Berning & Affiliates

CEO's Reality Check

In an interesting quote a top CEO, Carl Bass of Autodesk, reflected on his experience as he became CEO of the company. "My IQ jumped 10 points and I became much funnier," as quoted in an insightful Wall Street Journal article, A Different Animal Seeks the No. 1 Post by Phred Dvorak, 10/22/07. Mr. Dvorak wrote, "But the greater deference his employees paid to the intelligence and wit of their new CEO had a downside, too. Mr. Bass says he couldn't be as frank and critical as he had been when chief operating officer. He feared employees would overreact. "When you're CEO, what you're saying is so amplified you have to be very careful," says Mr. Bass. This same experience is one I see in countless practices. The doctor CEO is so often told they are right by staff or not given any real feed back that they begin to believe they are very smart. All attempts at humor are met with laughter. Only when some of the doctors runs into operational or valuation or transition issues is the light shown on sloppy procedures, poor financial management or other areas and then nothing is very funny. Doctor CEO's take heed. Have your practice coach provide at least an annual impartial assessment of your performance. Larger practice CEO's should consider implementing six month reviews. You'll find a lot of benefit in clear assessment and a good strengths and weakness analysis. Check out our Doctor CEO services if you want to gain an understanding of the scope of this type of service.

Discipline

Comparing practices on an on-going basis as we do teaches a great deal. What do we find? One of the most telling aspects we find is the consistency or not of delivering growth and meeting patient expectations. We find that without explicit procedures to reinforce how staff and doctor(s) are to interact with each other and accomplish the core care delivery of the practice, operational performance suffers. Further, if there is not a built in mechanism to check performance and then, when it is off track get it back on, difficulties multiply. I often say that our study of practices teaches that delivering consistent results is the result of the doctor CEO's discipline in stating the path of the practice and then fostering growth toward the desired result(s). In short, it is the discipline of the leader that will repeatedly make one practice more successful on multiple levels than another.

Personal Attention and Feelings

Congratulations, you are the CEO of a growing and dynamic practice. One of the benefits of the larger practice is having personnel to assist you accomplish tasks or implement practice objectives. In a word, you have the luxury to delegate. Warning! Anything that makes staff or patients feel faceless, not personally cared for has the seeds for rude lessons both organizational and marketing. In health care, it is my experience, that the doctor CEO must not only accelerate effective systems and marketing but also must seek to maintain a personal relationship with staff, knowing who they are as individuals and as members of the team. By doing so, turnover is minimized and loyalty is improved. With patients, no matter how big or important the practice, personal attention, quality interaction of the doctor and patient must be preeminent or dentistry and your practice will suffer in a manner similar to the larger group physician practices.

Taking Time for Fun

We all have different definitions and enjoyments that we call fun. In my case, I have enjoyed a wide variety of activities, in part by joining in with many of my clients in what they enjoy! In a recent memorable and just plain fun outing, I joined with Dr. Robert Fisher a pediatric dentist from Northern California to hike in the Yosemite high country at Tuolumne Meadows (http://www.yosemitefun.com/tuolumne_meadows.htm). We hiked from about 8,500 to 10,000 feet and enjoyed a great camp out with lots of superb views, scents and discussion. Here's hoping you get your share of enjoyable times by scheduling it right into your annual planning as a CEO leader.