Being successful in business can look different to everyone. Maybe success to you is based on improving business metrics. Perhaps success right now may simply be defined as the ability to pay another month’s worth of payroll.
As you look at numbers and close out the first quarter, ask yourself the following questions:
What does it mean to be a successful business leader?
Merriam-Webster defines success as a “favorable or desired outcome.” In following this definition, we must then know what outcomes we are targeting in order to know if we have been successful. Business metrics are a main point of focus for all of us when it comes to structuring the business plan. Gross income, number of patient visits, total units billed, average collections per visit…These are all metrics that you should be setting an annual goal for and managing weekly. When you review your metrics from the first quarter, if you see you are “in the green,”tracking toward hitting all of those goals, then you have achieved success, right?
Define success for your team?
As leaders in business, we often stay very focused on the numbers of performance such as the amount of money collected, then number of patients seen in a day or week, or the number of new referrals an office received. As mentioned above, these are very important metrics for the management to be able to make decisions off of. However, are these items that, when met or exceeded, your staff will feel successful with? Never has a therapist ever said that their career goal was to be able to consistently treat 60 patients each week. Driven therapists want to increase their knowledge in certain specialty areas, learn new techniques, and gain more experience. These are the therapists we all want to hire and work with!
So then why would we set a goal for them around the number of visits they see per week among other production based numbers? Will that even incentivize them if it will never make them feel successful? We all know that answer is a big, fat no! Let’s then focus on items that will make each of our players feel the success they so often deserve. Get to know your staff. Find out where their personal professional goals are and hold them accountable to them. Set
up an employee review structure that not only focuses on their metrics of production but also on their quality, cooperativeness, and dependability. Support their clinical growth through things such as internal mentorship programs, financial assistance for completed courses, or additional time off work to complete in-person training. Most importantly, make sure each member on your team knows what they need to be doing to be successful in their position with your company.
How can your team celebrate successes together?
Success is the emotion we feel when we win the game or ace the exam. It is a sense of pride and accomplishment in reaching a single point we have been working for. We all strive for success for the positive feelings it brings, and it is even greater when shared with others. When watching any sporting event, how do the teams celebrate when they score a touchdown, goal, or point? They run together and dance, hug, and celebrate together. When you see videos of someone receiving their acceptance letter to a school they have been dreaming of attending, what do you see? You see their family and friends flanking them and then sharing in the success. As a business owner or leader, success cannot be achieved unless your employees are successful. They are the ones scoring the goals and acing the test for us each day through their obtaining positive outcomes and having positive interactions with clients.
Include staff recognition and acknowledgement as part of your regular business. In your weekly task list, set it as a high priority, as high as attending meetings.
Douglas Conant, internationally renowned business leader and founder of ConantLeadership, gives the following advice: “To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.”
Here are some ways to celebrate with your team:
- Send a nice email to acknowledge a job well done.
- Say “Thank you” and “Good job” in a timely manner along with specifics.
- Acknowledge their achievements during a group meeting.
- Be aware of your employee’s favorite things to give them a personal gift. Bring in their favorite coffee the next morning to celebrate the previous day. Give them a gift card to their favorite restaurant.
These are just some of the many questions you can ask yourself to gauge how you are doing. Use self reflection and engagement with your entire time to define and regularly measure success.