(The following article is the first of several adapted from information presented in seminars this writer attended at the Starkey Hearing Innovation Expo held in Las Vegas Jan. 4 through 7.)
Are you thinking about tomorrow or are you consumed with today? In the musical “Annie” there is a wonderful song, “Tomorrow, tomorrow, you’re only a day away…” When you get to tomorrow, will you and your business be doing things the same as you did them today? I think not, unless you don’t know where you want to go.
Another question…Are you an inventor or an innovator? An innovator does not invent but takes something that has already been created and improves on it. He makes it NEW and provides VALUE with it. An innovator is a risk taker. An innovator does not plan to fail but is not afraid to tackle something for fear of failing. A person who fails and learns from it will become stronger and is likely to succeed. But if you have already put yourself in a position where failure can not be tolerated, you have already set yourself up to lose.
I knew a Dispenser who in the late 70’s started a new office from scratch. He had very few resources and a family to support. The office was not doing well but he knew that his destiny was to own his own business. (He had Passion.) He took the very last of his money and sent out handwritten postcards until his money ran out. He was willing to risk his last few dollars and fail in pursuit of his dream. He’s been doing well ever since.
The odds are you love your business (profession) but, you need to have a Passion for it. Do you get up every morning with the attitude “I can’t wait to get to the office,” or are you thinking of something you would enjoy more, such as mowing the grass, washing widows, taking the car to your mechanic? If mowing the grass or shoveling snow sounds interesting, you’ve lost your Passion and need to go find it.
Have you been working hard without a break trying to make things improve? Your car battery occasionally needs recharging and so do you. How many hours do you work everyday without a break. Everyone should get a break every two hours or less, even if it’s for only a few minutes. The human brain can not run at maximum efficiency hour after hour. Plan break times into your schedule and don’t forget about taking regular vacations besides taking advantage of holidays.
We all need to be refreshed, so don’t equate the number of hours or days you work with achieving quality results. Time off is important which means you need to monitor your employees work habits as well as your own. Make sure they have the opportunity to refresh themselves in both body and spirit. Rewarding your people for good work with good pay and other less tangible things will have the effect of you rewarding yourself with increased productivity and better employee retention.
Some offices (more every week) use computer software to schedule every minute of an employee’s day with client contacts. In the end this type of scheduling wears down the employees. In addition, if this type of scheduling is required for the office to meet client demands the office needs more employees. Neither the employees nor the clients are being properly served by scheduling client contact for every available minute. The office can lose its “Passion” and be in jeopardy of becoming a hearing aid fitting factory while returns increase.
