Goal Setting

There are multitudes of studies demonstrating the importance of setting goals, individually, organizationally, and nationally. John F. Kennedy set a national goal during his inaugural address when he said, “We will put a person on the moon by the end of the decade.” When JFK stated that goal very few people thought it achievable, yet we all know the outcome.

“If you don’t know where you are going, any path will take you there.”

- Sioux proverb

The more each individual in your organization understands themselves and each other, the better chance you have of setting realistic goals and attaining those goals. Please take the time to study your behavioral analysis reports and those of your staff. If you have not run them on your staff yet please consider the investment. It is very clear that people with different behavioral styles and values act differently and respond differently to doing what needs to be done to take the steps needed to accomplish your goals. The more you and I know about each person in your organization the better we can support each person on the team and the more they will be able to support the growth of the practice and accomplish the goals.

Please go to my website, rosencoaching.com, go to “personal growth” in the navigation bar, go to “how to’s,” and then print out “worksheet to accomplish goals.” This will give you a good base to work from along with this article.

In the above article it states, “Ideally, you have already identified the long-term dreams, visions, and goals that you want to turn into reality.” You may want to peruse other handouts in the same personal growth section. Some to check out might be: “An exercise in evaluating obstacles,” “An exercise in creative problem solving,” “What motivates you,” “Life purpose worksheet,” “Life purpose, business, mission and legacy,” and “Mission statement template.”

“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

-Napoleon Hill

There is no question if we can connect your goal to your vision, mission and your values, you have a much better chance of sticking it out and doing what needs to be done to accomplish your goals.

“When the ‘why’ is big enough, the ‘how’ will figure itself out.”

- George Zalucki

There are 5 elements of a SMART goal statement:

  1. Specific- state the goal very specifically, i.e. “I want to collect 50k/month by December 31, 2003.

  2. Measurable- decide how you will measure your progress, “I will monitor my stats each week and at the end of each month I will send my stats to Dr. Rosen and we will discuss my progress and course correct.”

  3. Achievable- you have to be realistic about what you can achieve within the time frame you choose. This is where it is very important to understand your D.I.S.C. and values. Some styles over set their goals while others under set theirs.

  4. Relevant- the goal has to be something you want for yourself, not something somebody else wants for you. This is the “why do it.”

  5. Time-specific- a definite starting point (date) and completion point has to be stated.

By putting the first letter of all these components together, it spells SMART which is an easy way to remember each component. Always evaluate each goal statement to make sure it has all five components. For example, I want to increase my collections to $50,000 per month by the December 31, 2003, so I can provide a better standard of living for my family while helping many more people. Again, it is imperative that the goal reflects your vision, mission and values. It would be worth working together on this part of the goal.

All goal setting research has shown that a person cannot concentrate on more than three goals at any given time. Identify your 3 most important goals and accomplish them. Then develop your next three.

I would strongly recommend making your top goal collections. If you have the bonus system in place, and are running successful staff meetings, a.k.a. “bonus meetings,” all roads lead to collections. In other words, whether you are trying to get your staff to do recalls, work on scripts, do collections, have better patient interactions; if you are trying to see more patient visits, increase your retention, etc.; all of these lead to better collections. In fact, I would even ask you to consider making a certain collection amount your only goal. I realize that this may sound cold to some of you, and I realize that it is “not about the money,” but the truth of the matter is if you are doing everything right you should see it reflect in your collections and if you want to get your staff to work as a team and get behind this goal 100% then it needs to be about something that benefits them too! If this doesn’t feel right please spend some time on it with me.

If you were to use collections as a single goal and then use the CCCSS Model from the Worksheet to accomplish goals handout, I believe it would make the entire goal setting process a lot easier and successful.

Write down your goals, discuss them at your four mini-meetings and go into detail and course correct your CCCSS Model sheet during your staff meetings. Get the staff fired up and motivated and you will be amazed at the power of goal setting with a team.

After you have written your goals and filled out the CCCSS Model, get your team together and fill out a “Goal Setting Process Page.” On this page you want to:

  1. Write the goal

  2. Write the benefit

  3. Write how you will Measure it

  4. Write the Action plan

  5. Write a chart that has four columns and as many rows as you need. The four columns should be:

    1. Action step

    2. Who

    3. By when

    4. Budget

  6. Write another chart that has three columns and as many rows as you need. The three columns should be:

    1. Milestone

    2. Target date

    3. Date completed

This should get you on your way. I will be happy to work with you and your team in clearly defining and attaining your goals.

Happy hunting.

Russ Rosen, D.C. – Jun 08, 2003

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