Every physical therapy practice owner has most likely been lead to this point in their career by a burning passion to own their own practice because it is part of their vision to treat patients in the manner in which they agree with professionally. Unfortunately, not all practice owners I’ve met can say that. Some owners went into private practice because of an offer they couldn’t refuse. Others sought to make more money. Or, they opened a clinic because they were darn good therapists and got talked into opening a clinic, or they went in with a partner who they felt complimented what they brought to the table. 

Whatever that spark was that triggered the next step in your professional career toward ownership, it doesn’t really matter since you are now trying to figure it all out to be successful in private practice. Listen for the second in our series on ownership and leadership and how to win at both. 

Being the best at anything takes commitment to one’s purpose, the ability to confront what is in front of you, and the toughness to remain dedicated regardless of the obstacles you will have to face. For many of us, failure in these areas is self-induced and the rest are simply other considerations that we went along with. In this episode, I want to address YOU as the key element in this equation – you are by far the most important and all the other identifying elements of you as the physical therapy owner, leader, and executive are all built off of: the real YOU, the true YOU, and the once uninhibited YOU (hopefully some of you still are). 

The real YOU has NO self-doubt. The real YOU makes decisions without public opinion. The real YOU knows what’s right and what’s wrong in your HEART. Remember this: having self-confidence is built on keeping small promises to yourself and not breaking them.  

Once upon a time, I was that owner. I thought it was a good idea to run my practice as a democracy and took popular opinion as the path to follow. So many others that I have worked with have fallen into this trap as well over the years. We do this as an attempt to be liked or admired, rather than choosing to do what is right.

As I started planning out this week’s episode, I wondered if in my 28 years of physical therapy and Practice Management experience, have I ever specifically targeted trying to hire a veteran physical therapist for any of my offices? After thinking about this for a while, not once did I actively recruit a veteran therapist. Here I am, a veteran therapist myself; there’s nothing wrong with me nor do I think there’s anything wrong with ANY veteran therapist I’ve ever met. I just never intentionally went out on the recruiting lines to attract a veteran therapist. I’m sure many of you have, in which case I would love to hear about your experience doing so. I’ve always just taken the approach of seeking to teach or train somebody something new as opposed to having to retrain somebody and something old. 

I believe that if you’re a high-quality practice owner, one of the priority areas of your concern will be how to create that ideal company culture, much like a baker who is constantly focusing on how to make that ideal pie by working with only the best ingredients. The same thing goes for the physical therapy practice owner who is only looking to hire, train, and retain the best most highly motivated personnel available. Unlike baking, where you can purchase the best ingredients; when it comes to the personnel, they need to be homegrown in order to be the best. In today’s labor market, it is unlikely that you will hire somebody “off the shelf” who comes in with the attitude, skills, and motivation that will complement your company culture. Therefore, the burden falls on you the owner/manager to understand the science of personnel development and have the professional skills to effectively communicate and enhance the ability of those around you. 

This means that before you can go out looking for your next advanced therapist, you’re going to have to look inside yourself first in order to challenge your own abilities as an executive and leader. In part two of our three-part series, we’ll discuss how to recruit, hire, and train.

There are three types of clinicians. These clinicians are categorized based on experience: New grad, the advanced therapist, and the veteran therapist. Today we’re focusing on the new grad. The new grad is defined as a physical therapist who is 1-3 years out of school. They come out of school still high on the learning and high on the mentoring curve and are really focused on wanting to become the best therapist they can be. They’re seeking professional growth through continuing education outside the office and professional enhancement inside the office, therefore, a continuing education program is simply not enough these days. The top private practices across the country already know this and have solved this by creating internal mentorship programs for their new grad hires. This week we’re talking about how to best hire, train and retain the new grad therapists. But, this is only part one of a three-part series of podcasts in which we’ll be discussing all three of these different types of therapists and how best to hire, train and retain them.