Empowerment

There is a moment in practice ownership that feels confusing because, from the outside, the practice is doing well. The schedule is full, the team is busy, and revenue is growing. People trust you and the practice has a great reputation. The business thrives because you keep showing up, solving the next problem, and doing the work in front of you. Then one day, success feels like the problem. It’s too much.

You didn’t become a practice owner to be everyone’s go-to problem solver 24/7.

Back to the clipper situation (refer to the last blog), which had been ongoing for weeks until the infamous spay incident forced me to take action. Instead of staying in a victim mindset, I followed the Pathway to Accountability.

Last week, it took 20 minutes to shave a cat for surgery, not because of the procedure itself but due to the ten minutes spent searching for a sharp working set of clippers. This issue highlights a broader problem: a lack of accountability.

Taking the time to acknowledge and show respect to the support team you work with makes for a more cohesive and empowered team that clients trust so that you won’t have a group of nameless faces but respected professionals.

What is empowerment? It’s hard to say because it’s a term that’s so overused and so broad that it either means everything or nothing. Webster defines it in just ten words as “the authority or power given to someone to do something.” That seems simple, doesn’t it? Just do that. Hand over the power and let someone do something.