Staff Management

Put Me In, Coach: How Professional Coaching Can Make You a Winning Team

By Kristen Bentley, OD, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC)

Professional coaching can motivate both you and your staff. How coaching services can pay off big time.

Sometimes there is only so far even the most dedicated practice owner can go in inspiring staff–and themselves–to greatness. That’s where professional coaching comes in as a valuable resource. Coaching is a growing profession worldwide, a skill set and a communication style. It is a partnership (between the coach and client) that facilitates purposeful change on a personal level, an organizational level and on a relationship level. Change is a way of life and an important part of business. Optometry and the eyecare industry is no exception. Coaching is a methodology that allows us to work with change. Organizations have learned that highly motivated and engaged employers and employees produce high performance and creative results. Coaching is a way to access motivation and engagement, to use it in service of innovation and growth for both the individual and the organization. Here are two case studies that illustrate how optometrists I worked with used coaching to better their practice, along with some FAQs and how-to’s about the coaching process.

How Does an OD Implement Coaching?

There are plenty of ways that an optometrist who owns an independent practice could benefit from coaching. Coaching can be one-on-one with the optometrist and/or office manager. It can also be applied to the whole team. The ways that my clients have benefited from my coaching include:

• Defining and creating the unique practice that is important to them–practice style, vision, values and office culture.

• Developing leadership skills that are in line with who they are–engaging and empowering employees and patients, and thus, building staff and patient loyalty.

• Improved communication both at work and in their personal life–improved relationships.

• Increased patient compliance as a result of clearer conversations and engaging patients in ownership of their eyecare.

• Building the team that represents what the optometrist stands for and believes in with increased collaboration and trust.

• Navigating change and industry competition.

• Creating work/life balance and work/life satisfaction.

• Time management, stress management, staff management, business management–better overall management of self and others.

• Implementation (and sustaining) of ideas and changes that they have wanted to do for a while, that consultants have advised them to do or that they have learned at conferences.

• Increased bottom line (increased profits and decreased costs), improved efficiency and office processes, improved customer service and patient care.

• Finding their sweet spot in what they do, why they do it and why it matters, so that these three factors are aligned.

• Rediscover excitement, stimulation and challenge in a profession that can get repetitive.

• Create a blend of non-clinical work with clinical work.

• Transition out of optometry into an unrelated career–create an exit strategy.

• Transition into or prepare for retirement.

Coaching Case Study #1: OD with a Difficult, Though Talented, Employee

Optometrist LM has high staff turnover. She feels overloaded and feels like staff-related issues fall on her lap that shouldn’t. She struggles with expressing this to the staff. The present staff is performing fairly well. They have some relationship and communication challenges. Staff member, PA, is senior to the other two and has a dictatorial way of interacting with the newer staff members. She is efficient, knows the office well, and is well paid. She historically calls meetings with OD LM whenever she wants a raise. In this particular challenge, Staffer PA calls a meeting. OD LM is worried about the meeting, angry that she wants a raise again and doesn’t know how to approach it. She does not want to lose PA, and at the same time, does not want to pay her more.

In my coaching session with OD LM we explored this challenge. We found out that OD LM values PA. We looked at what is important to OD LM in how she wants to be with her staff, what she wants to create for her staff in the office environment and who she wants to be as a practice leader. We explored the assumption she was making about the meeting and PA herself. We explored and expanded other possibilities. I trained OD LM to take a coach-like, curious approach to the meeting and how to engage PA in the conversation.

Outcome: PA did not even mention wages in the meeting. She had a desire for expanding her role to make her job more interesting after working there for nine years. She is looking for growth and more responsibilities and a desire to mentor and relate to the younger staff more effectively. OD LM and PA found a win/win situation through an open conversation. Both gained greater satisfaction (and a closer relationship.) In the ongoing coaching there will be continued focus on OD LM’s leadership skills and expressing herself effectively, PA’s leadership skills and overall office communication and growth. OD LM and PA are both much more satisfied.

Coaching Case Study #2: Successful, Unsatisfied OD
Optometrist BT has been frustrated with optometry for several years. He built up a very successful practice and has been working four-and-a-half days a week. He has established a system in his office where the staff take history, perform pre-testing, dispensing and contact lens care. This system has allowed him to increase the number of patients he sees in a day with the intent of increasing revenue and efficiency. He sees patients from the moment he gets to work until he leaves at the end of the day, he feels he has no time to manage staff, meet with sales reps or look at business growth or metrics.

He is married with three children. When he comes home at the end of the day, he is drained and exhausted. His evenings and weekends are busy with kids’ activities and he feels like all he does is go from one thing to another. He is finding he has a short temper and has no interest in social life or conversation of any sort. He is tapped out and talked out. His marriage is suffering and he doesn’t know how much longer he can keep this up. He doesn’t understand why he isn’t happy when he has created this textbook successful practice.

We started the coaching relationship with The Service Assessment for Healthcare Professionals. Optometrist BT self-rated high in emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low in professional accomplishment. This equates to high burnout. When we looked at what was important to BT, he realized relationships were really important to him and he had set up his practice in a way that patient and staff contact and relationship building, directly by him, was minimized. He also realized other key aspects of work that he enjoyed but was not spending time doing. He started to make choices that adjusted his work schedule and patient time so that he could spend more time doing what he enjoyed and less time doing what he didn’t like. He was surprised to hear and see what he indeed valued, and also what he didn’t value.

