I became an optometrist because I was captivated when my grandfather told me that the most rewarding thing was “putting on a child’s first pair of glasses and watching their face light up as they see things that they’ve never seen before.”
I have seen that look on a kid’s face and must say that it is pretty cool, but there is another look that is more rewarding to me. It is the look on a person’s face when they first decide that they are going to succeed.
It's a wide-eyed look, with eyes darting around, often surrounded by flip-chart sheets and a sort of "half-smile." They always nod their head a little too. Often they will say, "Yeah, I can do this."
It comes when there is a realization of personal confidence that you have what it takes AND you are willing to do the necessary work. It is a beautiful thing to watch unfold as their face lights up seeing things that haven't happened yet.
Determination comes when things go wrong. Early on, it is easy to give up when things don’t go as planned. I have never been involved with a project where everything happened like it was supposed to happen. Those who are determined to press on regardless of barriers always seem to find a way to win.
And “diligence” is simply “prolonged determination.” We are all subject to burnout and its toxic effects. It is becoming more and more common for high achievers to give up current successes for the thrill of seeking newer ones. Those who are considered “masters” in their field are the ones who continue to hone their craft beyond compare.
At the 2020 Executive Retreat, we will focus on the 3 D’s and how we can all hone our craft at reaching our individual versions of success. It is Jan 9-11 in Atlanta. AGENDA
Keynote speaker, Melissa Hill will teach us all about working through the “Toughness Decision.” She will share her method to overcome her personal struggles and how those lessons can guide us through tough decisions that we need to make.
The webinar message broadcast LIVE from Executive Retreat will feature Dr. Mark Kapperman who will share what rewards diligence can bring in building, developing and leading a team of eye care professionals.
Registration will close next week, so if you are thinking about coming, please REGISTER NOW.
I am afraid.
"I’m afraid! Alright? You want to hear me say it? You want to break me down? Alright, I’m afraid! For the first time in my life, I’m afraid.”
-Rocky Balboa on preparing to fight Clubber Lang, Rocky III
Fear is a powerful motivator. Fear is used to sell us almost everything. Watching tv commercials or flipping through magazine advertisements shows that a growing number of products are using fear to justify our need for their products. Safety, health, financial security! Fear sells.
But fear also paralyzes. Being afraid is the most common reason that we don’t chase any given dream. It keeps us from initiating conversations, beginning new ventures, or doing something to get out of our current situation.
What do you want to do that you aren’t doing because you are afraid?
So many OD’s want to add a specialty to their practice or invest in a new location, but don’t because of the fear that it won’t work out. Others are being drained by an unfulfilling job and dream of doing something innovative and new, but can’t muster up the courage to leave the safety net of a steady paycheck.
I have guided many practices through an expansion or start-up projects and have never seen anyone who was disappointed, even when it was a clear mistake.
However, I have met a bunch who regretted never taking the chance.
I think that the first step to overcoming your fear is to admit to yourself, then to someone else, that it is holding you back. It worked for Rocky, it works for us too.
Want to share?
I would love to hear what’s holding you back.
I hope you and your family have a Happy Memorial Day weekend.
Truly,
Mike
p.s. "You gotta get that look back, Rock. Eye of the Tiger. Come on, let's go." - Apollo
A Lifetime of Watching Movies and the lessons from it........
I grew up in a small Southern town that had one movie theater. Almost every Friday, a new movie came out. As a teenager, our theater was upgrade to a “Cinema,” which meant we had 4 screens, all playing different movies.
Then came HBO and VCR’s. My dad loved that one monthly fee allowed him to collect hundreds of movie titles on VHS tape, with no commercials! It was a little work, but well worth it to have easy access to all the movies HBO ever showed. (Those tapes were the main part of my inheritance.)
We all know about the well-chronicled rise and fall of Blockbuster video/DVD rental business. We know how Netflix came along began mailing DVD’s, then streaming movies directly into the home.
Your age dramatically influenced your relationship with Blockbuster Videos. For me, it was a weekend ritual. I remember many Friday nights roaming around the store looking for something to grab me. Two for the kids, two for the whole family and a scary one for daddy after everyone went to bed.
We lived through the transition from VHS to DVD and tried to see the added benefits of BlueRay. It was during this time of Blockbuster domination, that many of us were investing in home theater systems. Big screens, big sounds and for some – big, fancy chairs!
Netflix introduced me to downloading movies and to the frustration of “buffering.” I always took it personally when my family blamed me for the random pauses in a movie while it buffered. As much as we hated pauses, grainy pictures and other troubles; we stopped our visits to Blockbuster.
