the right to lash out at or give empty promises to your employees. When you do this, you have just given permission to the staff to treat clients the same way. When I was working as a practice manager, I realized I lived in a fish bowl. My attitude and actions were a mere reflection of the morale and productivity of my team. I assume people buy into their leader before they buy into their leader’s ideas. That assumption leads me to live a life worthy of their respect. You have to be willing to give up if you want to go up the leadership ladder.
So let’s talk about some traits that will take you to the top:
- Integrity: Character is so hard to develop yet so easy to lose. It is both the strength by which we lead and the weakness by which we fail. Character building is a life-long task. Effective leaders have more going for them than a set of skills. The best leaders are effective because of who they are on the inside. Any attempt to lead apart from character is destined to fail. The bottom line is that integrity allows others to trust you. It is the glue that holds people together and it is the key to becoming a leader.
- Motivational skills: You become a motivational influence when you encourage people and communicate with them on an emotional level. This process does two things: 1) It creates a bridge between you and them and 2) it builds confidence and self worth in that person. When people feel good about you and themselves during times they’re with you, then your level of influence increases significantly. So you may be asking “this all sounds great but how do I motivate exactly?” You do it by nurturing your staff with encouragement, respect and recognition. Focus on giving rather than getting. As a consultant, I have interviewed healthcare team members in practices all over the country. Many share how they are not so concerned about making more money but how much they would like a simple pat on the back and their employer saying, “Thank you for your hard work. I really appreciate you.”
- Mentoring ability: Mentoring is pouring your life into other people and helping them reach their potential. As you give of yourself, helping others overcome obstacles in their lives and showing them how to grow personally and professionally, you help them achieve a whole new level of living. The mentoring process offers people the opportunity to turn their potential into reality and their dreams into destiny. You can mentor your team by enlarging them. You can do this by seeing their potential, tapping into their passion, addressing character flaws and putting resources in their hands. So many times people leave the veterinary profession because veterinarians, managers and supervisors do not see beyond their staff’s current function. Staff gets bored and feels unchallenged and they eventually move on. One of the most important aspects of mentoring others is empowering the people you are mentoring. When you become an empowerer, you work with and through people, but you do much more. You enable others to reach the highest levels in their personal and professional development. Simply stated, empowering is giving your influence to others for the purpose of personal and organizational growth. Empower your healthcare team by transferring authority to them and publicly show your confidence in them. Empowering others frees you personally to have more time for the important things in your life and increase your impact on the lives of the people you empower. By empowering you healthcare team to do the things they are more than capable of doing, it gives you time to focus on medicine, see more clients and it gives your team a feeling of responsibility and ownership of their role within the practice which will provide emotional and financial wealth for both of you.
Leadership is a lot like investing successfully in the stock market. If your hope is to make a fortune in a day, you’re not going to be very successful. What matters most is what you do day by day over the long haul. Some people are born with more natural talents than others. However, the ability to lead is really a collection of skills, nearly all of which can be learned and improved. I challenge you to become a life long learner of leadership. It will greatly improve your personal and professional relationships.
Copyright © 2003 Texas Veterinarian Magazine: March 2003. All Rights Reserved
Untitled Page
 Management tips:
Management articles:
Contact MRG with questions and concerns regarding the future success of your practice.
|
