The Execution Gap:  Excerpts from a Harris poll, quoted in The 8th Habit by Steven Covey

Only 15% of workers could identify their company’s top goal and priorities
(the front line produces the bottom line)

19% are passionate about their organizations top goals or priorities. The others feel no ownership or like they have any input therefore not emotionally connected; no involvement = no commitment

Those polled feel that only 49% of their time is spent on top goals and priorities

51% do not understand their role in helping achieve the goals. once they understand, they are free to be creative and try new things.

So here are some suggestions:

• Communicate your VISION as you begin to see it more clearly
Speak honestly and from your heart. Communicate what you have been pondering and thinking about. Not a lecture, not a dictate about the way things need to be or the things that better change. Be sincere, be human. And most importantly, let your team see that you are “living” this vision. Saying one thing and doing another undermines your credibility to your team.

• Involve your team in CRYSTALLIZING that vision
You have a valuable asset in your team. They bring talents, strengths and experiences that can add immensely to your practice. Ask them for their opinions, their thoughts, their fears, their hopes. Ask each one individually how they feel they can best fit into and add to the practice.

• EMPOWER them to make decisions based on their understanding of the vision
As the vision for you office becomes reality, it becomes the basis for decision making. You team can use their knowledge, experience, wisdom, creativity and their own unique personalities and temperaments to figure out how to handle certain situations, now that they have a clear direction. Role play different scenarios and play out different outcomes.

• TRUST them to make the right decision
They are human beings too! No one is right all the time. Mistakes are bound to be made. Once you empower them, trust them to run with it. If they handle a situation differently than you would have liked, be careful how you react and respond! Be a class act all the time. If they fear that you will get upset or angry when things don’t go well or if you feel they made an incorrect decision, you might squash their enthusiasm, creativity and initiative. Obviously you need to have the right person for the job. If mistakes are being made due to lack of responsibility, that is a different story. Get the right person on the bus and get them sitting in the right seat!

• Have THEY experienced optimal care?
How can you expect you team to take a patient someplace they (and YOU for that matter!) have not been themselves. Every team member should have a comprehensive exam complete with radiographs, photographs and articulated diagnostic casts. Every team member should have a diagnosis, treatment plan and treatment sequence. Every team member should be treated with the same regard as any other patient and not “squeezed in” whenever there may be a few minutes. NO EXCUSES!!!