035 - Accountability is the Gateway to Growth In Your Practice

Part of accountability isn't so much to make sure people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. It's more to see into, like, is this role really effective? And if it's not leveraged, well, how do we actually leverage it properly?

Hello and welcome to Build you'd Remarkable Practice Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to chiropractors who are in the seasons of launching and building their practice. Join myself, Dr. Lona and my co host, Dr. Bobby as we have conversations each week as it relates to building the practice of your dreams. And remember, you can have a remarkable practice as part of a remarkable life, not instead of one. We are here to lead you on the way.

What's up, team? Welcome back to the Build you'd Remarkable Practice podcast with the amazing Dr. Loner Cook and myself, Dr. Bob Ilajasovic. Dr. Wana. We're talking about something exciting today. We're talking about accountability, right?

Yeah.

The big A word that we all recognize has immense importance in our lives, in our business, and in our goals and outcomes. Accountability. I know in the pre show we were talking about this. This was something that both of us were like, yeah, absolutely. Accountability has been instrumental in growing our practice, growing our life. I know that when I speak to people far and wide, they also reference accountability being something that's the secret to their growth. And so I'd love to spend some time today unpacking and hearing your thoughts on why is that the case. So why is it that accountability is. If you want. I actually heard this line. I think I heard Dr. Franken say this. All better outcomes live on the other side of accountability.

So if you want to get better outcomes in anything in life, and I'm experiencing this right now with fitness. Right. I was always a fit kind of guy, regularly trained multiple times a week. But it's all been taken to the next level over the last four weeks. Why? Because I've got accountability around fitness. Why is it that accountability leads to better outcomes? And what's been your experience with this and how can we leverage this for ourselves?

Yeah, you know, I think it's. It's like that conundrum sometime that, like, we want freedom and the pathway to freedom is discipline. Right. Like, we want better teams and people that we don't have to babysit. And in order to like grow an A player team, there needs to be accountability. And so it kind of sometimes feels like you're actually going the opposite direction of what you want. And I don't know why that is, but if you're like Thinking like, ugh, holding people accountable does not sound fun to me. Good luck having a great team then. Right.

You know, I, I agree with that. And I, I feel as though it's also got something to do with. I heard, heard this one say that as humans, we're just innate. Like, innately, it's inbuilt into us. It's kind of contradiction what I'm going to say here, but it's inbuilt into us to be a little bit like, ah, I just want to kick back on the sofa, put the legs up and be a little bit, maybe like, ape like, sloth, like. But then I also intuitively feel, as humans, we are designed to build and to grow as well. And when you're not building or growing, you do get dissatisfied. And I know myself, I get very antsy if that's a word you guys use. But I get very irritable if I don't feel like I'm growing. Place of purpose, right? And I'm building. But I do understand that there's this constant battle between, like, the internal aptness of you to just want to keep your legs up and relax, but the internal part of you that wants to grow, build, develop and expand. And accountability is what gets you out of that 8 mindset, right? And get you into, like, well, no. What's your purpose? What's the legacy you're leaving? What are you putting here? And why are you. Why are you putting here?

Yeah, that's a, That's a good way to put it. And I think some of it is like, we are human and just like, you know, fall follows the summer, right? Like, there are periods of our life where we're not going to be mechanically. Like, I have this goal to hit and it's the only thing that matters, right? That's. That's not the point of accountability. The point of accountability is so that no matter what position you hold on the team, we actually can do the proper training as well as measuring to make sure that, like, the work that you're pouring your heart and soul hopefully into is actually getting across the finish line. Like, it's contributing to what it's meant to contribute to, which is an art form. Sometimes, sometimes the things you think you need to be doing, you realize, like, that is not actually moving the needle. And I need to come back around this and change the course of action. So part of accountability isn't so much to make sure people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. It's more to see into, like, is this role really effective. And if it's not leveraged well, how do we actually leverage it properly?

