People Development

YO!

Happy Thursday. As you may or may not realize, I practice what I preach. All of this “people development stuff” is a huge part of my life, at home, at work, and with all the doctors and offices I coach across the country.

Last night, I was on a call with a doctor from Florida. She has a small office with her and seven team members. She is also preparing for June formal reviews with her team, and she is using the exact methods that I’ve developed for our organization.

Her big concern was how to deliver the constructive criticism she gets from step 2. Step 2 of the process is summarized below:

Step 2: Gather feedback from other key team members before the 1-on-1.

Consider gathering feedback from at least 5-10 other team members who work directly with the team member

A simple message that can be asked: “Hello Mary, I have my review with Lisa in one week. In order to provide the best feedback possible for her, can you give me at least two forms of sincere and honest praise for Lisa (behavior Lisa has exhibited that we can celebrate during the review) and at least one thing that you think Lisa could be working on (constructive criticism) to become better? I assure you, your feedback will remain confidential.”

Ask for this feedback at least one week before your scheduled review so each team member has time to think about it and get back to you. Give them a deadline for the feedback.

So if you have completed step 2 and now have a few things that your team member needs to work on, some natural questions may be occurring in your head:

How do I share this info without being offensive?
What if the team member only dwells on the “negative stuff” and not all the good he or she is doing?
What if they disagree with me?
Even if they do agree with me, how do I keep them accountable to try and get better?

This is real shit! This is the hard part of servant leadership. This is the HONESTY component of the servant leadership principles we talk about all the time.

I teach best by giving examples, so allow me to use some language that can help address some of the above concerns I just brought up.

This is a fictitious example of a team lead and a dental assistant who routinely forget to take quality intraoral photos of new patients. I assure you that 90% of the issues that someone has can be placed into this framework!

Lead: Mary, the final topic I’d like to discuss with you is how you routinely forget to take new patient photos. I reached out to the team to get some feedback on one specific thing that you could work on to become an even better dental assistant. The #1 piece of feedback was regarding these photos. Can I spend a few minutes talking to you about this?”

Mary: Yes. I can see you getting that feedback.

Lead: Thanks, Mary. As you know, our office is built on patient education, and a key part of that is having great clinical photos so clinical team members can best educate the patient. You’ve heard the doctor say a million times, a picture is worth a thousand words. We need great clinical photographs for not only education but also to have great records to show before-and-after and to send to insurance companies for support of recommended treatment.

Mary: Yeah, I get that. I just forget a lot. Sometimes I think I subconsciously forget because I’m not very good at it.

Lead: I get that, I tend to stray away from some of my responsibilities if I’m not great at them. I’m glad you understand how important this task is, and I’m glad you understand the consequences of not having great clinical photos and how this affects so many other aspects of the patient experience. I also appreciate you sharing that you need help getting better at these. I will ensure that happens, and we can discuss the logistics in a few minutes.

Mary: Sounds good

Lead: Now that we have discussed this, I want to help keep you accountable for getting better at this. With your permission, I’m going to tell the rest of the assistant team and your doctor that you and I have had this discussion, and you realize that it’s an issue that you are going to actively work on. I’m suggesting this so everyone can help you succeed in remembering and taking great clinical photos.

Mary: Do you really need to tell everyone? Isn’t that a bit much? It’s a little embarrassing for me.

Lead: I 100% get that, Mary. Here is the thing. Everyone already knows this is an issue. How do you think I found out about it in the first place? We have a great team here, and we want and need to support each other. This is the only way that we can get better. By letting the rest of your team know you are aware of the issue and actively working on it, you will see that it will become much easier for you to get better. Does that make sense?

Mary: I guess so, it just feels weird.

Lead: For sure, growing, stretching, and getting out of our comfort zone feels weird. I can promise you. I will have Susan reach out to you and specifically work with you over the next few days, and dedicate some time to get better at taking clinical photographs. I’m also going to have Julie create a new patient checklist for you that will cover every part of the appointment, which is expected to help you develop the habit of taking great clinical photos every time. At our next assistant meeting, I’ll share with the team that you are actively working on this, and finally, we will meet in two weeks to evaluate your progress and see where we need to tweak things. Does that sound like a fair plan?

Mary: I can get behind that plan

Lead: Thanks, Mary. As we talked about today, you have a lot of really good things going on. I’m very happy you are willing to work on this one issue so that you can get even better. Please know that you can reach out to me whenever you need help.

I 100% believe that 99% of the issues you may be having with a team member can be substituted into this framework.

When does this framework NOT work?

The team member must be a good/decent core value fit. This framework does not work if there are multiple underlying deeper issues with the core values of the team member. Sometimes, that actual core value they need to work on can be the issue (team player, for example), and the framework works, but if there are multiple core value issues, this is less likely to work.

If the issue is a very serious one, for instance, alcohol/drug use on the job, stealing, physical harm to others, or sexual harassment. Those issues that don’t fit into this framework and need to be addressed via a different framework.

Hope this helps, guys. Reach out if you need any clarity on this.