3 Ways to Increase Staff Retention in Your Healthcare Business

“Good help is hard to find.”  

“The labor market is terrible.”

“I’m worried we’ll never find good people.” 

“This generation doesn’t value hard work.”

I often hear this early-on from my clients. 

The medical and dental field is fast-paced, and being the practice leader requires a lot of you, maybe even some kind of “super human” capabilities, which I hope you know is an unrealistic expectation. 

The solution is simple, but not necessarily easy, and will require you to gain clarity, learn to let go of some control, and trust that when you step into your CEO shoes, you will get the results you desire.

With turnover rates high, 26% in healthcare in 2022, you’re challenged with hiring well, training, providing sufficient support to your team, and creating a healthy workplace. You also have the pleasure of being the team lead, even if your practice manager is in charge of hiring, firing and training.

Some of the primary reasons for turnover are: 

• Staff is overworked 

• Work environment is stressful

• Lack of decision-making power

• Lack of recognition and direction from the top

I’m going to focus on the last reason, lack of recognition and direction from the top. I assure that you all are important, though in my experience in my 12 years of coaching and consulting clients, focusing on one area can often be supportive in addressing other sticky areas in need of attention. 

Here are 3 ways to increase employee retention:

1. Get clear about what you want for your practice. Look at the big picture and all the details. If my clients haven’t done this yet, we spend a day together in a VIP intensive to comb over the details, operational flows, wish lists and goals. With this clarity, we’re able to start working on updating, or in some cases, writing drafts of the operations and training manuals (what I lovingly refer to as the “office bibles”). 

   Once we’ve done this, we start to plan how they’ll communicate their mission, vision and expectations. 

2. Communicate your vision with your team. When I was a manager in a luxury health club, every employee was expected to know the company mission and values statements, and we were informed that we could be visited by secret shoppers at any time, so we needed to be ready to recite them. We were taught to embody, practice and consistently demonstrate the company values. As a result, our clients were genuinely happy, and the staff turnover at the location where I worked was low compared with the rest of the industry. 

   As employees, we knew what was expected of us and how to do our jobs. Job descriptions and company policies and procedures were crystal clear. As a new hire, I spent three days in their corporate headquarters in hands-on training, and was offered unlimited and unchallenged support for any questions or uncertainties that might arise. In short, I knew exactly what they wanted from me in my role, and how to meet and exceed their expectations.

3. Follow up like the wellbeing of your practice and team depend on it, because they do. Keep the lines of communication open. Trust but verify. Make sure your employees are empowered and sufficiently supported to do their jobs. Let go of control as much as possible, AND, check in with them regularly.

   I recommend that you bookend each day with a morning huddle and an evening debrief. These should last no longer than 10 minutes each, and ideally you ask questions and listen while your practice manager documents the details. You will follow-up in your weekly manager meeting. If there is a need for more staff follow-up, your practice manager can handle that.
   

One of my clients is a provider and owner of a practice with 10 providers, 10 technologists and 5 administrative professionals in two offices; the providers and practice manager work remotely. The practice more than doubled in patient demand, number of providers and technologists over a two year period. By any standard, this is huge growth in a short period of time. When we started working together, the turnover at the practice was well below industry average, at less than 10% turnover for several years. However, morale was dipping and frustrations were mounting.

My client was concerned about how this would impact the practice overall, and wanted to get a handle on it. I conducted several interviews with their team at all levels and length of tenure. I learned that every person who worked at the practice held the owner in the highest regard, and they all expressed they felt they were lacking direction, and some of the administrative team felt underappreciated and overworked.

I reviewed the interview results with my client and their practice manager, and before we set to work writing operations and training manuals, we got back to basics. 

We re-visited the practice mission and values, and put those in writing. Then, in collaboration with department heads, they updated their manuals. Once they had good working drafts (I recommend that these are living documents, to be adjusted incrementally over time), we planned implementation. They started having shorter, more frequent meetings for each department, and full-practice meetings. After a few months, my client told me it seemed like everyone had breathed a sigh of relief. The practice continues to be incredibly busy, and yet morale is at an all-time high. They have had zero turnover in the last year. 

Notice that morale is at an all-time high, and they didn’t put ping pong tables or snacks in the break rooms or go on fancy trips. They got clear about their mission and expectations, communicated them clearly with the team, and implemented a system for followup and quick resolution for issues that arise.

If you want to have a happy, engaged team, you don’t have to get fancy or complicated. Get clear. Communicate. Follow-up. Rinse, repeat.

