176 Seven Habits of Highly Effective Clinic Owners | Stop Being Reactive and Start Leading Better

Welcome

In this episode, I’m sharing a powerful reminder from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and what it really looks like to apply these habits in your clinic and business.

Episode Summary

I’m breaking down the habits that shape how you lead, make decisions, manage your time and stop yourself getting in your own way.

From being reactive and overwhelmed to procrastinating, over controlling and burning yourself out, this episode is all about recognising the behaviours that keep you stuck and shifting into more effective leadership.

Key Takeaways

• Be proactive and take responsibility instead of blaming your team, the economy or outside circumstances.
• Start with the end in mind so your week reflects the business and life you actually want to build.
• Put first things first by focusing on the decisions and actions that truly move the needle forward
• Think win win by creating better outcomes for you, your team and your clients.
• Seek first to understand because most problems come back to communication, not capability.
• Stop doing it all alone and recognise that support, collaboration and guidance help you grow faster.
• Protect your energy because you cannot build a great business from a place of constant exhaustion.

Pick one habit and ask yourself where you’re not living it yet.

If this episode resonated, send me a message and let me know if you’d love a personal development book club too. 

Treat Your Business podcast is proudly sponsored by MBST, the groundbreaking technology revolutionising recovery and rehabilitation. Offering a non-invasive, drug-free solution for musculoskeletal conditions and nerve injuries, MBST works at a cellular level to stimulate regeneration. Expand your services and deliver long-term patient improvements without increasing your workload.

Learn more at mbstmedical.co.uk. 

Resources & Links:

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Transcript

[00:00:00] katie Bell: Welcome to the Treat Your Business podcast, the show for clinic owners who want real, honest advice and tried and tested ways of doing things. I'm Katie Bell, and this is the new era of bigger insights and bolder conversations to help you grow a clinic and a life you love. Let's dive in.

[00:00:18] Welcome back to the podcast. Today's episode, it's a little bit different, and if I'm honest, it's as much as a reminder for me as it is maybe for you. I've been thinking about for ages, [00:00:30] and I can't believe I'm really saying this out loud. It's about setting up a, a book club. And when I'm in a book club, I mean like a personal development book club.

[00:00:41] That means I read books for you and you listen to a show lot episode every day, which gives you like a breakdown of the chapter. For example, little bit of teaching and like the thing that they're asking us to do well, the action if there is one, and that you can just listen to [00:01:00] that rather than have to consume the book.

[00:01:02] You can consume the book at the same time if you want to. 'cause we all know that is the best way of, of listening and actually doing things. But so many of my listeners and people that I coach say, oh God, like I've got a pile of books that I'm just still not getting through. And I read so much and I read so many personal about this.

[00:01:21] In fact, I'm looking at my bookshelf now just packed full of per of personal development books and that I think, would this be a great idea? [00:01:30] Would people wanna do that? Be part of a book club, personal development book club with KB KBS Book Club. I feel like there's, that's a working title. Anyway, I have been reading the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Rko.

[00:01:44] I read this book. This is, I would say, one of the classics that I read years and years ago. I then read it again a few years later, and I'm reading that again because every time you read it, it hits differently and it's one of those books that you'll read early on in your career 'cause somebody's told you to read it and you're [00:02:00] notd alone and you think, yeah, it's really good that, that's great, Steven.

[00:02:03] And then you revisit it a completely different stage of your life and your business as you are possibly going to the next level, and it just hits differently. What really stood out to me this time was that. And I always like to put my hat on in terms of the clinic owners that I'm working with is that like you guys, you don't have a knowledge problem.

[00:02:22] You get it, you understand this stuff. You don't know what you don't know, of course, but it's a lot of this [00:02:30] is that we just get in our own way in and it's that we have these habits and these behaviors. That means we are consistently acting like the person that is running a business we don't actually want.

[00:02:50] So what I mean here is that I hear lots of you like say you are time poor, you're overwhelmed, you're frustrated, you are [00:03:00] exhausted. You're not paying yourself the same, the money that you want, but actually you're acting like that person. You're not consistently acting like the person who runs the business.

[00:03:10] We say we want. So thought maybe I'll just walk through these seven habits. I might only get to one who knows, but not in the textbook way, but in a way that. I want to show you how you can actually show up and how I actually show up in my week within my clinic, within my business, within my decisions as a CEO.[00:03:30]

[00:03:30] And this is where I really see clinic owners getting this wrong all the time. I hear your problems, I hear your questions, and I'm like, what is making you wanna behave in that way and have those kind of habits? He talks about seven habit habits of highly effective people. But I think what is important is understanding what they're not, or maybe the seven habits of [00:04:00] highly ineffective people.

