Raising Employees

Handling employees is akin to raising children.  There are rules to follow and if you let them get away with ignoring the rules they learn that nothing you say matters.  How do you deal with a three year old in a full-blown tantrum?  Time-out is one way.  What's the grown up equivalent of that?  Suspension.  You get the idea.  Just like I have to parent each of my children differently, each employee must be handled differently as well.  The difference is that adults SHOULD be old enough to understand that the rules are applied fairly to everyone and the consequences are the same for everyone, but sometimes they don't.  Worst-case scenario... when one parent undermines the other.  This also happens in business... HR says you must follow the rules and the manager vetoes it.  It's infuriating and can lead to the HR Pro having a tantrum of their own.

Last night I sent my four-year-old to her room.  She and the two-year-old were playing outside and the baby ended up crying.  He can't articulate what happened, and appeared to be fine, but she wouldn't tell me.  I stressed that if it was an accident she wouldn't be in trouble.  To no avail, she refused to spill so she went upstairs until dinner.  After pressing and watching which questions made her go silent, I'm pretty sure she pushed him down after an argument of some sort.  Luckily when Dad got home he sided with me.  We make a conscious effort to present a united front at all times.  I desperately try to foster this with my managers as well, but sometimes it just doesn't happen.

More on Changing Lives

I received this article between meetings earlier today.  For those who don't wish to read an entire additional article, it is titled 5 Really Good Reasons You Should Consider Becoming a Mentor and the first one listed is, "You can change the world for someone."  The message struck a chord with me as I am in this transitional period in my career (and also fits nicely into this I wrote a few days ago).  I'm actually leading people for the first time, not just asking the receptionist to file a few things and make sure I have food for my open enrollment meetings.  I have been technically over people on the org chart before, but they never really acknowledged me as the one to give them feedback and be their manager.  I feel empowered to help my people become the best they can be.  I wrote this quote by Kris Dunn on a sticky and put it on my monitor: 

"I'm not here to just grind on you to get results.  I'm here to make you better, so you're going to have fun, make more $$ over time and accomplish your career goals while we get results for the company.  I'm willing to do that even if it means you promote yourself by taking a better job with another company because we made you better."  

I want to be the Change Agent for my team.  I want to be sad when they go, but not devastated and wondering how the hell our business is going to continue to run.  I want to support them and allow them to grow, whether that's by forcing them to be interchangeable with each other so they understand how one action affects the rest of the business or allowing them to shift their hours around school schedules.  I want to enable each of them to be confident and make decisions with the company's best interests in mind, and subtly remove the panic button when one of them wants to take a vacation.  Nobody should be chained to their job, there is so much more to life.  I never want them to feel like they can't take a day off or scoot out early on a day there are no providers in the office, provided they are keeping up with their work.  Others should understand their position enough to cover for an absence.  I want each of them to work on improvements and feel their contributions are weighty and appreciated.  I want to provide as much guidance as they would like and be available for them at all times, but not let them use me as a safety net.  I have dreams for them and our company, but mostly I want to help them attain their dreams.

Ignoring a Hunch and Rectifying When It Goes Wrong

When I first started in my current position there were several staffing issues.  In a relatively small office of 45 people, two of them blatantly didn't want to be there, several were toxic gossipers, and still several others were in the wrong positions for their strengths.  It took me about a month to clean out those who didn't want to be there.  I sat down with one and asked her what she wanted to do with her life.  She resigned the next day and sang my praises.  This gained me significant credibility with the board and I was placed in a permanent seat in all decision making meetings.  The other resigned a week later for a position that would relocate her closer to her sister, one step ahead of my plan to move her into a less stressful role.  During this time we had an eager young student come to us.  Everyone who worked with her said she did a good job, although she was quiet she did whatever she was asked while she was here.  I made a sacrificial lamb out of the gossip at the front desk and had a dream of the perfect candidate for that role.  I interviewed a few different qualified individuals but, in spite of my reservations about the Quiet Girl, my optimism got the better of me and I offered her the position.  She already had knowledge of how the office works, she was familiar with our Practice Management system, and everyone seemed to think she picked things up quickly.  This left me with a Superstar and the Quiet Girl as our two front desk associates.  Fast forward almost three months and Quiet Girl is just not getting it.  Her quietness isn't nervousness, it's lack of confidence.  In everything.  She was great as a student and given one task, but to multitask at the front desk is beyond her abilities.  We had 80 patients yesterday for one provider, she checked in 12 of them.  TWELVE.  For a little perspective, the girl who started yesterday checked in six during an afternoon at our other (far less busy) office.  I should have gone with my instinct and just thanked Quiet Girl for her time as an extern, but I had hoped that she would be able to speak up for herself once she got some training.  I had a discussion with her last week regarding her training and time here.  She seems to think everything is fine and she's happily asking the same question for the 12th time and driving my Superstar absolutely crazy.  I feel responsible for helping her, I genuinely want to see her succeed, but I'm afraid this is clouding my ability to release her back into the wild.  The plan is to pull her aside and have a genuine discussion, point out some specific examples of what she needs to improve on, and stop just short of placing her on a written PIP.  The biggest problem is that we just hired another provider, so we absolutely cannot afford to have someone not pulling their own weight while I get another new MA up to speed.  I figure I have to give her a week to work out her issues, which doesn't seem like a fair amount of time, but this is where the business partner side comes into play and I have to do what is best for the company.  I firmly believe it is a disservice to an employee to keep them somewhere they are not going to succeed, but I just have such a hard time admitting defeat and getting rid of her so soon.  Wish me luck on helping her reach her potential, whether that's here or somewhere else.