As we think back or look back at the first article in this series, “What’s Your Brand?”, the first step is getting clear on our values and philosophy. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about values. Now, let’s talk about philosophy. Philosophy is a set of ideas or beliefs relating to a particular field or activity; an underlying theory (from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/)
My friend Bill Gregg says, “Everyone has a philosophy, but it’s not always conscious, well thought-out, chosen, planned or acted upon…”
I believe and have experienced as truth that creating or discovering our practice philosophy intentionally is of utmost importance… If you already have a clear philosophy, then you know what I mean. If you’d like to explore the idea more, here are some questions to ponder:
- What is our practice founded on? What’s important to us and what type of practice do we want to have? What do we strive for?
- How will I behave as the owner/leader? What can people expect from me? How will I lead the patients, team and practice?
- What is the practice environment like? Physically and emotionally?
- What are my beliefs about the quality and types of clinical care we provide? And how we will provide it?
- What are my beliefs about how business should be handled? What do we believe about marketing and our reputation? What do I believe about money and what I’m being paid for?
- What are my beliefs about how I treat my team and how we will all treat each other? What do I believe about accountability, responsibility and growth? How do I feel about hierarchy? Collaboration?
- What are my beliefs about how we will treat our patients? What do they want? What do they experience in our office? What are the benefits our patients receive from doing business with us?
- What are our beliefs about people and how they like to be treated? What are people capable of?
- What are our beliefs about our responsibilities and/or roles in the community?
- How do we clearly communicate who we are as people and as a health team?
These are great questions to get you started! Have fun and I’d love to hear your comments below in the comments section. Have a great week! 🙂
Here’s to you and your philosophy!
Allison
My "why" is to help people take control of heir own health and not leaving it to fate or luck. I am a dental health coach and I partner with my patients to help them break out of the disease cycle. The comments that I have for Allison is that I am so appreciative that she cares enough to give back to the profession. I am helping as a mentor for young doctors getting started to help them understand the difference between being a disease care specialist and a health centered relationship based doctor. We talk about the principles of the path. As far as the Team goes we share in the vision of making a difference in the quality of life of each person we serve. I do not ask my team to do anything that I woumd not do. Way to go Allison and thanks for what you do.
My practice is founded on the biblical principle that we should treat others as we should be treated.This means open, honest communication, treating people with respect, and treating people as indiviudals. We try to meet each person "where they are" and move them to the next place in self discovery towards health.
The environment in my practice is patient and relationship focused. We try to laugh and joke around with our patients and help them feel at home.We treat other team members the same, with respect.