If you would like support in improving morale and retention, schedule a complimentary Practice Assessment Strategy session. We help our clients navigate the challenges of being a provider-owner by taking back their time and finding the right strategy to grow their practice without burning out. 

We’d be honored to explore what’s possible for you and your team. 

Balancing the Third Shift

“Are we a good place for women physicians to work?” A question posed by executives as a result of short-term challenges caused by the pandemic. Jessica Dudley, Sarah McLaughlin, and Thomas H. Lee of the Harvard Business Review delves into the challenges women physicians are facing uncovered by post-pandemic stress. 

It is no secret physicians and those in healthcare are still experiencing the collateral mental health effects of the Covid-19 pandemic—specifically burnout in healthcare providers.

Post-pandemic stress OR stress uncovered by the pandemic?

One study noted women are more likely than male physicians to be responsible for the third shift. What’s the third shift? The third shift happens immediately upon entering the home after a day of work. Women are 25% more likely to be responsible for childcare and schooling, and 31% more responsible for household chores. 

Women are clocking in for the third shift the moment they walk through their front doors. Which leads to burnout, then higher turnover rates, especially in the medical field. 

The challenges and responsibility of the third shift women face does not grant them the flexibility to tend to their professional responsibilities while still enjoying their personal lifestyle. 

Gender inequality is partially to blame for making physician burnout worse; however, it’s safe to note not recognizing the differences in the demands of gender roles worsens the issue.

Society, especially in the U.S., is rooted in traditions carried over for decades. Gender roles have morphed and changed throughout the recent years, though, men continue to be applauded for taking care of their children and cleaning the house without the woman’s assistance—when that is another day in the life of motherhood. 

What does this have to do with healthcare providers and physicians? The environment provided upon hiring affects women physicians and providers professionally and personally. Recognizing employees have personal lives outside of their professional careers not only aids in their development with the practice, but also lessens the risk of burnout and turnover. 

Women physicians need a supportive environment. What should that entail? Longer maternity leave for both men and women. Flexible, non-consuming work hours. Equal pay to the man’s dollar. These are only a few examples that support women physicians in the practice.

Gretchen Livingston and Deja Thomas of Pew Research report as of April 2018, the United States ranks last in government-mandated paid leave for new parents. 

Building a successful practice stems from the benefits provided to employees. Providing an environment for your employees to succeed, in their professional goals alongside their personal goals, cultivates lower rates for burnout that eventually leads to turnover. The lasting stressors of the pandemic will linger in workplaces, especially healthcare, until providers restructure their practice—putting employees and patients first. 

Now, your needs as a practice-owner do not diminish when it comes to providing better care for your employees. The needs of your employees heavily rely on the balance and structure you provide for yourself, as a practice-owner. Allowing your employees to experience the benefits of fair pay—regardless of gender or race—providing extended maternity/paternity leave for parents, and creating a fair and inviting place for patients benefits the practice by providing growth and success. 

Are you ready to squash the demands and burnout of the third shift? We are able to support you in tailoring your practice to support women in the workplace, alongside assisting in navigating the challenges of restructuring your business. In doing so, we help you get clear about the strengths of your practice and uncover areas that need improvement. We help you get clear about your vision, mission, and desired outcome.

If you would like to talk about strategy and restructuring your practice to accommodate the needs of working parental figures and how to implement gender equality into your practice, schedule a complimentary Practice Assessment Strategy call. We look forward to creating the possibility for growth for you and your team.

Why Coaching?

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

Why Coaching?

You are the practice leader. Working with a coach can add a valuable set of learning tools in your practice leader toolkit. A coach can help you match the right solutions to the challenges you may face in growing your practice.

As a provider, you might not have given much thought to being a leader, because you probably started your practice with the grand idea of helping people, not developing yourself as a leader. But the truth is, as a business owner, you are in the leadership business, and rather than resist it, you could develop your skills as a leader and give your staff the tools they need to support the growth of your business and your overall mission.

Below are four compelling reasons for practice owners and their team to work with a coach.

1. Establish a clear vision, and get your team engaged with that vision.

If you have struggled to motivate your team and staff members, know that you are not alone. Building a strong vision and goals, and helping your team connect with that vision will increase everyone’s success and fulfillment. (And we know that happy staff are loyal and productive.)

