Will Power
Being a physical therapy entrepreneur can be unbelievably challenging at times. From patient care, to running the businesses, to balancing a family, it’s no wonder many entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed and burned out. Each Tuesday, join Will Humphreys, a retired private practice owner and medical entrepreneur, as he introduces game-changing leadership concepts and interviews other successful leaders in healthcare. If you want to start, scale, or sell your outpatient physical therapy business, this is for you. Together not only can we increase our income, impact and freedom, we can build the largest network of healthcare leaders in the world at the Will Power Podcast.
Will Power
Crafting Exceptional Clinic Leaders: A Journey of Mentorship, Delegation, and Empowerment - Ken McKenzie
Inspiring Leadership and Excellence with Ken McKenzie
Embark on an enlightening journey with Ken McKenzie from Premier Physical Therapy as we explore what it takes to craft exemplary clinic directors and inspire true leadership. Discover how integrity, honesty, and respect are the foundation stones for cultivating a culture of excellence. Our dialogue delves into the nuances of mentorship and the pivotal role it plays in guiding potential leaders to flourish, setting the stage for the growth of both individuals and the business.
Key Takeaways:
- Building a Culture of Excellence with Integrity and Respect
- The Role of Mentorship in Leadership Development
- The Challenges and Rewards of Delegation
- Identifying and Nurturing Potential Clinic Directors
- The Importance of Personality, Ethics, and Empathy in Hiring
- Revolutionizing Staffing with Virtual Assistants
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Hey rock stars. Today's episode is with Ken McKenzie, the owner and founder of Premier Physical Therapy in Colorado, and we're talking about how to develop clinic directors, aka how to develop leaders in your company. You know, the number one job of a leader is to build more leaders right? As a business owner, it can be incredibly challenging to want to build a leader when we've been let down by other employees over and over and over again. It's always our fault, by the way, because we don't know how to recruit and retain as well. But once we start getting better with experience, it becomes time for us to put someone in place to run the show for us.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk about the challenges. We're going to talk about what to look for, we're going to talk about successful actions. We're also going to talk about things to not want to do. So we're going to talk about the experience of leadership development as the mentor, and we're going to talk about how to actually build that leader. It's a fantastic episode, enjoy All right, ken. Well, welcome to the show, let's get right into it. What are the qualities that you look for when you're going to promote a leader in your company?
Speaker 2:When I am looking for a leader in my company, I'm definitely looking for integrity, honesty, caring, empathy, and they need to be well-respected by the rest of the staff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, respect is such an important deal, right? What does that look like in your clinic when someone is getting your attention as a potential leader and they draw the respect of their teammates? What does that look like to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, one. They definitely lead by example. So when they're working in my case, when they're treating patients they are doing things the way that things should be done and others are looking at them and you can see others looking at them doing the things the way they do it and then they try to emulate that. So they're natural leaders. They naturally have people following them doing things the way they're doing it. I don't even have to tell them necessarily, it is just something that they're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that idea of a great example is what defines a leader in some ways. Right, the example is the person who is teaching others, and sometimes using words, because their actions define pattern that you want them to model. So obviously this is kind of an ideal individual, which is a perfect conversation topic for today's episode because, as you know, ken, we're talking today about how to develop a clinic director or other leader in our business. So give us an update on what you're working on. That would have us talk about this.
Speaker 2:In my practice. Over the years I have had several practices and I've always been the owner of the clinic director everything that goes along with the clinic. As we started to grow, I started to realize I just can't do it all. I can't be everything at the clinic. So I've started hiring clinic directors at our two clinics and in the process, have worked on trying to develop them as leaders. Never have done that before. So it's been a big challenge and I've learned a lot about how to do that and about myself along the way.
Speaker 1:I bet you know what have you learned about yourself? Let's get right into that. As you're developing your business and growing, what are just some of the key highlights, like some of the big things you've kind of discovered about yourself as an individual?
