Have you built your clinic’s workplace culture intentionally? Or has it unintentionally built itself?
In a perfect world, you would have defined the type of culture you wanted to build when you wrote your business plan and then mapped out how you wanted to get there. But very few people do that. Most practices begin with a one or two-person staff, then hire based on need after that. From there, they do their best to make sure everyone is happy and treated with respect, while ensuring that they treat everyone else with respect. Doesn’t that count?
Not quite, but it’s a great start. A strong workplace culture is more than just how your employees get along with each other. In fact, it’s possible to have everyone get along famously, yet still have an unhealthy culture. We’ll tell you why in just a little bit.
We recently hosted a webinar with the incredible Natalie Corbin-Ricchiuti, Team Leader and Manager - Campbell Family Medicine, PC, as well as Co-Owner of Revolution Practice, LLC. Natalie helps healthcare professionals design innovative practices that bring the joy back to medicine.
Her session was titled, Put Heart into Leadership & Management, and we couldn’t think of a better person to speak on this topic. She walked us through how to thoughtfully and strategically build the right type of culture using intentional steps… and more importantly, using heart.
Here are the key points she covered.
It always starts at the top, and we don’t just mean you.
Ideally, you will scale your practice to the point where it’s time to put other people in leadership roles. When the time comes to move someone into a management position, Natalie feels that the classic approach of going by seniority is flawed. She feels it’s more important to promote based on how a given person will lead.
“Assess their leadership skills before you promote someone who's been there the longest… Because some people are not ready to supervise or take on the responsibility,” said Natalie.
“Some people get really, really uncomfortable with confrontation. They get uncomfortable telling people no. They get uncomfortable with enforcing the laws, and the practice rules, and policies.”
She recommends asking your next would-be leader some pointed, scenario-based questions, and ones that may not have a popular or simple answer.
“So things like this. Have you heard that we're negotiating a new lease? Does that scare you at all? What things do you think we should pay attention to? We have noticed a rise in the cost of office supplies. What should we do about that?”
A recent blog we published explored why so many practices have trouble scaling. Two of the most common issues are:
Natalie has created a simple exercise to help you ensure that these issues don’t happen, or fix them if they’re happening right now.
Use a piece of paper, spreadsheet, or document to create two columns, Admin Tasks and Medical Tasks. Now sort your various tasks into each side as best you can.
It may look something like this:
“Now that you've got those practice tasks divided, who currently in your practice is handling those tasks?” asked Natalie.
“If you find a lot of crossover, maybe it's time to think about it a little bit. Because you might be keeping someone who could really excel in your practice… You've got them doing so many things, you're limiting their potential for success. And I know that's not what you want to do.”
That last point Natalie made is particularly important because someone may have the skills and the can-do attitude to handle tasks from both sides of the table. But you might unknowingly be setting them up for failure by not establishing clear expectations, or by putting someone in a position that doesn't align with their strengths.
You could have a staff full of hardworking “Can-do” A-players who don’t mind rolling up their sleeves to do a little bit of everything because they believe in the vision. And because they’re all like minded, everyone gets along fantastically. However, this workplace culture is still flawed because employees aren’t set up for future success.
Make sure you talk to your employees about the work they’re doing.
“If you want them to grow, give them a voice. If they don't have a voice, and they don't feel like they can speak to you as a leader, you're never going to know where they stand and they're not going to perform at their best.”
Nobody is perfect. And nobody can do everything, even though most practice owners feel like they have to.
Natalie strongly believes that one of the most important parts of being a leader is knowing your own limitations and acknowledging them. “You have to know your own strengths. If you're in a leadership position, have you assessed your own strengths and weaknesses? If not, now's the time.”
She advises that you make another two-column table, with one side listing the things you do well and the other side listing things you don’t excel at.
“Write down all the things that you think you do well. It can be a personal or a business. What do you do well? What do you do well in your daily job? What do you do well in your family? What do you do well in your church? What do you do well in your community? And then what do you lack a little bit? Or maybe you're not quite as confident?”
She also advises that you have everyone working in your practice do the same exercise, and then collect the results. Now see if their responses align with their current job responsibilities. And always, talk to them about it!
Natalie firmly believes that having a purpose is at the center of having a heart. And before you can apply your strengths, you have to know your purpose.
“But please understand that your purpose is not your strength. Your passion or your goals are not your purpose. It is something that has to be discovered through feeling,” said Natalie.
“You are human beings, not human doings. And as a human being, you are full of feelings. Tap into those feelings to discover your purpose. Because knowing your purpose allows you to say no to the things that don't resonate, don't serve, or don't feel right to you. And when you can say no without guilt, then you are honoring your purpose.”
To be the best possible leader (and human being), Natalie recommends crafting your purpose statement. This will also require a little bit of homework on your part.
“Write down as many uplifting words that describe you at this point in your life. If you were looking in the mirror or you were talking to your bestie pal, what would they say about you? What are those things that describe you as a person?”
“Now, after you've written down all of those words, I want you to go back, look at them, read them, feel them, sit with them, and then circle three that you hear most often from other people that would describe yourself. What are they?”
From those 3 words, choose the single word that resonates the most with you personally. Not the word you feel is the most accurate, the one that you feel the strongest emotional connection to.
“For me, mine is hopeful,” said Natalie. “I am a cancer survivor, and therefore I am always hopeful… Everybody says, ‘You're always full of hope, where do you get the hope that you provide to others?’ It’s part of my purpose.”
Now use that word to create your purpose statement. “So if I'm using the word hopeful,” said Natalie. “My statement would be ‘I was created to provide hope to those that feel lost or broken or in despair.’”
“I'll take it a step further. Now that you have a better understanding of your purpose, you can use this to provide leadership that allows others to see this trait in you too.”
She added, “So I expanded on my word hopeful, and this is what I came up with. ‘I choose to present my team members with the idea that they can always HOPE for a better tomorrow, even if today wasn't their best day. I HOPE that they find joy in coming back to work tomorrow for another opportunity to serve the needs of our patients.’”
We cannot recommend Natalie and the Revolution Practice team enough! They have over 1000 hours of coaching experience and over 45 years of combined experience helping overwhelmed practice owners like you take control of their day-to-day operations, and take their practice to the next level.
To learn more about what they can do for you, we invite you to click here to book a consultation.
Natalie also calls herself Cerbo’s #1 fan and she has proudly been a customer and early adopter since 2015. “When you think about an EHR or EMR, you're thinking about just documentation. And Cerbo is so much more than that,” said Natalie.
“It creates an experience and allows you to share that experience with your patient so that you can have a better platform for communication documentation. You can have a better platform for referrals. You can have a better platform for accessibility. And Cerbo is all those things.”
To see how Cerbo can help your practice, click here to explore our demo.
