Leadership is hard.
“If people just did their jobs, everything would be so much easier.”
“Why don’t they just ‘get it?’”
“Why am I always the one who has to do all of the little stuff around here?”
“Nobody pays attention to the details – except me.”
I’m sure you’ve never uttered any of those phrases in a fit of exasperation. I haven’t either…at least, not this week.
Being a leader is hard and dramatically more so in a people-driven, healthcare service business. Healthcare services are one of the most personal, intimate business models of our economy, and no technology or artificial intelligence is going to change that. The new, “silent killer” in dentistry and other verticals is found in the public perception that baseline healthcare needs are a function of maintenance, and that practices and providers are simply a commodity. Today’s consumer sees no differentiation in patient experience, so it all comes down to a matter of convenience and price point. Whether you like it or not, you’re in a fight for your professional life against a mindset that is motivated by neither urgency nor loyalty.
Every person who works in your practice(s) either adds to or detracts from that experience. Each of your employees is the tip of the spear in the fight for differentiation. How sharp is your blade?
One Key to Leadership
It has frequently been said that “leadership is getting someone to willingly do something or go somewhere when they otherwise would not do so on their own.” I agree with that to a point, but the theory is based around reward systems (“the carrot or the stick”), which in my opinion have limited applications. You can’t solve everything with a bonus or a threat of termination, and you can make a very good case that both lose their effectiveness if they become commonplace. Rewards and threats are also both extrinsic motivational factors.
Intrinsic motivational factors arise from a change in belief or value system of the individual. They tend to have more long-lasting effects because they create day-to-day beneficial change that is congruent with the way the person sees themselves. This can be as significant as an “identity change” in the person’s internal operating system.
“I don’t need a weekend away as a reward for finishing a marathon because I’ve become a runner…” There’s a difference between a reward for a result versus a change of identity in the way you see yourself.
As Leaders, our job is to unlock that individual belief in each of our key teammates in a way that helps them align with the foundations for the businesses we’re trying to build.
If that sounds like a daunting task, trust your intuition.
The Myth of Internal Transformation
The Pygmalion Effect is both a story and a psychological term. The Greek story is about a sculptor from Cyprus, who creates an ivory statue of his ideal woman, Galatea, and falls in love with her. He prays to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to bring the statue to life. Aphrodite grants his wish, and Pygmalion marries Galatea.
In a more recent setting, the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, created a play about a flower girl named Eliza Doolittle who speaks with a Cockney accent. This accent is heavy, a bit hard to understand, and considered lower class. She meets Mr. Higgins, a higher classed and arrogant man, who is convinced that he can train her out of that accent and make her more ladylike. The play tells the story of this transformative process as a critique of societal values.
The Psychology of Creating Lasting Change
The Pygmalion Effect is more importantly a psychological phenomenon that describes how people perform better when they have high expectations placed on them, and worse when they have low expectations. The effect has been corroborated through numerous experiments and studies over time, and is most often associated with academic or work settings, where teachers and bosses have expectations for their students and employees.
The Pygmalion Effect works because someone (“a Leader”) resets another person’s confidence, expectations and beliefs in themselves around a possible outcome. The person’s confidence, expectations and beliefs are internalized in a way that makes their expectations become self-fulfilling.
When expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies, the person’s commitment, attitude and behavior changes to meet the expectations, which in turn leads to improved performance. This positive reinforcement loop can be very powerful as it relates to both outcomes as well as identity shifts.
So, is a change in belief, expectation, confidence and outcome really just a matter of telling someone: “I think you can achieve great things and I believe in you”?
Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn’t. But it’s one Hell of a place to start.
Personal Experience
My career as a business leader really began in the role of General Manager for the Richmond Branch of Patterson Dental Supply. I had taken the job at the ripe old age of 31. I was the youngest person in the entire branch of around 50 people and I was the one leading it. To make matters worse, it was a complete dumpster fire with a leadership legacy of nepotism and dishonesty underpinned by a culture of mistrust and individual self-preservation. Not an ideal “starter job” for a new leader, but the company probably figured I couldn’t screw it up any worse than it already was.
A little over two years into the role, I had “changed” about 50% of the people and made numerous culture-driven decisions. I had also secured a few “easy wins” for some of the key salespeople to rebuild a level of trust. I found myself at the annual Strategic Planning Summit in Minneapolis with all of the other General Managers and Company Executives where they rolled out the annual plan of what we were charged with delivering that year. We had broken up into groups to determine what we were going to do, and I drew the straw to present my working group’s plan to the company leadership team. I was nervous as Hell.
I don’t remember what I said or what I talked about or even what the plan was about, but I do remember one thing vividly some 20 years later. At a coffee break in between sessions that morning, Steve Armstrong, the CFO of Patterson Companies (and I man I held in incredibly high regard), approached me to make some small talk. He noted how Richmond was improving in performance and thanked me for my leadership and my commitment. Then he said something I’ll never forget.
He said: “I probably shouldn’t tell you this because I don’t want it to go to your head, but I was standing next to Pete [Frechette, the CEO and the man who led the company’s Initial Public Offering] during your presentation earlier today and when you were done, he looked at me and said, “That kid’s a keeper.” Keep doing what you’re doing, Perrin.”
It still gives me goosebumps just writing about it. I was already a pretty motivated and determined young leader, but I could’ve climbed Mount Everest in bare feet after hearing those words. Did Pete really think I was “a keeper”? I never asked him directly – and it didn’t matter. I believed it. But I knew for a fact that the CFO of the entire company saw the results we were starting to post and believed in what I was doing.
Check mate. I was ready to draw swords at dawn and lead the charge.
Pause and Reflect
How many times do you share positive reinforcement with your individual teammates? I’m talking about genuine belief in them? Group settings validate peer recognition. Individual recognition drives home your belief in that person. Written note cards or text messages can be praise saved for a bad day or to share with friends and family. It doesn’t take much. Just pull them aside; look them in the eye; and tell them you admire what they’re doing and that you know there’s more good to come from them.
Tell them they’re “a keeper.”
Who Leads the Leader?
Leadership is a lonely role, and for many of you who own your own practice or group, there’s nobody there to tell you they believe in you. You only have yourself to rely on. Honestly, I respect that, but I surely don’t envy it. Here are two final pieces of advice for you to implement immediately:
- You need to raise your expectations of yourself to selectively reinforce in each of your individual team members your belief in each one of them. Not every day. Not even every month. But selectively at appropriate points in time when they merit it or when you sense they need it.
- You need to find a person or peer group who can pick you up when you’re down; instill motivation or confidence when you lack it; and be a model for what the next phase of growth should look like for you personally and professionally.
You are your own worst critic far too often, and you never slow down long enough to give yourself the credit you’re due because you (incorrectly) feel that it would be braggadocious. In this case, your humility is a vice masquerading as a virtue. It’s perfectly OK to stop and smell the roses along the journey and you should absolutely take pride in how far you’ve come. I’m giving you both permission and encouragement to do so. Start doing so now.
Your problem is also the same mentality stands in your way of developing and leading your team. In a world of economic stress and uncertainty, none of us can afford to allow that to happen any longer because it marginalizes the personal impact we make with our patients on every encounter. We allow ourselves to become commoditized. You are the bulkhead to reverse that downward momentum and you are the catalyst for change.
Figure out a reason to share with your key teammates your belief in who they are; what they do; and how they do it. Pick a time this week to share it with each of them. Whether your people “show up” makes the difference in the patient experience, but how they “show up” is directly influenced by you.
Go grind some beans.