Speaker 2:One thing is, I have in my head the way I like to do things, and I've done it for years, so to me it's kind of second nature to do these things.
Speaker 2:But I've never been very good at writing those things down in a structured way so that somebody else can do it as well. And so as I've been developing our clinic directors, they've been asking me questions how do we do things? How do I when we have a new staff member coming on, which is do we do things when we have a new staff member coming on, which is what's happening right now? We have a new therapist coming in and my clinic director is asking me okay, well, how do we orient this person? What do we do? What's the onboarding process? And I'm like, oh well, you just do this, this, this, and that's not good enough. So I have to have a more structured way of teaching people how to do this so they can follow along in a more organized way, which has been a little bit of an eye-opener for me as far as, like you know, learning about what my weaknesses are on my side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, isn't it true?
Speaker 1:You know, as we know at Rockstars, as you're listening to this, remember the number one job of a leader is to build more leaders, and so, as Ken is going through this journey, it's really fun because we get to experience how our journey can look like through him, and it's really telling about what we're missing.
Speaker 1:And isn't it funny how policies and procedures this very unattractive thing about leadership is one of the key defining capabilities that we develop If we're going to produce other leaders, because we have all the business in our head, we don't even know what we have in our head because we just do it and we execute and then when we try to duplicate those things to somebody else, they don't know. It's like we're managing by expectation versus delegating exact ways that we want things to be done. Expectation versus like delegating exact ways that we want things to be done. So talk about some of the challenges that you have faced or are facing, like that, like, so. Obviously, putting the business out of your head on paper was one of them. What are some of the other challenges that you have found as you're trying to develop a leader, whether it's a personal experience or more systemic?
Speaker 2:Like you said, I have the ways that I think things need to be done and and, uh, have tried to, you know, implement those to my staff, Um, and and sometimes it's hard to verbalize those I guess, Um, you have your, your systems in place to do things, uh, but putting getting those into words or into a format where somebody else can understand what you're trying to accomplish, what your vision is, is a challenge, and it's been something that I guess, for me, has opened my eyes to a lot of different things as far as definitely like policies and procedures, making sure you have standardized ways of doing things. The more organized and more systems you have in place, the smoother things are going to run, and that has definitely been something I've learned and has been a challenge for me. I don't come from a business background. I am a physical therapist.
Speaker 2:You know all the business side of everything has been learned from trial and error. Learned from trial and error and that's another thing I've learned over the years is getting help from others is not a bad thing. It's a good thing, and today, when I started my practice, the internet was barely a thing. That's how old I am. We did chart notes by hand back in the day, and so finding resources to learn about how to run a physical therapy practice was really hard back then and now there's so many things out there to learn and people like you and that can help teach people how to do stuff is a huge, valuable resource that can save you years and years of trouble of doing things the wrong way to learn how to do them.
Speaker 1:And so.
Speaker 2:I'm hopefully teaching my clinic directors from the things I've learned. Sometimes they'll have ideas, they'll come to me and I'm like, okay, that's a great idea. But let me tell you why I've done this, and this is maybe why we don't want to go down that road, and maybe let's look at it from this angle. So it's been fun, though teaching, trying to mentor somebody into those different roles.
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Speaker 1:Yeah, it's crazy, you know, none of us can do this alone. It's so hard to do this alone, and I was recently talking to a university where some kids were like, yeah, my dream was to open a practice, but there's no way I'm going to do that with what I've seen and I get it Like without support. It is an incredibly hard challenge and so, like I love that you're talking about leadership from a place of, like, vulnerability is that none of us are born knowing. But what I love that you're talking about leadership from a place of vulnerability is that none of us are born knowing. But what I love, theodore Roosevelt has this really cool quote where he talks about how leadership there are born leaders, but anyone can be a great leader it's all about how we approach it from a place of asking for help. Who are the people that have done the thing that we are trying to do or have helped others do it. So what are some of the resources that you've gone to for help as you've developed your leadership?
Speaker 2:I've listened to a lot of different podcasts of business leaders that have different topics and have learned a lot from that.
