Many people are excited about the Ask vs. Tell, socratic questions of our Rosen Coaching Communications! We’ve just finished our Wellness Practice Blueprint program and people around the world are implementing and changing their communication and having massive effects in their practices already!

As a chiropractic coach, when I listen to live recordings of patient interactions, or are talking down the concept of socratic questions with clients, I find a big piece of the puzzle is not JUST the skillful questions we are asking, but also the “tone” of voice or intention of the question.

From my perspective, the two opposing ways to approach a question are either: an intent of confrontation or an intent of clarification.

Our goal with our tone is not to be condescending but curious!  Our intent is to clarify, not be confrontational!  Truly our intent, our tone, our body language, our facial expressions all communicate a message to the person in front of us. We all know the same question, asked either way, can mean entirely different things!

I personally have heard chiropractors, who are thinking they are doing a good thing by asking questions, speaking down to people, asking rhetorical questions, and making the entire interaction awkward. I have also heard very skillful communicators ask questions to clarify what’s really going on, in a conversationally curious way to have successful interactions and build long term relationships.

If you would like to learn more about how to ask socratic questions in a way that builds relationships over time (as opposed to ruining them) we’d love to send you a free training module called our LAASR Orientation!  Please go to our website and enter in your name and email. In addition to that, we will send you hundreds of dollars of free products from our store as a gift!.

Tags: Ask vs. Tell, Care vs. Scare, Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Practice Management, communication

In recent coaching conversations with Rosen Coaching clients, as well as in our Wellness Practice Blueprint program, it’s becoming more and more clear to me a key distinction in communication in the chiropractic profession.

Most of us were taught to communicate by telling, teaching, and downloading information with a one-way monologue.  This method can be frustrating as people don’t seem to ‘get’ what we are trying to get across, therefore the chiropractic practice results we are seeking (retention, referrals etc.) don’t seem to follow.  Eventually we start to doubt our ability and our certainty waivers.

Instead, how about opening up a human-to-human, two-way dialogue?  It will take time to learn to communicate this way, to literally re-wire your chiropractic brain to ask instead of tell, but it is worth it.  The dialogue instead of the download is the way to help people really understand your message, and also be empowered to take action from it.  It will generate the practice results you desire when you master your communication starting with Visit 1, and Visit 2 all the way through your Daily Interactions, Re-exams, Re-reports and how you handle Difficult Questions.

Rather than just downloading and telling them what you think and getting them to ‘YES’ you, how about having a conversational dialogue so that you can also find out what they think, what they want and find ways to show them how to have it?

This dialogue approach leads to greater practice success and being able to help more people, as well as less frustration and less burnout.  Do you want to master the dialogue?  Check out our training materials or send us an email for a free 30 minute consult.

Tags: Ask vs. Tell, Certainty, Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Practice Management, Chiropractic Practice Success, communication, Rosen Chiropractic Coaching, wellness practice blueprint

In addition to the Ask. vs. Tell idea of asking people questions as opposed to telling them what we think, what about asking ourselves questions to get to our next level of success?

As we are approaching the end of the year, here are some questions to consider for what will change in your life and your chiropractic practice in 2010 to become more successful.  Who we are being starts the physical manifestation of the results you want to see in your life. Many of these questions come from my coach, Robin Sharma, and many of them come from coaching chiropractors myself:

1. The Unstuck Question: “Is this choice moving me towards or away from what I want”?

2. The Authenticity Question: “Who am I”?

3. The Clarity Question: “What am I trying to accomplish”?

4. The Intention Question: “Why am I trying to accomplish it”?

5. The Mastery Question: “How can I get better”?

6. The Growth Question: “What am I resisting’?

7. The Fearlessness Question: “What am I afraid of”?

8. The Gratitude Question: “What am I grateful for”?

9. The Impact Question: “What one thing can have the biggest impact”?

10. The Legacy Question: “What legacy do I want to leave, for my family, my practice and my community?

11. The Integrity Question: “Are my beliefs, thoughts and actions aligned”?

12. The Action Question: “What is the one thing I’m going to work on to get the results I desire”?

At Rosen Chiropractic Coaching we are committed to your success in your chiropractic practice and your life. We are here to help and would be honored to do so.