This trend continued so much that now my kids rarely even look at a tv, but instead watch their phones and laptops constantly. As I am sure you can imagine, this bothers me. They seem to be satisfied watching their choice of movie on whatever screen they are holding.
Saved by The Incredibles!
Pixar’s movie, The Incredibles came out in 2004 and was a big hit in our house. My kids were in elementary school, we saw it in the theater and of course, bought the DVD. My son was even Dash for Halloween, twice.
By the time that The Incredibles 2 came out in 2018, both of my kids are in college and wanted to relive the glory days by going to see it on the big screen. To gear up for the event, we dug through our library, and found the DVD. We realized the DVD player still worked and decided we would watch it. Amazingly, the sound system was still connected to the DVD player so we went old school and LOVED it!
Great picture, crisp sound and the room even shook! I was blown away at how good it was. How did we give up on this?
It is another example of "easy beating good."
In our practices, we sometimes convince ourselves that our patients are willing to deal with a little inconvenience since the quality of our care is so good. It is important that we are careful with this line of thinking.
In my experience, most practices have a problem with wait times. What’s worse is that most practices don’t think it’s a problem or they say it out of their control. My advice is to find a way to measure how long patients are in your practice and keep working to improve it.
Keep watching this blog for more conversations about making visits to your practice "easier" for your patients.
I was not invited to go to the Cinema to see The Incredibles 2, but the kids said it was good. I couldn’t get much out of them about the details, but there was something about JackJack that you didn’t make sense unless you had seen the DVD – which they had!
(Did you know Netflix still will mail you a DVD?)
Look forward to seeing you soon,
Mike Rothschild, Leadership OD
p.s. This is an interesting article about a Michigan mom arguing for a return to the "good old days."
It Ain't Got No Compression!
I enjoy cutting my grass.
As a student in optometry school, I was able to help pay the bills by cutting grass for a few local Memphis families. I have always said that if this optometry thing doesn’t work out, I can always open a lawn care company.
But as a busy professional, I was forced to give up the weekly summer task and I hired someone to care for my lawn. I am fairly particular about my lawn, so I have had several individuals help with my lawn. Coincidentally, my son, Samuel became a teenager at a time that a lawn care change was needed and we decided it was time for him to learn. He was happy to learn that I would be working beside him to assure he is not missing any steps.
Rothschild and Son Lawn Care has functioned for a few years without too many dilemmas until the blower stopped working recently. It’s a nice blower. Samuel and I compared the various solutions of repairing the blower or buying a new one. We decided that getting it repaired was the best option.
I tried to fix it myself but failed to even get the plastic cover off of the unit. I called the manufacturer and was disappointed in the advice they gave me. I Googled small engine repair but these companies don’t worry as much as we do about their social media presence. I finally “asked around” and was able to find someone with a great local reputation who could “fix anything.”
I enter the repair shop to find all types of shiny new lawn care equipment on display. I also see a section of refurbished equipment available too. I am carrying a big backpack blower but don’t know where I should go. Finally, across the showroom, I see a desk with two men, chewing something and looking at me. I cautiously decide to approach them.
As I walk up to the desk, their expression never changes, nor the pace at which they chew whatever it is that is in their mouths. Are they eating breakfast? Is that gum? I smile and ask the gentlemen how they are doing. The small one replies, “Alright. What can we do for you?”
I explain my dilemma and he startled me by sternly asking, “Well, are you going to let me see it?” Suddenly I realized that I will not be experiencing a high level of customer service.
I smile nervously and say, “Sure, help yourself.”
He takes my blower away, leaving me to fumble around while the big one continues to watch me and chew. I ask him if I should just wait. He shrugs his shoulders. I wonder over to the blowers to see how much a new one costs. I become an expert at blowers and continue to look around. This is taking longer than it should and I am getting a little more tense.
I see the repairman return with my blower to announce, “It ain’t got no compression,” then he stares at me. Obviously it is time for me to respond with some course of action. He is looking at me, waiting – what do I say?
Finally I reply, “I don’t know what that means.”
He said, “9 times out of 10 that means somebody ran pure gas through it and 9 times out of 10 the carburetor has gone bad but it could also be bad coils.” I still don’t comprehend what he is saying so I continue to look at him. Then finally he asks, “Do you want to buy a new one?”
I ask, “Is that my only choice?”
He replies to me with a tone that shows I have irritated him with my stupid question, “I mean, I guess I could charge you $30 to see exactly what’s wrong but 9 times out of 10 a new carburetor is almost as much as a new blower and it will take me about a week to know anything.”
