Good evening to everybody. And, and thank you for, joining me on this webinar this evening. We're gonna be talking about how to build a high-performing and harmonious team.
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a practise that consistently and predictably realises extraordinary growth and another that struggles just to make ends meet? To build a great practise today isn't just about having a great product or service and an efficient way to delivering it. In today's world, that's not a differentiator, it's a given.
Whilst KPIs and business metrics are important for effectiveness. They aren't the be and end all of success. To make a real difference means working together to build a high-performing and harmonious team.
I'm just going to reiterate what Brendan said. I believe any team with the right people, the right input and direction can learn to become a high-performing team. But it does not involve some extrinsic magic formula that you apply from the outside in.
You can't become a high-performing team like that. I believe becoming an effective team is an intrinsic and organic process that takes time. And teamwork to nurture.
It's all about changing people from the inside out. You must work on yourselves. And this requires a willingness to grow as individuals and as a team.
It also needs you to commit to a process designed around your needs. And this is what this webinar aims to help you with. Becoming a great high performing team needs to become a goal to which you are dedicated.
And that you plan to take time out regularly together is essential. To get there, you're gonna need to commit to developing to, excuse me, developing together as a team. To be humble and vulnerable with one another, letting go of egos and learning to trust each other.
You need to learn how to collaborate, to cohere, stick together, and boost your emotional intelligence. And work towards identifying And reaching your big goals. Ultimately, having developed a high performing teams, team means that you can get on and focus on running your practise successfully without having to spend unproductive time sorting out people issues.
But there are some stark facts we need to face. The Huffington Post recently reported a study for the Monster jobs site, in which a whacking 78% of respondents said they suffered from Sunday night blues. Well, actually, it starts about 40 p.m.
In the afternoon. That's a plague. Some more research carried out by Reed identified that only 21%, 21% of employees feel valued at work, feel appreciated.
And some more research done by Gallup says that engagement plummets to 2% among teams with managers who ignore their employees' strengths. Some stark facts. Good leadership It is about creating a practise that flourishes.
It is possible to create workplaces in which everyone connected with the practise thrives and in which everyone matters. And there is a lot of evidence to suggest that it is those practises that flourish the most. Leadership teams need to care.
About both a higher purpose. And their teams. These types of leaders build cultures and teams based on trust and the genuine caring for each other.
They are not driven by bottom line profit for its own sake, but create value by making a difference and by making the world a better place. A trust is applicable to all teams. If you trust people in your team, And show you believe in them.
Everybody benefits. Trust can transform individual lives. And teams, the lives of teams as well, and make the future success of your practise much more likely.
So we're looking to create an environment of excellence. With the right talent. Working to their strengths and generating trust.
Which in turn leads to productivity. And overall, and the overall results that you envision and plan for. Fundamentally, trust is about learning to be comfortable to open yourself up a bit.
It goes beyond basic needs such as self-preservation or survival, or protectionism, or defensiveness, or political game playing and self-centered ego. So building trust as a team. Requires learning higher growth-based values.
And developing growth mindsets. By doing this, teams that trust each other develop the courage to be personally open enough to admit the truth about themselves, warts and all, flaws, weaknesses, failures, and fears. In short, they learn to do without pretence, without masks.
Trust and respect are the absolute foundation stones of, of any relationship. Now there are two types of trust. There's trusting each other to effectively deliver against their roles and responsibility.
And then there's a psychological trust. Trust of not being taken advantage of. A team With no trust will conceal their weaknesses and conceal mistakes from others.
They will falter to offer constructive feedback. And hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of expertise and responsibilities. They will fail to tap into the skills of others in the team.
They waste time and energy just managing their behaviours for effect. And they hold grudges. The team's built on trust.
Quickly and genuinely apologise to one another. When they say or do anything inappropriate or that could damage the team. And they accept questions and challenges from other members for the greater good of the team.
They take risks in offering feedback and assistance to others. They appreciate and tap into each other's skills and experiences. They know the strengths of their colleagues.