2. Honest and timely feedback on effectiveness of systems and leadership.

You need an unbiased truth-teller, and an objective view of how your leadership contributes to your overall success. Coaching will help you build on your strengths while your practice manager and support staff learn to take charge of their contribution to the success and growth of your practice.

3. You need someone to guide you through reflection and self-analysis.

Anyone who has worked with a coach will tell you that the best part of having a coach is the ability to clear the decks on a regular basis to think and strategize without distractions. This accelerates your development as a leader by encouraging you to reflect and grow, and your coach will offer you tips, tools and the benefit of the breadth and depth of their experience.

4. Help with improving your ability to anticipate, strategize and stay on track.

Maximize your practice potential by improving work performance and team effectiveness. With the clear vision, feedback and appropriate delegation of responsibilities, each person will gain insight and will experience mindset shifts that lead to new behaviors and better results in all areas of growth: self, team and business-management. This encourages everyone to think bigger, act more courageously, and realize greater possibilities.

If you want to achieve beyond your wildest dreams (or beyond the limitations you can't seem to surpass) then why not schedule a one-hour complimentary Practice Assessment Strategy Session with me to see if we can crack the code? One hour can change everything. 

High Turnover? Maybe It’s a You Problem

I said it. Maybe turnover is a you problem. 

Stay with me here. 

If you follow the news, economic forecasts or anything remotely connected to the outside world, you’re hearing a lot about recession and labor shortages. So, logically, that could explain why your practice is experiencing high turnover. And that’s that, right? 

Except, it’s not. I wish it were simple, but if it were, then you’d be destined not to have a capable, well-trained team working with you. It’s not that you’re a bad boss or yours is a toxic work environment (if it is, that’s a whole other conversation). 

You need a different strategy.

Let’s look at some facts. Turnover is expensive in terms of money, time and energy. Hiring and training new staff is time-consuming. It can also be a huge energy drain to you and your team on top of keeping your practice running. Labor statistics show the cost of turnover is at least equivalent to that position’s salary, if not several times multiplied. That’s compounded by lost productivity, decreased speed, training and the time that position remains vacant. 

Most data on healthcare turnover is from studies on hospital centers, so these numbers may be a little different for your practice, but let’s take a look at an example:

According to the 2022 NSI National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing Report, the RN turnover rate in 2021 was 27.1%, and the average cost of turnover for a bedside RN is more than $46,000, which costs the average hospital between $5.2 million and $9 million per year. Each percentage point increase or decrease in turnover represents a loss or savings of $262,300 per year. 

Let’s say your practice runs best with seven full time RNs and your turnover is 27%. Two RNs leave this year. The cost is over $92,000 to hire two more nurses. If your turnover stays at the same rate year over year, you’ll be carrying heavy costs to keep up with your staffing needs. You can do the same math for any position at your practice and see the impact on the bottom line. This doesn’t take into account the time spent writing, placing and managing posts on employment sites, interviewing candidates and all of your due diligence before bringing on a new team member. And then there’s the aforementioned training period and human power required to work with your new employee before they’re up and running.

You need a different strategy. 

One of my clients has a complementary medicine practice in a small, rural town. In general, their location and the low population density are challenging enough, not to mention a glaring shortage of registered nurses. So, when they needed to hire an RN to run the clinical side of the practice, we had several angst-ridden conversations about whether finding a qualified, experienced candidate was a pipe dream, or if it could indeed become a reality.

Rather than get stuck on the “fact” that it’s hard to find qualified RNs willing to work in a small private practice, we decided to make them stand out as an employer. I also reminded my clients that they needed only one impressive candidate to fill this role. To facilitate this, we dedicated a coaching session to outlining their strengths and what sets them apart as a private practice. 

In the job post, we highlighted the practice’s hours are basically banker’s hours, Monday thru Friday, so candidates knew they would have a consistent schedule, which was a huge draw. They also offered competitive pay with additional benefits like healthcare, education stipend, and support with their own health and wellness at low or no cost to them. 

Because this client’s practice is dedicated to seeking and treating the root cause of disease and chronic illness, we focused on their mission and commitment to their values. We also addressed staffing shortages (a major reason RNs cite leaving their jobs) by showing my client’s commitment to making their practice an intimate, spa-like experience for their patients. Their schedule would never be overbooked. For the exhausted, burned-out nurse, this created an opportunity to work in an environment where patients choose to be there, are dedicated to improving their health, and where the employer is committed to keeping stress levels low and job satisfaction high. 

