leadership

26. Effective leaders lead by example.

If you remember, in Chapter 1 I mentioned that I was struggling with issues in my practice. This is a perfect example of a Tool I learned that helped with one particular challenge I was having. As an employer I expected my employees to be on time. Now my definition of on time was not one to two minutes before your shift started. I expected you to be ready for work a few minutes prior so when patients first arrive, they can have your full attention. The problem was this occurred rarely if at all. Often patients would be waiting for the door to open, or if the front door was unlocked, they walked into an office that was not ready in any fashion to begin operation.

When I discussed this with my employees, they had excuses of traffic and other issues. Soon after we would discuss it, they would be on time for a few days and then they seemed to fall back into their old habits. Now many would say, “Why didn’t you just fire them?” Trust me, it is much easier to train someone than to find someone. So what I did at the time was what a nail would do, blame the problem on everything else. Blame it on the fact that employees just don’t listen and that they don’t care. Blame the world that they just didn’t make them like they used to.

Then something happened. I realized that when you point your finger at someone else, there are three pointing right back at yourself. There was the problem. Guess who was coming to work one minute before he was supposed to see patients? Guess who was late some days when he was supposed to see patients? Bingo, it was me. So once I learned this Tool, which I had heard many times before but never LEARNED, things began to change. I made a decision at that point that not only would I be the first to arrive at my office, I would have EVERYTHING up and running before the first person arrived, employee or patient. Then you’ll never guess what started to happen: my employees started arriving on time. In fact, my present office manager beats me to the office most days by a half hour before her shift.

There is a key to using this Tool properly. This one only works if done consistently, and by that I mean 99% of the time. That is what leading by example means; doing things consistently at the highest level so much so that it makes others want to strive for that level as well. People are more likely to do things you ask of them if they see you walking your talk. They are also more likely to do what their leader is doing because they don’t feel like they are the only ones doing it. People by nature want to be part of a team and if they see the team captain doing it, they believe it is what is expected by other teammates to be part of the team. You foster an environment that makes people want to be better because you are not directing people, you are leading them. People will be led to do anything if they believe in their leader. I can’t think of a better way to have people believe in you than by doing what you say is important.