Reader question: The vision I created five years ago just seems Pollyanna-ish now. When I first developed my vision, it made a real difference in my leadership and management. But it seems to have lost all the magic now, especially since my practice revenues and new patients are sliding. How do I reclaim the vision I used to have?
Answer: It’s pretty simple. Your five-year-old vision has been used up. We suggest you generate a new vision – a vision that will empower you, a vision that will sustain you and your team, and a vision that delivers possibility in this new economy.
It has been stated and restated by business experts, consultants and pundits – as well as presented in thousands of business books – for a dental practice to succeed it requires a vision. A vision is not a future that is a pipe-dream nor is it a future that is simply a better past. A vision can be defined as “a future that’s possible, a future that makes a difference, a future that is inspiring to others.”
The future dentists once envisioned (continuous growth, ongoing investment in expansion, acquiring new technologies, accumulating wealth and financial freedom) has all but disappeared. The future that enabled dentists to take risks, set expansive goals, and fully commit, has been thrashed. The future that gave leadership its boldness, management its drive, and its ownership its long-term perspective has been squashed.
What do You Do When Your Vision Falters?
When uncertainty abounds, when the operating state is filled with doubt, indecision, and insecurity, the capacity to create a vision is inhibited. A vision provides a future that is possible, but without “possibility” a vision and a future are lost.
Possibility is the headwater of commitment. People will not commit unless they know it is possible to achieve. Commitment is the forerunner of effective action. Effective action is needed for results. So the fundamental question becomes, “How do you generate a vision that is possible when the future is uncertain, when your investments have been dealt a considerable blow, when your production and collections are hitting the skids, and when new patients are becoming an endangered species?”
You create a powerful vision in the face of the relentless headwind of recession by going back to basics. You go back to your core. You go back to your foundation, the very heart of your practice, the underpinnings of that which inspired you to go into dental practice in the first place. You go back to your core values.
Core values cannot be touched by circumstances. Core values are impervious to external conditions. Core values are absolute, immutable and unassailable. Core values are not subject to time or economic circumstances. Rich or poor, in good times and bad, your core values are still your core values. Recession or no recession, expansion or contraction, abundance or scarcity, your core values are impregnable.
Return to Your Core Values
Begin by asking yourself, “What are my core values?” You can’t find these values outside of yourself. No consultant, advisor, book or blog can give you the answer. There are no “right” core values. They are at the heart of who you are, determining how you live your life. They shape your thinking and actions, and your relationships. They are the values that you hold inviolate. The values you’d be willing to fight for.
Take each of your core values and put it to the following test based on the work of Collins and Porras (Vision Framework; JimCollins.com).
- If you were to start a new practice, would you build it around this core value regardless of the location or type of practice?
- Would you want your practice to continue to stand for this core value 100 years into the future, no matter what?
- Would you want your practice to hold this core value, even if at some point in time it became a competitive disadvantage–even if the environment penalized the practice for living this core value?
- Do you believe that those who do not share this core value–those who breach it consistently–simply do not belong in your practice?
- Would you personally continue to hold this core value even if you were not rewarded for doing so?
- Would you stop practicing before giving up this core value?
- If you awoke tomorrow with more than enough money to retire comfortably for the rest of your life, would you continue to apply this core value to your productive activities?
If you did not answer “Yes” to all these questions, it is not a core value.
Now stand in these core values. Look out and see what kind of practice you envision. Is it a practice of contribution, a practice of integrity, a practice that makes a difference, a practice that does the right thing at the right time? A practice that takes care of people? A practice of respect and honor? A practice that values patient health? A practice that manages its finances? At its core, is it a practice that is built to serve?
Creating a New Vision
We strongly recommend you file away your vision of the past. Bury the vision of an elaborate 6,000 square-foot, one-story building with vaulted ceilings and water features. Silence the vision where you deliver strictly cosmetic or reconstruction. The vision where you park your Mercedes in the back, in that special spot under the tree in the parking lot. Abandon the fantasy of bringing on an associate who will buy half your practice straight away and then five years later buy the other half, making you a bundle of money and allowing you to sail off into the sunset. Put a tombstone on all that. It’s not happening. At least not for a while.
Go back to your core. Create a vision that makes a difference, a vision that contributes to the health and well being of people, and then live and breathe that vision.
— Marc
