Stop Wasting Time and Money in Your Search for an Associate: A Formula for Finding Dr. Right, Right Now!

The Issue

The other day I was speaking to a physician colleague about some of his current challenges. One of his main concerns was finding an associate for his practice.  It seems that he had hired four over the last several years but only one worked out. Two of them were gone inside of 24 months and the third was on the “way out”. He had selected well-trained, experienced competent people.  He is an easygoing, nice guy, who offers exceptional compensation and is considered a “great boss”.  So he understandably was having difficulty with why his associate batting average was only .250! There was one glaring reason that his success had been so limited. He made the mistake that only physicians hiring physicians seem to make. I am about to share that mistake with you as well as a simple remedy.

Three Simple Tools to Help Physicians Excel as Leaders When the Unexpected Happens

Have you ever driven down the street and encountered an unseen speed bump?  Was it only an unexpected jolt, a temporary inconvenience; or did you really “smack it” and require major repairs? As leaders we will, inevitably impact upon the unexpected. How we assess and respond to those unexpected shoals in the sea of life will shape the opinions of those around us with respect to our Leadership. Here are three suggestions to help assure those opinions are positive.

Take a Deep Breath; It Is the Process and Not the Person

Yes, I know that Deming came up with this first in his 1961 book Total Quality Control. I also realize that ever since JCAHO took TQM up as a mantra in the mid 1990s health care organizations have created whole departments whose sole task it is to implement and execute the TQM principles (and its iterations) on a daily basis. But, I also have seen and experienced that when it comes to crisis, basic human nature wants us to find, blame and punish a person. Some “body”, not some “process”, has to pay for the error.

Policies and Procedures for Physicians or How to Inhibit Leadership Without Really Trying

Every organization has them, every department owns their own special copy; the Policy and Procedure Manual. Let me tell you a story that may help you use this resource effectively.

Our patient arrived so short of breath he was literally speechless and if we didn’t do something quickly he was going to die very, very soon. In this instance “something quickly” meant placing an Endotracheal Tube to secure delivery of oxygen to his flooding lungs. So that is what he got, a tube and a variety of other drugs to treat his congestive heart failure.

Connectedness is the Lynchpin to Physician Leadership

Leadership is one of those words that is freely tossed about but quite open to interpretation. As a noun it can designate position, capacity or direction. Common usage though loads this simple word with the power of “the boss”. And this is where the line gets blurry; when you start talking about “being a leader” as opposed to being “an effective leader”. The first step between the two is connection; something physicians can be really good at.

How many times have you witnessed (or worse, been subject to) a plan or a boss that you, along with everyone else, knew was never going to leave the gate? The reason you and everyone else knew this? There was no connection. No connection in the form of solicited opinion, team meeting, pre-launch education or even the old fashioned, yet still appropriate MBWA (Management By Walking Around). There was no sense that the decision makers cared a whit about you, your concerns or your very important role in implementation. No indication that other than their stamped signature at the bottom of your paycheck that they even knew you where alive! Is it any wonder the program or person failed?

Physician: Go from Natural Leader to Effective Leader

It is common knowledge to anyone that has tried, that leading physicians is a lot like herding cats. It isn’t easy. Not because physicians are contrary, non “team players” by nature. It is because physicians are trained to be independent thinkers with an ultimate responsibility to their patient like a captain has to his ship. Imagine the scene where you have 6 or 7 seasoned captains of equal seniority on the bridge trying to steer a ship through a hurricane. Now you have an approximate idea of a typical monthly medical staff meeting. But it doesn’t have to be that way!