Yeah, 100%. So let's dive into that a little bit deeper because I look at if we all agree that accountability gets better outcomes and if you don't agree with this, just have a look at why are the world's best sporting athletes still have a coach accountability to hold them accountable to the standard that sets for themselves. But let's have a look at, quite frankly, I want to talk first about if that's okay with you, layers of accountability, because what you've referenced there is outside accountability, which means, yes, in your team, you should have layers of your accountability of accountability where your team members are accountable to somebody, that somebody is accountable to something that could be the purpose, the goals that you set for the office for that quarter. Okay, But I want to start off with base level of accountability. And I say accountability to yourself. Okay. Like, how do you, how are you accountable to yourself? And then also how are you accountable to those who directly around you? Maybe your loved ones. Okay. Now I want to share a story around this. When I've gone through, and I'm glad you mentioned seasons there a couple of minutes ago, and because seasons are absolutely appropriate. What I'm going to talk about when I've gone through different seasons of my business career and I've looked at, all right, there's been seasons where we've had just monumental growth. There's been seasons that we have plotted for a period of time. There's been even seasons that we've shrunk for short periods of time. But there's different seasons. And when I went through and had a look at commonalities that existed through those seasons, one of the things that really stuck out at me massively, that was a commonality whenever we're growing and whenever we're like exploding, is that I have this habit that I'm really, really religious around in those seasons of growth. And that is that every single day, I plan out my day for the next day. So I spend roughly about 45 minutes on Sunday planning out my week. Okay. Then I spend roughly about 10 minutes the night before, usually before I go to bed, to plan out every hour of my next day. And when I do that, I write down what I'm grateful for, I write down my vision, I write down my goals that I'm struggling for that quarter that are linked to my yearly goals, and then I Write down the 3 to 5 biggest tasks tomorrow that I need to complete. That's going to move me towards those goals. So, in essence, I'm being accountable to myself. I'm reminding myself these are my goals and these are my three to five biggest tasks to complete tomorrow to move me towards those goals. And then on the right side of the page, I plan out every hour of my day. So I plan out when I'm waking up, when I'm working out, when I'm having a meeting, when we're doing sales training, when we're doing marketing focus, whatever it is, for that day. But that is definitely one habit, and I call that accountability to myself. That has stood out above all else has been something that I do religiously whenever we're going through seasons of exploits and growth. So hopefully you take that as something that you can use, but on something. Matt, I'd also love to learn a little bit about learner. Do you have. How do you kind of hold yourself accountable? I know you operate at a high standard. How do you hold yourself accountable to the old standard that you set for yourself?

Yep. So I may not plan out every hour, although if you looked at my Google calendar, you would see it is very structured. Right. But on Sunday, like you, Bobby, I spend some time just looking through my week, so I'm well aware of what's coming where. And one of the things that I, I do in my. In my mind and also on paper frequently is I am writing down like, okay, because we can't control everything that happens in the course of the day. However, if we're intentional about, like, if these three things happen today, meaning, like, if I send the email for, you know, this thing that we're trying to build a relationship with, if I make sure I execute on this other part, if I train my team, you know, at the slot of time that I have to train my team, and I'm prepared for it, like, if those things happen, you know, those are the things that are moving the needle today. There's probably 150 other things that need to get done or are like individual things taking. Taking up my time or that I'm spending energy towards. But, like, having that organized in your train of thought is, I think what sets apart a lot of people in the discipline and accountability with themselves is like, we can get very busy and not be productive. And if we reorganize how we look at, like, what really needs to get accomplished today and start with that or at least build that into the day, I do think that's. That's huge.

Yeah.

And teaching those around you to do that as well, too.

Right, yeah, 100%. 100%. You know, when you steal your time, well, that separates just being busy because everyone fills themselves up and will say, I've been busy today. But, you know, were they actually productive? Did they move the needle towards the things that they have for their own goals for themselves? That requires accountability. And accountability starts with being accountable to yourself.