Our intention was to make it clear that working with my client could present an opportunity to boost their clinical knowledge and to work in a calm, beautiful setting with a doctor who is committed to helping their patients heal and take charge of their wellbeing. 

This strategy helped my clients find the ideal candidate who was growing weary of seeing patients in her previous role getting sicker, and she was thrilled to find a position where her schedule was predictable. She was qualified to step into a leadership role as the clinic manager, so this worked out to be a win-win scenario. Do you want to know how many candidates they interviewed? Three. They were all good candidates, but the one they hired stood out above the others.   

There’s no question that these are challenging times. Staffing shortages are real. Burnout is real. But you don’t have to get the short end of the stick because of this.
You can take a different strategy: 

• Get clear about your strengths and what sets you apart from other practices. 

• Get clear about your mission and vision, and communicate them with your team and prospective employees. 

Lean in to your strengths and vision, and a whole lot can change for the better.

We help our clients navigate the challenges of being a provider-owner by taking back their time and finding the right strategy to grow their practice without burning out. If you’d like to talk strategy with us, schedule a complimentary Practice Assessment Strategy call. We’d love to see what’s possible for you and your team.

To Pivot or Not to Pivot: Learn the art of the 3Cs

To pivot, or not to pivot, that is the question. OK, so I’m not a philosopher, per se, but I am curious when 2020 will come take home its drunken pivot.

In today’s world where everything seems to be changing at warp speed, it’s easy to get caught up in the FOMO worry trap and start thinking you might need to make a pivot in your business, especially if you’re experiencing a slow down, or you’ve changed some tactics and they don’t seem to be working the way you had hoped or planned.

But we keep getting push-pull messages from the social media business gurus (wish you could see my air quotes and eye rolling…I’m going hard here!)

“Your business isn’t growing? PIVOT!”

“Not getting the new patients/clients you want? PIVOT!”

“Feeling somewhat insecure and uncertain about the pending/in-progress recession? SHARP RIGHT TURN!”

“Shiny! Squirrel! Tap-tap-tap on your pain points and insecurities.”

This all serves to distract and detract from achieving your ultimate success.

Here’s the thing. If you’re experiencing some slow down in your business, or you’ve recently made some changes and you’re not seeing the RESULTS you want…yet…maybe you need to take a deep breath and slow way down.

By now, you know I’m a big, huge fan of the slow down to speed up or scale up method of business strategy, so let’s start there.

If you’re lacking clarity, you’ll get mixed results. Period, full stop. This is true for marketing, sales, and operations.

It’s important to start with getting clear about what you want to accomplish, and how you plan to do it. You can listen to my podcast Episode 58, and you can also access a free resource on my website to help you get crystal clear about your vision.

Once you’re clear, you’ve got to make a commitment to do whatever you’re trying (say, a marketing campaign, networking, or something operational within your business) whatever it is, commit to it for no less than two weeks, and possibly up to a couple of months, without changing anything. You’ve got to give new ideas and new systems time to breathe and do their work.

Kind of like baking a cake.

While you’re letting your cake bake and rise, you can turn on the oven light and peek inside to measure and track progress, right? Same with any adjustment you make to your business. Gather your data, compare, contrast, and see how it goes.

After some time has passed, if things aren’t going the way you want them to, NOW it’s time to make a slight change.

Let’s be clear, though. Unless you forgot a key leavening ingredient, your cake will rise. So, when we talk about making a slight change, we’re talking NOT throwing the whole thing out and starting over, or scrapping an entire initiative in your business  just because the results haven’t shown up yet. We’re talking about what I call Constant Course Correction. So the 3 Cs followed by TMAA - test, measure, adjust, allow.

We test. Measure. Adjust. Allow. Rinse, repeat. TMAA.

You adjust one thing at a time, otherwise you won’t know what is and isn’t working. Data and time are your friends here.

Why constant course correction rather than a major pivot? Because, like space shuttles, you may appear to be off-course up to 97% of the time, but with testing, adjusting, and communication with the mother board (in this case, your business analytics, your strategic brain and your team’s input and support) you can reach your desired destination. Did you know that the shuttles land in the correct location 94% of the time? Those are some damned good odds. Be like the space shuttles.

We tend to think in absolutes when we get frustrated or impatient. Part of our charm as business owners is that we agitate and constantly look for ways to do better, build something bigger, make a bigger splash. It can also be our achilles heel, not having the patience and trust required to allow what we’re testing to work its own magic. Let the cake bake. Trust yourself.