We explored a personal, professional and practice vision, and set goals around what he determined to be important instead of what he thought he should be doing. He designed his practice the way he wanted it to be. He slowed down his pace. Counter-intuitively to him, his per patient revenue increased and his bottom line improved. Most importantly to him, he left work energized. His relationship with his children and wife and his social life improved dramatically.

As the two above examples illustrate, what clients come to coaching for is very individual, and therefore, so are the results. They often come because they want more of something: more time, more money, more satisfaction, more clarity, more staff engagement. Or they come because they want less of something: less stress, less conflict, less waste, less problems.

Coaching Vs. Consulting

There is an important clarification to be made between coaches and consultants. Coaches do not advise. We take a stand that we are not the expert for the OD. We partner with the OD, our client, to elicit what is uniquely important to them, what motivates them, what they believe in and why. This is the bridge that empowers people to create what they want. Coaching is different than consulting in that way and works powerfully as an add-on to consulting.

Consultants are experts in certain topics such as practice development and business development. Many of my clients are familiar with attending a conference, reading business development literature or even working with a consultant and falling short on implementing and sustaining the changes they were looking for. Life, the busyness of the practice or staff resistance are cited as common things that get in the way. Coaches get to the heart of the reason, to the individual inspiration needed to meet goals.

How Much Will This Cost Me?

Coaching is not typically charged on an hourly basis. Much of the work and change occurs between sessions, so the fees are often priced out monthly or as a package.

Coaching, needs and desired outcomes are very individual. The discussion starts with a needs analysis and a proposal is generated from the discussion. Base prices are roughly $500 per month for one-on-one coaching.

Leadership and strengths assessments range from $650 to $2,000.

In-office facilitation, training and coaching is customized and can range from a half-day workshop to a series of in-office workshops. The price for this depends on what the office requires.

How Much Time Will Be Required of Me?

Coaching is an ongoing arrangement that varies greatly in duration depending on client needs. Typically, most one-on-one clients are bi-weekly, and group coaching is scheduled based on needs.

Picking Your Coach

Areas important to clients when choosing a coach are: the coach’s professional coach training and credentialing, their experience and areas of specialization in the field of coaching, their background, previous expertise, experience and training outside of coaching (i.e.: related to their industry and or life experiences). Feel free to ask your coach about any of these areas that are important to you.

Think about what it is that you want to get from coaching. Interview the coach and request a sample of their coaching (this is key– have the coach “coach” you for 20 minutes or so). Coaching style is as individual as each person, even when the skill set and techniques may be similar. It is important to feel trust and a connection with your coach. Each coach brings a vast array of experience and expertise from previous education, career, and life interests that add value to the coaching that they can bring. Find one who has what you are looking for.

Checking Coach’s Credentials

Coaching is not regulated. Therefore, anyone can use the title “coach.” The International Coach Federation is a non-profit organization that provides information on the certification, credentialing and ethics of the profession. It also has references and resources that provide scientific- and evidence-based proof of the efficacy of coaching and the return on investment of coaching.

Certification and credentialing requires a rigorous process of training, supervision and examining. Hiring a certified coach will ensure that you are working with a coach who meets certain standards and follows the professional code of ethics. According to the ICF, credentialing serves to protect consumers of coaching services.

Coaching at Individual- or Group-Level

Coaching can be applied individually and to groups. Some coaches are specifically trained for group coaching in addition to their individual training. The coach becomes the coach of the individuals and the group together. It is an effective way to build and transform teams to become cohesive and collaborative. The coaching of a group addresses how each individual contributes to the group, what drives their behavior and how to manage behavior and strengths to be most effective in relationship with those around you. In addition, the coaching of a group will relate also to the common goal of the group (i.e.: practice growth and vision).

Leadership and team assessment tools are useful in group coaching. These tools take a snapshot of the team including what is working and what isn’t. This creates a platform for discussion and growth.

A coach would work with the team over a period of time with sessions in separated intervals. Together, goals and outcomes would be set and accountabilities held. The team would commit and work on certain areas of development between the sessions. The power and uniqueness of coaching is that no two offices are the same. Each office is made of a unique collection of individuals. This means that a scripted recipe of how to approach office culture is not as effective as looking at the uniqueness of what is really here and where you want to go.

Guarantee of Commitment to Client, Not Outcomes

With coaching, we cannot guarantee any outcomes. We can guarantee a commitment to the relationship and to hold the client to the goals that they want to achieve, but at the end of the day, the work, change and goal achievement comes down to the commitment of the client.

Implement Professional Coaching: Action Plan

Think about what is working and what isn’t working – from a whole life perspective. Think about how you would like your professional and private life to be and why this is important to you. This will give direction toward what and who you want to look for in a coach.

Think about what you want to commit to and what your level of motivation is for change and development. The motivation is the important part. The “how” is what you will figure out with the coach. Be willing to do something different than you are doing now to achieve the new results that you want to achieve.

Coaching is most effective when the client is willing to collaborate, build rapport, engage in honest and candid conversation, explore new ways of thinking and seeing, hear frank feedback designed to support their development, invest time with the coach and engage in related development assignments.

Be willing to get feedback from staff and colleagues in the form of a 360-degree profile and an office culture survey. It will give an incredibly rich launch pad and truthful overview from which to work from in the coaching relationship.

Related ROB Articles

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Train Employees to Provide Consistently Superior Service

Kristen Bentley, OD, Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), Certified Physician Development Coach, Certified Relationship Awareness Coach and Leadership Development/TLC Profile Certified Coach, is the president of Coaching Resource in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. To contact her: Kristen@CoachingResource.ca

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