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
Retaining Top Talent: Strategies to Keep Your A-Players Engaged - Solo
Retaining Top Talent: Strategies to Keep Your A Players Engaged
Ever wonder why your top achievers, the A players in your organization, choose to leave despite being crucial to your success? You're not alone. In this episode, we delve into the reasons behind this trend and explore transformative strategies to retain them. Through emotionally charged experiences and actionable insights, we'll uncover the profound impact of losing top talent on leaders and teams alike.
Key Takeaways:
- Strategies for Preventing Burnout and Fostering a Supportive Environment
- Maintaining Work-Life Balance with Regular Personal Check-Ins
- AligningVision and Values to Engage and Retain Top Talent
- Real-Life Success Stories: Vision Meetings and Personal Coaching
- Building a Community of Healthcare Leaders and Entrepreneurs
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Hey, rockstars, thank you for tuning in to today's episode. I am so stoked to go over the five reasons why A players leave us and leave our teams. I was devastated in my company when my key people left. It was something that kept me up at night and, to be honest, if I'm being really honest with you guys, even in my current companies, I worry about this. I don't have this thing figured out to the nth degree, but I definitely have mastered the ability to retain people at such a higher level than I used to, and it starts with understanding why people leave and not people, I should say, because we don't care about some people leaving. I don't know if you've ever had anyone quit on you and you're like, thank gosh, I'm so glad they just saved so much pain and difficult conversations that you knew were going to be lengthy, so they just do you the favor of quitting. Now we're talking about A players.
Speaker 1:A players are different than everyone else. These aren't the people who make us feel like they're doing us a favor by showing up every day. These are not the people who are clock punchers, who are coming and going, do an okay job so we don't let them go, but at the same time, like none of the patients really care if they get put on another person's schedule. We're talking about the individuals that touch our hearts. These are the men and women who are not only great healthcare providers, they're incredible organic leaders. They produce a lot and their patients remember them and want them. They want to stick on their schedules. And or these are people who bleed our company culture. People who don't complain when we want to have an end of year party. They're the ones who help plan it. They're excited to create community, and so when these individuals leave, it not only can be one of the most devastating experiences as a leader, it's almost like they cut a crater out of our heart.
Speaker 1:Man, isn't it invalidating At least I took it that way. It was so invalidating To have an A player quit. It was me being fired. I don't think our employees get that. As leaders, we get fired more than any of them every single time, and it's so hard not to take that personally.
Speaker 1:For me, it was a reflection of what I didn't know. It was a reflection of me doing a poor job, and I, of course, would go down that woe is me trail right, but at the end of the day, it didn't even matter, because now I had to work twice as hard. I had to go back into my business and somehow pull it together while I go find another replacement. And I knew, just like I know now, those A players are not easy to replace. They are few and far between those wonderful men and women that make the biggest difference. So let's talk about why they leave, so that you can get in front of that.
Speaker 1:When I understood these five concepts which just aren't my opinion, by the way, these are highly researched and clearly indicated reasons why A players go Once I understood those reasons, it helped me get in front of them. And, as always, your time is so precious to me, rockstar. And, as always, your time is so precious to me, rockstar. Like I get honestly choked up thinking about you sitting in a car or working out listening to me, but I want you to know that, like as much as I feel personally supported by it, and I love that, it's such a reflection of you that you're taking that time to work on yourself to be the best leader you can be, and I am a reflection of dozens of coaches, hundreds of hours of coaching. Any leadership that I bring to the table came by doing what you're doing right now, by listening to people who've been where I've been and have gone where I want to go. So let's get right into it, guys.
Speaker 1:Rockstars, the number one reason this is not the number one, meaning the most important, this is the first reason why our A players leave us is that they're overworked, and you know this like I get it. I had A players finally could offload me. So there were times where I just kept giving them more and more to do because I didn't know how else to get free myself. I would just give them more and more to do, or I knew that they had too much going on but I had no idea how to balance it out for them. So it shows up like them feeling like they're underpaid it definitely can feel and show up like they don't have a good home life balance.
