Resolve to give better feedback to staff in 2014
Turnover and hiring are costly. Staff are so important to your practice's patient service, financial performance and overall functioning. Given these things, one of the best investments you can make in your own leadership abilities as a physician owner or practice manager is to develop the skill of delivering effective feedback to employees. The importance of giving effective feedback to staff really can't be overstated. Your ability to nurture better performance and address inadequate performance impacts everything from employee skill development, to team morale, to legal risk. Every aspect practice performance depends on getting the best from your staff, and that depends on giving the right feedback at the right time(s) and in the right way. Giving employee feedback is not easy, and getting really good at it requires effort and focus. But your efforts will be rewarded many times over. One of the best recent summaries I've seen lately on delivering effective feedback comes from the Stanford Graduate School of Business -- a summary of a lecture by Carole Robin. It's a short list of seven pithy tips, and you can act on it now! Highly recommended reading. (A couple of previews: "Do it now" and "Stay on your side of the net." Read the piece for quick explanations of these ideas -- and five more.)