The point I want to really drive home is this: if you’re lacking clarity, you’ll get mixed results, and that can lead you down a bumpy road of doubt, failed initiatives, and potentially could be quite damaging to your business.

Yes, it always comes back to clarity. From there, you can build-out the incremental changes you want to implement, and Test, Measure, Adjust and Allow in multiple iterations until you find the right formula. Give your one-at-a-time changes room to breathe and grow, like you would a cake in the oven, and don’t change anything until you have gathered the data you need from each iteration.

I promise you will save time, energy and mucho dinero (that’s boatloads of money for non-Spanish speakers) by reviewing, analyzing and making slight adjustments over time. Again, one adjustment at a time.

I share a client story about the 3Cs and TMAA over at the podcast. Go give a listen, and remember to share your review with us so more business owners like you can find us.

Why I Do What I Do, For the People I Support

This is a very personal share. I was so scared. When my daughter was 7, she was quite sickly. She was losing weight, having major GI distress, had a few cavities, several UTIs, multiple unexplained sprains, and lots of urgent care visits. I’m sure you can imagine I was worried. 

I was frustrated with her pediatrician and pediatric dentist. If I had a nickel for every time they asked if I was giving her juice, and that’s why she was having diarrhea and getting cavities…Nevermind that there were several interviews about the UTIs and sprains, for which I am thankful, for the children who may be in terrible situations and need outside help. 

The last straw was when the pediatrician said the only explanation he could come up with was that she was making herself sick due to her father and I divorcing 2 years prior, and that she needed to see a psychologist. I was flabbergasted and righteously angry! 

I changed pediatricians. The new pediatrician said it was time to get answers, so he referred us to a pediatric GI specialist. GI suggested upper endoscopy, which we dutifully did, and let me tell you, my sweet baby was so dehydrated that they had to stick her 8 times to get an I.V. in for the procedure. She still cries when she gets shots or blood work done, and she’s 18 now. 

The shortened version of this story is that the GI didn’t know what else to tell us, so he gave us 3 prescriptions for the symptoms, to be taken indefinitely. Again. Flabbergasted. When I asked why this would be the protocol and not a recommendation for nutritionist or dietitian, he said, in front of my scared 7 year old, that she would get cancer if I didn’t follow this protocol. Can you imagine!

Frustrated and frightened, I called a friend to vent, and she asked if I would be open to taking her to a naturopath. I was desperate and willing to try anything, even if it meant paying out of pocket. My baby was not thriving, and all I wanted was to help her feel better so she could get back to being a kid.

The naturopath took one look at her recent history, the endoscopy pictures and the list of complaints and said, “In D.C. we’re not allowed to diagnose, but IF WE WERE, I’d say it’s Celiac. She checks all the boxes. So, we’re going to treat her as if and see how she does.” BOOM! Celiac was much harder to diagnose almost 12 years ago, so this was a huge relief. 

In the first month on the protocol, my daughter’s tummy issues cleared, her aches and pains went away, her hair, skin and nails got healthier, and she grew more than she had in the previous 18 months! 

I was sold on complementary care from that point forward. The naturopath and her team saved my daughter from years of pain and poor health. It was so simple, and our new pediatrician was totally on board with the protocol, singing the praises of our naturopath. Now we always have an integrative provider in our world, and we always will.

Flash forward a few years. The first complementary medicine doctor came to work with me to grow their business. Then another, and another, and I realized that I had something that resonated with providers: I could help them get control over their time and energy while growing their profitability. I was helping them learn to slow down to scale up. 

My skill set matched their needs, but I firmly believe that our connection was sealed by my belief in their mission, and in their ability to sleuth to find root causes of their patients’ pain and discomfort. 

I get it, and I get them. Because of my experience with my daughter, I have a heart for complementary healthcare providers. 

I am on a mission to help practice owners decrease the chaos and overwhelm in their practice and get out of the “Success Trap” so they can get back to doing their great work. 

I help practice owners serve more patients and rise as experts in their areas of speciality so they can change the system from the inside-out. At the heart of it, my clients and I are puzzle solvers, and we’re committed to finding and eradicating the root cause of discomfort and frustrations so our clients and patients can stop merely surviving and begin THRIVING.

If you’re caught in the Success Trap (working all the time, worrying about finances, struggling with decision fatigue, tired of juggling and wearing multiple hats, losing sleep, etc.) schedule a time to speak with me. Let’s talk about what you really want, why it’s important to you, and how you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams, while taking back your time AND enjoying the fruits of your labor.