They focus time and energy on the important issues only, not the trivia. And they openly admit their weaknesses and their mistakes without fear of re reput, you know, without anybody taking offence or, or telling them off. They know one another's personal lives, and they're comfortable discussing them.
And they're not afraid to ask for help. It's not a sign of weakness. You know, We are naturally trusted.
In the area where we are naturally and consistently the strongest. When we know this within a team, we can transform results rapidly by aligning activities to those we trust most in them. And build the team to support team members where the trust is the lowest.
Now there are 5 levels of 5 aspects of this trust. You've got innovation. Now, this is the degree to which your team trust that person.
Can be consistently relied upon. To come up with creative solutions and plans. The next one is communication where the team trusts that that person can be consistently relied upon to share information and listen effectively.
The third is service. Which the team trusts that person can consistently be relied, relied upon, sorry, to look after customers and team members. And the 4th measurement.
The team trusts that person can consistently be relied on to measure and refine their own performance. And finally, the 5th 1. Spirit This is the degree to which your team trusts that person can be consistently relied upon to remain resilient and positive.
Those that build their path through their leadership naturally create the most trust here. Think about your current team. Where do you and others trust each other?
Where do you trust each other most, including yourself, to deliver on these three aspects? But these 5 aspects, I apologise. And which areas are missing?
Are you missing creativity or you're missing communication? Are you missing that liaison between client and team members? Are you able in your team to measure?
Performance through systems and process. And do you have the spirit where there is resilience and positivity that leads, is, is an excellent, level of leadership? So That's about being in flow.
But what is a flow generating activity? Flow is the middle state between anxiety and boredom, where skill meets challenge. It's that wonderful piece in the middle.
People in flow focus on their natural talents, doing the things they love that are effortless. Where they are fully immersed in a feeling of energised focused and fully involved in their roles. Flow is about when you feel focused and energised.
Flow is when you're able to concentrate on an activity without interruption. Where you are totally aligned and engaged with the task in hand. Where you are playing to your strengths and it comes easily and naturally to you.
You feel that you have control of the activity. And you become totally immersed in the task, in the moment, in the zone, if you were in the groove. And your subjective experience of time alters, we just lose track of it.
This is where that lovely phrase time just flies when you're having fun. This is what flow is when you're absolutely right in it, immersed, engaged, and in control of it in the moment. We can access our flow.
It's like Accessing the reception of a radio station. But most of us stumble across flow accidentally instead of tuning into it deliberately. The good news is that we can tap into our own personal flow by following our natural talents and our passions and cut out the tasks and distractions that hold us back.
Knowing what to say no to and what to say yes to is a discipline to cut out every other radio station and just tune in to the right one for you. When you do this, Your productivity increases, your sense of enjoyment increases, and you feel more connected to the practise. And you have more fun.
And what's wrong with that? I can guarantee you if you are feeling depressed. Overwhelmed or anxious.
Then it is more than likely that you are out of flow. The fact is People who are in flow every day are 6 times more likely to be engaged at work. 8% more more productive, and 15% less likely to quit their jobs.
And oh my gosh, we need to make sure that our teams are not quitting our jobs with the lack of vets and nurses we have in the profession. Those stats are for some, from some Gallup research. You know, those stats, this is why flow.
It's such a big focus now for so many large and progressive organisations. They recognise that. If people are in flow more often, they're more likely to be engaged at work, they're more productive, and 15% less likely to quit their jobs.
The superpower of flow. Now as human beings, We want to need these things for the, for our fulfilment and engagement. We need community.
We need to have contribution. We need security. And we need purpose, we need a why, something bigger than us, a purpose, a Y.
We need vision. Where are we going? And we need growth and achievement.
We need mastery. Many people believe that the best way to motivate people is to rewards with rewards like money or to rely on the carrot and stick approach. But this is not what motivates and fulfils our team.
Teams want something very different. Motivation is an inside job. They want as much autonomy as possible.
Having some control over their working lives and being able to contribute to the betterment of the practise. They want to have purpose of why. Practises with a strong sense of why are able to inspire their employees.
