E521 | Why You Need Both Care And Candor

Today, we are discussing the importance of being a better leader in business. This came up in a conversation at a recent Mastermind event that I attended and it comes down to having the right mixture of care and candor. I'll explain what this means to me and why it was so impactful to hear. Enjoy!

• Having the ability to be direct with someone
• Giving your employees very specific standards
• Ask yourself: What type of leader are you

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Podcast Transcript

Danny: So I was having a conversation with one of our staff members about documentation and he had come over from a in-network practice that he was working at and he was talking about just how long it would take him to document and click through and the workflow and how, just how time consuming it was and how much easier it's been with the software that we use, which is PT everywhere.

And I know for us, we're very aware of. Sort of time leaks within our staff and our own schedules. And it's just one of the worst things you can do is just waste time on things when you could be doing them more efficiently. One thing for us is we have to document. It's something we need to do and you need to do it as efficiently as you possibly can because that's where you're gonna save a lot of your time.

We were seeing our staff members save upwards of an hour a day as far as cleaning up his documentation, making it more efficient. What if you got an hour of your day back just from documentation? What if all of your staff did the same thing? Highly recommend you take a look at PT everywhere.

It's been a huge time saver for us and really has made a big difference in our efficiency of our practice. You can check 'em [email protected]. I think you're gonna really like what they have to offer. So here's the question. How do physical therapists like us who don't wanna see 30 patients a day, who don't wanna work home health and have real student loans create a career and life for ourselves that we've always dreamed about?

This is the question, and this podcast is the answer. My name's Danny Matte, and welcome to the PT Entrepreneur Podcast.

What's going on guys? Doc Danny here with the PT Entrepreneur Podcast, and today we're talking about being a better leader. And I wanna reference a conversation I had at a local mastermind event or a recent mastermind event that I was at. And I had a conversation with somebody about leadership and he said something, I actually wrote this down.

At dinner, I had my, I pulled my backpack out while I was eating because of what this guy said, and I wrote it down and thought it was so good. And he said leadership from what he's seen in business, at least probably this would apply to anything. But you have to learn how to balance, care and candor.

So you need the right mixture of both and For me, and I'll kinda explain what that what I see that as and why I think it was so impactful that I, so impactful that I had to write it down. And again, I'll say you have to learn how to balance care and candor. And I find that first of all, candor is D directness.

That's the way I look at it. It's your ability to be direct with somebody about something that needs to be improved typically. And something that I think people shy away from because of conflict and they don't know how that relationship. Is gonna be afterward, also, most people in our profession are pretty nice people and they they don't want to necessarily have like dysfunction or this feeling of conflict or tension in their practice, right?

There's two scenarios that I see as mostly in, and there's, there are two opposite ends of the spectrum. The one is I call the asshole leader. So an asshole leader has too much candor and not enough care. They're very direct with people. They're very direct and they show no sort of empathy for anybody else.

It's the no excuses kind of person. It's the kind of person that gets really excited easily. They lack emotional control, and they're just very quick to let people know the things that they're doing bad. Many of you maybe have had coaches like this as well. I think this is actually a very old school coaching approach where it's just all about what you haven't done very well.

And for some people respond great to that. Other people do not. And I think in a work environment, it's not necessarily the best way to go about leading people. The other side of that, Would be the pushover leader, and these are people that have too much care and not enough candor. These are the people that.

They're just, they're super nice folks. They want the best for everybody. They want everybody to get along. They'll bend over backwards for people. And they don't hold anybody accountable. They don't give constructive criticism. They never tell somebody something that they need to improve.

They never ask questions that maybe are uncomfortable. And, but yet they want the world for their people. And I there's benefits to both of these, but what. I've seen as the right way of going about it is having a mixture of both care and candor. And this guy I was having dinner with just said it so well I couldn't articulate it that myself in terms of being succinct, but having the right balance of care and candor is really important because your people, whether you like it or not if you have a practice, And you're hiring people, you're their leader.

Okay? That's it. It's if you adopt a dog, you're the pack leader. And if you're not the pack leader, that dog thinks it needs to be the pack leader and it's an asshole dog, okay? It doesn't respect you, doesn't listen to you, it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. And it's not a great pet, right? So think of the same thing if you bring employees on, And they don't really know who's in charge, then it's hard to know who the leader is and people will get away with all kinds of stuff because they just think that's what they're supposed to do, versus knowing who the leader is, having respect for that person.

And. Also knowing that person really cares for you is very important in a very important role that you're putting yourself in. Back to the dog example, they could be negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement. You want your dog to come to you, you give it a treat. Every time you call it's name for a while, it runs to you.

Outside. It's trying to get it inside, you give it a treat. It's positive reinforcement, it's pattern recognition. Then all of a sudden they're coming back to you whenever you call their name. And if we look at our employees, they have to know that there's a certain level of care that you want for them.

Talking to them about things outside of the business, sitting down and having conversations with them about what's important to them, what goals are important to 'em. We call these, this the dream manager approach. So having conversations with your staff about the dreams they have, the things they want to accomplish.

We did this with all our staff and it was funny is like one of the first things that they brought up was they wanted to buy a house and every one of our staff members has bought a house, which is awesome. And we've been able to be a part of that process, both financially, but also with. Our connections and resources and just sitting down and figuring out a plan for them as well of what they need and what area they should they look at and what areas are good investments for them, in, in Atlanta, versus ones that maybe aren't quite as good based on trends of where populations are moving.

