Overcoming Challenging Dynamics To Build A Cohesive Team

A common source of anxiety among practice owners is finding the time to nurture and develop your team, especially in recent years when hiring and retaining reliable, motivated employees has been increasingly challenging for many. Managing your human resources — those who help you every day and are typically the first and last people that your patients interact with during an appointment — is crucial to your practice’s success.

Not only do you need your team to perform at their best, they need you as their leader to perform at your best too so they can carry out their responsibilities in a way that is consistent with the practice culture you desire. 

Let’s look at two common pain points, how to identify their origin and steps you can take to develop a high-performing team.

The Underperforming Employee

First, objectively diagnose the underperformance — is your team member falling short on one task, all tasks or specific aspects of their role? Once you know pinpoint the problem, you can work to find and address the root cause. Potential sources for underperformance can be:

Role And Responsibilities

• Have clear expectations for the job been communicated?
• Has the employee been appropriately trained in all areas of their role? Would refresher training or pairing the employee with an experienced member of your staff overcome the issue?
• Do they not complete work? If not, it is critical to understand the reason – attitude, training or something else – because knowing the reason can help point to the solution.

Office Culture

• Are other staff members helping the struggling employee or isolating them?
• Is there an open channel for the underperformer to ask for help, suggest new ideas or solve roadblocks?
• Do you hold regular staff meetings to cover any gaps in training or communication?

So that you can monitor the situation and gauge progress toward resolution, a good practice is to regularly spend 1-on-1 time with the team member, at least until you’re comfortable that improvement has been achieved. Create a detailed plan of topics to review with the employee when you meet and be sure to ask what questions they may have. 

Following through on your mutually agreed-upon action plan is crucial to ensuring you are helping this employee in every way you can. Be sure to document the outcome of your conversations so you can identify progress or determine if more attention is needed. And of course, be sure to recognize improvement as it occurs.

The Challenging/Difficult Employee

Finding the root cause for an employee who is difficult can be tricky — similar to getting the true chief complaint from a patient. Start by defining what is negative or challenging about the person:

• Is the individual ignoring your requests or instructions?
• Do they arrive late or leave early?
• Is their attitude negative?
• Do they communicate poorly?

Once you identify what is difficult, you can start to work determining why this may be happening:

• Is there a conflict with another staff member?
• Do the individual have too much, or too little, workload?
• Are they lacking resources or tools to effectively do their job? 
• Is the problem related to another issue?

These questions can be explored during a 1-on-1 conversation, which provides a good communication tool for both the employee and the manager/doctor. It should be a two-way, informal opportunity to ask questions, provide directions and stay informed. Scheduling these at least quarterly provides comfort for both of you, knowing there will be future opportunities to continue the conversation.

Some Additional Considerations:

• Could the problem be the overall office culture?
  Recognition, respect and trust are all pieces of a positive office culture — and directly tied to morale — a topic that can be covered on a 1-to-1 basis or as a team. It is important for staff to understand how morale impacts co-workers and patients.  Solid communication is vital to improving your culture.  
   
• Could the real problem be unrelated to work — are they bringing personal problems to the office?
  If an individual’s outside life is creating negativity at work, discuss how attitude impacts the patient experience. Be empathetic yet firm in helping the individual understand the need to maintain a positive attitude in order to contribute to the practice’s success. 

All meetings – whether 1:1 or as a team — should be planned in advance and allow ample time for discussion. Avoid trying to address issues in quick, off the cuff conversations that occur between patients. Your team is the key to your practice running smoothly — collaboration and morale are imperatives.

No matter the challenge, PECAA’s Business Operations Advisor, Kathy Long, is available to meet you where you’re at and provide solutions specifically for your practice. If you are a PECAA Max Member, schedule a call with Kathy at your convenience. Not a PECAA Member? Contact us to learn more about full-practice resources tailored for eye care professionals.