HOW TO DEVELOP A STRONGER BUSINESS EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU ALREADY HAVE ALL THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO LEAD YOUR TEAM 

WHO IS THIS GUIDE FOR?  

You are a healthcare leader or a clinical practice owner who is overworked, overwhelmed, and caught up in the doing of your business.

And, your job, by and large, should be focused on creating the vision of your business, and leading your team to execute on your mission.

Whether you’re a physician, clinician, or a physical therapist, you’re extremely good at doing what you do. That’s part of the problem.

In your mind, it’s often easier to just do things to get them done because you’re extremely efficient at doing them. They’re activities that are ingrained into your daily routine, so they are hard to delegate to someone else.

But in order to stop the overwhelm, you absolutely must learn to lead more and do less. Keep reading to learn more about how to do just that.  

WHY THIS GUIDE EXISTS 

Leaders in healthcare feel stuck. 

Most are still practicing clinically. In fact, they’re great at helping others, solving problems, and taking charge of situations. All traits that make them fantastic practitioners.

Much like you, they know they need to spend their time participating in leadership activities. But, they feel uncomfortable with what to do or how to develop their skills, as well as those of their teams.

As a clinician, training, mentoring, and education on how to become an effective leader of your team has been sparse, if at all. Becoming one requires building trust, addressing conflict, creating commitment, fostering accountability, and mentoring team members. 

Maybe you’ve read leadership books and articles, watched webinars, and attended conferences to uplevel your skills. What happens to that new information once you’ve found it? 

Oddly enough, even though you’re trained to be self-sufficient you never create a roadmap to take action on that information. 

With lack of time, effort, and feeling comfortable, your motivation that was at an all-time high because you found out what you needed to do fails you…All because you didn’t take action.

Gradually you slip back in the weeds and find yourself stuck. Again. And again. It’s a self-sabotage cycle you’re struggling to break.  

Healthcare leaders come to me when they want to learn how to carve out time and space to strategically develop and grow strong teams

There is no magic bullet that will help healthcare leaders address these roadblocks to success on their own. I’d say that the single most important skill you need to develop as a practice owner is learning to cope. 

Beyond that, I find that when healthcare leaders and their teams develop one simple skill, the ability to coach their people, they have a powerful way to improve results and accelerate change. 

Coaching skills are not the only solution, but a piece of the larger puzzle. They are simple to learn and make a huge impact. 

A good coach helps others to identify new ways to address challenges and to create opportunities to get better results. 

Think of coaching as a dialogue. It’s a conversation that involves powerful questions which enable each person to gain insights that impact performance. 

Unlike conversations that are one-sided and directive, coaching allows people to identify options and opportunities that fit their needs and desires. It also helps them to solve problems independently while developing new potential and proficiency. 

Effective leaders and managers use coaching as a key approach to develop and grow people to create a positive impact on their teams and their businesses. 

Many healthcare leaders are aware of and try to use different techniques to engage, motivate, develop, and mentor their team members. However, many don’t use this single most important tool.

While coaching is not the complete cure-all for challenges faced in healthcare practices and clinics, it does have a great return on investment (ROI). It’s high on the list of tools that will reduce your frustrations and relieve burnout symptoms for practice leaders and owners.

Creating a culture of success starts by using the powerful strategy of coaching. And, it’s one that is easily accessible and trainable for healthcare leaders and their teams.

Coaching is a tool that you naturally use with patients. You help them focus on their treatment priorities, gain more independence, and empower them to self-treat. Ultimately, your coaching allows your patients to develop functional skills that take them to a higher level of function.  

In other words, through coaching skills you help your patients accelerate change that they would not have experienced without your help. 

WHY MY EXPERIENCE CAN HELP YOU

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I’m Judy Cirullo, a Physical Therapist and a former practice owner who decided to pursue executive leadership coaching in addition to my clinical career. 

Why did I pursue coaching?

Because I owned four successful practices over a 40-year span, I personally experienced the challenges of retaining, developing, and mentoring staff. I knew I needed help getting myself out of the doing and into the leading of my own business. 

