Practice Managers’ Retreat

Wow, what an amazing two days!

Wydale Hall in North Yorkshire is a beautiful 18^th century country house set in 14 acres of gardens and woodlands.  It is the retreat house and conference centre for the diocese of York.  With warm spring weather and the odd April shower, it was the perfect setting to escape the rigors of daily life for busy dental practice managers.  Three of the delegates stayed at the hall, arriving on Sunday evening for dinner and a restful night to set them up for the interesting two days ahead.

We started on the Monday morning as five individuals who were wondering what a retreat was all about. By the end of the first session we had discovered we had so much in common & found a bond between us, none of us were in this alone, we shared common stresses, highs and lows in our jobs and we all had a great enthusiasm for our teams and practices.

Our trainers and guides for the retreat were Joanna Taylor and Alun Rees.  Joanna is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Master Practitioner and an INLPTA Certified Trainer and most important of all a busy dental practice manager!  Alun is a dentist and business coach and is married to a busy dental practice manager!  We knew from the start that we were in good hands.

Joanna and Alun provided a safe environment for us to be honest with each other and ourselves. We learnt techniques that will enable us to grow not only as individuals and but also as practice managers.  There was an abundance of time and space to discuss individual issues and to acquire tools and skills to help us cope with a variety of aspects of dental practice management.

We learnt about how we communicate, how we can’t not communicate and how our communication affects us and those around us.

Joanna talked about the functions of the mind and that we have a conscious and unconscious part to our brains.  The conscious mind equates to approximately 5% of our brain and is responsible for making decisions and thinking and processes small “chunks” of information for us.  The unconscious mind is the other 95% and this is where our habits, beliefs, values, emotions and “automatic pilot” reside. It can process millions of “chunks” of information.

We gave some time to thinking about our own beliefs and values and how these affect our bodies and how we behave.  We learnt to pay attention to our body signals of stress and tension and to notice any negativity.

Very usefully both Joanna and Alun helped us discover ways to deal with awkward situations and people.  Alun gave us an overview of Transitional Analysis and introduced us to the concept of Parent, Adult, Child which rang familiar bells with all of us!  He recommended the book ‘I’m OK, You’re OK’ by Thomas A Harris for further reading.

Another useful topic covered was the management of change – both for the practice and for individuals. Successful practices can and do adapt to change; very successful practices anticipate and manage change in advance. We looked at Robert Dilt’s model, Neurological Levels of Change that provides a useful framework for deciding at what level it is appropriate to work to achieve the desired outcome and to manage the change.

Some time was spent on the second day looking at our personal goals.  We looked at six areas of our lives: career or professional, family, relationships, personal growth, health & fitness and spirituality.  We explored which areas we weren’t achieving the results we wanted.  Joanna suggested some powerful questions to ask ourselves, which would help to identify beliefs that were limiting our success in gaining those results.

Most interestingly we learnt techniques in self-hypnosis where Joanna took us slowly through the processes that would be useful in different situations and we were able to practice no fewer than five different methods. Self-hypnosis is a naturally occurring state that virtually everyone, with practice, can learn to use for achieving goals that otherwise might be too difficult to achieve.  Self-hypnosis can help with many issues including stress, resolving problems and achieving goals, such as smoking cessation or improving emotional health and life balance.

Joanna’s skills at storytelling proved invaluable in reinforcing the learning whilst Alun’s vast experience of dental practice meant that everything stayed relevant.

These two days were of great value personally and professionally.  By the end of the second day we were looking forward to taking our experiences back into our real worlds.

The retreat gave me time and space in lovely surroundings to take stock of my life and work and to face future challenges with more confidence in myself and my abilities.

I thoroughly recommend this course to anyone involved in practice management.

S.H.

To reserve your place on the next retreat go Joanna Taylor’s website.

Marc will be in the UK on May 12th & 13th to run a course on “Ownership and Leadership” at 38 Devonshire Place. Take a look at Marc’s website here and the details of this and other seminars here.

Unfortunately I can’t join Marc and the delegates as I shall be speaking in Glasgow at the T.C.White Symposium.

And whilst we’re on the subject of words in Glasgow…(did you see what I did there?)

Second – never count your chickens before they hatch / spend the profit before it’s in the bank / celebrate until you cross the line.

I spent a long session with my coach yesterday morning discussing daily effectiveness, how to improve it, how to maintain it,  how to acknowledge when you have had a good day and how to learn from those days when you have not been as effective as you would have wished. Coincidentally this tumbled into my in box just after our conversation so I thought I would share it.

First thing

Research suggests that avoiding distractions and focusing solely on one task can improve intelligence, mental sharpness and productivity, and reduce stress. So – proactively plan to avoid distractions.

