AZ Hearing - December 2019

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2627 North Third Street, Ste. 100, Phoenix, AZ 85004 | 14418 West Meeker Blvd., Bldg. B, Ste. 102, Sun City West, AZ 85375

December 2019

602-277-4327 | www.azhear.com

A Hearing Loss FAQ

Your Patients’ Burning Questions

to make those frequencies come back. Instead, advise patients to tell their interlocutors that they don’t understand, which is much more likely to prompt them to rephrase what they said. Doing so gives the hearing loss patient added context to be able to understand. Can tinnitus be cured? Tinnitus, like diabetes, is not cured but managed. We cannot physiologically stop anyone’s ears from ringing, but we can help limit the effect the ringing has on a patient’s daily life. Many patients who treat their tinnitus can enjoy near-total relief even if their condition is not technically cured. Why doesn’t Medicare cover my hearing aids? When Medicare was signed into law in 1965, hearing aids were sold largely by door-to-door salespeople operating outside the traditional medical establishment. The government, perhaps understandably, didn’t want to line these folks’ pockets. While our treatment has evolved since then, the law has not evolved in kind.

evaluation than you are to know what car someone should buy without knowing how many children they have. Hearing treatment is not a commodity, and thinking of a hearing aid as a purchase is starting with the wrong mindset. Do I need one hearing aid or two? If a patient has hearing loss in both ears, they will respond much better to treatment involving two hearing aids. The effect of our two ears working together is synergistic. The way I phrase it to patients is, “When it comes to hearing aids, one plus one doesn’t equal two; it equals four.” How should I clean my ears? Nobody should clean their ears. There is no reason to ever put anything in the ear canal. If you look at a box of cotton swabs, you’ll notice that it says nothing about them being used to clean ears, and they may even include an explicit warning not to use the product for that purpose. Ear wax is totally natural. If a patient does not like the appearance of visible ear wax, they can clean the outside of their ears in the shower, but that’s it.

Over the course of my time in practice, I’ve spoken to countless patients dealing with hearing loss. Time after time, they ask the same questions. This speaks not only to the universality of our concerns about hearing loss but also to our failure to answer the most basic questions about a common condition. Since I’ve had the opportunity to refine my answers to these queries over the decades, I’ve gotten pretty good at providing succinct responses. To that end, I wanted to provide you with a quick FAQ covering the most common hearing loss questions I’ve gotten over the years. The next time a patient asks one of these, you’ll know exactly what to say. What brand of hearing aid should I buy? The answer is simple: whichever hearing aid a high-quality hearing treatment provider recommends. There are thousands of models of hearing aids, with new ones hitting the market all the time. Furthermore, no two patients’ needs are exactly alike. You’re less likely to pick the right hearing aid for a patient who hasn’t undergone a comprehensive

How should I ask people to speak to me if I have hearing loss? The impulse is to tell people to speak louder, but that’s the exact wrong advice. Most degenerative hearing loss attacks higher frequencies first. Yelling isn’t going

Hearing treatment is not a commodity, and thinking of a hearing aid as a purchase is starting with the wrong mindset.

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DELEGATE TO ELEVATE

Poor delegation is the Achilles’ heel of most leaders, who often confuse being “involved” with being “essential.” To determine if you’re holding on to work you should delegate out, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) recommends asking this simple question: “If you had to take an unexpected week off work, would your initiatives and priorities advance in your absence?” If your answer is no or you aren’t sure, then you’re probably too involved. No one person should be the cog that keeps everything in motion, no matter their position in the company. Luckily, HBR has created an audit using the following six T’s to identify which tasks can be delegated. Tiny: Small tasks that stack up can undermine the flow of your work. Registering for a conference, putting it on the calendar, and booking the flight are all small tasks someone else can handle. Tedious: These tasks are straightforward but not the best use of your time. Someone else can input lists into spreadsheets or update key performance indicators for a presentation. Time-Consuming: These important, complex tasks don’t require you to do the first 80% of the work. Identify what they are, pass them to someone else, and step in for the final 20% to give approval. Teachable: Is there a task only you know how to do? If so, teach someone else to do it, and step in for the last quality check when it’s done. Terrible At: It’s okay to be bad at some things. Great leaders know when to pass tasks off to someone who is more skilled than they are. The task will get done faster and at a much higher quality. Time-Sensitive: These tasks need to get done right now but are competing with tasks of a higher priority. Just because it has to get done immediately doesn’t mean you have to be the one to do it. Sure, some tasks only you can accomplish, but these are extremely rare. As the Virgin Group founder Richard Branson warns, needlessly resisting delegation is the path to disaster. “You need to learn to delegate so that you can focus on the big picture,” Branson says. “It’s vital to the success of your business that you learn to hand off those things that you aren’t able to do well.” The Secret to Being a Great Leader