[00:04:01] And I'm not saying that you're ineffective, but I'm saying that you could be more effective. So habit number one of ineffective people, okay, is react. So this is. I see this a lot. I say I, I still love you all, but we blame our problem problems on our team, our parents, our genes, our personalities, our spouse, your ex, the economy, the freaking Gulf Wall.

[00:04:29] I've [00:04:30] heard that recently. I'm not going to, I'm not going to invest because of Trump. Seriously. And we become a victim. So we take no responsibility for life, and this is like a real big game changer. The minute that you recognize that you, you are the center of your business and of your life, and you actually get to decide how it [00:05:00] runs at all times, then we can't just be in reactive mode.

[00:05:06] We have to. Be proactive. Stephen Kobe's Number one habit is be proactive. This sounds simple, right? But it's not easy because being proactive actually means taking responsibility, not just when things are going really well, but when, especially when they're not so. When the team are performing, when you're getting lots of cancellations, when, oh, [00:05:30] it's the town of yay.

[00:05:30] It is the economy, it's all of this, it's seasonal. I want you to look at all of those things and why they exist. And the shift for me is that it's if something feels off in the business, if something feels hard and not working for you, you need to look, look at what have I not addressed here? What have I not communicated?

[00:05:51] Where have I not led? Where have I not made a decision? Where am I being led? Where am I not in control? The question alone changes everything because [00:06:00] it puts you back in control. Like it's always, like whenever there is an issue, I, first of all, I smash a mirror right there in front of, I mean, don't smash a mirror.

[00:06:09] Smash a mirror in front of you, put a mirror right in front of you because there is where the problem lies. It's where your power also is. So are you reacting to your business or are you actually leading it? I ran a q and a last night for people who attended clinic Growth Live, and one of [00:06:30]the biggest things that I kept saying over and over again was that like, don't.

[00:06:35] Wait to find out how much money you've made, go out with the plan to make the money. Like you need forecasts, you need projections. You need to decide what your business is gonna do, not go, oh, how did April go? It's like you need to be absolutely in control of that. So that's habit number one. Habit number two, if you were being.

[00:06:56] Highly ineffective person would be, [00:07:00] begin with nothing in mind. This is, I see. And again, probably what I link to what I've just said is that people don't plan ahead. They don't set goals, or they do set goals, but they're a bit airy fairy. They're not very measurable. They're nothing to do with actually planning what the business needs to do to serve them and.

[00:07:17] Highly an effective person just wouldn't worry about the consequences of your actions. It's just like you are rolling with the punches and you're going with the flow you are living for the moment you party on, like tomorrow you may die kind of attitude. Yeah. Tomorrow you may [00:07:30] die, but you need to begin with the ending night.

[00:07:33] So the second habit of a highly effective person is to begin with the end because so many of you are so busy, you're not actually building the business that you want. You are building something that might look successful on the outside, but it feels very heavy on the inside. But, and I totally get this, I've been there.

[00:07:51] You wake up straight into patients, you're squeezing in admin, you're firefighting problems, and suddenly another year has gone by and nothing has really [00:08:00] changed, or you've just been really super busy, but like you've not moved the needle forward in ways that you actually is actually serving you. So.

[00:08:08] Every single week you have to come back to, does my week reflect the business that I'm trying to build? Or have I got busy doing other people's shit? Not just what needs doing, but where am I going? If I was to look into your diary, does it align with the vision that you have for this business or are you like busy bees doing lots of [00:08:30] stuff, but not really the stuff that matters?

[00:08:33] You're just drifting rather than building, having them three. If you are a highly ineffective person, would be to put first things last, procrastinate. See this so many times, just, yeah, I wanna do it. Yeah, I'm gonna make the decision. I'm gonna get out my own way. And then they tell themselves, answer it. You do all the urgent things first.

[00:08:56] I'm just gonna do this thing first. Like answering every [00:09:00] call, beep notification, emails, posting another this random stupid post on social media and. You'll say, I'll get to the important stuff later, but you never do. It's like I have this endless to-do list and I don't eat the biggest frogs. I put all of those small things first.

