Safe pair of hands: how to handle your practice staff

Unfortunately, wherever you go to work, you will find the ethos is set in stone long before you arrive, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change it. However, you will meet strong resistance and any changes will need to be made with care. The best approach is to be a middle point between the two aforementioned philosophies, that is, you should be strong when you need to be strong and, at the same time, nurturing of a friendly environment.

In taking this position, you can also work more easily with owners who have the two differing views of the practice ethos. Slowly, you should be able to alter their position without undermining them; you should be able to show how incorporating their ethos with a more mid-line approach can reap the rewards and benefits they had in mind, but weren’t achieving.

Staff management

• How to manage owners. I’ve made mention before of the need to manage the manager above you. The first great manager I worked for taught me this and, in doing so, helped me forge a big part of my own management skill. Just because they own the business, it doesn’t mean they know what they are doing, or that they are competent at management. It also does not follow that they are bright individuals or even nice people. You will come across these types of people time and time again, along with quite a few other types.

Owners are often people who hired you to do what they could not or will not do, so when it comes time to achieve a tricky objective, or for a decision to be made that takes them outside their own comfort zone, you will have to learn how to manage them and get them on board with your ideas and decision-making strategies.

In its most simplistic form, I call it “find the lever and pull it”, but in essence what you need to do is present information to your boss or bosses in a way that helps them to see the benefit of doing the task at hand. Sometimes, it can be done by getting your boss to let you make all the decisions on a particular project and then keeping him or her in the loop as to progress, and sometimes it requires you to almost hold your boss’ hand as you guide him or her to the decision you want.

However, you must always remember one thing when doing this – only ever have the best intentions of the practice at the heart of the things you are attempting to achieve. If you don’t, it is an impossible position to defend against if the owner questions why he or she should go along with what you’re trying to achieve. The mere fact that the owner questions you, however, and that you can say it is in the best interests of the practice and why, will help you to manage him or her even further. It also has the benefit of showing the owner that you are willing to keep him or her in the information and decision-making loop, which can be very important to an owner who is letting someone else manage the business.

• How to manage vets. Vets are incredibly bright people, but they often have the common sense of lemmings near a large cliff. By nature, many vets do not take direction well from anyone who isn’t another vet. However, you can get through to them via their weakness in relation to money.

Vets always assume they can discount and charge what they want and no one will be any the wiser – or even care. However, the first time you start to give them a breakdown of what they are invoicing on a monthly basis, how much discounting they’ve done in the previous few weeks, and how their results compare to the targets you would like them to achieve or the results of other vets, then 99 per cent of the time, they are likely to fold and give in to your will. This will then help you to drive clinical excellence and change, because you can stipulate that certain procedures must always use certain consumables and drugs, or that x-rays must always be done in a set way. You can explain it is important because, at the end of the day, everyone is then invoicing consistently and should, therefore, hit the targets more easily.

As for the other one per cent, in my opinion they tend to be veterinary owners or old-school vets, and, as my saying goes: “Sometimes you can bring a horse to water, but the damn thing will still be stubborn and hold it’s breath rather than drink.”

• How to manage nurses. They should know that you are in charge of them, and they should know that you expect them to achieve the targets you set out. All too often, however, they don’t know this because they can be powerhouses in their own right and almost as wilful as some vets. As long as you realise this, you can still manage them effectively.

The key is to ensure you get them involved in the clinical excellence and customer care aspects of the practice. Let them create and discuss ideas in their nurse meetings, and when they bring something good to you, let them do the prep work so you can implement it afterwards. The key here is involving them in decisionmaking policies, as it affects the way they do their job. Chances are they will not have been involved in shaping policy in some or any of their previous practices.

One more key thing to remember is to give praise where praise is due, because you will find nurses tend to be overlooked when it comes to being told they’ve done a good job. Sometimes, theirs is a thankless job and, if they think members of management are actually paying attention and noticing when they do a good job, it will improve their self-worth and morale.

• Pitfalls of staff management. The chances are many members of staff will never truly like you, but this is something you will have to get used to. You are liable to be the one who yells at them, disciplines them or gets them to do things they don’t want to do. Any attempt to be a “touchy feely, friends-witheveryone” manager will only reduce your effectiveness and your ability to get the job done. Some people, promoted from being one of the team to a manager of the team, have problems adjusting to their new status.

