A Practice Manager's To Do List - 2011

It was quiet in the room, and with about an hour left to go, the attendees were filling out the evaluation forms. That’s when an optometrist raised his hand. His comment and his reply to my follow-up question to his comment inspired this message to you. Here, to the best of my memory, is how it all went down:

“Yes, sir?”

“Anthony, I just wanted to say thank you. I was very hesitant signing up for this class, but a lot of the things we’ve talked about have inspired me. I am resolved to become a better boss for my employees in 2011.” 

“That’s great,” I replied. And without any agenda or sarcasm, I innocently and almost automatically asked, “What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?” he asked. He had a perplexed look on his face. 

“I mean: What are you going to do differently? What are you going to start doing? What are you going to stop doing?”

His silence was deafening. Then I asked the entire class a couple of questions. “How many of you feel like John (the name has been changed to protect the innocent), that this seminar has been a worthwhile investment of your time and money, and it’s inspired you to try to become a better practice manager this year?” Gratifyingly, it looked like all 53 attendees raised a hand; one woman raised two! Then I asked, “How many of you have written out a specific plan about things you are going to do in order to achieve that goal?” Unbelievably, only six people raised a hand. So even though they all had invested two days out of their life, and hundreds of dollars of their money, fewer than 10% of them had bothered to create an action plan. That’s when I made a decision to quickly change how I had originally planned to spend our final hour together. I did three things I hadn’t planned to do. 

First, I reminded them of two old aphorisms that I had shared early on the day before: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got; and…A goal without a plan is simply a wish. Second, I chided them for having such short memories. Third, and finally, I broke them into small groups and gave them 15 minutes to decide on and write down at least five specific things they intended to do, as individuals, in order to become the best practice manager they could be. We then spent 30 minutes or so debriefing the exercise and sharing individual plans with the whole group. Why? Because when an attendee shared an idea, inevitably another attendee would say, “Oh yeah, that’s something I need to work on too,” and then he or she would add it to their action plan. 

It is in that spirit that I wish to share with you some of what I heard. Perhaps you feel you should add one or two of these actions to that list of things you have resolved to start or stop doing this year, or things that you have resolved to do differently, so that you can become the best boss you can be in 2011. Here are some of the comments that were shared:

“I realized that I’ve sort of lost touch with many of my staff members, so I’ve decided to really embrace that MBWA you taught us – manage by walking around.” Good idea. Spending your down time sequestered in your office checking out the Dow Jones average or the latest gossip in Maxim will not improve you relationship with your team members. Spending quality time among them just might.

“I have to let go. I’m too much of a micro-manager. I have decided to delegate at least three things to my staff members.” Probably a good idea – especially if you do it right. Plan comprehensively. Choose the right tasks for the right people. Make sure the task has some personal value for the person who will be doing it.

“I’m going to tell my wife she can’t come in the office like a whirlwind once a week and boss everyone around.” That’s probably a great idea and I’m sure your staff will thank you. Of course, I have three words for you: tact; good luck. 

“I’m too much of a soft touch. I realize that sometimes I make my decisions based on wanting everyone to like me. Then I regret it when things go wrong. I told my receptionist she could have a day off, even though we had a full slate of patients. We fell behind, patients got mad, and Doc was furious. I have to be more of a hard ass.” I don’t know about that, but I would say it is a good idea for a practice manager to learn to say no. Real leaders aren’t always liked, but they are respected. 

“I’m not going to put things off. I got in a big argument with one of the ophthalmic techs because I gave her a bad performance evaluation. She got furious, because from her point of view I had not said anything to her about what I saw as problems.” That’s the idea! Realize that the best practice managers give daily feedback about how things are going. The number one rule of performance evaluations should be ‘No Surprises.’ 

“I have always had the opinion that if I tell someone to do something, they should just say yes ma’am, and by God, go do it. Thanks to this seminar I’ve realized that that’s old school thinking.” That’s really old school thinking. Not only should a practice manager be less dictatorial in this day and age, she should also proactively ask for input on how to best do things. This woman should also explain the “why” behind her decisions a littler more than she does now. 

“I’m going to have more fun.” Sounds like a plan! An eye care professional should never confuse stodgy and boring with professional and effective. Likewise, having fun, cracking a joke, and smiling once in awhile are not signs that you don’t take your job seriously; quite the opposite. 

“I’m going to stop throwing money at a problem to make it go away.” Your money will thank you. Hopefully this optician realizes that if a problem exists with regard to employee performance or morale, throwing money at the problem will have, at best, a temporary, superficial effect. Making sure that the value and worth of their actions is clearly communicated to staff members will have a much more lasting effect, as will appreciation and recognition. 

Perhaps the most memorable comment was the one I chose to end the seminar on. A young office manager who had been fairly quiet for two days timidly raised her hand. “I only have one thing on my list, but I know my staff will be glad if I do it. It’s going to raise morale, increase retention, and probably even increase sales in the long run.” I was impressed, so I asked what she was going to do. “I’m going to fire Kathy!” After the laughter died down, she explained her rationale, and after she did, everyone in the room agreed that firing Kathy probably was the right thing to do. 

And so I leave you with two pieces of advice. First, assuming that you’ve exhausted all other possibilities, sometimes the best thing to do is cut your losses and let someone go. Second, if you’re in hiring mode and will be conducting interviews in the near future: Beware of all applicants named Kathy.