13 Jul 3 Management Myths that Will Stop Your Team From Reaching Peak Performance
If you want to grow a powerful practice you need to performance manage.
This is one area that I see practice owners struggle with more than anything else.
Have you ever asked yourself – if only my team could do it my way?
Do you want to have a dream team of staff who are accountable, hard-working and smash all their tasks?
The thing is, that shouldn’t be a pipe dream. It’s your business, your dream, your culture, your team.
Your staff should be able to meet your standards.
The problem is that most Practice’s don’t utilise a performance management or staff training systems that will help unlock their team’s ultimate potential.
As a result, I’ve seen so many Practice owners get so frustrated that they end up having to get involved in, or take-over, day-to-day operations in their clinics.
This is wasting energy and ruining any chance at RAPID Practice growth!
To help maximise the potential of your team, I’m going to expose the 3 most common myths about team management, so you can avoid them.
1. Management should have rigid rules for EVERYONE.
Bosses need to lay the law of the land…. Right?
No, don’t be a dictator.
You cannot expect one set of guidelines to work for the entire practice…
There are many different roles within your practice, it makes sense that there will be different key performance outcomes for different people.
It’s important that you assess each individual differently based on their role and purpose within your practice.
Your practitioners, front of desk, practice manager, COO, CFO or even CEO (that’s you!) – all need performance measures that relate to you specifically.
It’s not your receptionists job to do an assessment, just like your practitioner’s role doesn’t include booking in sessions.
But in the end, they are both essential to the patient journey and your successful practice.
So, if your receptionist completely screws up the rebooking is it the practitioners fault? Or vice Versa?
Of Course not.
Tailor design your performance management system to each role and be clear what you are measuring and how.
Your whole team working to grow the business doesn’t mean that they all need to do, act, and be assessed the same.
However they do all need to have a great attitude and be rowing in the same direction.
2. Employees who meet their goals are star performers.
Let’s get this right – just because an employee meets their goals doesn’t make them star performers.
Meeting their goals should be the baseline.
You employed them to do their role. It’s what’s naturally expected from them. You pay them to do that.
They need to go far and beyond meeting their goals and maximize their potential to do an extraordinary job that they should be recognized.
I’ve heard so many Practice Owners say things like “if my team hit their numbers I’ll reward them!”
No, if your team hit their baseline KPIs the reward is that they get to keep their job.
Meeting their goals is stock-standard, it doesn’t make them a star performer.
Set you expectations appropriately.
How can your practice outperform and grow, when you celebrate mediocrity, and expect under performance…?
3. Negative feedback is bad for employees
You need to be honest in your feedback.
If your team is off track or underperforming, tell them! If you don’t tell them, you’re just enabling poor performance.
How will they get better if they don’t know they are screwing up!
This has nothing to do with being mean or nice, hard or lenient, it’s about being honest!
Every, single, time.
Provide balanced feedback that will help your employees improve.
This includes telling them when they have done well and pointing out areas where they should improve.
If your practitioner is a push-over with clients – tell him. That’s no good for your business or the patient.
If the same practitioner has the best knowledge you have seen in your staff, tell them that too.
To become more assertive is the feedback they need and that will lead to better patient care, more re-bookings and a superstar employee.
Remain reasonable and backup your feedback, don’t come across too harsh.
You don’t want the meeting to get a lot of negative vibes from your employee because of any negative criticisms you make.
Carrying out performance assessments gives you a great opportunity to interact with your employees on a regular basis.
Honesty is the best policy.
If you want to build a profitable and powerful practice, one that helps more people and creates a real movement, then you need to become a strong, confident and effective manager.
For more hints on how to elevate your management skills, head to my online Masterclass which lifts the hat on loads of my Practice growing secrets.
