PLANNING

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Lessons in Staff Leadership

Here’s how to blaze a trail others will want to follow

MICHAEL S. ROTHSCHILD, O.D., CARROLLTON, GA

From business magazines to the New York Times Bestseller List to posts on the Web, it’s clear that leadership is an enormous topic that attracts a lot of interest.

A Google search of “leadership quotes” generates more than 86 million results. My favorite is attributed to Margaret Thatcher: “Being a leader is like being a lady. If you have to say you are, then you probably are not.”

Leadership is easy to talk about, but a difficult quality to understand. One challenge is that nearly everyone has a slightly different idea of what a leader is. If we use Google and Amazon as reference points, there are many definitions of “leadership.” After studying the topic for years, I have developed a definition of leadership that best fits my understanding:

Leadership is the collection of talents that you are blessed with and the skills that you develop, which allow you to influence those you lead to care about the vision and the goals that you want them to support.

My experience

My involvement in leadership started at a very early age. At kindergarten graduation, I served as Bongo Joe, an honor reserved for the best kindergartener in the school. Later in my school years, I ran for many leadership positions. I lost two elections in optometry school to classmates . . . and I am almost over it.

As a new O.D., I became involved in my state association and began “climbing the ranks” of the profession. I was afforded an opportunity to attend leadership training, and that’s when I began to understand the art and science of leadership and all of its nuances. This “awakening,” provided me with several lessons in leadership, such as:

► Leadership is needed not just at the Capitol or at the state level; leadership is needed within my practice. The most visible leaders of our profession seemed most active fighting political battles. It was made clear to me very early that that type of leadership is very necessary for us all, but it is also needed for me and my own team.

► I was an authority in my practice, but I was no leader. As a doctor or owner, my word is final, making me an “authority.” Leadership is what was needed to keep my team’s morale up so they were able and willing to take care of my patients the way I really wanted.

► To be a true leader in my practice, my community, my profession and my home, I was going to need some help. That help came in a variety of forms: books on leadership, leadership seminars and interviews with several leaders to learn about their secrets.

► To allow myself time to lead others, I had to develop leadership skills in other members of my team. One person can only do so much. When you begin to reach the limit of what you are able to do, let others take on some of those leadership tasks. The hardest part of that for me was “letting go.”

Using these lessons as a foundation, I turned my practice into a “Leadership Laboratory” to improve the leadership capabilities of our team by answering: What keeps us motivated? What allows us to concentrate on improving rather than just keeping up with the day to day?

Our office is the “Lab” where we put our theories to the test. Most commonly, we look for better ways to communicate with one another. We have meetings, memos, e-mails, bulletin boards (digital and cork) and IM systems.

We also incorporated several book discussions that explore new concepts in teamwork and leadership. Some of my favorites are The Fred Factor (Currency 2004) by Mark Sanborn; Fish! (Hyperion 2009) by Stephen Lundin and Harry Paul; and The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Thomas Nelson 2007) by John C. Maxwell.

We can only understand the effects of new leadership methods or lessons with controlled testing and analysis of the results. Thus, the “Lab” is where we schedule a time to follow up on any change we make within the office.

We were able to successfully incorporate a leadership team within the management of this small town optometric practice. Sharing lessons from that experience with other practices illustrated that every practice situation is immensely unique.

For instance, a number of optometric consultants insist on a “professional office manager” who takes care of all the office’s day-to-day tasks. That is a very appropriate solution in many practices, but there are other good management solutions. Though the leadership team concept works well for us, it might not be a good answer for all. A single doctor making all the decisions can also work.

In our leadership team, each of five “zones” — scheduling, clinical, front of house, distribution and financial — has a leader who works with the other leaders to support the overall vision and mission of the practice. (When we started, we identified three zones: clinic, optical and administrative.)

The leadership team meets just before the weekly staff meeting to make sure all zones’ needs are addressed and we have a plan for working together. They also meet toward the end of the week to look at their goals, assuring the team does not lose focus on one particular area of the practice.

Universal lessons

While some leadership lessons are unique, others are universal, such as:

► Leadership is a life-long process, and there are no shortcuts.

► Being a good delegator is the most difficult task for most leaders to develop.

► “Natural born leaders” are rare; most of us have to work on our leadership skills.

► Like fingerprints, everyone has a leadership style that is like no one else’s.

► Not everyone who is a good employee wants to be (or should be) a leader.

Though there are countless ways to become an effective leader, two aspects must be considered in every leadership development effort: (1) You must have an understanding what moves people, and (2) you must successfully share the vision, mission and goals of the organization. It’s that simple.

