Most DCs have heard of the book and DVD, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, as it's now world-famous.
It's based on the law of attraction and presents a great message for everyone.
In a chiropractic office, you function as the leader of your staff and patients. The foundational concept of this book is servant leadership. This runs counter to what we have traditionally thought of as leadership. Leaders historically have told people what to do and tried to inspire them to do that. Blanchard and Miller use the acronym "SERVE" and then give information and lessons about each letter. For example, the first letter "E" stands for "engage and develop others." Find the right people for the right roles.
Often, we will get someone who is a good employee and try and make them fit a particular job that may not utilize their best talents. These authors want you to put people in jobs where they have a much better chance for success. To quote, "I would rather fit people in the right jobs and help them leverage their strengths, rather than fixing them later." Another quote: "Helping people leverage their strengths is one of the most rewarding parts of the leader's role." If you have a detail-oriented person who is good with numbers, likes a quiet work environment and can get a great deal of work done in that setting, this should not be your front-desk person. On the other hand, a gregarious front-desk person doing detail work eventually will get frustrated.
You can apply these same principles to your patients. The concept of a patient-centered practice follows along the idea of service and servant leadership. You are there to help your patients and serve your patients in a loving manner. Often, as chiropractors, we get focused on how a patient should feel about their health and that they should feel as we do about what it is to be healthy.
For example, you may feel it's vitally important that a patient take certain supplements, exercise a certain way or receive care to reach a certain endpoint (e.g., restore a more normal curve in the cervical spine or restore more normal and full function of the joints). The patient may have other ideas. As Greg Stanley often says, "Tell them what they need, then give them what they want." This does not mean you give substandard care, but if a patient is interested only in help with their immediate problem and does not see the value of a regular exercise program or good supplements, then let it go. Perhaps when they come back with the problem again, they will be more ready to thoroughly address it. If we all treat our patients as we would want to be treated, our individual practices and our profession as a whole will grow.
This idea of servant leadership will be old news for some of you, but for most, it will be a new concept. This short book is worth your time and the lessons can be applied easily in your practice and with your staff. Some examples of servant leadership from this book include Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter's post-presidential work, Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, Jr. These four served as examples of servant leadership. So, think about your role as a leader in your work life and home life, apply the principles of servant leadership, and watch the great results.
Dr. Mark King graduated from Life Chiropractic College in 1986. He is a clinician at Mt. Lookout Chiropractic Sports & Injury Center in Cincinnati; president and lead instructor of the Motion Palpation Institute; and a coach and co-founder of Cutting Edge Chiropractic Consultants.