Speaker 2:I've done a few different courses about different leadership styles or different metrics to look for and just try to, you know, try to soak it all in and, you know, sometimes you come across things and I'm like I don't think that is going to work at our practice.
Speaker 2:Or, you know, maybe we're not going to do this to this extent, but trying to gather all the information you can and and then pick and choose you know sort of what what works for your particular clinic I think is is one of the best ways to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are a lot of resources out there you can pay for and go through, and I've done some of those as well and gotten a lot. It's sometimes an interesting thing is it may be one little thing that I've got from an entire 12-week course, honestly, but one little thing such as how our CPT codes, maybe, and the way we're billing a certain way, and this one little change we make that I had never thought about and it could make a huge difference in our bottom line or whatever it is, or something about leadership or training that you might pick out of it, but those little things can be really valuable down the line and can make a huge difference. So even if the whole course or whatever you're doing isn't necessarily going to be beneficial, you can grab little things here and there that are really helpful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's a lot to do with the growth mindset too, right, ken? Where you've got like you can go into almost anything and find some value. I think inherently there's value whenever we just invest anything into self-development, because I've had over 30 coaches now. Not every one of them were as powerful as the others, but every one of them made a difference because it was more about the investment and time right, like step forward and do that and get something out of it. Even recently, I had an experience where I spent $25,000 to sponsor an event with a physical therapist coach. He had like an on-site event.
Speaker 1:I won't mention names just because I don't want to talk about how much I had spent with him but it was like I got in front of all these. I was doing that to get business. I wanted to grow one of the projects I'm working on and I got there and I remember it was so funny because I sat in this room and he said something that he was teaching everyone else that I learned it was called the fortune is in the follow-up and he was talking about how, with patients, we lose so much business because when they call in, they're asking questions. We don't take it like a sales call, and how, when someone does reach out, how we should nurture that to get them into becoming patients. And all this and that has changed my business forever. That stupid, seemingly easy phrase and it was like this, $25,000 being returned on investment eventually caught itself up after six months. I wouldn't have done it if I had known that's what it was going to be, but I am so grateful I did it, because that one thing shifted how I operate, which has actually impacted my business dramatically. So I love your mindset of growth-oriented no matter what we invest, you're going to get something out of it.
Speaker 1:So now let's go back to the developing of your director. So we've talked about who you're looking for. At the beginning of the show, you mentioned those qualities that you like in somebody. You've talked about some of the challenges that you faced internally, and actually I do have one question for you, dude Is it hard for you to let go? Is that hard for you? I don't know it is, tell me about. So what do you do? What do you do when it's hard to let go and you're putting someone else in charge?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. So. Yeah, I think, as and I hear that from other friends of mine who are clinic directors as well, I mean not clinic owners, I'm sorry, you know you start the clinic, it's you me. Yeah, like I mean, we, we rented this space out. I'm in right now. This is, and it's uh, it was me and my wife. My wife was right in the front desk and I was treating patients. We had no idea what we were doing, you know. And then, uh, from a business standpoint, and um, but we, you know, you, you slowly, I think you grow, you add staff and and but it it from the start it was yours, so you're sort of protective over it.
Speaker 1:I guess it's like a total it's your baby kind of thing.
Speaker 2:So you're taking all the risk on.
Speaker 1:It's all on your shoulders.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and you feel like you built this thing and and you know, and you know what to do and this and that, even though you probably don't. But so giving up, I think, giving up some of that leadership and responsibility. It was tough, it took me years to do it, and finally we opened a second clinic and so I'm like, okay, well, I can't be at both places at once, so I have to do something. And for a while I was't be at both places at once, so I have to do something. And and for a while I was trying to run back and forth and I didn't even I had a guy at my therapist over there, Eric, who's great.
Speaker 2:He's been with me from the start and, uh, I didn't even give him the title of clinic director at first, Like I didn't even I didn't even do that you know.