Speaker 1:Usually my A players would start crying when they were finally able to share with me that they were burning out, because these people don't like to tell us right, our other employees. They can't stop telling us how they're doing, but the A players keep it quiet. They go take it home. So when they would finally tell me, I noticed a trend that they would start crying when they talked about how they didn't have time to take care of themselves. And, man, my heart went out to them but in the same token, I wasn't taking care of myself, right. So, overworking our A players how do we get ahead of that? Well, we just got to connect with them. This doesn't take a lot of work, it just takes a lot of caring. So one of the techniques that I had was that I would just take them out to lunch every quarter. It wasn't scheduled to them, it was to me, because I couldn't do anything unless it was on a calendar. I would take them to lunch and just check in with them personally and I would ask them yeah, so how's your homework balance going? That question alone, I learned, kept so many A players to stick with me and believe in me through some very difficult times because they could see I was mindful of it. It's when they didn't know that I didn't know that they would leave.
Speaker 1:So the second reason why A players leave is because they don't feel appreciated. So oftentimes we don't even know that we're underappreciating our people or worse. This is true for me. I used to think I was appreciating my employees and they didn't think that they didn't feel appreciated. So a couple things on this one. Number one when we get so busy that we don't even have time for ourselves, if we're not exercising, how can we possibly see if we're appreciating somebody else? If we don't appreciate ourselves as leaders, there's no way we're going to be able to have the clarity to see that someone else isn't being appreciated. So oftentimes I tell people the single most important thing is to start carving time out for ourselves. For some of you that feels super difficult and impossible and if that's the case, reach out, let's talk, we'll figure it out because I promise you you can do it.
Speaker 1:The other thing which is easy to solve, which is that people oftentimes don't receive appreciation in the way that we are expressing it. Those goes back to the five love languages right, I forget what they are. I think it's like words of affirmation, physical touch. Got to be careful with that. One guys Goes without saying.
Speaker 1:We want to make sure there's gift giving which would be like a bonus. There's acts of service that might just be jumping in and helping them fold towels, and then there's a fifth one out there. If you remember it, throw it in the comments, but oftentimes we think we're showing appreciation when we don't know that they're not receiving it like that. So let's make sure we ask them. Going back to those lunches where I would just ask them hey, tom, do you want to go grab lunch? By the way, man, I sure appreciate all the great work you're doing, but how do you feel appreciated? Is that something you'd like for me to announce in front of the team? Is it something that you want me to like? Let you know through a bonus Like what does that look like? You would think everyone wants a bonus and they might all to some degree agree with that, but it's really cool how your A players aren't about trying to nickel and dime us. Remember, these aren't your regular employees. They're going to tell you because they want to feel appreciated and they know they bring something special to the table.
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Speaker 1:The next reason why they often leave us is because they don't understand our purpose, our vision or our values. Now, what's interesting about that rock star is that your purpose, vision and values is the foundation of your culture. Having those statements not just articulated clearly, but also lived through various ways that we could do another episode on. That is your foundation. So if an A player is value aligned, why is it that they leave? If they don't understand the purpose, vision and values? Well, it's because they don't know what it is that we're doing so, like a vision, for example, they don't know where we're going as a company, so how can they know if they fit into that future? It's essential to us, as business owners and leaders, to develop a clear message of our purpose, our vision and our values. Our purpose is why we exist.
Speaker 1:In my PT company, it used to be that we were the light and the hope in the lives of others. It's usually an emotionally drawing statement that doesn't have anything to do with physical therapy. Our values were the words that we use to describe how we make decisions. We used to use an acronym called PAGE, which stood for professionalism, accountability, growth and empathy. So we would talk about those things in every team meeting. Every week. We would make decisions, we'd give raises, corrections, firing people based on those values.
