“Success depends on other people”
– David Schwartz (The Magic Of Thinking Big)
Our success as Chiropractors depends on other people. This may seem obvious, of course we need front desk staff, associates, accountants and coaches. We often forget the other people we need to be successful Chiropractors.
Without patients we can’t be Chiropractors. We can only be trained as people who could be Chiropractors. The act of doing Chiropractic is what makes us Chiropractors, and we can only do that if we have patients who want to be treated by us.
Therefore we need other people to be successful and that can cause a problem. People can’t be forced to help us. If we managed to force a patient, who didn’t want treating, on to the bench I would guess that they wouldn’t be the most compliant patient. I don’t think they would be diligent in doing their exercises. In fact I think you’d have a visit from the police.
We see the fact that we can’t force patients to do what we want but we sometimes mislead ourselves that we can force our staff to do what we want. It’s true we can threaten or coerce them to do what we want, but like the forced patient they will not willingly comply. If staff members are forced to implement a new process then usually we end up with resentment and only partial use of the process.
That’s why weekly meetings, training and being likeable are so important as an employer. Being likeable is a big indicator of weather staff will follow through, willingly, with your requests. A good boss is likeable and encourages staff to follow procedures through explaining the reason it’s needed, what it will accomplish and why it is important. A bad boss will just tell staff to follow a new procedure or else.
If you are an employee you also need to be likeable. Do you need your bosses help to take a vacation? yes you do and to get you out of that error you made? You bet you do.
Have you ever visited a busy (they are always busy) Chiropractors office that just seems so likeable. Did you notice how easy their day went? Did you and the patients have fun with the joking and humour during the visits? Did you think “wow” she’s a natural? I think it would surprise you how hard this type of Chiropractor worked to get to where they are.
Many have spent hours of research and effort to get to that level. It wasn’t just their personality, they weren’t born like that. If that was the case acting wouldn’t be a profession. Anyone who has seen the great Robin Williams in “Mrs Doubtfire” then seen him in “one hour photo” will realise people can portray very different characters. And people who are likeable have just practiced that likeable character until it has become “their” character.
Would it surprise you to know that many successful people have a plan for being likeable. Did you know that many of them have a written plan on how to be more likeable.
In fact a doctors likability and communication skills has been shown to increase or decrease the risk of being sued by a lot. Bad communication and likability was the second highest risk factor for a medical doctor to get sued for. This was second only to the medical Doctor rushing their patient. Do we still think that 3 minute appointments are a good idea?(they can be if done right). On top of that patients will only really help you if they want to. If you want them to want to help, then they are going to have to like you. There is good news for this as research shows you can become more likable.
I’m going to preface this a disclaimer. I am British (although I live in America) and am not a member of any American political party. I’m using this disclaimer as we are going to talk about a former American president, Lyndon Johnson.
Lyndon Jonson was known as the best political operator in Washington during his time there. He served as president twice and Vice President once. His skill was in people and he was known to get what he wanted by using his people skills to get people on both sides of the political system to help him.
Was it natural ability? Talent? Bribery? Coercion? Apparently not.
From a young age he had always wanted people to like him so he would be effective in getting their help. He spent a lot of time and thought on this subject and he came up with 10 rules to help people like him and therefore assist him in his goals.
That’s why periodically over the next few weeks and months we are going to take those 10 points and examine how we can use that in a clinic environment.
President Johnsons first recommendation was to remember peoples names and in part two of this post we will be showing you easy ways to do this or appear to do this. Intrigued? I hope so.
ADIO