Those employees are more productive and innovative. And they, the, the feeling that they just bring to their work attracts other people to work there too. It's not surprising to see that, to see why.
The companies we love to do business with are also the best employers, people like John Lewis or Virgin. They have a strong why. Apple has a strong why.
Google has a strong why. They have a sense of purpose. And mastery Only engagement can produce mastery.
Becoming better at something matters to us. Mastery begins with flow. That optimal that optimal experience when the challenges we face are exquisitely matched with our abilities.
So, Smart workplaces supplement day to day act activities with what I call Goldilocks tasks. Not too hard, not too easy. You know, mastery is a mindset.
It requires the capacity to see our abilities as not finite, but as infinitely improvable. But, you know, master is a pain. It requires effort, it requires determination and It's a deliberate practise.
Have you ever attempted a new hobby? Like learning to play the guitar, for instance. And the energy that you get from just the excitement of, I'm going to learn to play the guitar, and going out and choosing your guitar, buying that guitar, the energy that something that this, this mastery generates is amazing.
And then we have to deliberately practise and practise. And that's the pain, you know, it takes an awful lot of effort and determination to achieve mastery of anything. The other thing about mastery is It's goddamn impossible to really fully achieve it, and to fully realise it.
Because, you know, we're always striving to be better. This is us as human beings. It makes it both frustrating.
But it also makes it incredibly alluring. The tools for motivation. As much autonomy as possible, where you have the opportunity to continuously improve.
To have clear roles and responsibilities and clear boundaries. And a sense of purpose where there is a shared vision and shared values. And the team, there is team development and unity brought together by this purpose.
Excuse me while I just have a drink. And mastery A sense of progress and mastery, where we self-measure how we're actually progressing. And there are regular check-ins.
Do you have regular check-ins with your employees? Do you sit down and have one on ones? Do you plan continual personal development, continual personal development, not just professional development, and check personal progress and give appreciation.
And feedback to each other. Remember that stat from Reed? Only 21% of employees feel valued at work.
Appreciation and feedback is vital. I do stress, however, that appreciation and feedback must be given in context. What, what have they done that was good?
What have they done that they excelled in? Be specific. I want to ask you A couple of questions and If you'd like to jot them down in the Q&A, that would be great.
You can jot them down. When did you last consider what motivates each individual in your team? And why do you think people are motivated to stay at your practise?
So I'm gonna ask you another question. OK, this one you don't have to jot down. What is the most important aspect of your business?
What must you have? What can't you live without? Without this, there is no business.
Clients, we need clients. Of course, we need clients. If they haven't got clients, we haven't got a business, but what else do we need?
We've got clients, what else do we need? We need Your team. So, it's really important.
We have the clients, we have the team. So let's talk about clients. For just a minute.
What sort of clients do you want? Ones with lots of money, ones that are insured, ones that are on your pet health club. Well, there are 3 types of clients.
And as we discuss these, I want you to see if you can recognise any of these in your practise. The first type is not engaged. OK.
They come into the practise, but just because it's convenient, really, they'll go down the road for discount VAs. They're not really that loyal, and they don't recommend, and they have a minimum spend. Then we have engaged clients that generally, you know, are loyal to the practise.
They may know the vet and some of the team members' names, and they will recommend if asked. You know, if someone says, oh, can you, can you, what vet do you use? But they don't go out of their way to recommend.
Now, research tells us that not engaged and Engaged spend on average the same in a year, so a minimum spend. The 3rd type of plan. He's an emotionally engaged client.
These are your very loyal clients. They are advocates of your practise. They feel part of the practise.
You're part of their life, and they seek opportunities to recommend you. You know, these are the guys that pop in. To, you know, just for a chat, they might bring you in some cake or they just, you know, you know, just, just like to hang out with you guys.
These can be, I know it can be sometimes they can be a bit of a nuisance because they do like to have a chat and you're busy, but these people are really, really emotionally engaged and they seek opportunities to recommend. They're the ones who go, Oh, my vet, I must tell you about the vet. The nurses are amazing.