Speaker 1:And then, lastly, of course, it's vision when are we going and what do we want to create in the world? And so when we don't have those things balanced, oftentimes A players struggle in understanding the purpose of the company, feel disconnected. All it takes at that point is another company to do a better job than we do of expressing it, for them to jump ship, to go with the people who are just better at understanding how to message where they're going. Okay, guys, last two these are the single biggest reasons why people leave our company. A players leave our companies, and these are totally proven through studies and statistics they've done through LinkedIn, indeed. These are the two most common reasons why people leave us, so pay close attention.
Speaker 1:Number four that employees don't see a future for themselves in the company, which makes sense, right, but think about it Like A players. They know that we're growing, like everyone is trying to grow, but where are they growing? Like what is it that you want to create? Like you could be a location that wants to grow by just becoming more valuable as a single location. Maybe you want to become the biggest PT practice in the world or in your state. There's so many different ways to grow. Maybe you want to diversify and, instead of doing outpatient, you want to go into electrodiagnostics. Or maybe you want to add a wellness center. It almost doesn't even matter, as long as you can clearly define where you're going and then talk to your key person your A players about whether or not that aligns with them.
Speaker 1:But let me share with you a secret and this is one of the single most impactful things I used to do that got me from one location to five locations and then honestly working less than 20 hours a week in them. So pay close attention to this. This was big. I created something. This might be one of the few things I ever created on my own, like everything else I did was R&D'd not research and duplicated, ripped off, not illegally, but just learning from other people. Like I'd rip it off in the sense of like, hey, can I take that idea and take it back and apply it? So please take this idea is that I would create a vision meeting, and this vision meeting was me taking my A player again out to lunch. This was a little bit more organized, though. I always like to do these things off site because it increased the personalization of the experience. But you don't have to do it that way, and I would just ask them a simple question so what do you want over the next five years? Now, you would think that would get redundant every year, but people don't know what they want. Even A players don't know what they want. So this is an incredible barrier, if that's also one of the key reasons why people leave. If you think about it right. People leave a company because they don't see a future for themselves in it, but then they don't even know what they want for their own future. So that's the challenge, but it's also the opportunity. And here's why this is an opportunity it's because you have the gift and the ability to coach them, to helping them know what it is that they want to create for themselves.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite experiences was I had an employee who was my medical biller let's call her Katie because her name was Katie and so Katie was this, a player team leader of my billing department. We had five locations and she was just running them like so well, like she ran it in a way to where if she ever got hit by a bus, she could be replaced, which is unheard of right. And so I was working with her and I had this vision meeting. I said Katie, what is it that you want long-term? Of course she had no idea. So I said listen, let's talk about things that you might want to have for yourself. Do you want a sports car? Do you want to travel the world? And she goes I don't know, I haven't really thought about it. I said I want you to think about it. I said what do you want long-term for yourself? Do you want to own your own business? Do you want to work in somebody else's business? And on and on. I went. But the truth of the matter was, guys, rock stars.
Speaker 1:I was super curious about what it was that she wanted, and man, talk about feeling appreciated. She told me later that meeting probably did more in terms of showing my commitment to her long-term success than anything else. So it took a few years of us meeting like this and then finally, one year, she goes. I know what I want. I said what's that she goes. I want a cabin in North Carolina, which was so left field. We're in Arizona, right. I was like that's crazy Cool, but like who'd have thought right.
Speaker 1:So we talked about how what she wanted in life could align with what she was doing for me, and it was clear that, as she was working for me, there was no way in the near future she was going to be able to own a cabin in the woods. So we talked about what it was that she wanted to do professionally and it came out that she either wanted to be the leader of a much bigger company or own her own company. So, fast forward, I ended up selling my company in 2018. I meet with her years later, just at a Starbucks. We were just catching up and I just said so what have you been up to? And she goes like well, I was waiting for you so we can start a company together because I want that cabin in the woods. And we did In 2020, we started a medical billing company and she just now right now, as we're recording this, we're in 2024, she just closed on her cabin two weeks ago, no kidding. And now we have this multi-million dollar medical billing company together and she's running it and she's the CEO and I'm on the sidelines helping her right.
