Owning and operating a physical therapy practice can present some pretty unique challenges that can test your leadership style and skills. Alongside building a seamless operation, great leaders inspire and motivate teams by setting the example for their staff in work ethic, problem solving and pure love of the game.
These seven leadership standards are essential to maintaining a strong presence at your clinic and cultivating a practice where staff and patients can thrive.
7 Ways to Motivate Your Private Practice Staff
1. Communicate the Mission
Sometimes, it can seem unclear how daily tasks line up with the more important vision of the company, so it falls to a leader to make these connections explicit. A strong leader needs to communicate purpose to the team, frequently. Purpose creates motivation, and motivation creates stronger performance.
2. Establish the Right Attitude
A team is motivated by their leader and often models their attitude based on the attitude reflected by their leadership. The leader’s approach to everyday tasks and challenges set the tone for the rest of the team and transform values into action. If the leader doesn’t come to the day’s duties with the right attitude, can the staff be blamed if they don’t either?
3. Set High Standards
As James Clear says: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Leaders should expect the best from their team and maintain those standards in their leadership style. The leader sets the expectations and shouldn’t fear setting them. However, the leader must practice what they preach and demonstrate those standards in their own actions.
4. Learn from Mistakes
Humility and recognizing mistakes as part of the learning process are essential elements of being a strong leader. Leaders must be willing to try new things, realize when they do not work, and not blame others for those failures. Leaders should encourage experimentation and not punish their team for learning opportunities where they can fail forward amidst a setback.
5. Follow Through On Feedback
Feedback at all levels has value for a leader, but some input may prove more vital to a clinic’s success than others. When it comes time to leverage a team’s perspective, the best performers (rather than the worst) may have the most substantial suggestions and are worth taking into confidence. Most ideas have merit, but if someone’s performance is stellar, that is a sign they have something to add. But note: Whenever you accept that feedback, be prepared to act on it.
6. Be a Problem Solver
Business and problems tend to go hand-in-hand. No matter how much is accounted for, things happen and issues arise. A strong leader must set the tone when dealing with emerging problems. A good leader will focus on how to solve a problem rather than dwelling on it. A leader doesn’t focus on the why but the how, as in, “How are we fixing this?”
7. Reward Employee Effort
A leader’s role is to manage a team – part of that involves recognizing significant contributions. A leader should recognize staff who make themselves essential to the bottom line and create value in the organization. The metric may differ between roles, but the bottom line is the same: leaders need to recognize the quality of work brought to the table.
Take These Standards to the Next Level with MEG Academy
Developing such standards is not a process that has to be done alone. Experts and guidance can help anyone develop into more potent and inspiring leaders. MEG Academy can help business owners develop the skills to place among the top 10% of private practices.
