A Disciplined Chiropractor
by Mark Radermacher, D.C.
President of Total Practice Management
History proves that professions, like nations, rise and fall not
because of the times but because they make the times. A century, a year,
a day even a moment in time never impacts nations or professions, but
people do. The Roman Republic didn’t come to power because of a year on
a calendar, the Republic referred to as The United States of America
wasn’t conceived because it was 1776 and Chiropractic wasn’t founded
because the year was 1895. People who became leaders were responsible
for these historic events. People who became leaders created influence
and impact in order to make the times. In recorded history, it is
obvious to note the majority of leaders who were responsible for the
rise of nations were very disciplined people; today, in chiropractic,
those who are rising and making the times are also very disciplined
people. It is the characteristics of these disciplined chiropractors
that matter greatly; it is the characteristics of the disciplined
chiropractor that produce, with replicability, the rise to success.
Leaders who impact professions are not found en masse, leaders are often
only the small percentage of any profession. Disciplined chiropractors
don’t necessarily need to impact the profession as a whole, they can,
instead, turn their leadership to affect every aspect of their practice
thus creating a microcosm of success. A successful chiropractic practice
might never be recorded in historical volumes, yet might have
significant impact on the majority of patients who, through teaching and
adjusting, may have responded to care and in turn impacted his/her
immediate family, community and perhaps beyond.
The sustainably successful chiropractor most often exhibits certain
characteristics. The more often the majority of these characteristics
are exhibited, the greater the level and duration of success. Discipline
will drive all of the necessary characteristics. Without discipline,
sustainable success is impossible to achieve. Discipline helps to drive
the purpose to succeed. People who are very successful tend to be very
disciplined thinkers, they learn how to better control their emotions
and they learn that there is a very delicate but very necessary
connection between the mind and the body. With discipline, the mind
controls the body producing a homeostasis required to succeed.
A disciplined doctors’ characteristics form an impressive list. This
list begins with a positive attitude. Speeches, essays, books and even
seminars have been written on attitude. The majority of people are
familiar with the importance of attitude, yet the greatest majority of
people rarely exercise positive attitude as a characteristic helping
them to succeed. A positive versus negative attitude is understood by
most, how to create a positive attitude is understood and used by only a
few. Creating a positive attitude can begin with personal exposure. What
a person exposes him/herself to very often influences what he/she thinks
about. A simple concept is for a person to expose him/herself to more
positive and less negative input. The concept is simple, the
achievement, of such, can be challenging. Magnificent input exposure
comes in many forms: literature, writing, traveling, music, art, food
and discussion provide a short but impactful list. A person becomes what
he/she thinks about in earnest, magnificent input exposure can provide
impressive food for earnest thought.
Once a positive attitude is created, the majority of the time, a list of
priorities needs to be drafted. A well-structured list of priorities
encompasses a person’s goals. A personal list of priorities includes
what is most important in life. Many people will include priorities such
as spiritual well being, health, relationships, fun, career, money,
travel, material objects, activities and self-discipline. Each person
needs to draft his/her own list of priorities making sure the list
covers all the most important points in his/her life in order to live
the list without out-dating the list by surpassing its importance. A
well-drafted list of priorities can be followed all life long instead of
for a few years or only a segment of time in a life.
The disciplined chiropractor must be physically fit. A chiropractor who
is physically unfit can’t possibly expect a patient to take him
seriously while discussing any facet of health. Obesity, for most
people, isn’t a disease, it’s a lack of discipline that provides a
tragic picture of a weak mind. If a chiropractor is too lazy and
undisciplined to become a physically fit specimen, then he/she will
constantly struggle in his/her attempt to succeed. There are, of course,
some corpulent chiropractors who are successful but they struggle
constantly both mentally and physically. Their mental struggle revolves
around hoping patients won’t notice how physically unfit they are; the
struggle continues by wishing their patients would follow the advice
being given pertaining to health. The absurd excuse of “do what I say
and not what I do” will never fool a patient. Being physically unfit and
attempting to teach the opposite would be akin to having a drug addict
teach drug addicts the importance of quitting the addiction.