Speaker 2:And and finally, I'm like, all right, this is ridiculous. And so we talked about it and I finally started giving him responsibility over there and he ended up hiring some staff. And I'm like, oh, he's actually doing really good at this. And I realized, okay, the reason I put Eric over there is because I trusted him. He had the same ethics I had. I knew he was caring for the patients and wanted the clinic to do well, and so I started realizing, okay, other people can do this. I'm not the only one who can, who can do this.
Speaker 2:Then, at this particular site that I'm at, I finally did the same thing and and put, put a really good therapist in. And and same thing he did. He did a great job. But then I started to realize, okay, he, he didn't really have any experience with being a leader and what to do, and so I knew I had to come up with a better way to guide him and mentor him into that position. Yeah, it was like you say, it was hard to give up, but now that I've done it and gone through the process, it's been one of the best things I could have done.
Speaker 1:I get it. I get it. You know it's funny because I never really understood why it's so hard for us to let go and after you get past it like I have as well you forget. But the thing is, is that the pressure? I think the main reason we struggle in letting go is that the pressure of making things go right is a thousand percent on our shoulders for so long and we have an experience of hiring when we don't know how to hire. At least I did where I'd hire people and they'd let me down. I'd hire people and they'd let me down. So then I'm going to hire someone and put them in charge of the thing that could hurt me, because if they don't do it right it hurts my family financially, if not hurts the business. So that idea of like I guess that makes sense and I hope listeners are like oh, that's why it's so hard for me to let go, because at the end of the day, if we can see why that's hard, then we can build protective barriers around it. We can also recognize that we should be more afraid of what we lose if we don't let go, because at the end of the day there's no other way to learn.
Speaker 1:We just got to do it and in your case you did it. There was some validation. You just didn't do it randomly, you picked a guy who had all those qualities, but then you do it and he starts succeeding and it opens up a new world for you. So what are you doing in that, as he's taking that over? First of all, how does it feel to know that you can trust someone? And then, secondly, what are you doing with your spare time? And assuming not spare time, I should say the time that you would have spent doing his job.
Speaker 2:It's been great. So a couple of things too, like. So one of the things I realized when I put somebody out, when I did finally put somebody in that position, they actually had a lot of skills that in areas that I did not have, I had. Them coming to me with one of my clinic directors is helping me develop the onboarding process and I them coming to me with one of my clinic directors is helping me develop the onboarding process and I'm not I am not very good with like presentations and putting things in spreadsheets and doing all this stuff, and and she's coming to me with all these great beautiful things that are like you know, like really organized and I'm like, oh my gosh this is great, this is I needed this all along, and so so, number one, you can, you can find somebody that can actually compliment you in ways, compliment your weaknesses, um, in in ways that you didn't know.
Speaker 2:Um, but then it, like you said it, it allows me to. So we're in the process of, of expanding both of our clinics now, um, or doubling the space in both of our clinics, um, pretty much this all this year, so, um, so it's allowed me to to really work on that kind of stuff. Um, that's been a lot of my time lately, which I, which has been, you know, discussing, uh, the contracts with the, with our landlords, and the build outs and all these different things that I wouldn't really have had a lot of time to do if I hadn't delegated a lot of this stuff. So I think I think one of the things that allows you to do is, uh, focus on the bigger, bigger vision of your clinic and and and since I've done those things, we've actually, since I've hired the clinic directors, we've actually grown even more than I expected and more than we were before, because it's allowed me to start exploring all these other opportunities that I probably wouldn't have had time to do if I didn't have somebody doing these other things for me?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of funny. We have this other job of being a CEO and a leader that we don't even think about. When we're so busy coping in the front lines, like when we're treating or we're leading our own teams, we don't even realize that there's this whole other job that we have, that we feel, and it's why life sucks so hard sometimes because we're so busy and overwhelmed. So when we can get leaders in place doing the right things the right way, it frees us up to be able to actually step into that role. So it's not like we just run out of things to do. We actually get to step into our role as leaders and grow our company, which you've been able to do successfully. What?