I have a rule to not make a financial decision when I am excited, angry or drinking and this guy made me angry. I asked him if I could think about it. His disgusted departure away from my blower suggested that he was fine with my decision to leave.
So I thought about it. I calculated the time I had invested in the repair, the various places I could buy blowers, the business lesson for my son and calmly made a decision. But this made me think about how easy it is for us to operate our practices like this “repair” shop.
We work there every day and know how things are supposed to operate, but is it clear for someone coming in the first time? Are we ready to receive people when they enter the doors to our practice? Do we ask them what they need, when we already know? What about our beautiful frame boards that we make people pass to check in?
I also began to think about how we communicate the testing we do to our patients. We do a lot of very complicated, technical work that can be tough to understand. We just don’t have time to explain it completely to everyone, so we tend to stop trying. Is our process making our patients feel safe during their time with us?
Sometimes we express concern and explain it to the patient by gravely saying, "Your pressure is a little high today and the visual field may have changed some." Not everybody knows why that matters. Most people don't know the difference between progressives and transitions yet we talk to them like they should.
And what about your recommendations? Are you making it clear what you think your patients’ need or are you leaving it up to them to make uneducated decisions?
Periodically, we have to take a look at the path through our practice through the eyes of our patients. Many like to use “secret shoppers” but I prefer to just talk it out with the entire team. Compare how you want it to be with how it really is and fix what you can. The path begins with communications with the practice prior to their visit and continues until all of their eye care needs are completely met.
If you look away from your customer service strategies too long, you will be more like the small engine repair shop than you care to admit.
Truly yours,
Mike
p.s. To see an example of what I consider to be acceptable service in small engine repair,Watch This.
Six Fundamentals Work for Taxis too.
Last week, I was able to once again attend Vision Expo East in New York. I had the pleasure of presenting several classes this year, including one of my favorite titles, The Six Fundamentals of Practice Success.
During my visit, I noticed a big difference in the service I received in taxis this year compared to last year’s trip to the city. The service from taxis have been "Uber-ized."
Last year in New York, everyone seemed to be attacking the Ubers. The cabbies were angry, the bellman were running them away from the hotels and it seemed you had to meet Uber in a back alley to avoid the authorities.
I went into New York with a bias and didn’t investigate my ground transportation choices, I just took Uber. I later learned that my Uber ride cost double what my flat rate taxi ride would have been.
On my first local cab ride, I was able to get a Fare Estimate from Uber, and chose a taxi. This time, I made the right call because the taxi cost me less that what Uber would have charged.
While in the cab, I learned about some new services available from “Yellow Taxis.” They now have an app that you can download to call a cab, see where available cabs are and even pay with your phone.
Based on my very limited study, I think Yellow Taxis of New York are beginning to follow our Six Fundamentals of Success.
It Doesn’t Matter Who is to Blame – A year ago, taxis were blaming Uber for their lack of business. They were asking for new regulations to stop their competitors.
Create a Vision – I don’t have a great example for this one.
Find Opportunities in the Barriers – Uber created a barrier between taxis and their riders. They finally seem to be finding opportunities to improve their services.
Face the Facts – The fact is that nobody challenged the taxi industry for a long time and they had developed some hubris. It seems they are paying attention now.
Market Consistently – Taxis have never needed to promote their services from inside their vehicles. Now, they do and it seems to be making them better.
Strive for a Better Team – I think cab drivers are better than they used to be. Not once in New York did a driver give me trouble for not using cash, nor did I feel like I was being taken the “long way.”
A word about loyalty.
We have all seen images from New York City for generations that included a lot of Yellow Taxis. It is a big part of the landscape of the city. The marketing from within the cabs also used the line “Real New Yorkers Ride Yellow.”
A great strategy to capitalize on whatever emotional connection they can use. Will it work? I bet it will.
Happy Travels,
Mike
p.s. Here is a nice Wall Street Journal article about the subject.
I took a weekend class on fishing.
In fishing school, I learned that I enjoy the act of fishing far more than actually catching fish. I also learned that 'fishing teachers' have many lessons that can expand beyond the water.
For instance: When you cast a line and a fish jumps out of the water to grab your bait out of the air you have just used a “good bit of your luck” and it may be a while before anything like that happens again.
Potentially the best lesson I learned in fishing school was how to properly fall down. Fishing often requires walks through tough terrain, on slippery slopes and through rushing waters.