Like that's all stuff that has nothing to do with their productivity at our office, but has everything to do with them being a happy person outside of it. What also, when we sit down on quarterly reviews, it's not always the most comfortable thing in the world. If somebody's not doing what they're supposed to do like we're going to fix that.

And if they're not gonna fix that, then they're not gonna work for us because the standard is very set, it's very specific. The same thing is can be said for PT Biz with what we do on the consulting side and the education side. With the staff that we have now, we have very specific standards for people and, but we give them, Feedback and direction and coaching and improve areas, and oftentimes that candor and them knowing that you really care about them.

So being direct, but them knowing that you really care about them is the mixture that really helps people progress and grow and go from, maybe they aren't doing everything that they're supposed to, to all of a sudden they're are, they're a rock star. And they're killing it in whatever system it is that you've designed.

So ask yourself, which one do you deviate towards more? Are you more of the asshole leader you can be, honest about it. That's where I, that's where I gravitated towards early on from, my time in the military is there's not a, there's not a lot of. Back and forth, like with people disagreeing with you on things.

They just do whatever you're, they're supposed to do because that's the hierarchical system that is in place in the military. It's a chain of command. This is, it is what it is, right? Just I say this, you go do this because that's what's best for the mission and. As the way it works in the civilian world, right?

So I learned that something I had to work on to get myself more towards the middle of these. And and a lot of people we work with actually, I would say deviate or bias towards, toward more of a pushover leader. You don't want to be, that don't be that person, that people just, they get away with shit.

That they shouldn't because you're. You're too scared to be honest with somebody and hold them accountable. Stand your ground, in your own damn business. Come on, you gotta be a better leader than that. You have to be able to be more, resilient than that. And know that the reason you're doing it is because you're trying to achieve this vision you have for your company.

And you need the right people and you need to mold the right people and mentor them and be a part of that process. And that involves them also knowing where they need to improve and how to improve in those areas. And then to follow up on that and hold them accountable to whether they are or they aren't.

And ultimately it may be getting some of these people out of your organization that you made a bad hire with that happens, it's happened with us and but knowing that it's really important as well. So hopefully this is something that you can think about. Where do you fit? Which side do you bias towards more?

Are you more of the pushover or are you more of the asshole? Which one are you? Because the best place to be is, a nice mix of the two in the middle because people wanna work for somebody that they know, will stand up for themself that is willing to really fight for their company fight for their people.

But also cares a lot about them, immensely. And and that mixture of those two, that, that'll get people to to just really buy into your culture. And want to be long term members of your organization and not, don't even think of as employees, but these are people that we work with.

We're in the trenches with them. This is this is our team. This is, these aren't necessarily employee relationships. I don't even look at it like that. This is just your team, the team that you're leading. You're in charge, but you're there with them and you had a care. For them tremendously.

But you also have to be direct and honest and hold them accountable in areas where they are deficient. And if you can do those things, you're gonna have great retention, a great culture and you're gonna be a great leader, which is gonna affect you in a positive way in many places outside of your business.

Which is really cool to spill over effect from entrepreneurship is that all the self-development that we have to work on to actually have a functional business makes us better parents, better siblings, better spouses. Just better leaders in our community which is an amazing side effect to running a successful business.

So as always, guys, I hope this helps. Thanks so much for listening and I'll catch you next week.

Hey, Pete, entrepreneurs. We have big, exciting news, a new program that we just came out with That is our PT Biz part-time to full-time, five day challenge. Over the course of five days, we get you crystal clear on exactly how much money you need to replace by getting you. Ultra clear on how much you're actually spending.

We get you crystal clear on the number of people you're getting to see, and the average visit rate you're going to need to have in order to replace your income to be able to go full-time. We go through three different strategies that you can take to go from part-time to full-time, and you can pick the one that's the best for you based on your current situation.

Then we share with you the sales and marketing systems that we use within our mastermind that you need to have as well. If you wanna go full-time, In your own practice. And then finally, we help you create a one page business plan. That's right, not these 15 day business plans. You wanna take the Small business association, a one day business plan that's gonna help you get very clear on exactly what you need to do and when you're gonna do it to take action if you're interested.

And signing up for this challenge is totally free. Head to physical therapy biz.com/challenge. Get signed up there. Please enjoy. We put a lot of energy into this. It's totally free. It's something I think is gonna help you tremendously, as long as you're willing to do the work. If you're doing the work and you're getting.

Information put down and getting yourself ready to take action in a very organized way, you will have success, which is what we want. So head to physical therapy biz.com/challenge and get signed up today. Hey, real quick before you go, I just wanna say thank you so much for listening to this podcast, and I would love it if you got involved in the conversation.

So this is a one way channel. I'd love to hear back from you. I'd love to get you. Into the group that we have formed on Facebook. Our PT Entrepreneurs Facebook group has about 4,000 clinicians in there that are literally changing the face of our profession. I'd love for you to join the conversation, get connected with other clinicians all over the country.

I do live trainings in there with Yves Gege every single week, and we share resources that we don't share anywhere else outside of that group.So if you're serious about being a PT entrepreneur, a clinical rainmaker, head to that group. Get signed up. Go to facebook.com/groups/ptentrepreneur, or go to Facebook and just search for PT Entrepreneur. And we're gonna be the only group that pops up under that.