There was a mentor that said to me early on, like, you have, you know, life force energy moving through you every day and like, like, you can only stay on a beach so long, right? Like, like, I want you to understand that we weren't put here to just coast, right? And I think the more, like, especially at younger stages of practice, we get sometimes in our mind that, oh, when my office gets to this level, then this, right? Like, oh, when I pay off my student loans, it's going to be great then. Or when I get the right team, it's going to be so awesome. And we're doing this, like, if, then when, right. And. And so part of accountability to yourself is realizing, like, my life is happening right now and I got energy to, like, pour into something that I deem important. Right. Whatever that is. Hopefully it's chiropractic if you're listening to this, this podcast in your practice. Right. And so rather than wishing for things to be easier or different than they are right now, or thinking that some magical level of practice is going to give you all the answers or make it lighter, that doesn't seem to be true to me. And I'm guessing if I asked Bobby that he would say, you just have different things you're working on and you're always kind of pushing that edge of, like, because we're meant to do that, we don't want to stagnate. We want to be part of something that's bringing our energy into more creative form. And I think when we have a players on our team, the same is true. Like, we can ask people to pour a lot of their effort and energy and wisdom into our mission if we, like, enroll them in being part of something where they get to effort towards it, because we enjoy that. Right? So it, it does. It's not to get it easier. It's to move the needle and move the, the field goal range because we're just becoming more acclimated to playing a bigger game. Right?

Yeah. No, you're spot on the mark. I agree with you 100%. I think you nailed it when you talk about that. And all of it comes back down to, you know, we have goals and we have things that, that we've set as standards and goals for ourselves. And now it's about holding ourselves accountable to, to the behaviors that are going to equal those goals. And you know, if you run a better results by the workshop in your office, is that not what that is? Like, I was doing a better results parts workshop last night. And you know, in that workshop that we were doing, I'm sitting there in my heart, in my head, I'm assessing, I'm like, you know, and I'm verbalizing this actually out loud to the audience. I'm like, the reason that we run these workshops is because we want to empower you with knowledge and skill sets that if you apply, you're going to accelerate the results you get, not just in the office, but with your health overall. And so as we go through that workshop, that's exactly what we're doing. We're empowering them with skill sets and knowledge they need to know to accelerate towards the goals that they told us that they have for their health. Okay? And then it's your accountability that's going to help them hit those goals. This is why, like, this carries across so many areas. This is why when somebody calls the office and said, I can't make it today, you know, the wrong thing to do is, okay, no problem. Well, look, London, you're in next Tuesday. You know, we'll just see you next Tuesday and we can have a look at that. The right thing to do reason you're being paid is to hold that person accountable and to say something along the lines of like, oh, I can see we had you booked at 4:30 today. That's okay. Wait until 6:30 tonight. Let's move you back till 6 because it's really important that you stay on schedule with your care so we can get you the outcomes that you want. That's me holding you accountable. All right? And people get better outcomes around accountability. Your patients get better outcomes around accountability. That's really, really key.

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So let's now talk about team member accountability because I know that if it can be leads to better outcomes, it's going to be the same with team members. It's going to lead to better outcomes with team members as well. So how do you do that inside of your organization? How do you have accountability layers from team members? And what advice would you give people around accountability within the office?

