I recently had the privilege of attending a speaking engagement by NFL great, Joe Theismann. As I was sitting and listening to him tell stories about his days in the NFL and what principles he was able to adapt to his subsequent business career, I quickly drew many parallels to our eye care practice. I asked myself, “How do the same principles cherished by an NFL great benefit our patients at Clarke EyeCare Center?”

The first principle Joe Theismann mentioned was embracing change. He thinks not only being willing to change, but also truly embracing change is the key. Here at Clarke EyeCare Center, we discuss change all the time. Our people understand that things are always changing and that it is a huge advantage to embrace change – not only for them, but also for our patients. Embracing change has allowed us to stay ahead of the curve during our entire 42-year history. Providing the level of quality, service and technology we do doesn’t happen by accident. We work hard to constantly improve our practice, to ensure that we are living up to our name,“Clarke EyeCare Center – A family tradition of exceptional vision care” and ourselves.

The principle Joe mentioned that I fully expected he would is teamwork. Considering he was referencing football, who would expect anything different? The benefit of teamwork in sports is obvious, but it is not as obvious in business. Many years ago, we recognized that in order to provide exceptional vision care, we needed to build a great team. Not only are we aligned with Theismann’s philosophy of hiring people based on their character, intelligence and integrity, but we also think the key to an awesome team is to find people with great attitudes and empower them to make decisions that are aligned with the goal of the organization. Our team has a common vision and works together, supporting each other, to achieve the collective goal, to provide our patients with exceptional vision care!

The third principle that Joe Theismann referenced is that little things matter. He told a story about the day his coach, Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins, was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. Theismann expected Coach Gibbs to recognize him during his acceptance speech. He was his franchise quarterback, after all. Instead, Coach Gibbs gave credit to two players who got very little playing time for his teams. His point was that, if it weren’t for these little known, unrecognized players (who put as much time and effort into improving the team as the stars) that they for sure couldn’t win. Of course, the key players are important to getting a win, but the small things (the players who play little and rarely get credit) are the real reason a team will be successful. Theismann said he came to the conclusion that Coach Gibbs was right about this after about a week of disappointment that he wasn’t credited during the ceremony. This is when he was able to fully recognize that his accomplishments wouldn’t be where they were without the often-unrecognized little things that make so much difference. At Clarke EyeCare Center, we recognize the small things that can make big differences. We constantly work to improve our processes to improve the patient experience in our practice. The small things may not be noticeable, as that is not the goal. The goal is to take care of the small things without anyone noticing… in order to provide our patients with exceptional vision care!

Dr. Danny Clarke
Clarke EyeCare Center

dbc@clarkeeye.com