It is a rare business environment where everyone likes and socialises with the managers above them. This has as much to do with the mentality of the staff themselves as it does to do with the management style in place.

• Why you should play things by the book. I once cut a corner to achieve an objective and it backfired on me. I got yelled at by my manager and I still had to do the whole task again the proper way.

At best, you end up with a cobbled-together result, but at worst it blows up spectacularly in your face, landing you with some real problems or potentially facing a disciplinary case. If a job is worth doing, do it properly – hopefully, this will mean you only have to do it once.

• Staff turnover and the realities of cost. This is straightforward to work out. It might take a month or two to recruit someone, about three months to reach a point where that person is competent in the role and a further three months before he or she starts to become expert at the role in one area or another. If you treat new staff members poorly and they then leave, you have to start all over again, which means it will take a further seven to eight months to get someone new to the same place the first person was at before he or she left.

So, in effect, you’ve just wasted 14 to 16 months worth of salary and recruitment costs because you couldn’t work out how to treat a member of your staff properly. Now multiply this by a few staff in a year and you are starting to see the real cost of not managing your staff.

Personal development

• Types of manager. There are many types of manager, all with their own little intricacies and ways of doing things. However, when you look at some of the basic ways that managers respond or try to create an impact, you can place them into three categories – the good, the bad and the stupid.

Bad managers are more concerned with their own standing and reputation than the job at hand. You will see these types of managers coming into the business and setting out their stall by immediately trying to crush any staff resistance. This can take the form of singling out one borderline employee and disciplining him or her, or being too hard and inflexible with the workforce. At the same time, they are likely to be overly relaxed or even ignorant of the higher employee or management teams – even if it is these teams that have the major problems.

Stupid managers are just that; they have no idea what they are doing, and rather than take advice, read up on things or get training, they insist on doing things their own way – usually with disastrous consequences. They tend to be a source of ridicule among the staff, while the owners look on them as a dead weight to be rid of at the first opportunity.

Good managers are those who realise they aren’t gods and that they will occasionally make mistakes. They tend to look at the other two types of manager and make mental notes on how not to do things. These managers take their work seriously and, therefore, tend to be open to new ways of learning, ideas and concepts, as well as listening to their staff and seniors when they have thoughts or advice. To be a good manager, you first have to realise it is a career-long learning curve where even your most solid of ideas may need to be reconsidered or changed – dependent on the workplace you are in, the economic climate, the staff morale or the objectives that need to be achieved. This is the longest, hardest road to travel, where your resolve will be constantly tested. If you can hold true to the ethos of good management through the toughest of times, you will become a manager who people remember and talk about long after you leave.

• What do you want out of management. Some people go into management for the money, some for the kudos or reputation. Some go into it because they realise they are brighter than their peers and that they can effect real change or do things better. Whatever your reason, it can soon dim into obscurity when you start doing the job. Sooner or later, when the job gets really difficult, you start thinking things like:

– “Please, let it be the end of the week.”

– “If I keep the status quo and don’t rock the boat, I will be okay and my job will be easy.”

– “Dear God, let this nightmare be over soon.”

– “I’m not listening, I didn’t see anything and it’s not my problem if I don’t know about it.”

– “How am I going to make any difference here?”

No one will be there to tell you it is okay or that you can handle it, because usually they’re the ones looking to you to provide the answers. However, what you need to remember is that it is okay to have moments of doubt, it is okay to wish you weren’t at work sometimes, and it is okay to look forward to the weekends. The core thing that you need to remember is that fresh-faced manager who came to the job happy and excited by the opportunity of being a manager. Remember why you wanted to become a manager and focus on that positive.

If you did it purely for the money, then remember how it felt to get paid what you felt you were worth. If you did it for the kudos or reputation, focus on the fact that, yes, you are a manager, but, more than that, you are the manager picked to work at that company. If you did it because you felt you were brighter than your peers, or because you could bring real change, then look at the first thing you changed. That won’t be your first command as a manager, but rather that you convinced your employer that you could bring something he or she wanted to the role and that you were the right manager for the job.

Whatever you wanted out of management, it is occasionally good to reflect on the objectives you set yourself. It will help to refocus and centre you during difficult times.

