As the leader of a practice, we do not doubt that you stay very busy throughout the day. There are so many responsibilities on your plate to ensure a medical home for children. However, micro-managing your team may not be the best use of your time. If you are frequently feeling as though your only option to get things done is through micro-managing the people helping you through the day, that may indicate that you have an issue with "employee fit" within the organization. Employee fit is the idea that when you hire someone to join your team, in addition to verifying the proper work/education experience, they are appropriately screened to ensure they have aligned values that will fit with the practice culture (see our previous post on this topic about the lessons learned from roofers).
When leading a practice, it is impossible to manage every single aspect of the daily operation without going nuts or alienating your team. For this reason, you must place some trust in those around you. Sometimes, they will do the wrong thing. That’s okay! Then the situation becomes an opportunity for you to fill the role of “coach” and help guide them to success (more on this next week).
While micro-managing may sometimes feel like the only way to get things done, it ultimately makes your life harder and prohibits the members of your team from ever having the opportunity to spread their wings and make your job easier. Constantly micro-managing leads to an ineffective practice where workers do not feel trusted- which is a hard habit to break. So, before you jump in to take over when something seems to be going wrong, let your employee make the call to come up with a solution and see how it plays out. They might surprise you with a creative answer or new perspective, and, for the times when mistakes are made, you can exercise your coaching skills. Stay tuned for next week as we dive into coaching.