You have to go there. They are brilliant. Now these guys spend on average through research, 40% more per year per visit than they're not engaged and engaged.
Now, this is not just about their monetary value, but this is because of this engagement is the opportunity to practise excellence in veterinary medicine. So of those three types of clients, which ones do we want in our practises? Well, it's obviously the emotionally engaged clients, of course.
But how do we get emotionally engaged clients? By having an emotionally engaged team. But how do we get an emotionally engaged team you're asking me?
Well, there are 3 ways to get an emotionally engaged team. And I'm going to talk you through these, OK? So the first part is Team meetings.
And the team meetings where they, they have a clear team objective. You know, when I said earlier on that you have to, if you want to develop a high performing team, you have to take time out together. I don't mean that's going to the pub, which is great.
I don't mean it going off and doing some event, which is great, but taking time out of the practise, out of the busy, busy practise to actually spend time together where the team interact and discuss issues. Where the team Contribute, actively contribute to the betterment of the practise. The one caveat of these team meetings that they must be effectively structured.
And I'm gonna tell you some about that in a bit. The second thing is having a shared vision. You know, I spoke a bit earlier about the why.
Teams need to have a purpose. And it's a vision that's created and shared by the team. They create it and they have a shared investment in it.
The team determined the actions to reach that vision. And the team determined the guiding principles. And I'll go over this in a bit shortly.
And the final one is having clear expectations. Where individual members, know their role and their expected outcomes of that role. They have clear measurements of the outcomes, measure, measurements of success, if you will, and they are smart goals, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time associated, smart goals.
Where they, there is constructive and regular performance feedback, you know, when I was talking about check-ins, one on ones, etc. This isn't about doing heavy duty appraisals. This is, you know, ongoing stuff that happens every day, every week, every month.
Now, there It's not just me telling you this stuff, you know, there's been a lot of research done by some very clever people, to actually, you know, they come up with this. If we have engaged teams, we will have engaged clients. But due to the time constraints of this webinar, I'm only gonna be touching on the team meeting and the shared vision.
I haven't got enough time to cover clear expectations, at, at, on this webinar. So Excuse me, can I have another quick drink. Have you heard of continuous improvement?
So this meeting, having a clear team objective where the team interact and discuss issues, where the team contribute to the betterment of the practise is continuous improvement. And continuous improvement was developed by Toyota. To reduce waste in manufacturing, but it is relevant to all businesses in all sectors.
It's a systematic and sustainable way of removing business inefficiency and waste. It unifiess team members, promotes team interaction, improves quality, improves customer satisfaction, reduces rework, you know, things you just have to keep go back and doing, streamlines core processes, improves team satisfaction and saves costs. It also encourages team member ownership.
Accountability. It creates consistency. And it provides, sorry, improved service levels.
It delivers continuous sustainable change. It drives efficiency and makes your business more competitive. Now bear with me.
This tree represents your practise. At the root of this tree, your practise, are your people, your team. The trunk is the core, our reason, our why.
Now I've called this excellence in veterinary medicine. And as I, you know, you need to with your team to actually think about Sit down and think about and discuss why you come to work every day at your practise. Any one of you could do anything that you want.
Probably for more money and less stress. But you choose to come to your practise. Why?
I want you to think about your why. What is it that brings you and your team to work each day? And I will bet you now it is not just money.
The rest of the tree. Is all the stuff that supports our why. Supports the business to stay alive and functioning.
These feed our purpose, our why. And there's one thing that every business has, and that's non-value stuff. This is the stuff that gets in our way, frustrates us.
Annoys us, drives us nuts. It makes our jobs harder, makes us unproductive and less efficient and effective. You know, the printer is not working, not being able to find somebody to sign something off, not being able to find the electronic file and an electronic file on the server, not being able to put your hands on the nail clippers again.
It takes us away from our core. Now, if you want to, you could jot down now in the Q&A box at the bottom. Any frustrations that you have, and we'll perhaps have time at the end to, to talk some of those through.
Yes. So continuous improvement. Now there are 5 steps to continuous improvement to remove those inefficiencies, those frustrations, those legacy systems that hold you back.
