Your most important asset

by Dr. Eric Plasker

Have you ever known people who didn't appear to be very bright or talented but were able to get far in life because they were confident in themselves? By the same token, have you ever watched how success seems to elude some highly intelligent and creative people simply because they are lacking in this same level of inner faith in their own abilities?

When you don't have confidence in yourself, neither will anybody else, and this limits the opportunities you will be given to prove your skills and competency. In both your career and your personal life, confidence is the single most important attribute or asset you can employ to help you reach your goals.

For instance, if you are not confident that your marriage is going to succeed, your spouse will begin to have doubts as well and the relationship will begin to suffer. When interviewing for a job, there's nothing more critical than being able to demonstrate confidence in your given area of skill. In fact, when you exhibit confidence, a potential employer is probably likely to rate you higher than an applicant who may have more experience than you do but is less self-assured in his or her carriage.

When you are looking for a babysitter or a health care provider for your children, don't you want to have confidence in the people you have picked to provide these services? Every day that you meet and greet your new patients, remember just how powerful a tool confidence can be and how quickly it can build their trust in you and within your community.

As chiropractors, there are many areas where we should and can be consistently working on building our confidence so that we can build and run a successful family practice and ensure the highest quality of care for our patients. Acquiring that confidence begins with developing and honing your own:

-- Clinical Confidence. Be confident in your clinical plan of action every time a patient walks through your door. In other words, barring some unexpected health problem, you should know ahead of time what kind of adjustment your patients are going to need every time they come to see you. If you don't feel confident using a certain technique or adjusting a particular age group (such as infants), then take a refresher course (even 45 minutes of focused attention can improve your confidence and results dramatically).

-- Marketing Confidence. This ensures a steady flow of new patients into your office. In fact, knowing how to confidently attract new patients and educate them in a way that will inspire them to enroll in care will actually enhance your clinical confidence because when your marketing system is working and producing results on its own, your mind can be 100% free to focus on patient care!

-- Management Confidence. How well you're able to find and train a team that can share a vision similar to yours marks this element. It is also a measure of how well you can delegate to and manage that team in order to provide consistent, quality service to your patients and support your role in the practice and community.

-- Systems Confidence. This means having confidence that your office policies and procedures are congruent and support the overall goals of your practice. When they are all working together as a solid system, you should be able to process your patients effectively and efficiently without them having to wait.

-- Financial Confidence. Feeling confident in the fees you charge and your patients' ability to pay regardless of their out-of-pocket expense is a vital factor in any successful practice. Structure your fees in a way that will support family wellness and lifetime care regardless of managed care or insurance reimbursement.

Ask yourself and your team whether your practice could use strengthening in one or more of these areas, and then go to work gaining the knowledge and the systems you need to operate your practice with complete confidence. Gain this collective confidence and watch your practice and patients' confidence grow.

(Dr. Eric Plasker is the founder of The Family Practice, Inc., a dynamic chiropractic coaching and training organization dedicated to helping D.C.s build the largest family practices in the world and lead family health care in their communities. The Family Practice provides all of the systems, knowledge and training needed to support practice growth and personal vision. Call 866/532-3327, ext. 118 or visit www.thefamilypractice.net for more information.)