First thing in the morning decide on what your one or two most important tasks are for the day or week. Such tasks could be anything from doing your tax return to dreaming up the next big idea.

Then organise your days to make sure you find time to focus on these tasks. Everyone has their own approaches to organising time, so think about when’s best to schedule tasks; straight away, or perhaps late afternoon when you’ve cleared up other matters? Block out one or two ‘sacred’ time segments – times when you silence your email or escape to a quieter place to work, and simply focus on one thing. Even one or two hours spent focusing solely on key tasks could help you feel – and be – more productive.

Midday

Allocating a set time to clear up the clutter could help to rejuvenate your mind and focus on more important matters for the rest of the day.

For instance, take some time each day to tame your email. In our article, Avoid email overload, we explore tips for doing so, such as devising a system for quickly processing incoming emails. Devoting a single period of time to do this – rather than continually reacting to emails throughout the day – could help to avoid distractions so that you can focus better on more important tasks. Of course, it’s not just about email: you could sort through your in-tray, do your expenses, prepare paperwork for posting, or organise some errands to do while you are out at lunch.

Last thing

Harvard Business Review’s Peter Bregman observes that “we rarely take the time to pause, breathe, and think about what’s working and what’s not. There’s just too much to do and no time to reflect.”

He proposes that at the end of every day we “save a few minutes to think about what just happened”, comparing what we wanted to happen with what actually happened; “the meetings you attended, the work you got done, the conversations you had, the people with whom you interacted”. Then ask: “How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure? What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do – differently or the same – tomorrow?”

Such an approach might provide satisfaction on a good day, or insights and learnings you can use to create a better tomorrow. And it links neatly back to our first action of the day suggested above. For example, if you didn’t find time for those important tasks, look at the issues that stopped you and think about ways to solve these problems so that future days are more productive.

In essence – a daily cycle of planning, clearing clutter and continual learning could make future days more focused and productive.

I dislike the phrase “Work Life Balance”; it co-exists in that unreal world of “Life Coaching” where “Quality Time”, “Alignment” and “Fulfilment” are made to appear easy to achieve and where you “can have it all”.

Frequently used by people who have done a weekend NLP or correspondence course they give the whole of coaching a bad name.

I am a coach and I was a dentist. You cannot be a successful dentist (& I was) without considering the whole person. Am a successful coach? I’ll go with Thomas Leonard’s view: “‘The best coaches don’t think they are. And some of the weakest coaches think they are great“.

‘You can not coach an individual without regard for the whole person, so some of the time I must be considered to be a “Life” Coach but it’s not a phrase with which I am comfortable.

My belief goes with the opening words of M. Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Travelled, that Life is Difficult and the sooner you get used to it the better. I have no time for the “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” just read this one book, it’ll change your life, everything will be hunky-dory and we’ll all live happily ever after. Rees’s take is Men are from Earth, Women are from Earth – now just deal with it.

Work is a huge part of life, the most successful and happiest people I know work extremely hard, they spend large amounts of their lives doing what they call work. But (& it’s a bloody big but)  they make sure they enjoy what they do whatever it is.

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of Hugh MacLeod his writings and drawings as featured in Gaping Void. So as we head into a new year this struck me as being an appropriate cartoon.

Make the most of staff appraisals

It is important to hold regular staff appraisals even if you have just one employee.
They do not have to be intimidating or formal affairs, but they do have to be clear and well thought-out. Ideally, staff should be appraised every six months.
From your point of view, you can use appraisals to tell your staff how you think they are doing. If you are pleased with their performance you can use the opportunity to reinforce their behaviour through encouragement and reward.
If you are not satisfied with their performance you can use the opportunity to help them understand where there is room for improvement and suggest ways in which they might accomplish this improvement.
Be specific. No one likes being told, ‘Well, I just think you need to get your act together generally.’
From the employee’s point of view an appraisal provides an opportunity to discuss their future with your organization and to raise any issues that might concern them.
It also allows them to vent any frustrations they might be feeling.
Don’t be frightened to give them the space to let off some steam. Listen sincerely and objectively to what they say and note any points you think are valid for future action.

PS Who appraises the business owner? Well, I do for some of my clients – want to know more? alun@alunrees.com

A few weeks ago my colleague Jason Cupp “re-blogged” one of my postings, here I return the compliment because his account of the first day of the conference is spot-on.

To take your Kolbe A index go here or contact me for more information.

Take it away Jason….

What an amazing day!

