Here are a few ideas on how to bring the best out in your team. In order to have a team who support you in achieving your vision, you need to inspire, engage and motivate them
Surround yourself with the right people
Do you have the right people in the right seats on your bus?
It’s important to first figure out what roles need to be fulfilled in your business in order to achieve your objectives and vision. Take time to map out your dream team. Once you’ve done that you can consider what skills, experience and most importantly personality each role needs and then recruit and manage according to that.
Whilst it’s tempting with the current recruitment situation to go against your gut and compromise by taking someone onboard who is not ideal instead of having a hole, make sure you are not just filling a gap for the short-term and creating a huge headache for yourself in the long-term.
Live your WHY and your values
Do your team feel inspired by your purpose, and do they actively demonstrate your values?
Writing out your purpose and your values, sticking them up a wall and on your website is not enough to truly live them. Purpose and values need to feel authentic, need to inspire you and everyone on your team and they need to be the blood flow of the clinic.
Each team members’ goals should be about working towards your purpose and each team member, no matter their role in your clinic, should see the connection between their goals and the purpose. Every team member also needs to understand how their behaviours uphold or detract from the values.
Don’t wing it – set goals
Does everyone on your team have clear, documented goals in place?
Following the mention of goals in tip #2, make sure you set goals for everyone in your business in line with your purpose and vision. Have a system in place where you have regular check-ins to see how they are getting on and whether they need any support.
Be clear about the results required to achieve the goals. Under performance is so often because the team member doesn’t actually know exactly what’s expected of them or they don’t know that they are not meeting expectations. Having a structure in place helps to keep you on the same page.
Give direct feedback
Do you communicate clearly and timeously?
Following on from the mention of under-performance in tip #3, it is important to give direct feedback in these situations. We love Kim Scott’s book, Radical Candor. where Kim suggests that in order to be great leaders we need to care personally AND give feedback directly.
Unfortunately, many clinic owners sit in what Kim calls the ruinous empathy quadrant when it comes to giving feedback. You care so much about the person that you shy away from having difficult conversations which is not great for the team member, you, the rest of the team and the business. Read the book and exercise radical condor!
Catch people doing the right thing
Do you have a culture of immediate gratitude, recognition and praise?
It is easy to only have conversations when things go wrong and when mistakes are being made in the day-to-day running of a business. They often need to be rectified quickly so it’s natural that these conversations might take place in the moment. Praise is often left to when a patient gives positive feedback or it is given in an annual appraisal.
It is just as easy to have quick positive, uplifting conversations as it is to have conversations to rectify mistakes. Get into a habit of noticing the little things people do right and acknowledge them – it does not have to be a long-winded conversation. It could be a quick thank you where you are specific about what the person did and you show your appreciation -this is also a great way to acknowledge how the small things they do uphold the values of the practice and contribute to the purpose.