Expectations that others do or be what you expect of them is a sure-fire way to frustration, low performance and shattered relationships in your practice, your team and community.
Hardly a day goes by when Quest Coaching doesn’t field a call from a stressed out chiropractor or associate regarding the sorry state that their relationship is in. (It is usually at a crisis point).
At the root of these in almost every case is failed expectations.
It can be principals, associates, team members or practice members. It doesn’t matter which. The scenario goes something like this.
He/She THOUGHT that the other party would be something else, get someplace else, do something or not do something by now AND they haven’t AND he/she is spitting it and he/she wants to know the phone number for the local anger management classes!
So, what is the solution. Pretty simple and pretty obvious, I would say.
All you have to do is to make sure that ALL of YOUR expectations are identified and declared AND ALL of the other party’s expectations are dealt with likewise. Now, I say ALL and this is the utopia. It’s hardly likely that you will be aware of ALL of your expectations let alone the other party doing the same.
However, this is the challenge.
It will help you to identify your expectations if you continuously entertain the thought “What are my expectations of (name the person)?” Over a period of time you will add to this list and in many cases chuckle to yourself as to the fact that you would expect such a thing or that you haven’t had this expectation front and centre up until now because it was so damned obvious.
I call these thoughts, my rules for you (or they may even be my rules for everyone). As soon as I have uncovered them there is often an “AH Ha” moment of realisation of the stupidity of even thinking this or maybe the shock that I haven’t even communicated it to the other party – talk about self-inflicted harm!!
While this scenario is common it’s not useful to blame anyone (including yourself). There is no fault by either party – just ignorance.
So, get to it. Get your expectations list going, assess the list for appropriateness and then communicate it to the other party and be open to change your expectations or assist the other party in changing theirs if appropriate.
Expectations Checklists
To help you along we have put together some Expectations Checklists – one for Chiropractors and one for Associates.
Make your expectations mutually great!
Take your associate practice to the next level with the Associate Driven Practice System.
A sure fire way to make an associate practice perform – find out more about the Associate Driven Practice System program now.
Mark Postles D.C.