[00:09:22] I start empty the dishwasher Philippa. She starts scrubbing her towels with a toothbrush. I start mow the lawn doing random shit like that. [00:09:30] Like we all procrastinate. There's all of us procrastinate now, procrastination. Is not an effective habit and I don't procrastinate a lot at all and it's often because I'm a deadline person.

[00:09:45] I, that's what I find myself procrastinating. So I would get a lot of shit done, but I'll have to do it with not much time left. Particularly when it comes to creation of stuff, because I have to feel it a certain way. I have to be in the moment. I can't like [00:10:00] pre-plan too much. When I do that, I don't deliver my best.

[00:10:04] Okay. A highly effective person puts first things first, not first things last, and this is a really big one. Put first things first. In simple terms, your diary reflects your priorities, not your intentions. So have a look at your diary. This is where most clinic owners fall down because they say they wanna grow the business, but their diary says something completely different.

[00:10:26] 'cause it's full of patients. You've got admin time, whatever the thought that is, [00:10:30]you've got last minute problem solving. You're reacting to messages, you've got very little actual ce o time. And I'm not saying I get this perfect 'cause I definitely don't, but I'm very aware of it and I actively protect time in my week to think.

[00:10:46] To review numbers, to plan to lead my team because if I don't, I slip straight back into being the busiest person in the building or in the office, but actually not doing anything that matters. So if [00:11:00] I looked at your diary right now, would I see a CEO, a business leader or I would just, would I just see an overwhelmed clinician?

[00:11:07] Habit number four, highly ineffective person would think win lose. They would see life as a vicious competition. Everyone's out to get you. You better get them first. Don't let others succeed because remember, if they win, you lose. We are what is the competition mindset? If it looks like you're gonna lose, however, make sure you drag that sucker down with [00:11:30] you.

[00:11:30] Now, most of us don't have that as a habit, but we are looking at what everybody else is doing. A highly effective person thinks win win, they think. I'm really gonna step into leadership 'cause the business is no longer just about you. It's about your team, it's about your clients, it's about the impact you are making and creating.

[00:11:51] And this is where I see clinic owners go wrong. They try to maximize profit at the expense of their team. They underpay. They [00:12:00] try and squeeze everything fucking last drop out of their team. They overwork people, they hold too tightly to control, and the reality is that is not a win-win. That's really short term thinking.

[00:12:12] So for me, I'm constantly asking like how to create something right here. Where the business wins, team wins. The client wins because that's where sustainability comes from. I wanna do lovely things with my team, so I have to create a business that supports that. I think number five [00:12:30] is if I was being highly ineffective and it would be seek first to talk and then pretend to listen.

[00:12:38] Seek first to talk, and then pretend to listen. A highly ineffective person would say, I was born with the mouth, so I'll use it. I'll talk a lot. I'll make sure everyone understands your views first, and then pretend to listen whilst really thinking about your next job. A highly effective person seeks first to understand.

[00:12:57] Most problems in clinics is not [00:13:00] performance problems, it's communication problems. I've definitely been guilty of this, right? It's jumping in, assuming I know the issue, trying to fix things really quickly, communicating ahead of my team, not empowering them, jumping into stuff, taking that monkey back, and whether it's a team issue, a client complaints, something not working, I have to slow down, like my brain works at million, million miles a second.

[00:13:25] So I need to slow down into ask more questions. This one [00:13:30] habit alone really transforms your team dynamics and it stops you being the bottleneck all of the time. Habit number six, a highly ineffective person would be to be an island. Okay? Being an island is about feeling like too. If I don't do it, nobody else is gonna do it.

[00:13:49] If you want something done, just ask a busy person feeling like teamwork's just overrated. Cooperation just slows everyone down. This is just my idea. Let's get on board and let's just do it. [00:14:00] So, because you have the best ideas, often as a visionary, yes, of course you do. You're better off just doing the things by yourself.

[00:14:06] Being your own special island. Habit number six from a high effective CEO is synergize simple terms. Don't do this alone. So many of you try to figure out anything by yourself. Carry everything yourself, solve every problem yourself. And it is exhausting. And it's interesting, isn't it? [00:14:30] Because a lot of what I hear is, okay, I'm gonna take all of that, you've just taught me and I'm gonna try and figure it out for myself and I'm gonna try and implement it by myself.

[00:14:40] And it's like, why? Why do you think you can now do that? When. You've not done it for the last seven years. Like the information's out there, there's books you can read. There's the whole of the website. You can cons, um, the, uh, the internet that you can consume, but you're still not made it happen. And that's because a knowledge alone is [00:15:00] not just what you need.

