To be a good Pediatrician, it is important to consider all potential treatments for a sick child before developing a treatment plan. One must observe all symptoms, learn about the patient, and ask about medical history before rendering a diagnosis and developing a treatment plan. Similar to a sick child, pediatric practices can become infected. A common cause of sickness in pediatric practices is employees lacking “employee fit”. An employee who does not fit well into the organization, whether it’s due to misalignment of values or low work ethic, can cause widespread and long-term issues within the organization. Much like a child who has the flu, it can be contagious! Though treatment may vary depending on the situation, practice leaders must act to prevent the spread of such sickness.
There is no “one size fits all” treatment when it comes to dealing with employees. Much like a sick child, the circumstances of the illness will dictate the treatment plan. Though each can take a different form; the main two types of treatment are realignment and removal. Realignment is a gentler intervention that is heavily dependent on employee agreeableness. This might include discussing current performance with the employee, restatement or reshaping of employee expectations, and scheduling of a follow-up to ensure things are progressing favorably. The key to such realignment is the leaders’ commitment to coaching such employees to success.
Removal is a much swifter action that is sometimes necessary to alleviate ongoing issues. This might mean full removal from the practice, but also can take a less extreme form, such as removal from a department or work team. Whatever treatment your leadership team deems appropriate, each action must be intentional and targeted at maintaining your overall organizational health while in compliance with state and federal labor laws.
If we were writing this article for oncologists, we would illustrate further by comparing employees who are not a good fit with the presence of cancer within the practice. With cancer, oncologists have the choice of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgical removal of the cancer, or a combination of all three. Practices may decide to treat the situation by providing feedback and coaching them to success (chemotherapy or radiation therapy) or electing to remove the employee from the organization (surgical removal of the cancer). The oncologist’s course of action is based on an assessment via a variety of radiology and pathology studies. In a similar vein, one should properly assess the employee you think is not a good fit in the organization before taking any action.
It is no secret that many practice leaders would rather not have to implement any of the above treatments at their organization. The reality is that like children, practices eventually get "sick" and need a treatment plan along with some TLC to nurse it back to health. Though it may be unavoidable in certain situations, the most important element that can help keep your organization from getting “sick” is setting reasonable expectations for employees and holding people accountable. PMI has found that the highest-performing practices are those that consistently and effectively set expectations and hold employees accountable. Just like for patients, taking the time for preventative care can help avoid serious health problems in the future!