Leadership vs friendship
Truth be told, most DCs err on the side of friendship rather than leadership. Friends ask DCs to cut corners, make exceptions for them, stay after hours, spend more time with them, forget about co-pays, give free care to their kids, and on and on. When you make excuses and allow yourself to lower your standards in the name of friendship, it will be your integrity that will take the hit, not theirs. Every time you make a deal like this something deep inside of you dies. There is a sense of shame and guilt that visits you after such an occurrence. Many of our peers say this is just the price we pay for business success and you’ve got to go along with it to get ahead. Most of us got our first dose of this from peer pressure when we traded acceptance for doing things that we knew were not in our best interest at the time; we did them anyway to get the payoff of social acceptance.
People can tell almost instantaneously whether or not you’re a leader. It’s obvious because if you truly lead, your practice members follow you and begin to ‘buy into’ your concepts and beliefs…voluntarily! They can choose any DC that participates or takes their insurance and yet they choose you inside or outside of insurance. Leadership is the ingredient that makes the impossible, possible. Like paying for Chiropractic care inside or outside of insurance. Without the ability to take charge, you always seem like you are chasing down new patients and you will actually build up resentment and regret for the very people you serve.
With leadership, you won’t always be liked. Respected, yes, liked perhaps not. You won’t always be on the A list of party invites. But that’s the key; you will always feel separate and distinct from the people you’ve chosen to lead. Almost every meaningful arena of life will be determined by leadership, not friendship. Your family or your relatives are united via DNA or marriage. Leadership knows no such boundaries. Every DC in TNR is on the path of moving from friendship to leadership. From temporary and conditional to lifetime and unconditional. From the world of appearance to the world of essence. How many of your friends from college or ‘tic’ school do you still literally, physically hang with? In TNR we are all, of course, friendly, but our friendship is forged in our individuality and the love for our shared vision. We are not related, but we have chosen to be in a family of leaders.