We need to capture them. We need to define them, resolve and plan. Implement and test and sustain.
The implement implementation and test helps us to sustain. When you come across a frustration or something that is not working well, you think, I must do something about this. But you often forget it or you tell your boss or your manager about it, who is often too busy to take action on it.
Maybe it just gets lost, it gets forgotten about. And round and round it goes. You've handed over that responsibility and you don't own it anymore.
You've handed it to somebody and they haven't got time to resolve it. So it just keeps rearing its head on a regular basis. You may have tried using a suggestion box, but these don't work either.
Quite often, the suggestions go to the manager or, or to the boss, and it's quite often, to be honest, a gripe box. They don't get action due to the volume of work. It's really important to recognise these non-value pieces as they break our flow.
They take our time and they take our energy. So we need to capture them in the here and now. Computers don't work.
It, it just doesn't work for us. We need to capture it in a quick and easy, get it written down on the spot. At that time that you think about it and put it in a safe place so it's never lost.
Continuous improvement is not just about things that are wrong, continuous improvement can come, you know, it can be great ideas. So where do they come from? Well, they come from clients.
They come from problems, you know, we could do something different. Why don't we try something different to stop this problem reoccurring? They come from failures.
They come from having to do rework. They are innovations and bright ideas that we have. They even come from the boss.
The boss can have ideas. You know, I recently spoke to a practise manager that had stopped doing client surveys because she didn't like what clients were saying. We need to welcome the opportunity.
When there's problems, when there's complaints or negative feedback or process failures, it is an opportunity to improve. So welcome those opportunities. Now there are some rules about these ideas.
No idea is a bad idea. Once it gets explored, what appears to be a bad or a daft idea can become a good idea. You may not be able to take action on all the ideas, but because of costs or geographics or something, but no idea should be discarded out of hand.
In one practise I was working with, an idea was put forward suggesting that the practise be moved. It was rejected. As it would require a huge amount of building work, plumbing, etc.
And it was perceived as a silly idea. However, once the problem was defined, It transpired that the person submitting the idea was concerned that the kitchen was on full view from reception. It was often untidy, and the team hung out there, you know, nattering and gossiping and laughing and joking, and she worried that it was not a good image of the practise to give to clients when they were at reception.
So this was discussed with the team and it was agreed to keep the door closed. Put up a sign to remind the team, and also they all, committed to keeping the, the kitchen tidy. So what this is just getting over to you is what sounded like a daft idea was not it was a good idea.
And the other, another rule is it's never the people, it's always the process. And this helps us to actually make sure that we bring up issues and problems because it's the process that's failing, not the people. It's always the outcome not being achieved, not the person or the people.
And we need to understand the root cause of the problems. We don't want to just put in corrective, actions. We need to find what the root cause was and then put, put in preventative measures to make sure that that problem does not happen again.
So the greater autonomy the team has, the greater potential for greater whole team success. So here, I'm just going to show you very quickly some examples of some boards that, some of my guys have created. These guys like glitter, Keep calm and add glitter.
These are where they're capturing in a safe place, those ideas of improving frustrations and problems, or just great, really great innovative ideas. Here's another one. They love this.
There's a bunch of happy, happy guys, with their, continuous improvement board. And finally, this is ours in that dynamics, and you'll be, so you can see the cards on it and the different categories of cards in the boxes by the side. You'll also notice there's a big, spongy hand there, because one of the rules is that you don't solve the problem in the meeting because that actually Jacks the meeting.
How many meetings have we unproductive meetings have we been in when one thing tries to get resolved? Never resolve the problem in the meeting. Define it, understand it, but don't fix it.
You'll see above that, it says you might be able to read our purpose and our vision, and that's our rules to live by, and that's what I'm going to discuss next. So let's look at purpose and shared vision. The team defined the practice's purpose, the team create a shared vision.
The team determined the actions to reach the vision. The team determined define the rules to live by, and the team develop and improve the client's journey. So it's back to why.
