Podcast (group): Play in new window | Download | Embed
How do you build a team to get better and not just bigger in your business? What can the owner do to instill a strong culture in the company? How can you reconnect and rekindle the connection with clinicians in your private practice?
In this podcast episode, LaToya Smith speaks about how culture controls the environment with Chanel McCord, MA, LPC, ACS.
Podcast Sponsor: Therapy Notes
As a therapist, I can tell you from experience that having the right EHR is an absolute lifeline. I recommend using TherapyNotes. They make billing, scheduling, notetaking, telehealth, and E-prescribe incredibly easy. Best of all, they offer live telephone support that’s available 7 days a week.
You don’t have to take my word for it – Do your own research and see for yourself – TherapyNotes is the #1 highest-rated EHR system available today, with 4.9 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot.com and on Google.
All you have to do is click the link below, or type promo code JOE on their website www.therapynotes.com, and receive a special 2-month trial, absolutely free.
If you’re coming from another EHR, TherapyNotes will import your demographic data quickly and easily at no cost, so you can get started right away.
Trust me, don’t waste any more of your time, and try TherapyNotes.
Meet Chanel McCord, MA, LPC, ACS
Chanel McCord is the founder and owner of Oasis Wellness Group. She is an award-winning Therapist and Mental Health Advocate by the National Alliance on Mental Illness New Jersey Chapter (NAMI-NJ) African-American division. As part of her clinical work, Chanel specializes in working with minority communities who are experiencing unfulfillment in their lives and having lost their voice due to unprocessed trauma.
Chanel is an author and a well-sought-after Mental Health Speaker having presented for numerous conferences. She is passionate about spreading mental health awareness, breaking stigma, normalizing therapy, and helping people to embrace their humanity.
Visit Oasis Wellness Group and connect on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
FREEBIE: 8 Mental Health Quick Tips While Navigating Uncertain Times
In This Podcast
- What to listen for in interviews
- Building culture in the office
- How to reconnect with disconnected clinicians
- Grow better instead of only bigger
What to listen for in interviews
It costs money to hire and have people on a payroll, so you need to make sure that they check out as much as possible before bringing them on board.
Even though they are few and far between, there are some clinicians who want to be hired into a private practice to learn about your systems, and then leave to replicate them in their own practice. It is rare, but it can happen, so be aware and keyed in when interviewing potential applicants.
If we’re building chemistry and we’re building team culture, that’s the kind of thing you have to listen for even in the initial introductory phone call or email. (LaToya Smith)
You have to listen for what is really going on, because if somebody wants to come work for you while they have a practice already, then be aware.
Building culture in the office
After you have hired the right person for the role, the chemistry between the two of you is good, and you are ready to bring them on, you need to have a system of maintaining and strengthening the culture within the business itself.
We’re invested in each other’s lives. When I start our staff meetings … The very first agenda item is [to] check-in: “How are y’all doing? What’s going on with y’all personally?”. (Chanel McCord)
Many employers might miss the fact that their employees are first people before they are funnels for success in your business.
When you treat them first like the people that they are, then they are much more likely to want to succeed in the business as an employee because they feel seen and taken care of as a person.
How to reconnect with disconnected clinicians
After some time, some clinicians might check out. They might come in just to see clients, get paid, and go home. Even though there is nothing wrong with this type of approach to work, if your practice is built on a certain culture that is more inclusive and interconnected, then you might want to bring this clinician in more.
You have to be invested and not intimidated. You have to not be intimidated to address the elephant in the room. (Chanel McCord)
It is important that, as the employer and boss, you establish the culture and that you reiterate it constantly. Culture is a continuous build, it is not a one-time thing. You work on this continuity from core values.
If the employee is no longer resonating with these values, they will probably make their way out of the practice and work somewhere else, which is beneficial to both of you.
You’ll be surprised how people weed themselves out if they feel like they don’t [fit] within the [business]. (Chanel McCord)
You have to address the situation and not let it go on for too long since it may lead to difficult situations for you and the other employees.
Culture controls [the] environment … what you create is what will perpetuate. (Chanel McCord)
Grow better instead of only bigger
It is much better for you, your business, and your employees to grow slowly but with the right people instead of growing quickly but with the wrong ones.
Hire slowly and effectively so that you know you are laying a strong foundation for your business that consists of the best-fit people for your business.
Your vision needs to be established before you hire people because you need to hire people around your vision instead of changing the vision around the people who are hired.
Useful links mentioned in this episode:
- Trust me, don’t waste any more of your time, and try TherapyNotes.
- Visit Oasis Wellness Group and connect on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Check out these additional resources:
- How To Become A Travel Therapist with Kym Tolson | GP 186
- Practice of the Practice Network
- Group Practice Launch
- Group Practice Boss: www.practiceofthepractice.com/grouppracticeboss $149 a month
- PoP Group Practice Owners Facebook Group
- Free resources to help you start, grow, and scale
- Work with us
- Practice of the Practice Network
Meet LaToya Smith
LaToya is a consultant with Practice of the Practice and the owner of LCS Counseling and Consulting Agency in Fortworth Texas. She firmly believes that people don’t have to remain stuck in their pain or the place they became wounded. In addition to this, LaToya encourages her clients to be active in their treatment and work towards their desired outcomes.
She has also launched Strong Witness which is a platform designed to connect, transform, and heal communities through the power of storytelling.
Visit LaToya’s website. Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, Strong Witness Instagram, and Twitter.
