Perhaps the most common and chronic complaint I hear from chiropractors is that their staff lacks a sense of ownership in the mission, goals and business results of the practice.

Doctors often feel that no matter what they do, they can't get their staff to be consistently accountable to providing superior service, embodying and sharing the value message of the practice, doing their part to bring new patients to the practice, or whatever else might constitute the mission and purpose of the clinic. "They don't care about the practice like I do," is the common refrain.

I have some bad news. You will be chronically disappointed if you continue to hold the unrealistic expectation that your staff will one day care about your practice as much as you do. You have a financial and emotional investment in your business and profession that staff members simply do not and will never have. Once you accept that reality, it's much easier to get down to the business of doing what you can to engage your staff in adopting an attitude of ownership, even though both you and they know they are not owners. Think of your goal not as getting staff to embody the same level of ownership in your business as you do, but rather developing a shared understanding of your expectations and creating explicit standards for daily performance that align with your mission.

Mission as a Path to Ownership

Just as it is with every other aspect of your business – providing quality service, showing respect for patients, being consistent with your marketing message, being financially responsible – when it comes to creating and putting a mission into practice, it's up to you to lead by example. The idealistic expectation for staff to assume high levels of ownership in a practice may stem from the doctor's lack of leadership or frustration with practice outcomes. An inconsistent message (saying one thing, doing another), expecting employees to engage with patients in a way that the doctor is unwilling to do, or relying on staff to produce results that are the doctor's responsibility are all examples of poor leadership that can result in employees who adopt a "Why should I care if the boss doesn't?" attitude.

In addition to the day-to-day basics of being a strong leader, it's important for the doctor to demonstrate leadership by establishing the culture and setting the emotional tone for the practice. This can be done, in part, with a well-thought-out mission statement that is more than something to frame and hang in your reception area, publish on your Web site, or review when practice statistics are down.

In my experience consulting in chiropractic offices, it's less common than most doctors realize to have a staff that genuinely understands, much less feels accountable to, the mission of the practice. In a confidential assessment questionnaire, I will often ask the staff to rate the degree to which they agree to the following statements: 1) I understand the mission and vision of the practice. (2) I understand how our goals and projects support the mission and vision for the practice. It is not at all unusual for the majority of employees in an office to answer "disagree" or "strongly disagree" to either or both of these statements. And all the while, the doctor has been under the assumption that their staff was on board with the declared mission statement of the practice.

Full story