[00:15:01] Real growth happens when you bring in the right people. When you trust them, you collaborate with them, you actually let things go. You stop being the bottleneck and you get help and support. To walk that path quicker than you could possibly have walked it by somebody, from somebody that has been there already and is gonna help you not make the mistakes that are very costly from time, money, [00:15:30] and energy point of view.

[00:15:31] So because doing everything yourself is not a strength, believe me. Like you, you should be really empowered to not have to do that much. Having number seven from a really ineffective person is to burn yourself out. It is to be too busy driving to take the time to actually go and get petrol. How many times have you broken down?

[00:15:51] I do this all the time. I think, Ooh, two miles left the tank. Where can I could get to Sainsbury and back? That's a lie. Would never go to Sainsbury's. Hate the big shop. [00:16:00] But I would try and squeeze another journey, mainly because I saw an episode of Top Gear Ones that they did a test or when it got to zero, how far they could actually go without breaking down, and I'm pretty sure they got a hundred miles out the tank.

[00:16:11] And I see it's a little bit of a competition of how far I could possibly go anyway. A only affected person would be too busy living to take time to recharge and renew. Like too busy doing things. Avoiding exercise. Totally. I don't got time. Not committing to reading. [00:16:30] Self-development, personal development.

[00:16:31] Listening to this podcast regularly. Getting support, being coached. Just burn, burn, burn, burn, burn. Go, go, go, go, go. Keep seeing a million patients over delivering. No. Having no boundaries because a highly effective person sharpens the soul. It's all about you. It's about your energy, your capacity, your wellbeing.

[00:16:50] 'cause if you burn out, your business is useless. Your business will feel it. And I think in this industry we like almost where busy is a bit of a badge of honor. [00:17:00] But the truth is you can't build a great business from a place of constant exhaustion. So for me, this looks like very clear boundaries, having time off space to think, not always being on, seeing less patience.

[00:17:14] Again, we're not all perfect, but it's about being intentional. So these are the seven habits that he talks about. And like I said at the start, none of this is new to you. You've probably heard most of it before, but here's the difference. Some of you go, oh, this is [00:17:30] really nice. That's really nice case. This is a great episode.

[00:17:32] And others ask, right? Okay, where am I not living this yet? Because unless you know where you wanna be, end goal done, don't wanna grow anymore, you've not done the work yet. It isn't about doing more, it's about becoming somebody different. It's becoming the person who leads properly, thinks strategically, creates structure, builds something that actually gives you time, income, and freedom.

[00:17:56] If this episode hit home for you, please share [00:18:00] it. Drop me a message if you would really like me to do a book club. I'm not sure I should have said that out loud, but I just feel like we say we're gonna do things. Don't wait and we don't actually do them. And here's the difference. I actually do it. I'm a highly motivated person.

[00:18:14] I don't need a huge level of accountability, but I do need accountability. When I'm in that growth phase, when I'm going to that next level, I need people that have walked that water talk, that talk, I need to learn from them, and more importantly, just pick one habit, just one and ask stuff. Where am I not [00:18:30] doing this yet?

[00:18:31] Where am I burning myself out? Where am I trying to do it all by myself and not leaning into my team? Where am I first just jumping in and trying to fix everything and not seeking to first understand where am I thinking? Like this competitive mentality where. It's all about this kind of win-lose mentality rather than this win-win mentality.

[00:18:58] Where am I squeezing and [00:19:00] forcing and pushing, putting pressure on my team? Where am I putting first things last? So where am I procrastinating? Where am I not making that big decision? I'm talking myself out of it. Again, where am I not ending with the or not? Where am I not starting with the end in mind?

[00:19:17] Where am I just being reactive? And where am I reacting in blaming all my problems on Trump, the war, the economy, the dis, all of these things that are you feel are out of your control. Yes, they are. [00:19:30] You can't control any of those, but what you can control is how you show up. That was like a whirlwind.

[00:19:37] Episode on the Seven Habits. Actually, you enjoyed it. I did. It always is great for me to stretch, stretch me, push me, make me rethink where am I really leaning into some of these and where am I not. So I hope you love this episode, Emmy. You've got me solo for the whole of this month for what an absolute treat.

[00:19:54] So I'll be back just me next week with National Show episode. See you soon. 

[00:19:59] [00:20:00] Thanks for listening to the Treat Your Business podcast. Hit subscribe now and keep joining me for bigger insights, older conversations to help you build a clinic and a life you [00:20:30] love.