BY Jay Geier
Have you ever been envious of someone who just bought a beautiful new house or a fancy new car? There are those people who just seem to "have it all," and you feel as if there's so much more you need to be fulfilled. That isn't true wealth; in fact, those same people may be "poor" in areas that really matter. Being truly rich doesn't mean what society and the media have led us to believe being rich means.
Being rich means having the money to give generously, live a fulfilling life, and leave a lasting legacy that is much bigger than you. This legacy of impact actually trickles down from you to your team and your patients.
Having a rich life goes hand in hand with having a rich impact on others, especially those who you see every day. If you aren't having a positive impact on others in your life, you may not be feeling as rich as you should be — not in the full meaning of the word, anyway.
You have a huge responsibility as a leader to make wise investments in your team. You should be investing in their education, in making them better people, and in expanding their horizons. This means that you need to become a teacher and not just an employer. Make it a priority to teach those who depend on you what it looks like to live a rich, impactful life.
The amazing thing about impacting others through leadership is that once you put it in motion, it never really stops. Once you have invested time and energy into improving the lives of your team members, they will naturally begin to enrich the lives of your patients. Your goal should be to allow patients to have unexpected and exceptional experiences. After they have an appointment with you, they should be saying "WOW!" and thinking about it for weeks and months to come.
The quality of patients' experiences at your practice should be impossible for them to ignore. If you've led your team, shared your vision, and inspired them to impact others, they'll give your patients the "WOW" experience time and time again, which only continues the spread of life-enriching impact.
In order to give your patients a "WOW" experience every single time, you and your team must learn to consistently over-deliver on value. Why? Well, imagine that a patient comes in and gives you a dollar, and you give the patient $2. What will happen to your practice? You'll go broke, right? So the rule is, when someone pays you, you have to give them much more in service value than they paid you in money.
If you follow this rule, you will always have patients coming to your practice because you provide excellent service that goes above and beyond what they expect. As I always say, "You get what you give." The more good things you give to the people around you, the more good things will come back to you — in this case, a steady flow of patients. This will allow your practice to maintain stability, and this stability will minimize your stress.
The best part is, when your practice is on a smooth functioning level, you are able to focus on enriching the lives of those who matter the most to you — your family. The life experiences happening right now are ones you can't replicate later.
If you increase your engagement and focus on fully impacting your team and your patients, I promise that your practice will prosper, and you won't have to miss any of those baseball games, ballet concerts, and family trips.
You need to ask yourself, How can my team and I be better? How can I be the leader that they want to follow, and impact them in ways that impact those around them? Am I giving my family what they deserve? >These answers, not the amount of money in your bank account, will help you measure the richness of your life.
Having all of the money in the world will amount to nothing if you don't leave a legacy for your family, your team, and the other people who depend on you. That's the key to living a rich life.
Jay Geier is the founder and president of the Scheduling Institute. Over the last 25 years, he has taught thousands of dentists how to lead impactful lives and how to give back to their teams, families, and communities. To learn more about how the Scheduling Institute can enrich your life, go to SchedulingInstitute.com. To schedule an on-site training, call 844-242-1992.>
