CYNTHIA STAMATION
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Henry has a problem. His bucket has a hole in it and won’t hold water. He explains this to Liza: “There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza!” Liza is puzzled by Henry’s statement, and she sternly tells him: “Then fix it, dear Henry, dear Henry, fix it!”
But it’s not so simple, which leads to a back-and-forth conversation in which Henry keeps raising challenges and Liza replies with obvious solutions.
- “But with what should I fix it?” (with straw)
- “But the straw is too long.” (then cut it)
- “But the knife is too dull.” (then sharpen it)
- “But with what should I sharpen it?” (a stone)
- “But the stone is too dry.” (then wet it)
- “But with what should I wet it?” (with water)
- “But with what should I fetch it?” (a bucket)
- “But there’s a hole in my bucket!”
So, they are back where they started and caught in an endless loop of roadblocks. Cue the laughter around the campfire.
Practice holes
Every business leader sometimes faces the same kind of looping chain reaction. Once you start digging into the nitty-gritty of a practice issue or goal, a raft of entwined factors is unearthed. Some things can be anticipated, and some are only revealed as you go forward. Some can surprise you like a landmine you step on accidentally.
There’s no end to all the things that can become a “but” to deal with: teamwork, communications, training, finances, technology, time, systems, marketing, referrers, insurance and so on. It’s no wonder that when it feels like there are too many “buts” involved, a lot of doctors get frustrated and decide to put off trying to make progress. It all gets tossed on the “someday” pile.
Prioritized progression, not preplanned perfection
I don’t know any business concern or goal of relative importance that can be solved by doing just one thing to just one thing. Everything in your practice is so interconnected. Nothing exists in isolation or in a protected silo that is free from other influences and interferences.
What this means is that any attempt at improvement or problem solving for almost anything in your practice is going to create some disturbances. If you let those disturbances invade your inner dialogue, they are going to distract you and sidetrack you.
Once you are sidetracked like that, it’s tempting to fall into the trap that you must preplan everything to perfection, accounting for all variables and related factors before you do anything. That’s a recipe for a Henry/Liza standstill. You’ll talk yourself in circles trying to figure everything out in advance.
The better approach is to realize that none of those disturbances created in conscientious pursuit of any goal is unsolvable. That doesn’t mean you ignore those factors from the beginning, but you evaluate them with a sense of priority … rather than getting drawn down endless rabbit holes.
Prioritized progression, even if it is incremental and step-by-step, is the hallmark of successful leadership. That effort ensures there is continuous positive energy in the practice toward problem-solving, improvement, growth and goals. That’s what creates sustainable success where each year is better than the year before, rather than the same year of ups and downs repeated over and over again.
Expert guidance
Often the biggest challenge is working out the initial priorities. Where do you start and what do you focus on? That’s where coaching is a huge advantage. Coaches have detailed experience with many practices, they know what works and how everything works together.
Coaches take the anxiety and self-doubt out of leadership. They streamline the process, eliminate trial-and-error attempts, and can focus on your team while you focus on patient care.