So, while I was an active practice owner and practitioner, I decided to invest in my coaching certification so I could learn the skills to become a better leader and relieve the feelings of burnout plaguing me.  

After making the choice to invest in my personal development, I created a framework to develop staff into successful leaders and to produce productive team members to help my business thrive. 

The result?

Ultimately, I became an absentee owner while continuing to develop and grow all of my team members. 

Healthcare leaders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners seek me out today to help them do the same. I help them adopt my framework that transitions them from being stuck in the overwhelm of doing into developing other team members to do for them. 

My framework allows them to lead, grow, and scale their business instead. 

FOLLOW ALONG SO YOU CAN

  • Learn how to develop the new breed of leaders
  • Rethink your leadership style
  • Understand the 5 Levels of Leadership
  • Define which of the five levels of leadership you’re currently acting from
  • Discover what leadership coaching IS and IS NOT

But first, how about you decide the best way to get exactly what you need from this guide. Would that be good for you?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Decide if you’d like to soak it all in, or jump to the points that matter to you most. Click on an icon image below to read up on a specific topic, or just read through the guide from start to finish.

THE LEADERSHIP EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPING THE NEW BREED OF LEADERS

I’m sure you’ve considered many definitions of leadership. The one you adopt depends on the source, context of use, and purpose within your organization. 

To keep it simple let’s use the following definition.

“ Leadership is the art and science of motivating, influencing and directing people to accomplish the defined mission or goals.”  excerpted from the United States Air Force

Effective leadership involves the ability to inspire and influence the thinking, attitudes, and behavior of people. 

As such, leadership is not a position or title, but it is the actions you take and the example to model as you “walk the talk.”

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OLD SCHOOL LEADERSHIP BELIEFS

Many of you may consider a manager as an adequate definition of a leader. But, if you make a side-by-side comparison of their characteristics, it may shift your perspective.

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John C. Maxwell says it best.

”A leader is one who Knows the ways, goes the way, and shows the way.”

WHAT IS COACHING TO YOU?

What is coaching really?  

Maybe the first thing that comes to mind are coaches you see in sports, personal fitness, or career coaches. Sure, these are some of the niches in which someone can be labeled a coach.

But coaching is much more effective when you understand the specific components and they become an authentic part of how you work with others. 

More specifically, coaching requires having a dialogue, holding a conversation, and applying specific powerful questions in your interactions. This practice develops trust, connection, relationships, confidence, courage, clarity, accountability and measurable results. 

HOW COACHING IMPACTS YOU AND YOUR TEAM MEMBERS

Healthcare leaders, clinical practitioners, and CEOs experience the following positive side effects from coaching.

  • Clarity of direction and purpose
  • Ability to regularly delegate with confidence
  • Capacity to easily demonstrate and model accountability
  • Peace of mind that they don’t always need to have all of the answers
  • Empowerment of team members to have confidence to solve problems
  • Drastic reduction in stress levels based on helping others grow their skills

Team members who participate in coaching show the following benefits.

  • More engaged
  • Better accountability
  • More productivity 
  • Stronger sense of trust among each other and with leadership
  • Less fearful when dealing with conflict 
  • Feel safe asking for help without jeopardizing their job 

ARE YOU A BOSS OR A COACH?

Now that you know the difference between being a leader (aka coach) and a boss, take a minute to figure out how you’re showing up.

Take the following checklist and place an “X” in the column for each trait you possess.

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Next, take a blank copy of this checklist and ask your team member(s) to evaluate you in the same way. Be sure to ask them for their honesty, and not to just report what they think you’d like to see. If you have to insure anonymity.

Compare each of their assessments with yours.

Schedule some time to discuss and share their perceptions in a meeting. 

Spend some time reflecting on the impact of each of these characteristics and what they mean to you and your leadership style. 

DEVELOPING THE NEW BREED OF LEADERS

Coaching is the way to create the new breed of leaders.

More specifically, investing your time in leadership coaching for yourself and your team is how you get out of the doing and into the influencing of the impact of your business. You get to stop being a boss, and start being a leader.