Yep, well, TRP and its training and coaching around accountability has helped our infrastructure grow tremendously. And from, you know, learning what not to do through a few experiences. But specifically, you know, I'm just going to think back on like I had an office manager at one point that I just loved and I thought she was amazing and I thought we'd do practice together for decades, right? And then life experience happened for both of us. We both had deaths in our family and there was a lot of reasons where we offered each other some grace in these seasons we were in. But what ended up happening is me as a leader let stuff slide for a while and I started to let a lot of things slide, thinking, okay, we'll come back around to getting back on the train of the mission together. And months went by, right? And more months went by and then resentment builds, right? Because the communication wasn't in alignment. Because I was probably afraid Slash I didn't have enough courage to probably say the things that I wanted to say in a way that was coming around an employee that I noticed there was a shift in her accountability to the practice. Right? And I'll save a long story short, what I realized after that relationship ended and it felt dramatic and almost felt like I had a Hangover from the situation for a while, like, it felt like a divorce. Right. Was that it was really me that didn't lead well and that I could of course correct it at any point by saying, hey, remember how we used to run things? And where we are both bought in that this is what we are after. Tell me where things got off path. Like, what do you see from your position? Here's what I see and opened up the conversation. So a lot of accountability in teams, I think, is being willing, whether things are going great or things are going poorly, to have these, I'll call them collisions. Right. But conversations that happen, that ask deeper questions and if that feels really uncomfortable for you because maybe you're like, I have B and C players right now. I don't know if I want to ask them things. Right. It's going to be tough to grow to the next level tolerating that because what you tolerate becomes the dominant state as well as maybe you can get creative. Maybe you're not someone who's comfortable even having some of these conversations yet. Well, could you have it through a Google Doc first where you ask some questions and get some feedback through email? Like, start pushing that edge of just wanting to have open communication because it's certainly going to allow you to see things that you need to change as a leader, as well as what you can ask your employees and maybe who you. You can't ask to do certain things.

So, yeah, hey, so question that. That difficult situation with that individual, did that person end up staying or leaving?

No, she left. But what I realized is that I let it build to a point where I ended up firing her. And I was so like, Bobbi, you. You know me pretty well at this point. Like, I am not someone that gets real. Like, I don't have a lot of anger. I don't have a lot of, like, it takes a lot for me to get to that point where I was boiling, like, by something that happened. And I realized, okay, I had let that build and build and build and build. And so in hindsight, I realized, like, some of these things could have been addressed 12 months ago. And I did it. And I kept using excuses, thinking we'd come back on track. And I wasn't coming around her, though, to get her back on track either, because I just kept waiting and it. It wouldn't have had to end like that. Let's put it that way. It may have still ended. It just would have ended differently.

And that's why I asked, because I know that it helps me and I'm sure it helps all our listeners as well, because here's another question I've got. During that period that unfolded, were you guys growing as a, as a business or were you shrinking as a business?

No. You know, what was interesting is so in that process we went through a tremendous amount of change. So like we were annexing off our school based practice as well as we had gotten out of an insurance that we were taking. And so we, and, and I look at it and think all of some of those things had to happen for me to like make this metamorphosis that the practice needed to go through, but I don't think it needed to be with as many bruises as we went through in that process. So no, we weren't growing, but we were going through tremendous change. And in that tremendous change, one of the things of going out of network, not taking insurance, that employee was not on board with it, she wanted to keep taking it, and I knew we were not going to. And so it was one of those things where again, I think if we could have had more intentional conversations about the vision and mission and where we were headed instead of letting these things get out of balance, it would have happened very differently.

Ah, okay. And then here's the final question to that. Going out of network with our insurance company. Now, in hindsight, good decision or bad decision?

Ah, yeah. Do it. Be strategic, but do it. Yes.

So the reason I ask that is not to turn this into an insurance question, but the reason I ask it is because you had a vision as the CEO, as the visionary, okay? You had a vision in your mind and that vision is there for the greater good and greater purpose. And a great lesson is to be learned here that not everyone is going to agree with that vision.