PS. In case you’re wondering, my daughter is graduating high school next month and heading to music school in the fall. I’m so proud of her, and grateful that she’s thriving and living her best gluten-free life!

About Our Mission:

We help mission-driven practice owners take back their time and clear the path to establishing themselves as leaders in their specialty, so they can enjoy exquisite fulfillment.

We are opening doors for a new cohort in mid-June ‘22 for our Time Leadership program. If you’re ready to get clear about your goals and aspirations, buy-back up to 5 hours per week for the rest of your career and scale your practice, you want to be there. Join providers just like you from around the world to learn and grow together. This peer learning intensive is limited to 8 participants.

Reflections on a Week at the Beach

This was our view all week. It never got old!

We just came back from a week at the beach with our kids and extended family. There were milestone birthday celebrations: 16 and 60! (Neither of those was me, btw.) There was a lot of laughter. There was some shopping, beach walking, seafood grilling, hot tubbing, and the perfect amount of downtime.

THE BEST PART:

I didn’t take my laptop! No email, no social media, not even a text check-in with my fabulous executive admin and social media maven. I will admit I missed being in routine, but kept my promise to be fully absent from the business for an entire week! I even opted-out of a retreat with the business mastermind I’m in. It was my son’s birthday, and I PROMISED not to work during vacation, so toot toot! I’m tooting my horn for keeping that promise.

While I completely stand behind this, I will also go ahead and truth-tell: I rarely take a whole week vacation without having a call scheduled that I tell myself would have been difficult to reschedule, or having my laptop in case some kind of inspiration might hit (it rarely does on vacation, at least for me.)

And while sipping coffee on the deck overlooking the ocean one morning, I got curious about why I’ve not allowed myself to fully unplug for a week while away on holidays. It hit me: I have FOMO (That’s “Fear Of Missing Out” for our friends who aren’t current with social media or “screenager” speak.)

I really thought I was past that stage of life, but there it is. I have FOMO and don’t want to miss an opportunity to…uh…not sure what - think about what I’m NOT doing? Tell myself maybe I should make some reels and get to dancing on TikTok? (I’m pretty comfortable saying that will NEVER happen!) Worry that if I’m not cranking out content, my business will implode? I have no idea what I think I’m missing, to be honest, and for the first time, facing the ocean, I allowed myself to let it go.

I asked myself what would be possible if I allowed myself to relax, enjoy quiet time with my husband and family, and just, you know, stare at the ocean.

I liked the answer: I could open new possibilities, release attachment to “should” and be completely present. Eureka!

I decided to commit to more down time, more hand writing of ideas, less screen time, fewer excuses to grab my phone and scroll, and I re-committred to being perfectly OK with NOT jumping on social media trends. Who has time for that anyway?

Here’s the point of this story:

• Rest is part of our natural cycle, NOT EARNED.

• Vacation/time off is necessary, NOT EARNED.

• Downtime is excellent for our brains, hearts and minds, NOT EARNED.

When was the last time you completely unplugged and enjoyed your downtime?

If this is easy for you, please share your secret. Let’s bottle it and make millions together! Kidding. Sort of.

Do you struggle with “turning off” when you're away from work? If so, perhaps it’s time to make some minor adjustments that could have a major impact in your life and business.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Take social media apps (or whichever you scroll mindlessly) off your phone for the weekend.

Don’t check your email over the weekend.

Commit to getting outside, spending time with people you love, or reading a book for pleasure.

Choose something that you’d like to do that is relatively easy. Yes, start with easy first.

Let me know how it goes!

If you would like to learn how to take control of your time and energy, contact us. We would love to support you and your team.

Why Time Management Doesn't Work, and What You Can Do About It

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

Time is the one thing all humans have same amount of each day, unlike money, energy and abilities. I’ve yet to have any clients who use their allotted time the exact same way, but what I’ve witnessed over the years is something my happiest clients have in common, and it’s not how they “manage” their time. It’s how they lead their time.

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

You’re successful, AND you feel trapped by your success.

You feel like you never have enough time. You’re wearing multiple hats as the business owner, chief strategist, team leader, fire-putter-outer, and all-around “it” person in your business. You have a team, and they’re great, yet, you still find yourself doing so many things that monopolize your time and zap your energy. 

