The Ego Drive / Empathy Secret

The Gas Peddle and the Breaks
The Ego Drive - Empathy Secret to Case Acceptance

When you jumped in the car this morning, you intuitively managed to balance two opposing forces that, working together, safely helped you arrive at your desired destination.

The gas peddle provides acceleration and speed. Properly applied within the given speed limits, applying the gas peddle allows you to get to where you want to go in the quickest way possible.

The breaks, on the other hand, give you a tool to manage your speed. Going to fast? Apply the breaks to keep from crashing into the car in front of you. Stoplight ahead? The breaks help you come to a complete stop until it is safe to proceed.

It is the proper use of the gas peddle and the breaks that gives us the convenience of reaching our desired destination safely at a much faster pace.

In the same way that the gas peddle and the breaks work together, there are two ingredients to outstanding case acceptance that must be present and work in harmony to achieve outstanding results.

Ego drive is the “gas”. It is the need to achieve; the innate desire to get a “yes.” It is ego drive that keeps us asking discovery questions and seeking for a common ground with the other person. It is ego drive that asks for a commitment at the end. It is ego drive that basks in the thrill of having the other person say “yes” to you and your treatment proposition. Ego drive is the internal gas peddle of the entire case acceptance “car.”

Empathy on the other hand is the “breaks.” It intuitively surveys all of the verbal and nonverbal signs in the environment sensing when things may be moving too fast or too slow. Empathy is always reading the cues from the people in the environment to see how they are feeling and how they are responding. If things are moving too slow, empathy will trigger the ego drive “gas peddle” to speed things up and move ahead. If empathy senses that things are moving too fast, it will apply the breaks to keep things at a more manageable and safe speed in order to “arrive alive” at the desired case acceptance destination.

So how much ego drive and empathy do you have? If you don’t have much ego drive; if you don’t get much of a thrill when patients accept treatment, it might be time to revisit your vision and goals. What are the things you are really passionate about that really get you going to step out of your comfort zone to ASK the other person to take action? Without desire, an overriding vision, a goal, and a passion, it is not likely that ego drive will be very high and thus…case acceptance will suffer.

Just as important, how’s your empathy? Without it, you don’t have the ability to “feel with” your patient and sense their concerns. In fact, ego drive without empathy is like a run away truck roaring down a steep mountain road with no breaks. With nothing to slow it down, the result will be a disastrous wreck. Conversely, too much empathy with little ego drive is like a beautiful car without an engine or gas. People may come by and admire its looks, but if it won’t go anywhere, who is going to buy it?

So how to you measure your level of ego drive and empathy? Take a look at your current results. How often do you present and really ask patients to accept treatment? Ego drive pushes you to ASK. Empathy, on the other hand, can be measured by patient retention, referrals, and patient loyalty. They come back and refer because they feel good, because they feel like you understand them, because they feel your empathy.

Which skill do you need to develop more; ego drive or empathy? Or do you need to work on the balance? They are both essential just like the gas peddle and the breaks. When they work together in balance, they create case acceptance magic that will move your practice results quickly and safely to the next destination of practice growth.