But if you look in hindsight now, that vision was absolutely needed in order to get you guys to the next chapter where you're in, in your growth and your development. And that's the lesson I had. I'm glad that you shared that vulnerable moment because I had that lesson too. Here's what I've learned later. I've learned shrinking is painful, stagnating is painful, growing is painful. It's all painful. Okay? There's going to be change in all of them. It's choose your pain. But which one would you rather? Which rather pain of growth and pain of shrinking. Because I had the exact same thing, you know, where I thought I had layers of accountability and our practice was going through explosive growth. Right. And I'm talking growth right at that stage. This isn't that long ago we would go up by 100 visits in the space of like six weeks. So to be like 600 visits up, six weeks later, another 100 visits up, six weeks, another hundred visits up. Right. You know, we had office that stage that was roughly about 404 units a week. Before you know it, 556, 75, 750. And this is happening over a period of like months. It's just like exploding. And while people will hear that and go, oh my goodness, that's amazing. Right? Going through that, I can tell you there was pain. Those lessons learned along the way and that experience you had, I had an almost identical thing. Identical thing happened with a team member who at the core wasn't aligned with the vision. Right. So what I learned from that experience was that regular accountability meetings are important in the form of, we call it in tlp, a scorecard. So that we have a scorecard where we regularly sit down or someone on your team that either your office manager or your CEO, depending on the size of your team. Okay. Once a month with each team member and has an accountability meeting. And in that meeting we follow a process that we call sii. And SII means we cover scorecard. So the scorecard liner is the three to five areas that you're accountable for in our office. Okay. Now accountable does not imply solely responsible. So if you're accountable for a number of internal referrals last month and we have a go, let's just put a random number on that, whatever, let's just say 20, okay? If we got 15, it's not that loner didn't do her job and she didn't talk to enough people. You're the person that's accountable to that and saying, hey, we have a standard as an office of 20 internal referrals a month. We've hit 15 now this month. We've done that for the last three months again. And then we can have intelligent conversation around that line up. What's your experience? Why is that happening? Where do we need to lean in? Who do we need to train? Where does the training need to occur? So you're the one keeping an eye on that metric. You're accountable. So we do that with three to five KPIs. We call that a scorecard. Once a month we have a meet up with every team member. Then the I stands for issues, any issues or challenges you're having. Because what you said in your story there was key and that was that after a while resentment started to build up. Okay. So that's our opportunity to handle issues. Any issues, any challenges you have anywhere that you need out help and support and love with. And then let's flip it around. Any issues or challenges that we're having, then we have some expectation conversation and agreement conversations around, right? And then the final I. So SII scorecard issues. And the final I is ideas. Hey, any ideas that you'd love to start to see? Change is something that you want to see us implement. Change, right, let's collect that. We have an ideas board inside of our kitchen now where it's like, all right, let's collect ideas and then in the quarterly board meeting, we'll turn the best ideas into our projects for the upcoming quarter. Right? Because I want every single person to feel heard, every single person to be like, I'm loving the growth, but this is spurred this new idea on in my mind. We should be doing this right? In this kind of way. It's like, that's a great idea. Talk to me about it. All right, why don't you put thought into that? We're going to document that board meeting is coming up in four weeks time and let's take to the whole team. We can turn into a project for the quarter and you can head it up as the person accountable for that project.

So good. And what I hear there too is you're just really asking the questions to your team to come up with solutions, needs, ideas. Right. And that's so much of having a players is knowing that it's not a bobby show, it's everybody collaborating to move the needle.

And what happens is team members know. All right, next month meetup is coming up. Next month meetup is coming up. Right. So that accountability meeting starts to take place and we're always staying on the same page around three to five areas that you're measuring in our business, any issues that you might be having or that we might be having and not letting that build into resentment. And then any ideas on the back of that from either one of us that can help us perform at a better rate or help us become more effective or more efficient as an office.

So good. Yeah, we do something very similar. And I will tell you that since implementing that and also the culture around training just being. We train every week, everybody role plays, right? That has really been where every, you know, it's just like weighing yourself, like you're not going to get way off track if you're weighing yourself. Right. Like it's just a way where we stay in that, that fighting weight, essentially. We're ready to go. So.