“You have the power to change your behaviors,” says Susan Fowler, “but to be successful in changing, you need an evidenced-based framework for motivation and techniques for applying it.” In her new book, “Master Your Motivation: Three Scientific Truths for Achieving Your Goals,” Fowler synthesizes her decades of research into a guide that provides such a framework. In the process, she overturns countless widely held myths about what motivates us. Fowler believes the traditional carrot-and-stick approach to motivation (a combination of reward and punishment to induce a desired behavior) results from our perception of motivation as being either intrinsic or extrinsic. “Simplifying motivations into two types presents a conundrum when you aren’t intrinsically motivated,” she writes. “Your only fallback position is extrinsic motivation.” In other words, just by thinking about motivation as intrinsic versus extrinsic, you’ve already set yourself up to fail. To really motivate yourself and others, she argues, you need to think about motivation in different terms. Thankfully for the reader, Fowler defines an alternative framework for motivation. In what amounts to the book’s thesis, she states, “To master your motivation, create choice, connection, and competence.” When you measure motivation across these three factors, which are the result of rigorous academic research rather than folksy conventional wisdom, you unlock the power of motivation. It’s not hard to see how Fowler’s framework is much more actionable than traditional motivational techniques. Creating intrinsic motivation, especially for others, is a mug’s game, but defining choice, connection, and competence is much less ambiguous. If you have team members who you feel lack motivation, ask yourself if their jobs have these three essential traits. Do they have agency (choice) in their work? Do they generate meaning (connection) from what they do? Do they get a sense of accomplishment (competence) from doing something well? If you can’t answer all three of these in the affirmative, you can create a plan for increasing motivation that doesn’t involve empty metrics or meaningless rewards. If you or your team could use a proverbial kick in the pants, the solution might be to ignore those proverbs entirely. “Master Your Motivation” takes a refreshing look at what makes us strive for more. It’s a great addition to any leadership library. A Science-Based Approach to Achieving More SUSAN FOWLER’S ‘MASTER YOUR MOTIVATION’

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No More Spam Emails! 3 Tips to Make Emailing a Breeze

words or short phrases. This is helpful when you need to send someone a quick answer to keep things moving but you’re not interested in getting into the details then and there. In other words, you can buy yourself time until you can focus on a more thought-out response. Leo Laporte, host of the “This Week in Tech” (“TWiT”) podcast, has another suggestion: Tell people you don’t read emails. Of course, you do read emails, but the world doesn’t need to know it. This is a great way to cut down on the number of emails waiting in your inbox. Finally, set aside time to do an email purge. Look at the people and businesses that are sending you emails, decide which ones you don’t read anymore, and unsubscribe. Depending on the size of your inbox, this can take time, but it’s worth it. You’ll receive fewer emails, which means you won’t spend hours scrolling through your inbox, and that can save you time and money in the long run.

Emails are a time suck. As you read through the subject lines, you wonder how your time can be better spent. Kevin Rose, entrepreneur and founder of Digg.com, discovered an interesting way to limit the time he spends replying to emails, and it’s extremely simple. All you have to do is end all emails with “Sent from my smartphone.” Why does this make a difference? According to Rose, he found that people have different expectations based on whether emails are sent from mobile devices or computers. Presumably, any email that doesn’t include the tag “Sent from my smartphone” is sent from a computer with a full keyboard and your full attention. As it turns out, people don’t mind short, to-the-point emails if you reply on the go. The best part is that you can add the “Sent from my smartphone” from any device. You can add the signoff manually when you need a quick fix or add it to your signature.

You no longer have to waste time writing paragraphs in response. Instead, you can limit your responses to single

PUZZLE

HAVE A Laugh

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PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411

602-277-4327 | www.azhear.com 2627 N. Third Street, Ste. 100 Phoenix, AZ 85004

2627 N. Third St., Ste 100 Phoenix, AZ 85004

14418 W. Meeker Blvd., Bldg B, Ste 102 Sun City West, AZ 85375

Inside This Edition

1.

Hearing Loss Questions Answered

2.

A Better Way to Think About Motivation

What Great Leaders Have in Common

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3 Tips to Make Emailing a Breeze

Have a Laugh

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Last-Minute Holiday Marketing Ideas

Don’t Get Lost in the Bustle 3 Last-Minute Holiday Marketing Ideas

unexpected holiday greeting could keep your business in mind as they go about their holiday shopping.

Decorate your website for the season. Your customers are already in the holiday spirit, so why not indulge them with some seasonal trappings on your website? Festive holiday touches to your company logo or new webpages recommending holiday gift ideas can go a long way to attract customer attention. You don’t have to be the flashiest display on the block, but showing off your holiday spirit will spread cheer and goodwill. Create gift card giveaways or incentives. Gift cards, even digital ones, are more popular than ever around the holiday season. In one survey, 43% of respondents said they planned on giving gift cards or certificates in lieu of other holiday presents. With 1 in 4 gift cards sold in the last four days leading up to Christmas, these ideal presents make the perfect last-minute marketing tool. Offer gift card incentives or giveaways for your loyal customers. They can make the perfect present for them and, in turn, your business.

If you haven’t capitalized on the holiday season for your business’s marketing campaign yet,

don’t worry, because you still have time! Even if you’re still a long sleigh ride away from finishing your own holiday to-do list, you can ensure your business flourishes this season with a few last-minute marketing ideas for the holidays. Send season’s greetings to loyal customers. Even if your Christmas or holiday-themed cards don’t mail on time, you can still send personalized emails or social media messages to let your customers know you’re thinking of them this holiday season. Established customers can be responsible for up to 40% of a business’s sales, and your

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