• Why you should never cut corners. Yep, this is another one of those moments where I reiterate what was said earlier – and with good reason. I cannot stress enough how much damage will be done to your ability to manage if you continually cut corners. Take the time to get it right and it will reap rewards for you later on. The first time you will realise this is when one piece of work you completed properly at an earlier date suddenly becomes important in the work you are asked to do. You will be quietly very grateful that you did things right, as it will make completing the new task easier or more straightforward.

• Using your strengths and weaknesses. I regularly attempt to turn my weaknesses to my advantage. For instance, I have no clinical training and state this openly to vets and nurses when I need to discuss clinical matters.

They may have the knowledge, but I bring standards to the debate; using my weakness as a way of getting them to give more clinical input into the conversation, I get a more comprehensive view of a clinical matter while showing them their opinions are not only being listened to, but actively sought out. Be open about a weakness in your abilities or knowledge base to the very people who possess the strength in that area. Use them as a way of achieving your objectives, and give them recognition and praise when they help you achieve your objectives.

It can be the same with your strengths – just because you know how you do something, it doesn’t mean that members of your staff do. Take time occasionally to explain how you came to certain decisions, or why you did things in a certain way. Use your strength in an area as a training aid for others who may not possess your ability. Not only will this help them to formulate their own ideas and increase their knowledge, but it will help them to realise what it is you’re trying to achieve and why.

• The psychology of management. It is all about the long game, the short game, the medium game and any other timerelated comparable for achieving your and the business’ objectives. Patience isn’t just a virtue; it’s an absolute requirement of management.

You won’t win every battle first time, you won’t achieve every objective first time and you most definitely won’t change all the attitudes of employees and employers first time. Sometimes, you have to use psychology in both subtle and blunt ways to manoeuvre the staff below you, and the managers or owners above you, in order to bring about the changes or improvements that you want or the business requires.

A classic way is to test out ideas with people and let them get used to the fact you may want to implement the idea long before you actually do. This gives them the time they may need to psychologically adjust to change. Another way is to almost convince people that your idea is their idea and, therefore, they have had an impact on the business. Whatever psychological tactic you use, just remember that it is a vital piece of your armoury when trying to get the job done.

• Intelligence versus common sense. I have known incredibly intelligent people who couldn’t grasp the concept of how to sign on the dole. Just because your practice has vets or vet owners who have spent five years in veterinary school and have letters after their name, it doesn’t mean they know what they are doing when it comes to managing a business.

You can be an averagely intelligent person with a high level of common sense and have a really positive impact on how the business is run. Remember, intelligence is no substitute for common sense and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. There are many bright ideas that have failed abysmally because someone forgot to use their common sense when working out how to implement the idea.

• Formal certification. This can be a way of furthering your knowledge and training. I would recommend the Certificate in Veterinary Practice Management (CVPM), as it is an industry-focused qualification that will help you to better perform your role. A Masters in Business Administration (MBA) is an excellent qualification for any manager, but is not something that every manager can do. It is very expensive and, if you’re new to management, can be completely overwhelming. If you are an experienced manager who finds yourself working for a practice willing to pay the £10,000 to £15,000 course costs, then the benefits to your management abilities are considerable.

Other management qualifications and training opportunities are available, including NVQs, diplomas and degrees. All these qualifications will help to improve your management skills and should be looked at as a way of helping you to help the practice.

You may also find you can get some or all of the funding for these types of courses through Train to Gain, which can be contacted through your local Business Link.

• Networking and its uses. It can be important to remember that you aren’t the first manager to do this type of job and you won’t be the last. If you get a chance to talk to other managers, take it. It can be a real eye opener to realise you aren’t the only one going through a particular issue or dealing with a particular problem.

It will also help to reinforce your belief in your own management abilities when you find people are asking you for advice on issues they have never dealt with. Beyond that, you will find that getting to know people who may have access to knowledge or resources you don’t can bring real benefits to your business.

• Creating an impact. No matter what you do or what type of manager you are, never underestimate the impact you can have on a business.

Remember, your bosses hired you because you were the best candidate and impressed them the most. That is an impact in its own right. If you get things right and take the view that real change or real improvement takes time, then, gradually, you can radically rewrite the way the entire business operates. From the very ethos of the practice, right down to the basic morale of the staff, your mark will be felt for a very long time.

Believe me, there is no reward greater than seeing the business you manage succeed.