Yep, exactly right. And the third and final way of a level of accountability is accountability to a team. So there's accountability to yourself. Okay. Which I shared there. What we just shared now was like accountability to each other. So it's like if you're my office manager, I'm kind of accountable to these metrics or these issues that I'm having. And then there's accountability to the team. So now I'm accountable to a group of people and they're accountable to me. That then takes it next level. So that's where we have, you know, our weekly team meetings and we share our school board in the weekly team meetings. And then we've got our quarterly board meetings where everyone will have their section, the board meeting to report on the last quarter and how do we perform with the three to five areas that I am keeping an eye out on. And if we. Again, going back to the example of internal referrals, I'm the person accountable to that. And we've been missing that at the quarterly board meeting. I'm going to, when I, when I report that, I'm going to bring it to everyone's awareness. Guys, this quarter we were average when it came to internal referrals. We have a goal of 20 per month. Month one we got 13. Month two, we got 17 and month three we got 11. And the reason for that is we're not having an awareness around internal referrals from the get go. At the day one progress report forms we're asking, the question is being missed. So I want to make that an issue. Let's talk about it because I've got an idea about how we can improve that. Okay. Now I'm accountable to a whole team and that just takes things to the next level. In terms of implementation, has your experience been similar?

So good? Yes. It's like we don't just have KPIs and scorecard to say that we have KPIs and scorecard. It helps us get tactical then. And so if you don't feel that yours are tactical yet, like keep improving them and you'll hear probably all of us say like the first time you initiate scorecards or KPIs for a position, they're probably not well defined yet. You haven't really figured out exactly what measures and what's going to move the needle and what projects would be associated with that role until you get a few quarters in on it.

Yeah, exactly. Today you have daily routines for accountability to yourself. Okay. Then you got monthly routines for accountability to other people in your office. And then you've got quarterly routines for accountability to the whole entire team. Any final words on that, Loner you want to add?

I think just have courage, right? Like, if you feel like you've shirked that responsibility as a leader of holding people accountable, like, know that you can come around people with love in doing this and, and present the mission and the vision and the bigger picture of why you're going to get some of this in place now. And it doesn't have to be like, hey, you weren't doing your job and this is why it has to be there now. It's like, hey, we all want to see this mission come through, therefore we're all going to become more accountable and we're going to do it together. Right?

Yeah. Yeah, you got it. There you go. Guys, if you want better outcomes in anything in life, introduce accountability. It's that simple. And that goes for you too. Okay? Introduce accountability into your life. If you're listening to this, you're like the leader of the office or you're likely an associate, which is a leadership position inside of the office. If you want to perform better, the way that I guarantee will do that is by introducing a higher level of accountability inside of your life. Believe me, it's an investment that will ROI almost instantly, very, very quickly. So, guys, if you want to talk about that, reach out to any one of us, either myself or Dr. Loan over can talk about. All right, well, how can we help you inside of your office? You've been listening now for a little while. So it's not just about, well, how do you build and how do you get great ideas? Not just about getting good ideas, it's about the implementation of those ideas that leads to runs on the board. And you do that through accountability. So if you need us to hold us to hold you accountable or someone within our organization, please reach out. Guys, let's have a chat. And if it makes sense, we'll take you through exactly what that would look like, what your next steps are. If it doesn't make sense, here's the thing. We've got no problem telling you that as well. You know, I'll only ever tell somebody to do something if I my heart feel as though that's going to get them the best outcomes. If it's not, I'll be very honest and candid with you and say, not your best thing to jump on and do this program or this course. Do this instead first and then come back X amount of time.

Yeah. So good, Bobby. Thank you.

Awesome. All right, team, until next week, have a fantastic week in practice. And remember, accountability. It's the rocket fuel that makes everything work better.

See you guys.

Catch you guys.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Build you'd Remarkable Practice Podcast. Remember, what the world needs now is chiropractic. And what chiropractic needs now is more successful chiropractors. If you like the podcast, please subscribe, share with your friends, and leave us a review. And if you'd like to connect with us personally, please click the links in the show notes to schedule a call.

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