11 May 2015
Ernie Ward
Job Title
Misery loves company. This old adage proved painfully evident during a meeting with a veterinary colleague.
She was seeking my advice on handling sour team morale and sagging revenue. Her clinic was doing a little better than four years ago, but patient visits had failed to rebound and she was losing enthusiasm. Despite working longer hours, she still couldn’t afford to hire an additional vet to grant her much-needed time with her family. To top it off, she’d put on about 40lbs and was having trouble with achy knees and borderline hypertension.
As I sat taking mental notes on her ailments and complaints, I started feeling pretty miserable. My spirit drooped because she was needlessly suffering. I took a deep breath, centred my thoughts and outlined five simple steps to cure the conflict in her life before it killed her.
Whenever you’re unhappy, or the people around you appear bitter, the first step to positivity is to take a good hard look at yourself. Our world is primarily composed of what we’re looking for. I’ve found if you pursue peace and harmony, you tend to find it more frequently than when you assume everyone is threatening and hostile. The most content, authentic and pleasant people I know are also the most complimentary of others, generous and supportive.
If you want the people in your life to be pleasant and fun to be around, start by being pleasant and fun. I can’t stress enough the importance of leading by example. We are all leaders at some time during our day, often when it’s least expected. If a team member confronts you with gossip or gripes, your response will ripple throughout the workplace. If you’re truly tired of workplace cliques and tension, you’ll politely redirect the conversation and make it clear that sort of talk isn’t appropriate.
Even if it feels bogus at first, fake a positive outlook until you become it. What’s the harm? Are you afraid to trick others into thinking you’re happier than you really are? There’s more to this step, but I want to move to step two first.
As painful as it is to ponder, most of our life is spent within a few thousand square feet. When that fishbowl becomes toxic, it affects us. Because this is your one amazing life, it’s up to each of us, the goldfish, to clean our fishbowls. If we wait for someone else to remove the waste and sludge, we may wait too late – literally. To clean up our fishbowls, I suggest these tips:
Sometimes we have harmful nurses, vets or other staff swimming in our water. These divas and dilettantes are easily recognised by their forceful demeanour, predilection for defamation and sequestration of secrets. They make themselves virtually indispensable and are commonly a client favourite and loathed by your staff. You’ll never swim freely and joyously until they’re gone. Nicer, better-qualified fish will flee or never jump in your bowl. If you’re thinking, “I know I should get rid of…”, you must.
Do you have any special fish in your bowl? Chances are they’re poison puffers in camouflage. If you’re constantly asking for a certain staff member, soliciting their advice and spending more of your time with a couple of employees, you probably have a power player subtly usurping your guidance. For peaceful water, you can’t inadvertently create a wake behind you. It can be challenging to spot a favourite employee because he or she hides in our blind spot of ego. Have a manager or other employee ask the least ranking team member if you have a “vet’s pet”. The best teams are equally loved and respected by their leaders.
Equitable pay is essential to avoid inter-office conflict. If nurses are paid significantly more than receptionists, animosity will occur. The key is to train each clinic position to tackle more complex and, ultimately, profitable, responsibilities. An experienced, exceptionally trained front desk employee can prove immeasurably valuable to an efficient surgery.
Veterinary nurses can be equipped with incredible knowledge and skills that expand their ability to provide additional services and information. None of this is possible, however, if an unknown wage war is underway in your finite fishbowl.
There’s nothing like witnessing a coordinated effort. Everyone seems to know where he or she needs to be, what to do and what the objective is without obvious oversight. Everyone dreams of swimming in that school of fish, so, to make that dream a reality, you must become positive and create your focus as leader, clean your fish bowl, care for your fellow fish mates and provide instruction. Creating a culture of collaboration requires leadership with purpose, a workplace that rewards good deeds, instead of constant lashings for missteps, and a shared mission. This isn’t rocket science, it’s teamwork.
For nearly 30 years, I’ve been an advocate for personality testing in the workplace. I’ve used a variety of tests and techniques to gauge new hires’ aptitudes, abilities and ideal placement. Understanding an employee’s traits and tendencies can help managers develop individualised training pathways, incentives and compensation packages, and motivation strategies. I’ve also noticed an unexpected effect of all this personality testing and talk – team members begin to emphasise and discuss their strengths.
Teams reflect their leaders’ attitudes and interests. When staff enter an environment focused on discovering what makes them tick and how to make them better and happier, that becomes important to the employee. It allows employees to better understand each other and focus on solutions and strengths instead of failure and weaknesses. Evaluate your initial interaction with new staff members and make sure it clearly conveys your commitment to make them stronger, better and more satisfied with work.
Inefficiency is the enemy of harmony. When things take longer, require more energy or don’t meet expectations, conflict follows. Too many vets and managers whine when they should be resolving. “Why did they…”, “if only…” and “it’ll be different this time” are some of the most dangerous words I hear. We blame external factors for our failures, shortcomings and inefficiencies. As leaders, we’re responsible to develop systems, protocols and strategies to make our surgeries operate smoothly.
When things fall apart, don’t cry about it, fix it. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve. At first it can be overwhelming; there are so many things you need to change. Start attacking one issue every day. When you witness something that could be improved, write it down on a note pad you carry in your lab coat. That evening, list ways to correct the problem. The next day, share your thoughts with the team.
Once you’ve decided on a plan, do it. Make it your daily goal to work on one issue. Some problems will be solved by moving something, buying something or stopping something, others will require more time or complex corrections. Whatever you do, keep making things better every day. As leaders, vets, and managers, pledge to stop whining and commit to working on your problems.
Food influences our mood. Our physical state affects our attitude. If you want to be a happy and positive person, you’ve got to take care of yourself. One thing I’ve noticed in high-stress environments is the tendency to give in to unhealthy cravings. If you’ve got a bickering team, low morale and depressed enthusiasm, don’t fuel the destructive fires with sugar. When we’re under pressure our body secretes cortisol, a primary stress hormone. Cortisol instructs our brains to crave quick-energy foods such as sugar and simple starches. That’s great if you need to escape a thundering Tyrannosaurus rex. The problem is what happens an hour or two after the perceived T rex threat is gone? Your body craves rest, you become depressed, seek solitude, and can get quite cranky if bothered. In other words, a normally nasty employee takes it to an unholy terrifying level.
Take stock of what snacks and drinks surround you. Are they healthy selections? What about your own food choices? Do you prowl your treatment area with a sugary drink in hand? Do you clutch a chocolate bar as you criticise a co-worker? Ditch the doughnuts for apples and nuts, replace soda with water, swap pizza for salad. You’ll be surprised how much more agreeable you’ll be after taking a 10-minute stroll during lunch. Start your day with 30 minutes of exercise, yoga or meditation and you’ll see the world in a healthier light.
Every moment of every day you’re faced with a simple decision: are you making something better or not? How we address stress, anxiety and conflict are active choices we make continuously. We can’t eliminate conflict from our lives, but we can lessen its impact and damage. We can also minimise the frequency of fights by focusing on fairness and fixes.
As I ended my conversation with the veterinarian, I noticed a tear trickle down her face. As I followed the cascading droplet, her face erupted into a bright smile. She got it. There was hope. She could do this.
I forgot all about this encounter until a few months later when an unexpected email arrived. She wrote to thank me and said she’d fired three problem employees, reduced her evening hours, hired another vet and shed 22lbs. She commented she was “living the life she wanted” and finally realised she was in charge of her happiness. As I finished the letter, I felt my heart swell with gratitude. She did it and you can too.
