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Some Merial Reps at a coaching seminar I led back in December. We did the 'Marshmallow Challenge' exercise. This clever group celebrates their ingenuity at building their structure onto of the tallest person in the room and hence winning the game.
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There are many things I enjoy about being in business for myself as a veterinary consultant, but none compare to working with others to achieve a goal successfully.
I have been fortunate to have a couple of ‘wins’ recently and I would like to share them with you.
I started with a new practice in January. At that time they were nail biting their way through bimonthly payroll and struggling for a sense of organization. Now, 6 months later, after a strong collaboration between the owners, their manager and me, we are up 34% for the year and recent 360’s of the staff show that they are much happier and proud of the work they do.
I have another practice with an owner who was concerned he was autocratic. It’s going on 2 years that I’ve know this guy and I can tell you if you held a dictator-meter up to him, you wouldn’t even get the needle to waver; still he was concerned. Isn’t that typical? The great people keep striving to get greater while the rest of us self-satisfied shmucks stay orbiting the same get-you-nowhere behaviors. Anyway, he’s used me as an ally, a kind of stepping stool for him to get to the next level and I can’t remember a time I’ve enjoyed getting stepped on more. In the months we have worked together, we’ve taken his smart team and burnished them shinier still. Yes, they still have their quirks and idiosyncrasies, but they are much more independent and much more willing to take ownership of clients and patients well being. He has let go his tight hold and realized that there was nothing he was holding onto to begin with. Not a hold at all, just a tight, clenched fist.
His leaders, their bridles left off, take responsibility for winning the race on their own. No benign neglect on our part. We are ever present, checking in, discussing, asking questions, but these leaders are deciding the course and shouldering full responsibility of the outcome. The only thing we provide is unconditional support.
And one last story. I’m working with a manager at a multi-location practice that was short on many of the skills required for management. A shortage of talent however was not an issue, and over the months I have been working with this inspiring individual, she has pushed herself to master high level computer skills, set in place strong systems of compliance and education, suffused her team with trust and support, and weathered an uncommon amount of stress and work load with optimism and aplomb. I wish I could be her. I wish I could come to understand in myself, as she has, that growth and possibility are defined only by our own expectations.
So nearing my business’s one year anniversary, I’m not so much taken by the size of my company’s growth, but of the extension to it’s depth. I never realized that helping hospitals take better care of people, their dogs, cats, snakes and birds could ever be so personally enriching. It’s just incredible that along the road to improving reminder compliance and checking stool samples for worms, I could ever come to know myself so well or help others to become the greater, stronger individuals they were meant to be.
