This article is Part 2 of a 2 Part Series . Article one appeared in the January Issue of The Chiropractic Assistant which may be found online at: http://urlm. in/rite T here is great book called "Invaluable: The Secret to Becoming Irreplaceable" by Dave Crenshaw. It's available at Amazon.com and I highly suggest you read it. Probably one of the fastest ways to become "invaluable" is to follow the principals outlined in one of my favorite books. Steven Covey's, "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People". I love this book, not because it is about Chiropractic, it's not. It's about life and how you choose to live it out no matter what your role is in life. Mother, father, son, daughter, doctor, lawyer or Chiropractic Assistant. Striving to live out these Habits can change your life and those you love. I hope Mr. Covey doesn't mind, but I'm going to share with you how I think these 7 Habits could apply specifically to your role as a Chiropractic Assistant. These will be brief and are only the tip of ice-berg. I can easily imagine an entire chapter for each Habit! As a basis for understanding The 7 Habits, it opens up the idea of making a Paradigm Shift in your mindset. The ground work is laid to help you appreciate different viewpoints...not just your own. Much like two people can see the same movie and come away with an entirely different impression, so are the viewpoints you and others hold about how you go about living your life and performing your work. I've chosen to use some excerpts from Wikipedia which provides an excellent summary of the bookand added my own "chiropractic specific" ideas. Independence or Self-Mastery The First Three Habits surround moving from dependence to independence (i.e., self-mastery): Habit 1: Be Proactive Take initiative in life by realizing that your decisions (and how they align with life's principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Take responsibility for your choices and the consequences that follow. Chiropractic Assistant Application: Every day in the practice, you have a choice. You can choose order over chaos, enjoyment over dread. If you want the office to run smoothly on Monday morning, you don't wait until Monday morning when you clock in. It's too late! Be proactive. Do simple things like pulling the charts on Friday, have 5 or more New Patient Folders already put together...expect them to come in! Make sure you and the doctor re- viewed the schedule for Monday before you leave on Friday to see if there is anything that might disrupt the schedule so it can be addressed or changed. Make sure all treatment rooms are stocked properly with headrest paper, forms, and supplies. Nothing is more frustrating than to reach for an item used regularly and somebody forgot to replenish or reorder! That's how cervical 8x10 X-rays end up being shot on a 14x17 piece of film! If you are NOT proactive, you will pay the price through aggravation, confusion and chaos. It's a choice. Make your list of things that could and should be done in advance of the patients ever showing up and use the form daily to keep you on track! You should never fly with a pilot who doesn't use a "pre-flight" check list. Don't run your practice without one either! Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life. Create a mission statement. Chiropractic Assistant Application: How do you want to be perceived by your doctor, your patients, your spouse or family? Always in a rush, always in chaos, always in debt, or burned out. Or, do you want to be seen as 'in -control" of your life, your work, your responsibilities. If so, decide what things are important to you personally and professionally and outline how you will move from where you are to where you want to be. Start "measuring" your progress. What is measured can be improved. What is INSPECTED is respected. What is inspected frequently (like weekly goals) improves exponentially! Don't try to be all things to all people and change everything overnight. Even if you just improve by 1% a week, over time that completely changes your trajectory in life! Habit 3: Put First Things First Prioritize, plan, and execute your week's tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluate whether your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you toward goals, and enrich the roles and relationships that were elaborated in Habit 2. Chiropractic Assistant Application: We all tend to be reactive in nature. For example. When do we think about re-ordering x-ray film or head rest paper? For some, it's when you've reach for the last piece! TOO LATE! That is operating in urgency and always brings chaos. Determine those things that need to be done on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis and get them on a calendar or list. Use a simple daily or weekly check list to remind yourself to check the level of inventory on commonly used items. Make sure you handle the little things that can turn in to BIG problems if neglected. Don't let a simple records request turn into an audit because you failed to respond. Take time once a week to review your daily check list and identify things that MUST be done based on importance and make sure you focus time on items that that impact your primary goals and values you've set for yourself. Interdependence The next three Habits have to do with Interdependence (i.e., working with others): Habit 4: Think Win-Win Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Value and respect people by understanding a "win" for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way. Chiropractic Assistant Application: I've heard it said, that when you argue with your spouse, you can be right, or you can be happy, but you can't be both! Can I get an AMEN on that one! It's almost the same with conflict of any type in the office. If there is a challenge in the office between staff or staff and doctor or even with patients, the ultimate goal should be resolution with all parties being either equally satisfied, or equally "ok" with the outcome. Getting the upper hand isn't always the best policy....you'll be constantly wondering where the "lower hand" is and always waiting for the next round of conflict. When disagreements occur...and they will; look for ZOPA. That stands for "Zone of Potential Agreement". When two sides are far off in negotiation, many times a deal or resolution can be lost if both sides think they have to win. Agreeing on something that falls in the middle can salvage a situation or a relationship and position you as someone who can be a problem solver and bring parties together and a "keeper of the peace"! Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood Use empathic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, and positive problem solving. Chiropractic Assistant Application: If you've ever heard a highly intelligent person and an idiot arguing, before long, you can't tell them apart! There is nothing worse than you trying to make a point and you KNOW the other person doesn't hear you because they are thinking of what THEY are going to say next! We have all done that and it really isn't productive! Take time to listen. Often what we THINK is the sticking point with someone, really isn't the issue at all. The real issue can be clouded and if your "dug in" to only thinking about what YOU are going to say next, you'll waste time digging out. Simply saying, "I can see your point, I can understand why you feel that way", can move mountains and help others to understand you. Sometimes people just need to know they've been heard. Once they have and you've allowed them to vent if needed, resolution is much closer at hand. Habit 6: Synergize Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. Chiropractic Assistant Application: One of my favorite sayings is "I can do it all. I can do it all well. But I can't do it all well at the same time." Most of us fall into this trap and try to do too much alone. It's counterproductive. Teamwork allows us to get it all done and get it all done well! In fact, teamwork defies math. I may be able to lift 150 pounds and you may be able to lift 150 pounds. But together and with encouragement, we could probably lift 350 to 375 pounds! That is synergy and it's not limited to the physical world. I once heard Chet Holmes, a phenomenal business consultant say, "When I'm in a room with one other person thinking through a problem, there are 3 brains there. My brain, their brain and the brain that is the result of our brains working together." I've seen this happen many times. I've found that my ideas and your ideas feed off one another and there is actually a synergy that is created that comes up with ideas that neither one of us would have come up with alone. So, if you have a clinic challenge...synergize and solve it! Self-Renewal The Last habit relates to self-rejuvenation: Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw Balance and renew your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle. It primarily emphasizes exercise for physical renewal, prayer (meditation, yoga, etc.) and good reading for mental renewal. It also mentions service to society for spiritual renewal. Chiropractic Assistant Application: The smartest thing a lumber jack can do to cut more wood is to STOP cutting wood periodically and sharpen his saw! This is tough for most of us. Perhaps by attempting to share it I'll internalize it more and learn to apply it. It doesn't matter what your role is in life, or how much come LESS productive when you are working. Sometimes "less is more". Meaning, putting in less hours, but when you ARE working, you are more focused and produce more results. Here's an example. A doc I know was running the practice 5 days a week. He wanted to increase his visits, so he added Saturday mornings to the schedule. Results? A longer week, more staff burn out, disruption of family life AND the visits remained about the same. Seems patients that would normally have made a point to come in on Friday, simply rolled over to Saturday. More hours, not more productive, more expense. Fast forward. He changed to 4 34 days a week and INCREASED the practice. Why? They were focused! They were busy! They weren't spreading visits that could be seen in 4 Yi days into 6 days! And, they were RESTED and had time to "sharpen the saw". One more analogy is in order on this one. A practice may have the capacity to sell 100 patients a day, but on average they see 75 patients at a smooth pace. It's exciting to see 100, but if you PRESS the practice to see 100 a day, every day, without increasing the capacity (staff, hours, equipment); you will not be able to sustain it. Things will break down, chaos will ensue, burn-out will occur. Why? It's like an engine designed to cruise effortlessly at 75mph. Can it hit lOOmph? Yes. But if you do that every day without a break...you'll be buying new car! Or, in our world, you'll be looking for new job or your doctor will be looking for a new CA! You can do it all, you can do it all well, but you can't do it all well at the same time and at lOOmph! Pull off the road. Find a shade tree, read a good book, have a picnic and sharpen the saw! So, are you "just a CA", or are you "THE CA" who has become invaluable to your practice, your doctor and the patients you serve. As long as you're going to show up every day, make the RIGHT choice and change your life and those you care about. It's up to you! I hope I get to meet you at the next convention...and I'll be listening to see how you introduce yourself! Dr. Foxworth is a certified Medical Compliance Specialist and President of Chiro-Healthl'SA. A practicing Chiropractor, he remains "in the trenches "facing challenges ' with billing, coding, documentation and compliance. He has served as president of the Mississippi Chiropractic Association, former Staff Chiropractor at the G. J'. Sonny .\ lontgomery 1 A S iedical Center and is a Fellow of the International College of Chiropractic. He founded Consen'aCareCorp. the first chiropractic network selected by the State of Mississippi to serve over 195K covered lives in the Slate Health Plan. You can contact Dr. I-'oxworth at 1-888-719-9990, info%c1iirohealthusa.com or visit the ChiroHealthUSA website at www.chirohealllnisa.com
