By Stephen Tweed
This past week marked ten and one-half years since we formed The Top 5% Mastermind Group, and this group has gathered in-person 22 times in locations from Honolulu to Marco Island, and from Seattle to Boston. We have learned such incredible lessons from the conversations among these top-tier home care leaders.
Based on the lessons from these mega home care companies, I have compiled seven specific steps you can take if you want to grow your home care company to the 95th percentile.
1. Have a Clear Vision for the future
The first lesson we learned from these industry thought leaders is that they have a huge vision for the future, and they see themselves running a large home care company. If you can’t see yourself running a big company, then you probably never will.
We’ve actually developed a Vision Summary worksheet that we use to help company leadership teams craft their five-year vision, their three year picture, and their one year goals.
2. Craft a Compelling Company Culture
Culture is “the way we do things around here,” and your company culture is influenced by four major factors:
- The leadership style of the CEO
- The Values that guide your actions and decisions
- The Behavior you expect
- The Behavior you permit
In working with the Top 5% Companies, we have seen them all recognize the importance of crafting their company culture, and it begins with their core values. We have also developed a Values Worksheet to help top teams go through the process of defining their values and the behaviors.
3. Define Your Distinction
There are 26,000 companies in the US doing what you do. They are not all in your local market, but it seems like that some days. What makes you different from your competitors? How do you create competitive advantage in your local marketplace?
In studying these questions for two decades, we have defined “The Seven Sources of Competitive Advantage” in home care, and created the “Pyramid of Distinction” worksheet. The process is studying your competition, assessing your strengths, and then examining the seven sources to pick three that are most relevant. Using the Pyramid of Distinction worksheet, we prepare a focused action plan to apply these three top sources of distinction.
4. Answer the Four Big Why’s
Leaders at the top tier of home care have a very clear purpose, which is further developed by answering The Four Big Why’s:
- Why was your company created?
- Why do you do what you do today?
- Why should clients select your company?
- Why would caregivers want to work with you?
Answers to these questions give you a clear purpose. They help you use your own story to communicate with clients, families, caregivers, and referral partners. We have a worksheet for that too!
5. Put the Right People in the Right Seats on the Bus
Home Care is a people business, it begins with having the right people in your company in the right roles. Helping them be clear about their roles, their accountability, and the metrics that will be used to measure their performance.
Putting the right people in place happens at three levels in home care:
- The Senior Leadership Team
- The Office Operations Team
- Your Caregivers in clients’ homes
Attracting and selecting the right people, communicating clear expectations and roles, as well as providing recognition and rewards for superior performance are all part of having the right team in place.
6. Systematize your Business with the right Processes
We have learned that leaders of large home care companies are systems thinkers. They look at the various functions of their business and identify tasks that are repeated daily, weekly, or monthly. They develop step by step processes to make those tasks repeatable and consistent. When possible, they look at how they can use technology to automate those systems.
Over the past ten years of working with the Home Care CEO Mastermind Groups we have identified twelve specific systems in a home care company. We have developed a step by step process for many of them. Yes. We have a worksheet for that.
7. Measure your Metrics and Track your Performance
If you know me at all, you know my favorite mantra is … “What gets measured gets managed, what gets rewarded gets repeated.”
Leaders at the top tier of home care have a scorecard to measure their metrics. They also track their performance. They have learned the key to communicating expectations is to measure those metrics regularly, and use that information to facilitate communication and teamwork.
I am often shocked to learn how many home care companies do not have a handle on their basic performance metrics, and do not regularly review their company’s Profit and Lost statement.
Get a Copy of our Scaling Your Home Care Business Workbook
Would you like to have a copy of all of the worksheets described in this article? These worksheets include a number of other tools to help you grow your company into the top tier of home care.
I invite you to join us for our Home Care CEO Executive Strategy Retreat hosted by the Home Care Association of Florida in Orlando on December 12 & 13, 2023. We’ll be at the Orlando Airport Marriott for two days if in-depth discussion about these seven steps and the tools that will help you implement them.
You’ll come away from this two-day in-depth strategy retreat with the tools to grow your business. You’ll also have a strategic business plan that you can implement to reach your personal and company goals.
Grow Your Company to the 95th Percentile
Join us in Orlando for the Home Care CEO Executive Strategy Retreat