Stop and think about why you come together as a group to work at your practise. Why do your, you and your team turn up every day? What is your why?
Your reason for being, your core motivator, why you exist, what we believe, our philosophy, our purpose. Samuel Langley in 1896 was given $50,000 by the US government to produce man-made man-powered flight. He took this task primarily to become famous and recognised and to make money.
Down the road, the Wright brothers were working for nothing, with none of the resources that Langley had. The reason Wrights had a belief, a vision, a purpose. They believed they could change the world.
And when Langley heard that they had succeeded, he threw in the towel. The importance of why. Martin Luther King gathered 250,000 people in Washington Square in 1963.
No internet. No social media. That speech I have a dream.
There is a strong belief, a strong vision, a strong purpose that brought people together. So why have a shared vision with a team? If we are on a clear track, have clear direction, are all heading in the same direction, when we own it ourselves, it creates energy just like learning to play a guitar.
When you take up that new hobby, a vision is a unified goal that provides unified direction. Normally, business owners create the vision and then tell their team what the vision is, but that doesn't work. If there's no input from the team, there's no engagement.
And there's no commitment None of us like being told what to do all the time. It doesn't fulfil us. It isn't motivating.
It is vital that the vision is created with and by the team. Here's ours. Here's the vet dynamics vision.
That dynamics, this is what we aspire to be. That dynamics is a happy, motivated, dynamic team renowned for nurturing and employing, employing, empowering the independent veterinary community in an environment that encourages competence, learning, and innovation. Once we know our vision, our shared vision, we need to set actions on how to achieve it.
What would be the overall actions that we take as a team in everyday activities to ensure we achieve our goal, our vision. So we need to create a set of rules. We all agreed to live by, a team charter, if you will.
This ensures every team member is accountable for their actions and their attitude. It's basically a written document, an agreement or a code of conduct that the team worked together to create. It can consist of a set of values, habits, or behaviours that the team are willing to commit to with each other and in their everyday work.
Creating a team, the team charter pledges teams to high performance. And with every action that we take, we need to ask ourselves, will this move us towards our vision? So this is what we suggest.
This is just some examples of setting some actions where we, with clients provide outstanding service, pets provide the best possible care, retain, ensure the client returns. That may be getting a sick animal back for a 2nd consult or a 3rd consult. Getting the pet in front of a nurse or vet, not if you're not happy, Mrs.
Smith, give us a ring. And teams show respect for each other. It is vital that we agree our actions so everyone has clarity of what is expected and hold each other accountable.
We achieve this by. Maybe these are suggestions, being the first choice for veterinary clinical excellence. Providing amazing service and value for money.
Going one better in everything that we do. Putting people first. Leading change and innovation.
Providing support and encouragement in a timely manner. Providing a unique, sustainable and coaching style model that meets our vision. And never knowingly allowing a colleague to fail.
So in conclusion, Here are the key ingre ingredients for developing a high performing team. And a harmonious team. It takes time.
And teamwork to develop. But I believe and know from experience that with numerous practises, that with the right people, that right input and direction, any team can learn to become a high-performing team. And just one last one, a sage-like piece of advice.
Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.
So that's it for now. Thank you for, for being with me this evening. And I'm, more than happy to take any of the, any questions that you may have.
Thank you very much, Debbie, that was a brilliant explanation and to looking at the team and how to develop our relationships and putting those team members first, for, developing veterinary practise. If you have any questions for Debbie, please do take this opportunity just to pop them into the Q&As at the bottom of your screen, just type them in and I can pass those on for Debbie to, to answer. .
Excuse me. If it's OK, whilst we're waiting for anybody else's, comments, just for me to ask something of you, Debbie, cos, . As long as you're kind, Brendan.
Of course, always would be, . I, know that you've done, a little bit of the development of understanding different aspects, different approaches that team members may take to resolving problems, you know, coming at things, and not everybody looks at a problem in the same way. They, they naturally fit into different aspects of, of the team.
You know, I've come across in the past this profiling, there's various others I know that vet dynamics have something called team dynamics, that you look at. Yeah. It's, it's actually talent dynamics.