You wonder if you made a mistake unplugging from the system you left behind, because maybe after all, it would be easier to go back to working for someone else. You may even be wondering if you’re cut-out to achieve the success and freedom you crave.

You are not alone. Many business owners tell us a version of your story when they come to us: 

• They’re overworked.

• They’ve become disillusioned with being in business for themselves and are considering going back to work for a different organization (the VERY THING they left due to burnout and other frustrations!)

• They’re not experiencing the time and financial freedom they envisioned when they started their business.

Will it get better? Yes!

Imagine if you could gain control of your schedule. Picture working only on tasks that are directly related to strategic business priorities and providing excellent customer care. 

What would you accomplish if you were able to block time for research, writing and publishing; speaking and teaching; and advancing your status as an expert in your area of speciality? 

How about the practical stuff? Eat lunch every day. Leave on time every day.  

Envision your team as happy, proactive, engaged and committed to your values and vision. They’re looking for ways to support growing your business and serving more clients or customers with the highest level of attention and care. They understand the value of your time, and they appreciate your commitment to honoring their time as well as your own.  

You may have been wondering how it’s possible to create this kind of utopia, especially if you currently feel like your business could swallow you whole at any given moment. 

Fear not. With some analysis and adjustments to how you structure your time, your mindset about what’s required of you to run a successful business, and how you view time itself, you can make this beautiful picture a reality. 

Start with understanding the importance of the three pillars of Time Leadership: 

1. Discovery

2. Analysis

3. Action

In the first pillar, Discovery, you examine what is most important to you. Do not skip this step. Write it all down. What are your values? What do you really want? Is it time with your family, leisure time, start another business, pursue a hobby, travel the world? Get really clear about what you want for your business and for your life. Write it all down until you have no answers left to the question: What do you really want?

Next pillar, Analysis, is where you comb over how you use your time. Write down every single task, meeting, water cooler chat and everything in-between. Now assign a monetary value to every half hour block of time. This is tedious, but it’s also eye-opening. How much money are you costing your business doing tasks better suited to others on your team? 

If you’re slightly horrified, good. Then you’re ready to take action.

The third pillar, Action, is where a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs want to start, but without clarity, will run in circles, exhausting themselves and costing their businesses dearly. I always recommend my clients start with one or two areas to take action for a while. Don’t flip your business model or your calendar on its head. You’ll regret that. Focus on 1-2 actionable items that are relatively easy or simple to implement. Once you’ve gained momentum, you can work on more changes.

This is just the surface of Time Leadership, but once you start here, you can start to get a feel for how to think and act as the leader of your time and of your organization. 

Time Management implies controlling and getting as much done as possible, whereas Time Leadership is about guiding your attention and focus to the things that are most important.

If you’ve found that time management tactics aren’t working, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board, get clear, craft your strategy, and THEN implement your tactics. Remember that tactics without strategy will not get you where you want to be. Strategy without tactics, ditto. But start with a clear strategy and simple tactics, and you’ll build momentum. Momentum is your friend, so long as you’re taking inspired action and know the direction you want to head.

Think about jump starting a stick shift car. If you’ve ever done this, you know what I’m about to tell you. The key to getting the engine started is momentum. The biggest hurdle is to get the car moving. The first few steps are a total bugbear, but then you’re moving. Once the car starts to move, you can walk faster and eventually start running. Once you’re running, you jump in, put the car in gear and drop the clutch. The car will magically start. Entrepreneurship is kind of like this. Slowing down in order to speed up, and deciding to start thinking like the leader you are, by prioritizing and assigning monetary value to your TIME will help move you in the right direction, and will alleviate a whole lot of the overwhelm and stress of running a business. 

Let’s review and remember the 3 pillars of Time Leadership:
Discovery - what do you really want?

Analysis - how much is your time worth, how much do you cost your business, and how much are you leaving on the table performing tasks better suited to your team or outsourced?

(Inspired) Action - What’s the next best step? What is one thing I can get done right now that has high value and contributes positively to the bottom line?

Remember that time management without a strategy, meaning clarity and vision, is like getting in your car without putting a destination into your chosen map or GPS. Going for a random drive is cute, but if you really want to get somewhere in a certain amount of time, you’d best provide those inputs. 

Time leadership is about directing your time and energy to the important tasks that help you grow your business and make money. Contrary to what many business owners think, not everything is a fire to be put out immediately. Being clear about what’s most important will save you time, money and effort, which will enhance your fulfillment and impact. 

