Are you a chiropractic robot or a human being who happens to be a chiropractor? This question isn't just an idle attempt at humor on my part but a serious question chiropractors should be asking themselves as they strive to serve more people in their practices.

One of the chief complaints I hear from D.C.s is that they are tired of learning and reciting "scripts" when it comes to relating to their patients. These pre-orchestrated presentations and patient interactions leave them feeling like robots when they talk to their patients and their patients probably feel the same way!

Isn't it time that we all made a choice about whether or not we will serve our patients from a place of personalized professionalism or whether we are content with being a ready-to-serve robot?

Sometimes, we fall into old scripts and ways of doing things without ever even being conscious that we are doing it.

The best way to get out of this robotic rut is to revisit your intent and become crystal clear about what it is that you want to create with your patients and your practice. Ask yourself before you see each patient, what intent you have in serving them. In doing this mental exercise, you will increase your confidence, camaraderie and quality of care with each patient.

Certainly there are set forms, systems and procedures that can help your office run smoothly. But the key to truly serving your patients is to instill procedural and conversational confidence with your staff in handling one-on-one patient interaction.

You and your staff should develop and train each other to exude "situational confidence" -- the ability to respond to and handle any sort of patient objection or inquiry under any circumstance. Situational confidence involves training your staff in what to say and do during different scenarios that will happen on the job every day -- like a patient missing an appointment or a payment.

For example, my 11 year-old daughter recently ran for student council at her school and came to me for advice on what she should say in her speech. She wrote down some thoughts and ideas and afterwards, I told her she could either read directly from her notes (like a robot) or put them aside and speak from her heart. She practiced memorizing her speech word for word (so that she wouldn't have to read from the paper) but every time she would forget something, it would totally derail her.

Finally, she had to make a decision to either read straight from the script or practice her speech in such a way that the words and thoughts would just flow authentically and confidently from her heart. She chose the latter and ended up having more impact and confidence in front of her schoolmates.

You and your staff should practice and role-play various patient/office scenarios until you are no longer just reading a script, but can confidently and comfortably speak to your patients from your heart. Make sure that your employees have guidelines and frameworks for communication that you would like them to follow in certain instances, but remember to leave them room for some creative improvisation.

In other words, share the office policies and procedures for handling certain situations, but then let your team present that information to your patients in a way that feels right to them and that they are comfortable with.

Situational confidence is a critical training tool and talent that will take you, your staff and your practice to the next level. Chiropractors who have struggled with situations and scripts that didn't work in the past are turning their practices around just by speaking from their heart -- and being themselves.

(Dr. Eric Plasker is a chiropractor and founder of The Family Practice, where chiropractors are uniting to lead family health care. Nationally recognized as a speaker and educator, he is best known for rallying chiropractors around the Lifetime Care For Everyone [LCFE] and Family Practice visions in the chiropractic profession. For seminar, coaching, training, or product information, call toll-free 866/LEAD-DCS [532-3327], ext. 105. Or connect online at www.thefamilypractice.net to find out how you can unite to help lead family health care.)