Coaching is a critical tool that you can learn, teach, practice, and develop. Anyone on your team can use it, not just those with the titles of leader, CEO, manager, director, and supervisor.

Once you shift your belief that only team members with a title can coach, you will have a major impact on your team. Framing a leader as anyone who makes themselves available to coach another team member, you create a culture of growth, trust and empowerment. Team members feel more like equals instead of inferiority based on the hierarchy established with titles. 

Consequently coaching becomes the new core competency in leadership growth and development.

RETHINKING YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE 

Now that you have an idea of how you’re showing up and being received by your team, it’s time to consider your leadership style. 

Like most healthcare you realize you could improve on your ability to be more effective leading yourself and others.

But “how much time will it take?” is a constant stress on your mind when you think about it.

You try to figure out if it’s just going to take up more of the time that you don’t have. Or, expend too much of your energy that’s already in short supply.

What you really want to know is if it can make a measurable difference for your investment of time, energy, and attention.

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Most effective leaders know they must continually reinvent themselves. They are called to grow and develop. The truth is, most of them don’t spend time on self-development

If they did, it would turn down their stress levels, help them become more productive, and improve their connections with employees. Leaders who participate in personal development set the stage for cultural stability in their business. 

Leaders who remain satisfied with the status quo will continue to use the same style and approach with every team member. Even if they should vary their approach to be effective based on the traits and characteristics of the team member. 

Not varying your approach makes it difficult to create and sustain forward momentum towards your business goals. 

Leadership requires taking risks and knowing when to take them. 

If you don’t feel comfortable being uncomfortable – courageous enough to see and take opportunities that others don’t, and do what others won’t – it becomes impossible to be an effective leader.

Once your leadership style becomes “the status quo” or outdated, you’ll see some of these characteristic signs and symptoms. 

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YOU MAKE QUESTIONABLE DECISIONS

Your decisions begin to take on a narrow perspective.  

While your intention is not to ignore the impact of your decisions on your team members or your business, you’ve gone blind to the ripple effect you’re creating. As a result, execution of strategies lacks focus, hiring decisions result in mis-hires, and employee retention becomes difficult.

YOU BECOME COMPLACENT

As you continue to jump into the administrative tasks of your business, your attention to detail wanes. 

You lose the drive to take on challenges, which impacts your effectiveness and ability to demonstrate composure. 

In other words, you tend to just go with the flow.

YOU BECOME EXCEEDINGLY SELF-ABSORBED 

When you become more concerned about what is important to you than what is important to your team members, you’re headed for failure.

Neglecting to support and interact with your team members will soon leave you with a business of one. 

You know you’re guilty of this once you’ve stopped scheduling regular one-on-one meetings with your staff members.   

YOUR EMPLOYEES DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM YOU

This often shows up in a more subtle way than the other signs.

Employees stop approaching you with questions. They won’t ask for help. They also stop sharing their successes with you. 

Because you’re so absorbed in the administrative work required to run your business, you’re unaware that your employees are less engaged with each other and with the direction you are headed as their leader. 

YOU HOLD BACK FROM TRYING NEW THINGS

New approaches to how you can change your situation and develop yourself scare you. 

Even though you know your current situation is not sustainable, the thought of the time, energy, and brain power it will take to change it is a roadblock you’re afraid to try to bypass.

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WHEN IT’S TIME TO SHIFT YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE

If your leadership style includes any of these telltale signs, it’s time to reconsider the toll it’s taking on your business.

Once you become open to growth and personal development your success as a leader builds a new sense of momentum. 

To know if you’re ready to move up to the next level of leadership, you have to stop allowing yourself to use the following excuses.

  • I don’t have time. 

If something is important to you, you will make time for it. Besides, think about all of the time you can save by becoming a better leader and delegating tasks to the right people.

  • What if the new approach does work? 

But, what if it does? Can you afford not to try something different that has the potential to improve your business life to some degree? When you completely commit to change, a new approach becomes much more likely to work for you.

  • My team will think I can’t lead if I ask them for help.

Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. When you are able to admit that you cannot (and more importantly do not want to) do it all, you are showing your wisdom. Not everyone is an expert at everything. Learning from people who are more skilled than you is a smart shortcut. 

  • This is the way I’ve always done it, why change now?

It’s a very rare circumstance that the way a company does business sustains the tests of time. Rules change. Technologies change. Roles change. The only constant in business is change. If you stand steadfast in your ways and resist change, you will go the way of the dinosaur. Besides, if you live in a constant state of stress and overwhelm, you’re a prime candidate for change.

THE 5 LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP

At the heart of leadership is service. 

You develop others after you’ve asked and answered tough questions about what true leadership means to you. 

Leaders who choose to develop themselves begin to put others’ needs before their own. 

Unfortunately in most organizations, the leadership structure takes on a traditional hierarchical  structure. Leaders “move up” the ladder in an organization, and, once there, they see themselves “above” their team. 

Most people do not equate leadership to service. Rather than personifying humility, influence and respect, too many believe being a leader means using power and authority.

However, top-performing companies are led by authentic, humble leaders who thrive and grow with loyal, engaging employees. 

Why? 

The personality traits of these leaders model humility, humbleness, confidence, and courage. 

Top leaders are individuals who continually promote and develop those on their team. They communicate the value, respect, and appreciation they have for their teams. They continually model and support a mindset and behavioral competencies that support the success of their teams and their businesses.   

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No leader is an island. To be a great leader you need a genuine willingness and true loyalty to guide others to achieve a common vision and goals through positive influence. Achieving something great that lasts requires a team behind you.

Also, consider this. Just because you have a leadership title, it doesn’t actually make you a leader.

The greatest reflection on whether a leader is successful or not is if they are actually influencing anyone. And, of course, the first place you’ll see that is in the leader’s team. A measure of the strength and health of an organization is the people who make it up. 

If the people aren’t following, the leader isn’t leading. Too often leaders get caught up in the financial bottom line instead of developing their people and growing their company. 

Leadership is a journey, just like becoming a great clinician is. 

You start from point A and work on mastering your skills, behaviors, and competencies. As long as you stay open to listen, accept, shift, adapt, respond, and build on each experience, you will evolve. 

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Evolving as a leader is much the same way. John C. Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership framework provides a concrete explanation of your evolution on your way to becoming a masterful leader. 

You’ll find a summary of each level below. Each section will include:

  • A keyword that defines the level
  • Characteristics of the leadership role
  • The upsides to each level
  • The downsides to each level
  • Tips to shift to the next level

MAXWELL’S 5 LEADERSHIP LEVELS

LEVEL 1 – POSITION 

This level marks the beginning of your leadership journey to mastering leadership. 

Keyword

Rights 

“I get certain rights, so you need to follow me.” 

Characteristics 

  • Defined more as a supervisor role 
  • People follow you because they must 
  • Subordinates to you follow your direction

The job title or position doesn’t make you a leader. As a leader, you make the position your own. 

Upside To Level 1 

You begin to shape and work on yourself as a leader.  A leadership position typically means authority is recognized

“Leadership is much less about what you DO, and much more about who you ARE.”  Frances Hellelbein, President and CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute.

Downside To Level 1

People who follow you give you the least amount of energy and effort because they are told they must follow you

The truth of the matter is, people don’t like to have to follow people because they have to follow people. 

Positional leaders focus on control rather than contribution and collaboration.

Level 1 Leaders tend to think about themselves first and assume they have all of the answers.

Tips To Shift To Level 2

  • Stop using your position to get things done by pushing people.
  • Don’t rely on your title to lead people. Release your entitlement.
  • Don’t expect your team members to come to you for things they need. Be the one who initiates this conversation.  

NOTEWORTHY: Leaders who never progress beyond Level 1 tend to experience high turnover rates and have trouble with retention. 