Tags: Ask vs. Tell, Chiropra, New Year, Questions, Rosen Chiropractic Coaching, rosen coaching, Success

One of the biggest classic blunders chiropractors make is to forget they are human first and doctor second. What do I mean?  They are so quick to jump on ‘teaching or telling’ the person in front of them what they think (they are the doctor, aren’t they?), before they really find out what is going on and clarifying the person’s question or statement.

During the Daily Interactions in your office, my favourite question to ask someone who has a question or a concern is,”Why do you think that is”? Assuming we’ve nailed our Visit 1 and 2 communications, we can use this question to help make the picture bigger without lecturing people. The old Ask vs. Tell!

“Doc, my neck hurts more today”, is a good example. The assertive chiropractor comes out with both guns of blame and shame blazing, “What’d you do to wreck yourself”?  The non-assertive chiropractor doesn’t address the concern with a meek, “Okay” response.

We coach our chiropractors to not get caught up how they want to respond but to connect with the person in front of them and clarify what they mean. “Why do you think that is”, is a good start. This little question allows us to:

1. Check in with them and find out what is really going on

2. Help them come to the answer, by asking questions and without you lecturing them (which concurrently creates less resistance and more ownership)

3. Connect the dots for them so that they get it! For example, “Wow, Mr. So & So, your neck is bothering you more today?  Why do you think that is? The last time this was subluxated, do you remember what lifestyle stress you were having then? Yes, it was stress “X”. Have you been having stress “X” again? Interesting… What do you think about that? Can you see that this lifestyle stress is recreating this subluxation?

We need to ensure that every visit people feel valued, given a voice to speak their thoughts, feelings or concerns and that there is a chance for us to give specific feedback.  We are either going to Celebrate & Educate or Commiserate & Educate. And what do we want them to get from our education?

1. The way I live my life can either recreate subluxations or help me stop recreating subluxations

2.  If I have subluxations, there is limited life force getting to my cells, my body is not healing or  functioning at it’s optimum, and I am not living at my greatest potential

If the people in your office are not able to give you the “Whole Story“, give us a call and we’ll help figure out how to communicate this and THRIVE in a True Wellness Model of Chiropractic Practice!

Tags: Ask vs. Tell, Challenges, Chiropractic Coaching, Chiropractic Education, Chiropractic Practice Challenges, communication, wellness chiropractic practice management

In the book, Change or Die by Alan Deutschman he studies the 3 keys of change, and what works and doesn’t work.

In a recent blog post, Ask vs. Tell, I explored the power of asking questions to shift consciousness, beliefs and therefore behaviours.   This follow-up post is meant to look at the two types of questions we can ask: Scare Questions or Care Questions. What do I mean?

A good portion of our profession and practice management companies uses scare tactics and fear to manipulate people to do what we want.  Our perspective, at Rosen Chiropractic Coaching is that fear and manipulation have no place in a chiropractic wellness model.  We stand for clean communication with compassion.

In Change or Die, Alan Deutschman explores the three “F” words: Force, Facts and Fear and why they don’t work. When the three “F” words become too much, people go into denial as a protective mechanism. They make irrational decisions that could cost them their life (only 10% of heart attack patients changed their lifestyle despite the fear and threats).  In contrast, Dr. Dean Ornish had 75% of heart attack patients change their lifestyle with the three “R” words: Relate, Reframe, Repeat.

So we need to relate to the people we care for. We need to build rapport, bond, connect, offer hope and relieve their fears.  We need to reframe their consciousness and beliefs about health, and ask questions to shift their current paradigm, to plant seeds and teach under the radar. And we need to repeat these questions in our daily interactions, our Touch-Tell-Ask-Teach and find ways for people to become successful every visit, working towards a new goal. We as their doctor, need to lead them, inspire them and empower them.  And we need to create a culture in our office creates a supportive community.

Because making changes in life can be challenging and these new behaviours need to be reinforced with love and support, not fear and commitment. This is exactly what we do at Rosen Coaching to help you have a thriving wellness practice! We address the 3 R’s in the LAASR Mastery process. If you want a communication system based on the 3 R’s then give us a call!

Tags: Alan Deutschman, Ask vs. Tell, care tactics, Change or Die, Chiropractic Coach, Chiropractic Coaching, Chiropractic Practice Management, Chiropractic Wellness Model, communication, Denial, Facts, Fear, Fear Tactics, Force, Leadership, Reframe, Relate, Repeat, scare tactics, Scare vs. Care, True Wellness Model, wellness chiropractic practice management