Yeah, talent dynamics, but we do, when it's, when we do it a team workshop, it becomes a team dynamic workshop because it's taking all of those talents into the team dynamic. So, yeah, it's, it's talent dynamics. So would you like to just maybe outline, whilst we're waiting, just, where that talent dynamics, I mean, I know it's hard to be very brief about these things, but it's just sort of like how.
I think it relates back to one of your earlier slides on the sort of 5, I was talking about those 5 energies of all those 5 areas of trust, and it's the trust that is generated by us believing people in flow, deliver in those areas consistently. Talent dynamics is, one of the only profiling tools that provides an explicit pathway. To building trust, building flow and trust, that helps accelerate the success and the harmony of teams.
So it's that explicit pathway for, for us that was a real attraction of this. But what it does is allows us to identify 8 profiles. Now there are 4 energies, but within those energies, there are 8 profiles that help us to recognise individual strengths.
The blocks to flow and how they relate to, the stages within team formation and development. So they, they, everybody will have their, their personal profile and they will have supporting profiles as, as well. They're almost like, their wings that keep them balanced, so they're not just focused in one area.
And What this actually does is enable us to, Once we know where people's strengths and weaknesses are, and when I say weaknesses, it, it's something, this is where the trust needs to come into play. It's, it's, we need to trust each other that we won't be, sort of pulled up on our weaknesses. It's what we want is practises to be playing to their employees, to their team members' strengths.
And once we know those strengths, then we can actually call on those people to do certain tasks, etc. So, you know, that there were, there were 4 different energies. We have energies called Dynamo, we have an energy called Blaze, tempo, and Steel.
Somebody in the dynamo energy is, is a blue sky thinker is a strategist, fast mover, you know, comes up with really creative, ideas quickly. So, obviously, if we, let's think we're, we're thinking about doing a marketing campaign, we need that sort of dynamo energy. The problem we have in the veterinary profession is that there, there tends to be a propensity of the the steel and tempo energy and not so much of the dynamo and blaze energy.
So even if we don't have the energy within the practise, we can step into that energy, realising that we need to bring perhaps some more creativity for this marketing campaign, maybe. The blaze actually brings communication and team, cohesiveness. So these are the people, people, they're the mother hens, they, they hold, they, they, they're the glue of the team.
So these people are really important. They've got the finger on the pulse of the, you know, how, how the team are. They really are interested in the, you know, who is impacted by anything we do.
So, you know, when we need to get the team on board, we need people with blaze energy. And the tempo energy that we see quite a lot of in, in, in veterinary practises are diametrically opposed to that dynamo energy. These people are very earthy feet on the ground.
They are in the moment people, great at things like PR, great at customer services, great at project management, great at getting things done. These are, these are really systematic people that, you know, give them a system and a process and they just fly with it, you know, they're really You know, dominant in that area. And, you know, we need that because it's no good just having this blue sky thinking.
We need tempo energy to bring it down to earth and make it happen. Otherwise, we'll be, you know, coming up with all these wacky ideas in the dynamo energy, but never actually bringing any of them down to land, if you get my meaning. Yeah.
And the final energy is, is, the steel energy, which is where we see a real propensity within, within that's not all. But we do see an awful lot of steel energy. Steel energy is very much about systems and processes, But also they look, they look for evidence and facts and proof, which is what you want a vet to be doing, isn't it?
It's evidence and facts and proof. But, you know, they also are very good at, multiplying systems and processes as a business grows. You know, when, when we start a business, we don't have much systems and processes, but as we get to 10 people, we need more.
When we get to 15, and we need even more when we get to 20, we need more systems and processes. So it's actually recognising all of those different strengths that we have and playing to those individual strengths. And, you know, making sure that we have, people in flow doing what comes to them most naturally more often than not.
We can't all be in flow 100% of the time. We're all going to have to do things that we don't necessarily enjoy doing, but the objective is to be in flow as often as possible. Great that answered some of your question.
I could talk about that for hours, so I, I tried to be as succinct as I possibly could. So could I with my team. I, I think it's, it is fascinating.