Speaker 2:does that feel like? It feels great, it's been, it's been, it's. It's a little, I'm a little, you know it's a little scary and exciting at the same time, which?
Speaker 2:is which is how I like to live my life. I think I just live on the edge of fear and excitement at the same time of these things. But it's been great and I've been renegotiating insurance contracts and just doing all these different things that I've needed to do for years and just haven't really had the time to do so knowing that I can step away, I can even be working from home sometimes and know that my clinic is taken care of by somebody that I trust is just great. It's been wonderful.
Speaker 1:You know it's one of the so Rockstars listen. What Ken's talking about is this really cool aspect of what it feels to have other leaders being developed. And here's something that Vern Harnish says, the author of a book called Scaling Up the Bible of all business books, in my opinion. He says that it's important for us to make sure, as leaders, we get the right people on the bus. You've heard that before. Maybe what you haven't heard is making sure the right person on the bus is in the right seat of the bus, doing the right things the right way. So there's four rights right person on the bus, right seat of the bus, doing the right things the right way.
Speaker 1:And so this comes into play with what Ken's talked about in terms of how he's screened people based on these values and qualities and time. These aren't people that just randomly showed up and he promoted. These are people who've proved themselves, who are amazing in every way. And then you know he went ahead and started making sure he put the policies and procedures out there so they could do the right thing the right way. So how long did it take you, ken, to know that they were the right fit for the position? Like, how as they, because clearly they are. So how, when you took that risk of like putting them into directorship? How?
Speaker 2:pretty early on. I wouldn't say, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say it was immediate or anything like that. It takes a little time to kind of see how how they fit into that position. But you know, there were definitely, I would say, within the first, you know, three to six months.
Speaker 2:I pretty much knew that, that I made the right choice and, uh, and that they were going to do well in this position, just from the way they ask questions of me.
Speaker 2:So, like you know, that was, that was a, that was a big thing.
Speaker 2:That I noticed is, um, you know when, when my employees coming to me asking particular questions sometimes there are questions I hadn't even thought about as far as the job, the position, but it let me see that they were interested in what they were doing and that they wanted to do a good job and then just seeing the way other staff responded to them I think was the biggest thing.
Speaker 2:We had an issue or whatever that we're discussing with, that I was discussing with my clinic director and then we went to implement whatever it was to the staff. Seeing the way that the staff responded in a positive way and was was very telling. So I knew that, okay, they. They respect this person, what they're telling them, they want to do the right thing, they want to do what's best for the clinic and and see the action on their part was okay. I know I got the right person in here and they're leading the staff in a way that the staff responds well, you know, right to, or well to, I guess, and in a meaningful way. So yeah, that was probably it.
Speaker 1:I love it, you know, and it's. I don't think, and I really don't for people listening, I don't want you to like get the idea that everything's perfect. Ken's, you know identifying this marker of like. I'm sure your people have things that you're working on with them and there's more to go, but I just I think there is something about a baseline level of success when you know you have the right fit and then like, so you know, as you're listening, rock stars, if you have directors in place, does your team respect and like them? You know that's kind of a key, foundational thing Do they, does that leader like and respect you and can they? Can they get results? Can they? Can they make an impact? I think most people struggle with directors and helping their team members get their stats to where they should be. I think that's kind of the ultimate challenge in that regard. So this might be a great discussion for another episode, ken, because I think, as you're developed, how long have your leaders been in place at this point?
Speaker 2:Eric at our other clinic over here. He's been in place for around. He's been a clinic director over there for maybe three or four years, so he's been there. He's been there a while. I mean he's been over there for for like five years, at least five, six years, but I haven't uh, I didn't actually make him the official clinic director.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right. He was your first one that you were like scared to relinquish the control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was kind of like dude, you're kind of in charge, but I'm not going to totally let you know until I feel ready, exactly. And then our clinic director over here, casey, she's only been in that position for maybe a little over six months now and so, yeah, so she's still learning a lot. I'm still learning a lot on how to train her. And I say train I don't how to, how to train her and and I say train, that's the kind of I don't like that word, but you know, mentor her, mentor, totally, because it's a totally different level when they're directors.
