STAFF - Key PEOPLE Principle #1 – The Right Person

What DO successful practices do to get the right people on their team and get the wrong people off their team?   

There are probably as many approaches to finding good employees as there are practices.  Most of us have come up with a way to hire, fire, and review our staff through some form of trial and error.  But the doctors who develop high performance teams, all eventually seem to converge towards a similar approach. And whether they know it or not, the same set of key principles.  Their styles may differ, but the principles are the same.

All of us want the best people for our staff.  So, in the next three blogs, I’ll review what I consider are three Key “People Principles” in getting and keeping the Best People for our team.  Even though you may already be following these guidelines, it’s good to be reminded what makes great teams possible.

So, who are the right people and the wrong people for our practice?  What ARE the most important qualities that we need to consider when not just hiring, but also retaining someone on our staff?

When it comes to getting the best people on our team, here’s my Key PEOPLE Principle #1:

Successful practices with great teams

hire and retain “good heads” & “good hearts”,

not necessarily just “good hands”.

In other words, great team leaders come to understand that hiring the right TYPE of person is more important than getting the best SKILLED person.

So, who are the people with “good heads”?  They’re smart people - people who can learn quickly and figure things out for themselves.  We give a lot of autonomy to our employees and expect them to handle everything with intelligence and professionalism.  So, we need someone who is able to master their role quickly and solve challenging situations on their own without constantly asking us, “What should I do, Doc?”

Who are the people with “good hearts”? They’re compassionate people, that is, staff who naturally know how to treat others right.  They’re the assistants who are not going to upset the patients, family members or other staff in our practice, because somewhere in their upbringing, they’ve learned what it means to treat others with compassion, courtesy and respect.

Who are people with “good hands”?  Obviously, they’re any applicant who already has the technical skills and experience needed for their position.  For example, when we need a new employee, it’s natural to think that we need only the well-trained person who could step right in and help us treat the patients immediately.  However, practices that over-value and hire only employees with experience may soon discover that these are the same people who later will create interpersonal problems with other staff and patients. 

So, when hiring, it’s great if we can get all three,

but it is essential that we get the first two.

 The management expert Jim Collins, sums it up by saying, “Whether someone is the ‘right person’ has more to do with character traits and innate capabilities than with specific knowledge, background, or skills.”  We can usually train the staff to acquire the skills they need to do well, but we can’t train people to have “good heads” or “good hearts”.

So, what’s the best way to hire the good heads and hearts?

It’s to have a comprehensive & rigorous hiring process.  This process should include a reference checks, a telephone screening interview, a doctor face-to-face interview and a full day (or half day) working in the practice.  This time in the office is to give the staff an opportunity to know whether the applicant is a good fit for the team culture.

Remember, one of the hallmarks of having a great team is that decisions like this are made by the leader and the team and not by the leader alone.  To select the right applicant, the staff needs to be deeply involved in the interview process and be an integral part of the final decision.  If everyone has a voice, then everyone can fully commit to welcoming and training this new person to become a valued member of the team.

Practices that hire good, well-intentioned people (“good hearts”) and those who can learn to solve the everyday issues (“good heads”), find that their interpersonal problems usually disappear. These thoughtful, considerate, problem-solvers are instrumental in contributing to a cohesive team and taking the practice to a higher level.

But we have to ask ourselves, is that enough?  Is it enough just to be a good person.  In the next blog, I’ll discuss one additional trait that needs to be present when hiring and retaining the best people.

Next: Key “People” Principle #2 – The Motivated Person