This week, I’ve been in Phoenix, AZ attending the Kolbe Professional Growth Seminar – an educational event geared towards Kolbe Certified Consultants.  As many of you know, I have been a Kolbe Certified Consultant since 2006, and have been devoting the majority of my time now to Growth Consulting and utilizing Kolbe Wisdom as part of that process.

Today, Kathy Kolbe, creator of Kolbe Wisdom, and Dr. Pierre Balthazard, an Associate Professor at Arizona State University, revealed one of the most fascinating studies I’ve ever been a part of.

Let me back up…  If you’ve been to one of my seminars on Kolbe Wisdom, you’ve heard me talk about the Three Parts of the Mind:  The Cognitive, The Affective and The Conative.  The Cognitive Part of the Mind is the way you think – things such as Knowledge, Education and IQ.  The Affective Part of the Mind is the way you feel – things such as emotion, values, attitude and desire.  But, the Conative Part of the Mind is the way you do – otherwise your natural instincts – things like drive, instinct, talent and innate force.  Folks, your INSTINCTS do not change.  But your feelings and your thinking can… and will.  That said, the Kolbe A Index measures a person’s Conative Part of the Mind.

I’m a prime example of “Going Against the Grain” in my previous career… and I had a SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT of Conative Stress.  If you haven’t heard my story, call or email me – I’m really open to share it.  And, it’s somewhat powerful to amplify the idea of Conative Stress.

That is where the Brain Research that Kathy and Pierre did comes in.  It was more than fascinating, and it analyzed the Brain and the Conative Side of the Mind.  AMAZING.

It’s was so in-depth, that I could write for a LONG time on it.  BUT, then thing I wanted to share with you is simply this:

Do you have Conative Stress in your life?  I sure did.  And, honestly, now I don’t.  All because of the Kolbe A Index.

Kathy and Peter, in their final slide, revealed the graphics below, which I want to share with you for the first time.

OK, you’re probably asking yourself, “Jason, what is this??” Well… Let me explain.  These are actual EEG readings from a Brain Monitor.  The top image is when you’re working alongside your Natural Instincts – what is determined by your Kolbe A Index Results.  The bottom image is when you’re working against your Natural Instincts.

So, for those that know my story, the bottom image was when I was in my previous career, the top image is what I’m doing now.

What would you rather be doing with your life?

With your stress?

With your conative stress?

I’ve been lucky enough to work with HUNDREDS of people all over North America on their “Conative Stress” and “Not working against your Natural Instincts and Grain” — and it’s real.

Here are the Steps to Determine your Conative Stress:

1.  Contact me to take the Kolbe A Index online (it only takes 20 minutes)

2.  Assess how you’re expected to work (I help you with this too)

3.  Compare your strengths versus your work expectations (Yup, my job!)

4.  Get individual Conables Tips to make your brain work better (Again, I do this…)

This is huge.

THANK YOU Kathy and Peter for your amazing “conversation” today.  It was empowering.  And not really to me… but to those who will be affected by this for years to come.  Cheers to working on instincts and changing lives.

Think you know what motivates everybody? Think again.

Hardly worth the effort

In most fields, there’s an awful lot of work put into the last ten percent of quality.

Getting your golf score from 77 to 70 is far more difficult than getting it from 120 to 113 or even from 84 to 77.

Answering the phone on the first ring costs twice as much as letting it go into the queue.

Making pastries the way they do at a fancy restaurant is a lot more work than making brownies at home.

Laying out the design of a page or a flyer so it looks like a pro did it takes about ten times as much work as merely using the template Microsoft builds in for free, and the message is almost the same…

Except it’s not. Of course not. The message is not the same.

The last ten percent is the signal we look for, the way we communicate care and expertise and professionalism. If all you’re doing is the standard amount, all you’re going to get is the standard compensation. The hard part is the last ten percent, sure, or even the last one percent, but it’s the hard part because everyone is busy doing the easy part already.

The secret is to seek out the work that most people believe isn’t worth the effort. That’s what you get paid for.

Cautious Optimism Is For Amateurs

As the chute opens, is the rodeo bull rider cautiously optimistic about the next eight seconds?

Were the signers of the Declaration of Independence cautiously optimistic about their futures as they dipped their pens in ink?

Was Neil Armstrong cautiously optimistic as Apollo 11 roared from the launch pad on course for the moon?

If you’re like most people, your optimism struggles daily to outwit pessimism.  Pessimism lurks under every bump in the road, around every corner you turn and within every news report you hear.

There is no purpose for cautious optimism on your path to success, for cautious optimism is just another way to say maybe.

And if you are a chess player, maybe is pessimism’s way of saying “check”.

Believe and succeed.

Doug Emerson Profitable Horseman

www.profitablehorseman.com

doug@profitablehorseman.com