Speaker 1:Training is part of it, for sure, because you're pulling stuff out of your head and you're like, hey, this is the way I do this, but at the end of the day, you're developing her and she sounds amazing, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't like training because it makes me think I'm just teaching her how to do this the way I want it done. But I feel like it's more of a collaborative process. I'm guiding her along the path of being a clinic director and hopefully sharing knowledge with her of how to do this job in a way that helps her out. So that's how I like to think of it. And, and you know, one of the things I was thinking about, cause you're asking how do you know you got the right person in there? And, and it kind of goes back just to the hiring process in general for me, um, you know, when I'm hiring staff a therapist, especially a therapist um, you know, I, I, I, when they come into my clinic for an interview or however I'm interviewing, I'm assuming they know how to be a physical therapist, they went to school, they've learned everything, they know how to treat a patient. So really, what I'm looking for is more about their personality and what kind of person they are. And and I'm trying to hire people that number one, I'm going to be around them all day, for days on end, you know. Then, so I want to hire somebody that I, that I enjoy being around, and so that's one thing. And then I just want to see that they have the right ethics, that they're that they're empathetic ethics, that they're empathetic, caring people who really are here to help the patients and want to do that. They're here to do that and that they're going to be good people.
Speaker 2:I guess is kind of the best way I can put it into words. And I think if I get people that have those qualities and that I want to be around and I don't want to find interesting people that also that are, you know, that are interesting to be around, so, um, so if I find people with all those qualities, I feel like they're going to be a good fit in our clinic. And if and if you don't get that person, it can be a real disaster if they cause, then you get somebody who doesn't fit into that your whole culture of your clinic and so. So when I, as long as I have those people in place and, uh, you know, I feel like then you know they, I can then take them and put them in leadership positions. But then again, everybody doesn't want to be in a leadership position. So you have to definitely find the person that wants to kind of find that track as well.
Speaker 1:I love that and that's an interesting thing that we're landing on is this idea that here's how we look for a rock star team member and those same qualities could see the director. But vision comes in. At the end of the day, we've got to have a vision alignment around what they want and what we want. In my experiences, most PTs don't even know what they want. They're probably afraid of taking on leadership positions because oftentimes director roles are typically just like roles that we as owners will dump on on accident because we don't know what else to do. So when we have someone who wants to be a leader, understanding our role as mentor is so vital and, at the end of the day, it reminds me of what we were talking about before we jumped on the call about what Warren Buffett says.
Speaker 1:The three things we always hire on are intelligence, integrity and energy, and we can. You know, integrity is one of those things that's harder to measure in an interview, for sure. But intelligence and energy, dude, like it comes out, it's there or it's not. And yeah, I love that. You shared all that, ken. So listen, man, this has been a fantastic episode.
Speaker 1:We're going to wrap things up, so thank you so much for being on the show. I definitely want you back. I think it'd be so fun to talk about this journey with your two amazing directors and, who knows, maybe it'd be fun to have an episode with one of your directors and just be like, yeah, so what's it been like being mentored? And just kind of talk about that journey, the challenges, together. That might be fun as well.
Speaker 2:That would be great. I would love it. I've enjoyed it. It's been fun.
Speaker 1:Dude, thank you so much for being on the show. Such a pleasure to have you on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks Will Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening rock stars. And if you're one of the many medical professionals and leaders who have had it dealing with the drama of hiring and training people that you think are overpriced, then virtual assistants can offload you to do what you love, which is changing people's lives. In the show notes there's a link to jump on our calendar so that we can show you why. Linkedin shows that virtual assistants is the second fastest growing trend in healthcare, next to artificial intelligence, at no obligation. We'll see if this is a fit for you. I hope to talk to you soon.