During our “safety” presentation, we were taught that if you begin to fall you must resist the urge to use your fishing rod to stabilize yourself. Think about walking through a stream, carrying your gear which includes this long, narrow pole. Suddenly, your feet are slipping, it is a natural tendency to put the pole on the ground. This act obviously will break your fishing pole, ruining it. There is no fixing a broken fishing pole.
However, if you put the pole into the air, you may break your leg or ankle: thus the wisdom of “You can fish with a broken leg.”
From a fishing teacher’s perspective, this makes perfect sense. For me….not so much. What’s the difference between me and the fishing teacher? Priorities.
Help us understand your priorities for the upcoming year.
As 2015 begins to wind down, this is a good time to reflect on successes for the year and gear up for next year’s challenges. Leadership OD’s services focus on three primary aspects of building your success:
Find Yourself. We are in an incredibly rewarding profession but it has to fit into the overall life that we live. Finding a career that supports your true reasons for living takes work; but it is worth the effort.
Elevate your Team. Getting a team to “care” about the mission of a practice is essential to building a practice that thrives. Sharing a clear vision and constantly communicating with the entire team is the only way. But how?
Build a Financial Foundation. While money is not necessarily the most important function of the business, it is very important. Good management of financial resources give the freedom to do the good work we are meant to do.
Of those three, which area have you worked on the most this year? How did it go? Will you focus on that again in 2016 or shift your attention to another area?
You can help us get an idea of where we are as a profession by completing this survey about your goals for the upcoming year.
We will use this to fine tune our agenda at the Executive Retreat and to better meet your specific needs in the upcoming year.
Thanks for your help,
Mike
Real. Comfortable. Jeans
If you are a football fan, you know that when your teams are having a bad year you like to think about other things. Well, my teams are not winning this year so I am paying more attention to the commercials.
I like tv commercials. I like to study them and think about how much money they cost, the psychology of the message and the trends in marketing they reflect. Lately, I have been wondering about mottos or slogans of companies. My favorite has always been, “The Ultimate Driving Machine.”
I am noticing simplicity in these slogans to say what the company is trying to sell. I find myself captivated by the ongoing series of commercials by Wrangler. If you have a man in your house, you have seen these commercials over the last couple of years. Their slogan is simply, “Real. Comfortable. Jeans.”
The beauty of this slogan is that each word stands alone to describe the product. These jeans are real, these jeans are comfortable and these jeans are jeans. But they also can describe the jeans as “real comfortable.” It’s genius!
Another company using the same technique is Belk. Their slogan is“Modern.Southern.Style.”
If you were to describe your practice in just three words, what would they be?
Breaking down your practice to its core elements is a valuable exercise. It is easy to remember when opportunities arise that may not be a perfect fit for you. It helps communicate the vision of the practice you are building.
Take a few moments and put down the best three words that describe the practice you are building. Share your three words with us here.
I will share the results next week.
Sincerely,
Mike
p.s. I may take the Belk one for my own.
You really should read this book with "No Reservations"
"No Reservations" about this book recommendation
From time to time, I come across a good book that I like to share. I often send a copy of the book to members of Leadership OD or share them with my staff.
Dr. Lisa Greene of North Carolina is a founding member of Leadership OD and has received a handful of these books from me. A couple of months ago, she kindly returned the favor and sent me a copy of a book that I just finished. No Reservationsby Todd Gothberg is a great business book for today’s optometrist. Thank you, Lisa.
There has been a growing trend in business books to teach business lessons through stories about people. The E-Myth by Michael Gerber is about a baker who must learn to standardize her business in order to grow her bakery into an enterprise. Fish! andThe Energy Bus are about business people who need to make some serious changes and learn some valuable lessons from some unlikely teachers.
The Fred Factor has been my favorite business book for many years. Every person in my office reads the book before they begin their orientation program. It is about a postman who is dedicated to providing the best service he can to his customers. We always strive to “Be a Fred.”
No Reservations is another example of teaching strong leadership lessons through a great story where Rob is a young executive who is charged with saving a dying hotel. It is a risky move and one that requires a big commitment from Rob and his family. He takes the challenge and sets off to save the hotel.
What makes this book stand out is the similarity of the challenges he faces to ours. I have the opportunity to help a lot of doctors “fix” their broken practices and the narrative about walking into the hotel is exactly like walking into many practices. (pg 17) There are people in management positions just because they have been there the longest (pg 19-20) and there were others on staff whose talents were being wasted (pg 18).
