You Don’t Have a Team Problem – You Have a Leadership Identity Problem, EP 238
If you opened your practice to help people heal but find yourself spending most of your day checking, correcting, and redoing your team’s work, you’re not alone—and you don’t have a team problem. In this episode of the Thriving Practice Podcast, Tracy Cherpeski digs into a challenge that almost every healthcare practice owner faces: the gap between clinical excellence and effective leadership. The very instincts that make you an incredible clinician—precision, thoroughness, catching every error before it becomes a problem—can quietly undermine your effectiveness as a leader of people.
Tracy shares why this pattern is actually a leadership identity problem, not a performance issue on your team, and walks through three practical shifts that will change how your team experiences you—starting as early as Monday morning. Whether you’re a solo practitioner building your first team or an established practice owner preparing to scale, this episode offers a clear and compassionate roadmap for leading without hovering.
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If you’ve been searching for help with time management for healthcare practice owners, strategies for reducing burnout while growing your practice, or simply a better way to lead your team, this conversation will meet you right where you are.
Key Takeaways
Clinical training creates a leadership blind spot. The precision and vigilance that saves lives in patient care can suffocate your team’s confidence and initiative when applied to every management decision.
Micromanagement isn’t always the enemy. Compliance, patient safety protocols, credentialing, and financial controls genuinely require close oversight. The problem starts when that same scrutiny extends to how your front desk greets patients or how your office manager drafts an email.
Three Monday-morning shifts can change everything. Replace “let me check that” with “walk me through your thinking,” define outcomes instead of dictating steps, and create structured leadership rhythms with daily huddles and weekly check-ins.
Growing into leadership isn’t a demotion—it’s evolution. The version of you that opens a second location, builds a self-sufficient team, and reclaims strategic thinking time is a leader first and a clinician second.
Curiosity beats control every time. Tracy shares a client story where pausing to ask deeper questions—rather than pushing or rescuing—turned a hesitant team member into a genuinely invested leader for a new location.
Common Questions Answered in This Episode
Why do healthcare practice owners tend to micromanage?
It’s rarely about being a control freak. Clinical training literally wires providers to catch problems before they happen. That instinct is life-saving in patient care but can erode your team’s confidence and autonomy when applied to everyday management tasks.
How do I know if I’m micromanaging my team or just being thorough?
Ask yourself two questions: Am I managing a detail that genuinely needs my eyes (like compliance or patient safety)? Or am I managing a person who I need to trust? If it’s the latter, you’ve crossed from necessary oversight into micromanagement.
What’s the difference between daily team huddles and leadership check-ins?
Daily huddles are brief, team-run standing meetings at the start and end of each day to align on the schedule and debrief. Leadership check-ins are a weekly 15-minute meeting between you and your team lead to address what’s working, what’s stuck, and what specifically needs the owner’s input.
How can I delegate more effectively without losing quality?
Define the outcome and the standard, then give your team ownership of the method. If the result meets your standard but the process looks different from how you’d do it, that’s not a problem to fix—that’s your team member’s talent showing up.
Episode Highlights
Why the clinical precision that makes you a great provider can make you a difficult leader
The important distinction between micro-detailed management and micromanaging people
A real client story: coaching a hesitant provider to lead a second location
The band leader metaphor: setting the key, tempo, and feel—then letting your team play
Shift 1: Replace “Let me check that” with “Walk me through your thinking”
Shift 2: Define the outcome, not the steps—and why “different” isn’t “wrong”
Shift 3: Schedule your leadership with daily huddles and weekly check-ins
Why growing from clinician to CEO is evolution, not demotion
Memorable Quotes
“The best-run practices are not led by the smartest clinician in the room. They’re led by the owner who learned to trust the room.”
“The skills that made you an incredible clinician are not the same skills that make you an effective leader of people.”
“Micromanagement is not a dirty word. There are micro details in your practice that absolutely need to be managed.”
“If the outcome is met and they just did it differently than you would have, that’s not a problem to fix. That’s a team member to celebrate.”
“What got you here isn’t what gets you there. The version of you that builds a team that can run without you in the room… that version of you is a leader first and a clinician second. That’s not a demotion. That’s evolution.”
The shift from clinician to practice leader doesn’t require a leadership course or an overhaul of your operations. It starts with recognizing that the instincts that made you exceptional in the treatment room need to be channeled differently when you’re leading people. Replace inspection with curiosity, define what success looks like and let your team own the how, and create intentional rhythms so your oversight doesn’t scatter into surveillance. These small, practical shifts build trust, develop your team’s confidence, and free up the strategic thinking time your practice needs from its CEO. If this episode resonated, share it with a fellow practice owner who’s carrying too much—and explore how the Thriving Practice Community can support your next season of growth.
Is your practice growth-ready? See Where Your Practice Stands: Take our Practice Growth Readiness Assessment
Tracy Cherpeski, MBA, MA, CPSC (she/her/hers) is the Founder of Tracy Cherpeski International and Thriving Practice Community. As a Business Consultant and Executive Coach, Tracy helps healthcare practice owners scale their businesses without sacrificing wellbeing. Through strategic planning, leadership development, and mindset mastery, she empowers clients to reclaim their time and reach their potential. Tracy designs and delivers CME-accredited wellness retreats and workshops in partnership with medical associations, bringing burnout prevention and sustainable practice management to physicians nationwide. Based in Chapel Hill, NC, Tracy serves clients worldwide and is the Executive Producer and Host of the Thriving Practice podcast. Her guiding philosophy: Survival is not enough; life is meant to be celebrated.
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