PracticalDermatology

What differentiates your practice from the competition within your market? Does your practice have a roadmap for the future? Does your team feel “purpose driven?” Taking the time to develop your mission, vision, and values provides clarity for individual staff, as well as your collective teams to help guide them to remain goal focused, leading to earlier and greater success. Articulating what differentiates your practice from the competition can increase new patient acquisition and long-term patient retention. Having shared beliefs will help align and focus every team member within the organization. In this article, we outline the steps for creating a clear mission, vision, and core values and share why it is important for organizations to always lead with them top-of-mind.

Who and What You Are Matters, But It’s Also Important to Explain Why

The medical aesthetic market has experienced explosive growth in the last decade, and all forecasts indicate continued expansion for years to come. The AmSpa Medical Spa State of the Industry Report shows 2021 USA surgical and non-surgical revenue as $14.6 billion.¹ The report also shows 5,341 medspas in 2018, pre-COVID, compared to 8,841 in 2022, and projections forecast that number to escalate to more than 11,500 in 2025. As the industry grows, so does the competition, and with so many new options suddenly available to patients, it pays to stand out in the crowd. Who you are, your experience, skillset, evidence of excellent outcomes, and a world-class experience must be both present and well articulated. Practices focusing on new patient acquisition and existing patient retention should have clearly defined and shared practice beliefs with a team that stands mission-ready to deliver.

As we recruit, train, and develop staff, one theme has emerged: People want to be a part of something meaningful and purposeful. When surveyed, staff consistently report they love their job because of the opportunity they have to help people. Defining who you are and what matters to your organization will help staff feel connected to something bigger. Managers communicate greater job satisfaction and less drama when they work within the framework of a mission-focused practice with well-articulated values. With competition high across the industry, differentiating your practice is key to success. Do you have a board-certified plastic surgeon who is also a board member at a highly valued society as your medical director? Does your practice pride itself on white-glove service and high patient satisfaction? Are your providers trained in advanced non-surgical care? Determine what features set your practice above the rest and clearly define those differentiating factors to your audience.

Creating a Mission, Vision, and Core Values

Mission, vision, and core values are not something to be posted at your desk and forgotten about. Instead, these principles should inform every decision, small and large, in your organization. If your organization has articulated these already, periodically take a look to ensure they remain relevant as the organization evolves.

Core Values

Core values are the traits and qualities the organization embodies. They are the shared beliefs that the teams use as a guide for how they go about their duties. They also help articulate a sense of purpose. Shared values guide company and employee actions by highlighting ethics, standards, and business practices. Clearly defining what the practice values will attract the right team members with the same shared beliefs.

Core values should be defined at the same time as creating mission and vision statements since they can also be integrated into these statements. Some examples of core values could include traits and qualities such as service, caring, honesty, integrity, trust, growth, persistence and outstanding results.

Again, have the entire team, including key stakeholders and owners, help determine your core values in creating your foundation of inspiration. Have all team members answering the question: What are the values and beliefs that drive our decision-making?

Conclusion

Creating an organizational roadmap and clearly defining who we are and why it matters will align each team member, key stakeholders, and providers on a singular path. Alignment and engagement from the team are key to implementing a successful mission, vision, and core values. Each individual matters, and their role is valued at an organizational level. Weaving the mission, vision, and values into the day-to-day life of the practice will solidify the company culture and values and maintain alignment with the practice aspirations and goals. Having established the organization’s roadmap for the future and what differentiates the practice, we can continue to align the teams to deliver the highest quality care through our shared goals.

1. Moeller, M. The AmSpa Medical Spa State of the Industry Report. ePub January 24, 2023. https://americanmedspa.org/blog/the-2022-medical-spa-state-of-the-industry-executive-summary-in-context