The biggest lesson in the book is the essential need for a well-defined vision and the need to effectively communicate that vision to every member of your team. It really is a big deal. Rob takes all the time he needs to develop his plan and strategy (pg.69). He decides what he is going to do and how he is going to do it. He surrounds himself with a great team, communicates the vision with the entire team (pg 63), gathered input from the staff (pg 42) and instills a system to make sure every new hire truly “gets it” (pg 98).
Along the way he learns that “Leaders are readers” (pg.37) so we are sending a copy of this gem of a book to every Leadership OD member. If you are not yet a member, you really need to buy a copy, or go ahead and JOIN Leadership OD.
-Mike
p.s. This book highlights the value of a good story. Coincidentally, Jennifer Kirby, Senior Editor for Optometric Management wrote a great article on storytelling in last month’s issue. Read it HERE.
The Rhythm is Going to Get You
GETTING INTO RHYTHMS HELPS US KEEP OUR LIVES RUNNING.
We all know the basic work week rhythms for our families and we try to balance them so we have time together. These rhythms are made up from dozens of smaller rhythms, like an orchestra. We even have a rhythm to our wake up routines in the mornings. We try to instill rhythms in the work day to maximize our efficiency or to keep the team connected.
These rhythms are good because they make our lives more predictable and it's easier to accomplish things. Runners strive to get into a rhythm so they can run past the fatigue and keep going. Running coaches teach methods like counting steps or matching your breaths to your steps. This forces you to concentrate on your rhythms rather than your tiredness.
But rhythms can also cause us to get into a rut. Rhythms can become mindless routines which can become tedious and mundane. Like the runner who says, “I run 5 miles every day.” While that is an impressive discipline, I wonder, “Why not run 6 miles sometime?”
The recent fire at my office caused a significant disruption to my rhythm. Suddenly, my business hours didn’t exist. Do you realize how much of your life revolves around the opening and closing of your practice? There was no meeting time, no planning time, no patient care time, no frame inventory time, no review financials time, no exercise time, no meal time, and no family time.
Because of this disruption, we are being forced to ease back into the business, bring the old rhythms back slowly. Watching the rhythm of the practice build, you can balance the old, established rhythms that help make you good. At the same time you can stop the ones that were holding you back. And by not adding back everything, you can put in new systems that you have been meaning to all this time.
Without this disruption, we would have kept doing the same old things we have always done. We may have tried new things here and there, but mostly it would have been the same old routine. But by taking it apart and putting it back together again, you realize that you have a lot of extra noise that is keeping us from growing. I will continue to share with our members the things I find that have been holding us back as we rebuild our rhythm.
Song of Summer
All of this rhythm talk reminds me that we have not yet had our annual vote for the Leadership OD Song of Summer. Just for fun, we poll our readers for a song that will represent your summer. Most years, I vote for something about putting my toes in the sand, or riding around in a pickup truck. But this year I will be voting for The Rhythm is Gonna Get You by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. (If you miss the 80's - Listen to This)
I hope to see you soon,
Mike
Defining Your Vision
Imagining what you want as if it already exists opens the door to letting it happen. - SHAKTI GAWAIN In the last issue, I presented several questions to help you determine the things that matter most to you. If you took the time to write your answers to these questions, you have a new awareness of what you are meant to accomplish.
Now with this new outlook, you can paint the picture of the life you will build. You have the input you need to imagine the best for yourself, your professional team and your family. Once that develops, you can start making it a reality.
I define a "Vision" as a clear, well-defined description of what you want your life to become. It is a target. To be effective, it must be well thought out with deep consideration of your personal values and principles. You should have at least two "Visions." One for your personal life and one for your professional life.
To develop your own Visions, try following these steps:
Answer the 5 questions from our last Newsletter in this column.
Study the answers to align yourself with the values that matter most in your life.
Imagine your home, your family when everything is perfect.
Imagine the practice of your dreams, and your role in it.
Write it as if it has already occurred.
This exercise is very important as you continue your development as leader. It sets your target, your direction. I like to think of it as a lighthouse. A lighthouse stays where it is built, lighting the way continuously. When we lose our way, whether due to a storm or lack of attention, the lighthouse's position is consistent. It gives us steadfast guidance that we can trust.
First, Become a Leader
No matter our position in a practice, we have the opportunity to lead. We have chances to influence team members, patients or vendors to help us accomplish our vision for the practice. To lead effectively, it's best to look at what matters most and find a way to dedicate time to the tasks that actually matter. Take a moment to answer these questions:
What interests you most?
What to you feel passionate about?
What do you want to accomplish?
What do you believe in?
What is your potential?
After you've taken the time to honestly answer these questions with good consideration, you can begin to see where to start developing yourself.