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LEVEL 2 – PERMISSION 

Keyword

Relationships

Characteristics

  • People follow you because they like and they want to
  • You begin to connect with people 
  • Influencing people is a natural byproduct of the relationships you build 

Upside To Level 2

Your focus naturally shifts from “me” to “we” at this level. As a leader, you start to value each person for their contributions. At this level, you also nurture trust.

Downside To Level 2

At level 2 leadership, it’s far too easy to become a people pleaser. Which also means you’ll tend to allow others to take advantage of you.

Often, you’ll find a way to hide what you deem as weaknesses about yourself. Because, as a people pleaser, you wouldn’t want your team to think you weren’t perfect or they may be disappointed in you. 

To become a Relational Leader requires three qualities. You need to:

  • listen well 
  • observe where people are at and what they’re doing 
  • continually learn  

Tips To Shift To Level 3

  • Become mindful of who you are and what your values are before attempting a connection with each team player. This demonstrates your authenticity.
  • Relationship building with your team members is a byproduct of listening, dialogue, and showing mutual respect.
  • Begin with trust and your relationships will allow for influence. The first lesson in developing trust is demonstrating vulnerability. 

NOTEWORTHY: Use these types of statements with your team members often: “What do you think?”, “I believe you can do this!”, and “What can I do to help support you to be successful with this task?”

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LEVEL 3 – PRODUCTION 

Keyword

Results

You help the business grow and become successful by setting an example. 

Characteristics 

  • Lead by example on how to be productive “people do what people see “ 
  • Attract people who are interested in the same values 

Upside To Level 3

You communicate vision through your actions. This gives employees clarity on how they can contribute to the success of the business.

Operating at Level 3 creates momentum.

It forms the foundation for team building. When employees are engaged, they have a deep desire to be part of a strong team.

Downside To Level 3

At this level, leaders might struggle to remain responsible to the tasks at hand. Oftentimes, they will also hesitate to make difficult decisions.

Additional Team Benefits 

Momentum is a byproduct of the increased productivity. Naturally, problem solvers are built in the process. 

Since lack of momentum causes problems, momentum in Level 3 will solve 80% of the problems a team has. 

Partnership occurs within the team at Level 3 as well. 

Tips To Shift To Level 4

  • You avoid thinking of production as “nose to the grindstone” only.
  • You genuinely consider your team members as your MOST important asset.
  • You share a clear vision of the business and how each team member’s contribution is critical to the success of themself, the team and the business.
  • You demonstrate agility and resilience to change because you know it is a necessary requirement for progress. 
  • You understand the importance of growing leaders in your business and start creating a way for them to do so.

Noteworthy: Sit down and meet regularly with each team member to find out what their aspirations are both personally and professionally. Regular meetings further develops the relationships necessary for you to help them grow.

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LEVEL 4 – DEVELOPMENT 

Keyword

Development

Characteristics

  • Recognize how important your staff and your team are to your business 
  • Invest in developing your people
  • Business growth created by increased capacity thanks to growing your people

Team Development

Since 80% of success is who you bring in the front door, here are four keys to building a strong team.

Focus on the definition of the position and duties of the person you’d like to recruit. Consider what characteristics and qualities someone would have that would make them a success in that role. 

Next, consider positioning. Be sure to put your new hire in the right seat. After you’ve observed them on the job, you may decide they would do even better fulfilling a different role, so stay open to that. 

Once you’ve got your team member in place, be sure to give them the right tools to perform the tasks you assign to them. Tools can be both physical and intellectual. 

Finally, practice smart retention strategies. Do “inventory” with your new hire to ensure they find the work they’re doing both challenging and rewarding and that they understand their importance to you. 

5 Step Team Development Process 

There are five simple progressive steps to take to develop your team. They are:

  • “I do it” – (If I can’t do it then I can’t teach it) 
  • “I do it, you’re with me and watching” – (mentoring, coaching, see me do it) 
  • “You do it” – (I’m with you, helping you as needed) 
  • “You do it without me” – (you don’t need me) 
  • “You do it” (go mentor someone else, duplicate your team and your leaders) 

As John C. Maxwell says, 

“Successful people figure out what they’re good at and position themselves there. Successful leaders figure out what others are good at and position them there.“ 

Upside To Level 4

Operating at this level assures that the organization can sustain growth, which is a fantastic way to be if you’re in business to scale.