And when, when people actually get it, you know, when they actually, you know, I, I, the problem I have with a lot of practises, they, they think some of this is what I call woo woo. But eventually when they, when they get it, they are blown away by it. You know, I've, I've had their owners say to me, I don't know what you've done to me over the last couple of years, but You know, I suddenly get this woo woo stuff and I'm even using it with my team.
You've, you've, you've just sort of, you've, you've, it's osmosis has happened and, and I see the benefit and I see the different energies and the different strengths within my team now because of this stuff. It's really powerful stuff. It is that superpower, you know, flow, people being in flow is a superpower.
Yeah. I just got a couple more points. We've just got a couple more minutes before we come to a close, .
I was interested in your three types of clients and then not engaged, engaged, emotionally engaged. I was just interested if you'd come across developing your teams, whether they have ever looked at Increasing the emotional engagement of clients by almost reviewing their talent dynamics. Absolutely.
Yes. I, and the reason why is historically, my, my background is that I've worked with other companies where we've actually introduced these different energy concepts, and they've made massive increases in their success. Because they're engaging with the client in the manner that they like to be engaged in.
So we would work, I was working with, a practise about when clients are signing up, you know, joining, it'd be a great idea to have some certain questions where you could, you could guess, you can't get them to do a profile. They're not going to do a profile. But where you can actually make an estimated guess at their energy, not their profile, their energy because you increase your odds, because you've only got 4 energies, you've got 8 profiles.
So I always guess the energy, not the profile, because you get it wrong. But if you can guess the client's energy, so if they are a dynamo energy, they want new and innovative things. They want quick access to things.
Whereas if you've got a blaze energy, they want time to talk. They want conversation, they want why are the eye connection. And if you've got a tempo energy, they, they want, their sense, these, these guys are sensory, they feel things, you know, they're, they're much more in tune with, with, You know, with, with, with feelings.
So again, it would be the, the connection that the team would make. Steel, they want facts and figures, you know, they don't want any of that social evidence of anything that blaze like social evidence, you know, give me testimonials on Facebook and, you know, all the stuff on Amazon. Yeah, I love that.
Steel don't, they want facts and figures. So, you know, if you're, if you're introducing a, a, I don't know, some recommendation of some, treatment plan, the steel energy will want, show me the Evidence. Where's the proof?
Whereas the blaze energy might be, who could I talk to that has had the same experience. So, yes, you can definitely use these, these, energies to actually build a better rapport and a better engagement with your clients, not just when they sign up, you can guess, you know, your long standing Mrs. Smith.
Once you get this stuff, you can actually make a fairly informed Guess as to what her energy is. And then you can choose to, this is all a matter of choice, any of this stuff. You can choose to step into her world temporarily to engage and build rapport more so with them.
Great. OK. Well, we're running out of time rapidly, so I would say thank you very much, Debbie, for a really informative talk.
I think it's great at all levels. I think anybody who listens to this, in the future should be, not just from a leadership point of view looking on, but actually, can learn a lot even from any point in the team, to what we've, talked about today and, have a, a. View on how to develop the team around them at all levels.
I would say there's one element of, the why, I found very useful, the Simon Sineex, TED Talks, the why, I think, you know, 20 minutes of your life, just listening to that is, is really useful, again, at all levels, so that you know why you're doing what you're doing. Yeah, it's a great book. So, that's, that's absolutely brilliant.
Thank you so much for your time tonight, Debbie. please do, consider looking at the, the vet dynamics, team and the, the services they can offer to you for development. And there's some contacts up there, if you, wish to get in touch.
Again, look forward to seeing some of you guys back. We've got some future talks, all the way through, especially for those, that. Like their facts and figures on, everything with, clinical audits, and, that side of things to, those who, want to look at introducing new ideas and, and new ways forward within their veterinary practise.
That's all part of our series on developing the veterinary team and support, around, new graduates, and maintaining team within the veterinary industry. So thank you again, Debby, and goodnight to to everybody from us. Thank you.