Speaker 1:It's just, it's unbelievable what we get back from our people when we overcome this thing that makes them leave called not knowing what they want in the future. So, remember, don't feel overwhelmed by the fact that you don't know what they want for themselves, because they don't know either. This is your chance to be with them and to really connect and understand what it is they want. I recommend that you could do this with all of your employees, but ultimately, if you do it with your key people and then start building your company around if it works for you around what you and they want collectively, the company will grow based on who, not how, which is another great book by Dan Sullivan. You can tell I'm a huge fan of his. I just started a strategic coach, actually last week. I should tell you guys Been foundational in my development. I've had over 20 coaches and this has been a phenomenal experience.
Speaker 1:So let's get to the number one reason. What is the number one reason why A players leave? The number one reason is because we don't let go of C players. So listen, let's clarify what a C player is. There's a whole description of A, b, c and D that I have on my YouTube channel. You can go down there and check it out. It's one of my most watched videos and there's a free assessment you can download to really measure what a player is on your team, if they're A, b, c or D.
Speaker 1:But C players are the cancer. The C stands for cancer. These are people who are oftentimes highly productive and very low in terms of value alignment. So these are the people who are at work, who are working enough and they're carrying enough of the load to where it makes it really hard to let them go, because if you had someone who was not producing well and had very poor value alignment. You get rid of those people very quickly or they self-eliminate. But when it comes to C players, man, they're so confusing For me at least they were and they still can be Gosh, I never want to take the posture that I've got this thing all figured out, but I've just done it so many times that I'm getting quicker at it, though, guys Like I really am. So I see someone who's producing.
Speaker 1:Well, they're the ones who talk crap behind the scenes and that oftentimes we don't see. But we can kind of feel it. You can feel the energy of the room of a C player when you walk in, because they've kind of pooped on everything you know, not like directly, sometimes very indirectly, very subtly. Like man Wilshire seems like he's super busy. I don't know if he really has thought a lot about compensation and student loan debt, just little things like that that start to splinter into the hearts of our employees.
Speaker 1:A players don't buy into that crap, by the way. They know what it is, but they're also depending on their role. They may not be in a position to tell you about it. They just are looking to you as a leader to do something about it because it's painfully obvious to them they would never act that way. And so when we tolerate those C players, guys, that's the number one reason why those A players leave, because, no matter what they feel for us personally, no matter how committed they are to our future, the proof is in the pudding If we are going to take action for what we believe, we are not going to tolerate those people. I've said this before we're only as great as we tolerate. So those are the five reasons.
Speaker 1:When it comes to how to identify and get rid of a C player, let me know in the show notes if you want to hear an episode on that, because I do tons of training on how to identify C players, if you want to hear an episode on that, because I do tons of training on how to identify C players. But the main thing I want you to focus on in this short podcast, guys, is to just be aware that if you know what those five things are, it's so easy to get in front of them and you can start retaining your talent better. Yes, there's compensation strategies and there's a whole slew of other things we can talk about, but in the end, truly no matter what you think, I promise you the main reasons why people leave aren't as money-driven as it may appear. So, guys, thank you for tuning into today's episode. I hope you guys were able to see those five reasons.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for the time you spent with me, whether it was in the car or at the gym or wherever else. Please, please, keep going. Remember, the only way we fail is by giving up, and I promise you the difference you're making is not small. I just know that you don't see it as a leader. You're at the top. You're not going to see the impact that you make, but I promise you're making it.
Speaker 1:So thank you, guys, again for listening. Until next time, guys, thank you for taking time to listen to today's episode. If you found today's information to be useful, could you take a minute and help me? I would love it if you could leave a podcast review in your app so that other people who are looking for this information can find it. Plus, my dream is to have the largest network of medical entrepreneurs and leaders in the world so that together we can change healthcare to make it better for all. So, in addition, if you can think of anyone that you can send this to, not only would that mean a lot to me personally, but it would build this network so that we can make healthcare the way that we want it.