Paralleling the importance of being physically fit is the characteristic
of being mentally fit. Many chiropractors stop studying as soon as
they’ve finished school. With a powerful practice of only 20-24 hours
per week, there is ample time to study. Chiropractic is definitely not
the only topic of study. Exposure to literature, art, history, culture,
music and philosophy would provide a plenteous source for thought
provocative study. Many chiropractors struggle while attempting to teach
patients, they often attempt to use vacuous short cuts to teaching in
the form of pamphlets, posters and tapes. Using these shortcuts will
never educate patients. To better educate patients about health and
chiropractic, a chiropractor would do well to first educate him/herself.
A well-rounded “classic” style education provides more than a wealth of
knowledge; it also provides confidence and the ability to quickly
articulate thoughts in order to communicate more effectively.
Disciplined chiropractors also exhibit the characteristic of running the
office with a thundering velvet hand. A chiropractor is a teacher and
most students will fortuitously describe their most remarkable teachers
as their most disciplined teachers. To rule an office with a thundering
velvet hand includes clearly defining the parameters of the office and
making sure these parameters are followed. Defining frequency, duration,
objective testing, cost and make-up-missed appointment policies are a
few of the parameters a chiropractor needs to address in his/her office.
Just like the few teachers most students admit they’d “really learned”
from, the chiropractor who rules with a thundering velvet hand will be
remembered for delivering the best teaching and care.
Communicating effectively is one of the most important characteristics a
disciplined chiropractor could exhibit. Learning to communicate
effectively is a ceaseless quest, not an interminable burden. Each time
a person learns to advance his/her communication skills, he/she has the
opportunity of striving to raise the communications bar. Communicating
successfully to patients includes using personality style versatility.
To mirror image a patient’s personality style in communications is to
“speak” their language and, therefore, be better understood. Better
communications also includes simple, short, clear and pertinent points
be discussed. People often only have an infantile understanding of
health and chiropractic; to communicate beyond this level may sound
impressive but will not succeed in teaching the patient. Thus, simple
points are required. Short teaching episodes are paramount for success.
It is not only a waste of precious time to teach too long, but lengthy
teaching will see the patient leave in a state of delirious information
overload. And, of course, clarity matters in communication. All too
often chiropractors expect patients to have a background of
understanding, which allows them to “fill-in-the blanks,” this rarely
works. Instead of “filling-in-the-blanks,” most patients completely miss
the point the chiropractor was attempting to teach. Successful
communications have alluded most chiropractors, because they’ve
attempted to communicate complicated, long and confusing information
that couldn’t possibly be functionally pertinent to the patient without
his/her being able to comprehend it.
A final characteristic most disciplined chiropractors exhibit pertains
to their staff. A well run sustainably successful chiropractic office
will most often have an incredible staff. Most incredible staff members
are hired, trained and monitored by the chiropractor. An incredible
staff has mostly a positive attitude, demonstrates very good basic
skills, possesses expressive and analytical personality styles and has
the ability to communicate. The chiropractor can demand and expect a
tremendous amount from his/her staff and his/her staff will deliver. The
chiropractor is in the office to serve the patient with chiropractic,
while the staff is in the office to serve the chiropractor with a
professional performance. With this relationship and understanding,
incredible staff helps to create one of the characteristics a
disciplined chiropractor must exhibit in order to succeed. Mediocrity is
unacceptable when it comes to staff and although finding, hiring,
training and monitoring incredible staff is a challenge, it is one that
with discipline can be achieved.
Today’s leaders, just like those leaders recorded in history, tend to be
very disciplined. Chiropractors who are sustainably successful are
disciplined leaders. The characteristics these disciplined chiropractors
possess are tangible and replicable. To use enough discipline in order
to develop these characteristics will create the probability for
success. A chiropractor, in his/her own practice, can clearly become a
leader of magnitude. He/she may or may not be recorded in written
history for future generations to read and study. He/she will, however,
have impacted more lives with his/her teaching and his adjusting because
of his having used discipline to develop the characteristics a
sustainably successful chiropractor exhibits.