Summary
- Everything you do in your practice falls into one of three categories: chores, leverage, or emotional labor.
- Chores are the day-to-day work that keeps the practice running, including clinical work.
- Leverage is assigning those chores to others so you free up your time and energy.
- Most people stay in chores and leverage because they are solved, predictable, and safe.
- Emotional labor is different. It is unsolved work and requires responsibility and judgment.
- This is the work of leadership, making hard decisions, learning new skills, and causing change.
- Emotional labor means being accountable for outcomes, good and bad.
- Growth and real progress come from emotional labor, not from doing more chores.
- Your job is to leverage out what can be delegated so you can focus on the emotional work that moves the practice forward.
Any activity we do as a business or as a practice can be broken down into one of three categories: chores and tasks, leverage, or emotional labor.
Chores and tasks are the day-to-day things we do to keep the business moving. That can be as simple as taking out the garbage at the end of the day or as complex as providing treatments to patients.
Leverage is about who does the chores and tasks. It is hiring an associate to provide treatments or hiring a service to take out the garbage. Leverage frees up your time, attention, and energy from chores and tasks you do not want to do so you can focus on bigger and better things.
As we move from chores and tasks to leverage, we eventually arrive at emotional labor. This is where a major shift happens. Many people get stuck in chores and tasks or leverage because these are solved activities. We know exactly what needs to be done. There are checklists, standard operating procedures, documentation, and processes. It is tempting to stay here because things are defined, and when something goes wrong, we can point to a process or a hire and say it was not our fault.
Emotional labor is different. It lives in the realm of the unsolved. This is the work leaders and CEOs are paid to do. It is harder, more uncertain, and carries more responsibility. This is where change is created.
Emotional labor looks like making hard decisions that you are fully responsible for, with no one else to blame for the outcome. It means embracing incompetence at every level as you learn new skills. It involves repeated cycles of trying, failing, adjusting, and trying again without giving up. It means being visible, having the spotlight on you, and taking responsibility for both the good and the bad.
It also means stepping up and taking responsibility for things you technically do not have to own, but choosing to say, “I think I can make this better.” This is the realm of the unknown. These are not tasks with checklists. These are activities required to push boundaries, improve the industry, and create real change.
My challenge to you is this: handle chores and tasks, then leverage them out as quickly as possible. Hire the right people to take care of the work that does not require emotional labor. Free up your time, energy, and attention so you can focus on emotional labor.
Many people get stuck because they do not know where to start with emotional labor. There are endless decisions to make, skills to learn, and experiments to run. If you lack direction, we created a course to help with this. All of these activities fall under strategy.
If you do not know which decisions to make, which skills to learn, or which changes to pursue, check out the course. It is completely free. Outsource and leverage what you can, focus on emotional labor, and make a difference. Thanks.