2/18/2019 1 Comment Your Practice Isn't PerfectBruce Lee once said, "A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at." While no one at VisionAmerica would have lined up to tell him to his face, we don't necessarily agree with Bruce here. But goals are often missed! Much like New Year's resolutions, (almost) everybody has them, but few people follow through and complete them. (Studies show that only 8% of people stick to their New Year's resolutions!) As January all but disappeared and we have rolled into February, the opportunity to set achievable annual goals is still available to all of us. Goal-setting is a skill that can be learned and improved upon, but the problem with most goals is that they are too grand. As an example, if you have never lost five pounds, setting the goal of losing 100 by mid-summer is a bad approach.
Last Summer, we reviewed the book Traction by Gino Wickman, which has some great insight on setting and achieving goals in business. (Anybody read it? Thoughts?) One thing Wickman made clear is that goals without vision are pointless. As a practice owner, you must have a clear vision of where you want to go. For the purposes of this piece, we will presume that the vision for your practice is in place. Now, let's dive into how you and your practice can knock your 2019 goals out of the park! Only Choose a Few Goals It's highly likely that any business owner could think of 20 things they would like to achieve in their practice. Wickman even notes that one of his clients came up with 75! Whether it is 10 or 20 goals, list them out in a document and prioritize them from most to least important. One of the easiest ways to whittle this list down and prioritize is to bring some of your key team members in and create a dialogue about the list. Most likely, they will identify new areas to focus on and the collaborative nature of the activity will be healthy for the practice. Regardless of the size of your list, each item should be prioritized. The next step is to set timeframes for each goal. Timeframe is Key We like to make massive goals. It's just our nature. But when we set big targets, it is easy to get crushed by the weight of them. In Traction, Wickman recommends moving our businesses forward "one 90-day period at a time." The reason for a quarterly breakdown of your goals is that it allows you and your team to hone in on something that is achievable in the near future as opposed to 365 days from now. Wickman writes, "To the degree that you focus everyone in one direction, you'll gain the power of that laser beam, gaining traction toward your goals." One obvious note here is that your goals will probably require different timeframes. That is perfectly fine as long as you break it down into a 90-day timeframe. Some goals will only require one quarter and that's great! However, reducing your accounts receivable by 20% is easier to tackle if you break it down into 5% chunks. Goal Assignment We have beat this horse to death, but the practice owner can't do everything alone. As you look over your list of goals, some will clearly fall outside of your purview. Yes, you are concerned and ultimately responsible for everything that happens in your practice, but you cannot make an impact in every area of your practice on a daily basis. You must assign your goals to team members and let them own the completion of it. If you have monthly or weekly meetings with some of them, this is a great time to check in on their progress and help resolve any problems they may be facing. Peter Drucker once said, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." As an example, our Birmingham office started tracking no-show rates in September of 2018 and learned that they were almost at 11%. This allowed us to put measures into place to help solve the problem and we have almost cut it in half! That being said, steady tracking of your goals will be key. Steady Tracking You have probably picked up on this by now, but as you break your goals down into 90-day segments, following up on their completion and updating your team on a quarterly basis will be how you track them. Did the person responsible for recovering 5% of your outstanding receivables complete their goal? If so, celebrate that! If not, ask key questions to figure out why and adjust the process accordingly. The most important thing here is to bring the entire office in on the process. Your entire team doesn't have to be involved in choosing what goals the practice pursues, but it is imperative that they know the goals exist and are striving to see them to completion. After both you and your team see goals completed and removed from the list and steady progress being made on larger goals, the improvement of your practice will become contagious. Conclusion The "set it and forget it" approach to goals simply does not work. Even if you choose not to use Wickman's approach in Traction, having a solid process in place and bringing your team in on the goals of your practice is necessary for progress. And for true improvement, simply aiming at your goals is not enough. Break them down into quarterly, achievable segments. By doing this, both you and your team will be able to see consistent improvement. We hope 2019 is a great year for you and your practice! As always, let us know if we can help!
1 Comment
Felton Perry
4/9/2019 01:04:21 pm
Thanks for reprising this article. A quote comes to mind: When you're up to your......rear end in alligators, it's hard to remember that your original objective was to drain the swamp! Not sure where it originated, but every time it comes to mind, I think of Dr. Hank Peters.
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