As a developmental leader, you empower others to exhibit their leadership skills. This gives you more quality time to think and to execute on new strategies in line with the vision of your business.

Downside To Level 4

If you’re a Level 4 leader, you may fall victim to your own insecurities. Once you decide to let go of your ego, you’ll succeed.

Also, you may fall short on your target to spend 80% of your time helping others because they’re operating so effectively.

Leaders might not hold up to responsibility

Noteworthy: If the person you’re mentoring can’t duplicate others the way you have with them, you haven’t trained, developed or coached that person properly. Also, choose not to train anyone unless they make a commitment to train others. 

Tips To Shift To Level 5

  • Your top goal as a leader should be to develop more leaders, not to develop and encourage more followers. 
  • Be aware of the leadership culture you are creating. Make it a culture in your business that supports development through coaching, mentoring, and appreciation.
  • Your mindset needs to embody the practice of developing leaders as a commitment to yourself and others.

As Maxwell claims, 

  • It takes a leader to KNOW a leader (through recruiting and positioning)
  • It takes a leader to SHOW a leader (by modeling and preparing others)
  • It takes a leader to GROW a leader (by developing, empowering, and measuring success)

Noteworthy: If you create a leadership development pathway in your business that every team member could participate in, how do you think it would impact your retention, growth, and ultimately your team culture? 

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LEVEL 5 – PINNACLE 

Keyword

Respect 

Characteristics

  • High success rate as a leader
  • Invested years in developing and mastering your leadership skill set 
  • People follow you for who you are, what you have done, and they respect you 

It takes a long time to reach Level 5. To retain your leadership mastery, you’ll want to continue growth and self-development training.

To do that, consider coaching, reading, mentoring others and seeking out others who want to become leaders to teach. 

Upside To Level 5

Level 5 leaders create Level 5 organizations which function at an extraordinarily high level as teams and businesses.

People will seek these leaders out for advice regularly. And this level of leader gives away power instead of hoarding it.

Downside To Level 5

Leaders may get caught up in their success and start to believe their own press. They Also may lose their focus, which cripples their vision and purpose.

Tips To Perform Your Best At Level 5

  • Continue your growth and development while developing others
  • Remain humble and always learn from those around you
  • Have a succession plan
  • Mentor your top leaders to develop others
  • Create a culture of coaching competency throughout your business 

Noteworthy:  Level 5 leaders create opportunities  that other leaders don’t by turning challenges into opportunities. Consider how effective you are at developing leaders in your business. You’ll know when you observe how effective those leaders are at developing others.   

WHAT LEADERSHIP LEVEL ARE YOU OPERATING ON?  

You’re invited.

Complete the following exercise to discover what leadership level you’re currently operating on. 

Remember, you may function at one level for one type of employee and function at a different level for another employee. 

Your Instructions

  • Use the table below to list your staff members and people you lead
  • Record how you think each individual staff member sees your leadership level with them?

After completion, you’ll get insight into how each staff member might respond to you or other leaders in your business. That insight presents you with an opportunity to decide what you can do to help develop your leaders as well as yourself.

Here’s an example.

You’re sharing the vision for your business. It’s the same message with every team member, but because you might be on Level 2 with one team member and Level 4 with another team member, their reactions and thus level of commitment will vary.

This exercise will help you better adjust your mentoring, training, and coaching to the needs of each of your team members.

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WHAT LEADERSHIP COACHING IS AND IS NOT

Coaching is a high-impact process because it typically produces results in short meetings.

A high level of engagement between the coach and the person being coached to produce a desired result is what makes the activity so successful. 

Clarity is the main focus of a coaching dialogue.

The secondary focus of coaching is to create action steps to allow you to solve immediate issues and move forward with consistency.

Even high-performers need help from time to time, and coaching is the inroad.

Coaching is about helping people improve on their own capabilities and effectiveness so that they see lasting results from their sessions. 

