Practice Owners: How to Get Back to The Shit You Actually Want to Do

I hear a lot of dreams from practice owners.

“I’d love to make a training.”

“I want to plan a retreat for the whole team.”

“I’ve been thinking about ways to make this job even better.”

And what do they all have in common?

They’re followed by, “But I don’t have the time or bandwidth.”

Image via unsplash.

If you’ve been running a group practice for more than 20 minutes, you probably know this feeling:

You started this whole thing because you’re an incredible clinician, leader, or visionary creative human… and somehow you’ve ended up spending half your week doing copy/paste admin, chasing clinicians for paperwork, troubleshooting your EHR, or wondering for the millionth time if there’s a better way to handle onboarding.

Yeah.

You didn’t sign up for the operations work… but it found you anyway.

And I know, I know, I know we might pride ourselves on being “jack of all trades,” ultimate-DIYer, “I can figure it out, I always do” types of people. But trust me when I say: that strategy is temporary.

In the beginning? Sure.

When your practice was tiny and scrappy and you were duct-taping everything together? Absolutely.

But now? Your practice isn’t small anymore. The stakes aren’t small anymore. And your time definitely isn’t small anymore.

At some point the DIY era stops serving you and starts trapping you.

Visionary vs Integrator

Every group practice has a visionary. And if you’re reading this, it’s probably you.

You’re the one who can see the long game.

You’re the one with new ideas popping off every five minutes.

You’re the one dreaming about new programming, community partnerships, equity-centered care models, better clinician support, or actually taking a real vacation for once.

But visionaries get stuck when their days get swallowed by operations tasks that feel like wet cement:

• Scheduling nightmares

• Onboarding workflows held together by a prayer

• HR fires

• Billing miscommunications

• Random paperwork goblins

• Intake chaos

• Slack messages from four different people who “just need five minutes”

This is where practice owners start saying things like:

“I know exactly what I should be doing, but I never have the capacity to do it.”
“I feel like I’m constantly behind.”
“I’m the bottleneck of my own practice.”
”I’m so tired.”

You’re not being dramatic!

You’ve likely just outgrown your system or strategy and it’s time to call for (integrator) backup. (Or, lovingly, operations might not be your jam.)

(Want more on the visionary & integrator archetypes? I wrote about it here.)

You don’t need to develop a love for Excel docs. You need an Integrator.

This is the part where a lot of practice owners go hunting for templates, workshops, or shiny new tools. But Visionary brains aren’t typically great at to-do lists and admin tasks.

New operations infrastructure could free up your brain.

As your practice grows, you need:

• Clear systems that don’t rely on you remembering everything

• The right people in the right roles to help you execute your vision and do the tasks you aren’t good at (or don’t want to do)

• Delegation that doesn’t create more work for you

• A strategy that matches your values and your goals

• Boundaries around your role so you can stay in your zone of genius

And Visionaries? Their strengths don’t tend to be Excel docs and insurance claims. Or at the very least their talents could be put to better use!

That’s where Integrators come in. Integrators and Visionaries are like the perfect PB&J: working in harmony to make sure you get fed and it’s actually enjoyable too. (Sorry, the food-related metaphors die hard.)

(Not sure where to start with delegating tasks? I wrote about it here or you can book a free chat with me to hash it out here.)

Ready to get back to your actual job?

If you’re a group practice owner who feels trapped in operations, stuck in survival mode, or pulled away from the parts of this job you’re actually meant to do… let’s get you some real support and structure.

Your vision is too important. Your practice is too valuable. And your time is too damn precious.

Hey! I’m Charlie — Your Practice Partner.
I help human-centered group practices thrive. More about me.