That’s all I’ve got for you today. Make sure to take notes, and please do take a moment to write a review and share this podcast with fellow entrepreneurs so they can also learn with us. Entrepreneurship can feel like an isolated island, so the more we can come together, the more supported we feel.

I’d like to leave you with a quote:

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.     

 - Carl Sandburg

If you are a physician or practitioner practice owner, schedule your complimentary strategy session to learn how to take back your time and energy while growing and scaling your practice.

The ONE Motivation Hack You Need To Get More Stuff Done

Do you struggle with motivation? If so, rest assured you’re not alone. In my career as an executive coach, I have had the great pleasure of working with many creative, driven and impressively successful people. I always assumed because entrepreneurs are so driven and ambitious, they must be inherently motivated, and because I easily lose steam on the motivation train, there must be something wrong with me. However, as I began to work with more business owners, I noticed an interesting pattern in their motivation cycles, and I’m willing to bet you can see some of yourself in it. 

The pattern looks something like this: you get an idea; you feel a rush of excitement; a flood of ideas come through and you start to take action; you slog and slog and slog; you forget why you were so excited in the first place; you lose motivation; you assume you can’t get motivated; you feel defeated and frustrated; nearly every day becomes a grind; you begin to struggle with negative thoughts and feelings about your abilities; you feel like you’re not getting where you want to quickly enough. Sound familiar? We often find ourselves in the self-fulfilling cycle of excitement-acceleration-deceleration-demotivation.

When you get to this place, how do you pull yourself out? Do you bootstrap and carry on (more slogging) or do you take the time to find your way to a good-feeling mindset so you can get more done? If you could spend a few minutes each day doing one thing to increase your motivation, would you do it? If you've ever wanted a motivation hack, I’ve got one for you. It’s very simple: celebrate your accomplishments every day. Read on to learn three different ways to celebrate, then choose one that suits you or allow this post to inspire your own method of celebrating.

1. Get off the “urgency bus”

John Coleman, CEO & Founder of The VIA Agency, says we’ve been conditioned to finish something and immediately move on to the next thing. In his article for Fast Company, he emphasizes that when we celebrate our accomplishments, we help ourselves and our teams remain motivated, value our achievements and deepen relationships. We need to slow down our “urgency addiction” to fully appreciate what we’ve accomplished. Celebrate on your own or with your team, but take the time to congratulate yourself and honor your progress. 

2. Acknowledge and embrace “near-wins”

When we toil along, nose to the grindstone, we neglect to lift our heads to see how far we’ve come. We look at success as a destination rather than a journey. When we live and work this way, small failures can feel like gigantic shortcomings and losses. In her TED Talk, art historian and author Sarah Lewis teaches us to use our near-wins as a catalyst to make adjustments and try again. She encourages us to develop a mindset of reaching toward mastery, not arriving at a pre-determined destination. She calls us to stay “at our own leading edge,” and encourages us to view near-wins as a motivating force to get to — and stay at — the edge of our own greatness. When we strive to reach rather than arrive, we tap-in to the inspiration that fuels our motivation. 

3. Create celebratory rituals

Another way to fan the motivational flames is to add a celebration ritual to your day. You can do this by simply reviewing your daily “To Do” list at the end of the day, and after crossing off the completed items, say to yourself, “Ta Da! I did it!” I have my clients practice a “Ta Da!” list at the end of each day. Sounds kind of corny, right? Maybe it is, but celebrating the completion of even the simplest things (i.e., bringing the recycle bin back from the curb, organizing your email inbox, making and eating a healthy meal, etc.,) puts you in a good mood. You can positively impact your physiological and psychological wellbeing by feeling good about getting stuff done. I also highly recommend something I learned from Amy Cuddy’s TED talk about how your body language can shape who you are. You can lower your cortisol (stress hormone) levels and increase your testosterone (confidence hormone) levels by holding a power pose for two minutes. I recommend you work a power pose in with celebrating your accomplishments each day. Give it a try. It’s pretty awesome.

Whatever you decide to do to hack your motivation, whether you slow down to celebrate with your team before moving to the next project, acknowledge and celebrate your near-wins or sing, “Ta Da!” as you hold a power pose, understand the benefits of creating a feel-good feeling. Celebrating your accomplishments positions you as a winner and will attract more success; people in your circle will look for ways to participate in what you’ve successfully pulled-off. As an added bonus, your subconscious mind will start looking for more ways to “win” and get stuff done, because when you feel good, you make better choices. How can it get any better?