1 Understand what moves people

To understand what motivates people, consider staff bonuses as an example. Experts routinely argue about what is the best bonus system for an optometry practice. And I have participated in many conversations about how to give raises or performance reviews for staff people. But very few practice leaders ask their staff people what motivates them to do a better job. On many occasions, I have asked my practice team and others, to “list five things we can do to make your experience at work better.”

Money is sometimes on the list, but it is rarely number one. Number one is usually recognition for a job well done. This is consistent with surveys dating from the present back to 1946 when the Labor Relations Institute of New York reported the No. 1 desire of employees was “full appreciation for work done.”

One way to understand a staff person’s motivation is through personality testing. (See “Testing for Motivation,” below.) Also, we listen. I don’t listen naturally — my natural leadership tendency is to talk — so I put steps in place to make sure I have plenty of opportunity to hear what my team is saying. We have daily meetings where the facilitator rotates through the entire team. Our leadership team gathers once or twice per week and answers three questions:

1) How are we doing?

2) How do you know we are doing a certain way?

3) How are you going to make it better?

And twice per year, we have a goal-setting retreat where we share dreams and aspirations. It is a time to stop, collaborate and listen.

2 Successfully share the vision, mission and goals of the organization

“How do you know which way to go if you haven’t determined where you are going?” I love this question.

Almost every organization, including most optometry practices, has a written mission statement. But most of them are worthless if few in the organization fully comprehend the meaning. Usually the statement is comprised words intended to sound good in a brochure, but not to lead the group.

Our website home page provides our mission statement:

West Georgia Eye Care has been a leading provider of optometry services and vision care products in the Carrollton community since 1999, and we want to help you achieve and maintain clear vision for years to come.

Throughout history, true leaders have painted a picture so everyone on their team knows where they are going. That is, they clearly define and communicate what they are working to accomplish. For some leaders, the ability to help others see what you want to accomplish comes easily. For others, it requires diligent, intentional action.

Step one in this process is to paint the picture for yourself. When building a business, you are able to determine the culture it will have. Determine whether it will be more focused on relationships, performance or price, and which of these will be the primary focus of your practice.

Next, simply dream about the perfect day in the practice. Imagine as many details as you can — the type of patient, the mood and feel of the practice, as well as the flow (busy and efficient or slow and steady).

Then, simply record it all, so you can refer back to it when you find yourself off course. To share it, explore your style. I personally like to say it to my team verbally, when we are all together, typically at one of our office retreats.

I like to build momentum and excitement, and use the group’s enthusiasm to build on itself. Some prefer a flowchart or other graphic to create a visual representation of their vision. Others have used skits to portray the “perfect day” in the practice.

Explaining your vision to your team is the missing component in the leadership strategy of almost any optometry practice. The same challenge occurs when setting specific goals. If you have more to accomplish, the team needs to understand exactly what it is. Sometimes it is a higher end optical, a medical model, fewer hours, more locations or a practice focused on sports vision or specialty contact lenses.

If you don’t communicate where you want to go in quantifiable terms that can be easily understood, the team can’t help get you there. For example, do you announce you want your practice to increase its high-end optical sales, or do you identify specific frame lines, the percentage of increase you hope to achieve and a time frame in which you plan to achieve the increase?

Of course, if you have accomplished everything you want in your practice, the team needs to know that, too.

Seven steps to leadership

No matter where you are in your development as a leader, consider the following steps for continued improvement:

1. Start with the person in the mirror. Leadership begins with understanding your own leadership style and using your strengths to help improve your weaknesses.

2. Define your vision. Just capture the thoughts about what you want to do with your life on paper or on a computer. Not just your professional life, but also personally.

3. Share what is appropriate with the right team. Professional goals obviously need to be shared with the team, and personal things with the family. Usually, there is a great deal of overlap.

4. Learn what motivates each individual member of your team. You can just ask them, use a series of personality tests, or do both.

5. Get some help. There are so many great books on leadership and teamwork available. Start reading and taking classes, but remember that you are never finished improving. There are numerous consulting groups inside and outside of optometry that can help, too.

6. Make a leadership plan. With the vision in one hand and the motivations of the team in the other, decide if you prefer a team or an office manager model. If you prefer a team model, how many members and from where should they come? The plan is just a vision to get you started. It will evolve as you and your practice grows.

7. Identify other leaders. Consider who on your team could make a good leader and, when you are ready, start making a leader out of them.

Get Started

Building an effective leadership team within a practice is a never-ending task. It takes time, energy and money. But this team of empowered leaders can allow you to expand beyond your current situation and accomplish things you have never imagined. Let’s go to that mirror and get started. OM

Dr. Rothschild founded West Georgia Eye Care, a Vision Source member, in 1999. A founding member of leadershipod.com, he lectures on team building and practice communications. E-mail him at mrothschild@LeadershipOD.com. Send comments to optometricmanagement@gmail.com.