Halloween is finally here! While this holiday is full of fun activities like trick-or-treating, costume parties, and carving pumpkins, it got us thinking about something so many people are afraid of: failure. As a leader of your chiropractic practice, the last think you want to do is fail. Your patients and employees rely on you.
So how can you avoid failure? One way to do this is to go from being a good boss to a great boss. As a boss in the “good category, a lot of things are already being done correctly, but we all have room for improvement. Here are our tips.
1. Listen.
Good bosses focus a lot of their time on communication, and rightfully so. Communication is transparent with team members both on an individual and a group level. Perhaps a good boss even opens up the floor for collaboration and questions. But what you say is only half the work - you’ve got to listen, too.
There is a difference between waiting for the other person to finish so you can begin to talk and truly listening. This is often misunderstood in professional settings. Great bosses put in the extra eye contact so their team members feel valued: make eye contact, have open body language, and put away the electronics. A great way to show you are listening is to repeat back what is said to you, so clarity is ensured. Your chiropractic assistant or office manager was hired for a reason, and they deserve your full attention. Great bosses make listening one of their most important habits.
2. Be flexible.
A healthy spine has some flexibility to it, and so should you as a great boss. Each individual member of your chiropractic practice has a unique set of tendencies and preferences. There isn’t necessarily a good or bad work style, and each has its own strengths and challenges. For example, you may have a top performer in your practice that achieves all goals, but at the expense of others. Some might be great team members, but are hesitant to acknowledge issues for the sake of maintaining a harmonious work environment.
As a good boss, one will have mastered their own work style. A good boss is self aware, but knows they aren’t perfect. But great bosses take it even further. Not only is their work style mastered, but so is the work style of their employees and knows how to place people to create a happy and productive practice.
If you don’t know how to do this, you could start with a conversation with your team. Listen carefully to their answers without pushing them, and see how you can integrate their requests into your processes for a more successful practice.
3. Be Positive.
Good bosses acknowledge the top performers of their team, and give out compliments liberally. Great bosses know that positive feedback doesn’t just have to come from the boss and create a work environment where team members actively give out positive feedback and encourage each other.
Employee recognition can be as formal or informal as you like it to be. It could be a shout-out during a morning meeting or a wall of colorful sticky notes with compliments. You could even bring your team together to see what they think works best. A positive boss creates a positive work environment.
There is a lot more to being a great boss, but these tips are a good place to start. To learn more about running a successful chiropractic practice, click here to learn about our next seminar!