And, probably the most important, coaching is forward thinking and offers a future pacing perspective on how your business can be when led effectively.

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WHAT COACHING IS NOT

Coaching is not therapy, such as psychotherapy. As a coach, my job is not to “fix” my clients, or their pasts.

Good coaching certainly gets underneath the surface to look at perceptions, but the emphasis is on helping a healthy individual overcome challenges to be more effective.

Management is not the same thing as coaching. Coaching is a powerful skill but not the only thing that a good manager does.  

Consulting is also not the same as coaching. While consulting is an incredibly valuable service, it delivers a plan and framework but does not focus on the accountability component required for the growth and development of an individual. 

My role as a coach is not to feed you full of my opinions on what you should do. It’s more about helping you develop your own insights and then take new actions to improve results.

As a coach, I will intervene and provide advice when appropriate. 

In our dialogue, I can customize a tool or solution that works for your unique situation. But my function is not to teach or train you. 

However when I do coach you, it can easily overlap with mentoring which is focused on sharing knowledge and best practices to help you hone your skills. 

Coaching should never be disciplinary or used to document poor performance. When an organization chooses to hire a coach  with the intent of working with poorly performing employees, it will be seen as punitive and take on a negative connotation for those employees.  

While the word coaching was — and still is in some organizations — a substitute as the last resort to firing or termination, that is not how coaching is used today.  

Instead, coaching is seen as a standard leadership development tool.

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THE STRUGGLE WITH LEADERSHIP IN HEALTHCARE

Healthcare leaders and CEOs who have been clinicians are comfortable developing relationships with patients and other colleagues.

However, the ability to blend those relational skills into a system that develops self and others through coaching can feel awkward and time consuming. 

Because I personally struggled with this in my own PT practice, I invested in coaching to make the shift. It helped me to not only save my practice, but to grow strong teams and become an absentee owner.

In fact, my framework became so successful, other practice owners who struggled with retention, overwhelm, and inability to scale sought me out to help them. 

Two major benefits of my structured coaching my clients attest two are 

  • Eliminating the burden of overwhelm by utilizing my 5-step process to ensure you stay accountable.
  • The clarity you need right now. Because you set the intention for each meeting, your most pressing concern is addressed. You’ll know which action steps to take and have me to hold you accountable, which supports a high level of completion.

LEADERSHIP SPOTLIGHT – DENNIS PRICKETT, ATRIUM PT 

Dennis sought out my services initially because he was tired of working in the weeds all the time. He was stressed and wanted to grow his business, but he had a small staff and was always the one putting out fires running the day to day ops. 

After participating in the executive coaching program, he no longer has to do everything. In fact, his practice has tripled. How’s that for growth?

He recently enrolled his potential leaders into my Leadership Development Group Program

Dennis will be the first to admit that It wasn’t easy at first. But the journey of self-development and growth he took coupled with developing his team helped him break free from the “overworked” and “overwhelmed” cycle that was leading straight to burnout.

WHY SMART HEALTHCARE PRACTICE OWNERS HIRE LEADERSHIP COACHES

To review, in this guide you’ve learned about:

  • the new breed of leaders and how to develop them
  • how to rethink your leadership style
  • the 5 levels of leadership
  • which level of leadership you operate on
  • what leadership coaching is and is not

When the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks of adopting a new tool, it’s high time to consider using that tool.

Leadership coaching is that tool.

In short, practice owners who are ready to reinvent themselves and redefine the way they do business hire leadership coaches.

They are tired of the status quo. Overwhelm is no longer where they want to live. All they want is to have a strong team behind them who can deliver on the vision they have for the business.

Leaders who choose to be coached do so because they realize their passion and energy are being hijacked when they have to work in their business instead of on it.

These are the ones who decide to “join the leadership evolution.” They know the way forward is to develop their skills and take action. Is that you?

There’s truly only one way to know for sure.

Take action and book a complimentary strategy session with me

We’ll have an honest conversation on whether I feel I can help you improve your business environment with leadership coaching. And, you’ll leave with action steps you can take immediately following our call.