Establishing Pride in Your Practice
Anne L. Prinz
Every day you work in your practice you have the opportunity to take pride in the service you give others and be proud of your results you are having. When we have pride in the work we do and share our love of chiropractic with others it becomes a win-win for us and our clients.
As a Chiropractic Assistant, pride is more than simply having deep satisfaction in you, your doctor, and your co-worker's achievements. The best meaning of pride is when it is synonymous with gratitude. Grateful to be on a team to support the patients; grateful for the opportunity to change lives through chiropractic; and grateful to have the opportunity to give clients your best service. When we are grateful throughout our day, we then have something to be deeply satisfied with at the end of the day.
In 1910, Christian D. Larson wrote in his book, Your Forces and How to Use Them, a meditation called "Promise Yourself". It later became the manifesto of Optimist International, and since then has been known as "The Optimist Creed." I share this with you because if you adopt this as somethingto set the tone for the day before entering the clinic each morning, you will discover it changes how you approach your work and those around you in a new and improved way.
To be so strong that nothing con disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry; too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but in great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
Each day is a brand-new day full of opportunities. Howyou enter you day and maintain your focus in the present moment will create how the rest of your day will go. So why not add joy into your work and your service to others.
One of the ways to look at this is to be a person of increase to every person who enters your practice. What does that mean, be a person of increase? This is simply what you can do to add value above and beyond the expectation of the patient who enters the clinic. Often this is a caring word, a smile, and acknowledgement, but mostly it is truly listening to the patient and providing them opportunities to succeed to new levels with what your practice offers.
Being at the front desk gives you an opportunity to hear things that the patient may not share with the doctor in any other way. Someone may tell you they have a cold and this becomes and educational opportunity for the doctorto address. Someone else may tell you they had a friend who was in an auto accident, and this is an opportunity to support their friend with exceptional chiropractic care. Whatever the opportunity is that arises, it is a time to share with the doctor and/or your team so that together you can create an outstanding patient experience. By doing this, each of you on the team will have contributed to supporting the patient's best outcome. This is the win-win situation for the patient and your team and helps you build pride in your practice.
If there are challenging situations that occur during the day, try to handle them head on as they occur. As the story goes, you want to shovel while the piles are small. Don't let things sit around and fester. Create action steps and if necessary put them on a calendar and resolve them at the soonest available and appropriate time. This way you will not carry them as a burden as you move forward.
At the end of the day, it is important for you, your doctor, and your team to focus on the wins for the day. This establishes pride in the practice as everyone acknowledges the good service each of you have contributed to creating a great experience for your patients. In turn, this will fuel a wonderful start to your next practice day!
Anne Prinz has spent over 20years as an office manager for a successful chiropractic clinic, honing her skills so she could teach others how to do the same. Anne is also the author of the book, Living Your Exclamation Point Life!, and the owner of Exclamation Point Living, LLC. To learn more or contact Anne visit her website: www.AnneLPrinz.com.
