My Optical Does Good, I Think? - How Do I Take Back the Reins?
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What listener question kicked off the discussion about an optical running on autopilot?
Welcome back to another episode of the Optometry Success Podcast. As always, joined by my co-host, Dr. Chad Fleming. Chad, a listener question today that I actually received on my other show on 2020 Money, the Business of Optometry. And While the question that I received was in response to an episode that I had done on that one talking about managing risk and dealing with failure, which is inevitably going to happen and how we learn from that, etc. I thought the question was more applicable to tackle with you here on this show. Now, it was a longer question, so I'll try and abbreviate it here for our listeners to I had mentioned in this episode, in my previous episode, some ODs just let their optical run themselves and you can do that, but I wouldn't recommend it.
And Nathan wholeheartedly agreed as well. And then the listener said, we moved on to something without discussing it more, which... EOS, we missed on that. I guess we should have dove into that deeper. The listener said, quote, this caught my ear because I'm in the middle of expanding from a 2,000 square foot office to a 7,000 square foot office.
Why is the owner’s expansion from 2,000 to 7,000 sq ft changing the leadership needs of the optical?
And my current optical definitely, quote, runs itself. I'm super hands off. This has been a blessing overall, especially when the status quo was our smaller, stable office. However, our optical staff is largely reaching retirement age, they are resistant to change, and the few things I've tried to implement have not been well received by them. They have been, quote, running themselves so much that I now try to step in, I don't have the credibility to tell them what to do, plus they don't want to be told how to do things." Do you have any recommendations, resources, referrals that you could share with me as I start looking for where and how I can, quote, take the reins, unquote, and make sure my optical grows to meet the needs of my new expanded office?
That's the question. I love that question, by the way. I do too. And I appreciate the listener sending it in. My... And I'll admit the first thought that came to mind was the first time that I heard this quote was on Ted Lasso. And we might have mentioned this quote on previous episodes. I can't remember if we have or not, but it's the dart scene in Ted Lasso. And he says, you know, I saw this quote by Walt Whitman that said, be curious, not judgmental. And that was the first thing that kind of came to my mind as I'm thinking about this. It's like if you because I've had this in my own business as well, where I think of as my role has evolved and changed as my firm, as my businesses have continued to grow, I am less and less and less involved in the true day to day operations.
I mean, there are some platforms where my office manager, if she was listening to this right now, she would giggle because she's like, Adam, I don't even want you touching that. So the metaphor that I think of in this situation is I may have known previously how to build a watch. I don't need to know how to build the watch anymore, but I still need to know how to tell time. Meaning I still need to know and keep a pulse on how things are being run in the organization for multiple different reasons. And a couple of those different reasons are showing up in this question. So that thought of, or that quote of, be curious, not judgmental, came to mind when I was hearing him say how they've been resistant to change.
And it's like, okay, why? That's normal. Well, yeah, but I guess the why behind it is, well, how are you communicating the change? And why are you wanting to change that? So I know we're being a little unfair to the... Or not unfair, but we're not able to ask deeper questions to the listener here. But I am curious if you, to the best that you can, from an owner's perspective, if you put yourself in that situation of this listener, how would you think about tackling that project of kind of taking optical back, so to speak, and... riding the ship and prepping it for growth, for some big growth, by the way. I mean, going from 2,000 to 7,000 square feet is no small jump.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What listener question kicked off the discussion about an optical running on autopilot?
0:06–1:12
2
Why is the owner’s expansion from 2,000 to 7,000 sq ft changing the leadership needs of the optical?
1:12–9:08
3
How can 'be curious, not judgmental' help when reentering operational leadership?
9:08–19:13
4
What mistakes do owners make when trying to change long‑standing optical staff behaviors?
19:13–21:03