Are you supporting your Practice Manager to continuously develop their skills in General Practice?

Supporting your Practice Manager through continuous learning and development is crucial in creating a supportive environment and getting the best from your manager through empowerment.

Learning is essential to our existence, as it acts as the food that nourishes our minds. Therefore, lifelong learning is an absolutely fundamental tool for every career. Continuing education is specifically important for managers because it equips them with critical thinking skills and knowledge that can help them relate to different people and various situations.
In order to excel in todays environment, it’s a must to keep up with the new IT integration, compliance and legislative guidelines, changes to HR and staff engagement along with recruitment and business development.
Team members who constantly upgrade their skills are better positioned to use the latest technologies and strategies. In turn, they’ll be more innovative and productive. Moreover, they’ll be more engaged and loyal to your business.

There’s no doubt that the cost of education, which involves both time and money, is often prohibitive. However, the practices and their employees who invest in these resources often end up more profitable and long standing.

There are many stats that are thrown around about employee engagement however all in all, roughly 75% of employees feel they are not reaching their full potential at work because of lack of development opportunities.

This is clear that not only employees are missing out, but practice owners are too!

Just a few benefits of providing continuous education to your manager are below;

Adaptability

As we have all experienced in the last 2 years, the mountains of changes that came through the industry (sometimes with very little time to think about it too much) meant that at times managers and owners had to step outside of their comfort zone.

Continuing education will equip our managers with valuable skills that can come in handy when the unexpected happens. You will be able to adapt more easily knowing you have skills and knowledge to step outside of your comfort zone, being on top of all the other areas of your practice. Enabling the manager to lead your team, even through the most uncertain of times.

Increased Marketability (leading to increase profitability for the practice).

Not only having a manager that is eager and showing willingness to learn will set them as individuals up from future growth and opportunity but it also brings this same asset to you and your business.

As forward-thinking business owners, we want our team to be more educated, ahead of the game and on top of the latest technology, advice and strategies which in turn will lead to increase salary and career opportunities. There is a fear out there amongst owners that the more attractive the manager is in skillset the more attractive they are to be poached by a competitor. (We talk about empowerment later on…..) Increased Marketability (leading to increase profitability for the practice).

The benefits will far out way in the practice by having a manager that have continuing education available to them, a pathway to learn and grow and a supportive team (or tools in their toolbox I like to say). The benefits lead to increased profitability, operational efficiencies, greater financial control, the ability to adapt, innovate, and diversify ahead of your competitors.

I would say this far out ways the risk of losing the manager to a competitor when if you take a supportive and empowerment approach retaining your manager will be easy (read on for more tips on this)

Boost confidence in your manager and yourself.

Learning new things gives us a sense of accomplishment and helps us to realise our inner potential. This can give your manager the confidence needed to take on new challenges and explore new ideas. This may also give you as the owner the confidence to expand the practice, take on another site or further services within your centre. Again, leading to great operational and financial management and control (see where I am going with this two pronged benefits!)

Remain relevant (you know up to date, hip as some may say).

With the excitement of all the new ways of doing things post covid along with the changes in the expectations of patients, staff and doctors, we certainly don’t want to be left behind. Ensure that you remain relevant in your industry by staying up to date with current trends and adapting your skill set. Continuing education is the key to helping you learn how to navigate this rapidly changing world of technology, efficiencies and compliance. You as the owner and your manager want to be well-equipped with the skills and knowledge to remain competitive and valuable.

Managers who engage in continuing education are more likely to encourage this same learning among their employees. This is one of the best ways to motivate employees and boost their morale. Employees want to know you are willing to invest in their career and providing learning opportunities is a great way to do so. Continuing education is a great way to prepare you and your team for new responsibilities and opportunities.

Leadership

In simple words, leadership is about taking risks and challenging the status quo. But how do you do this if you, yourself are not continually learning?

Acquiring new skills unveils opportunities to find new and innovative solutions to problems. We go by the term, ‘solutions driven approach’ to everything we do in our clinics. This takes, learning, empowerment, resourcefulness, and courage to achieve.

Furthermore, in acquiring new skills, you will have the opportunity to share these new skills with your team. As you share these ideas, you not only strengthen your team, but you lead them to greater success in their own career.

Lack of growth opportunities is one of the key reasons for employee turnover, and 87% of millennials say professional development is important in a job.

Here are some tips for Owners looking to keep their managers engaged (even on a small budget). Don’t forget, same goes for your managers engaging your team.

       1. Openness to new ideas

When a work group manager is open and inviting about new ideas and opinions from team members, empowerment was significantly better. Taking the time to respectfully listen sends the message that people are valued and respected. Being open and inviting ideas from others will increase empowerment in your team. A great way to do this is in regular staff meetings or in some practices, morning huddles. Use a communication board as a safe place to be open with ideas, this helps capture these in between meetings and is a great way to build an agenda for your upcoming meeting.

      2.  Developing Others 

If your managers are not involving themselves in meetings or adding great ideas and suggestions, it’s possible that they lack knowledge, skills, expertise or experience. It may not be because they don’t care or don’t want to be involved, these types of managers need to develop new skills.

There is a very strong correlation between a practice that shows an emphasis on development and high empowerment throughout a team. Developing team members sends a message that employees are valued and the organisation is willing to invest in them as people.

    3.  Supportive and trusted owner

The skill of a manager to gain the respect and support of the Practice owner was another critical factor. If managers trusted the Practice Owner and felt the Owner “had their back” and would support them, Practice Managers were more likely to feel empowered.

It is the same with a Practice Manager and her team. Being effective in two-way communication and showing a willingness to make changes, are skills generating greater empowerment. Empowerment of a total team requires extra effort and energy from both the Practice Owner and Manager.

    4. Recognition and encouragement

Empowerment requires team members to make some effort and take some risks. Those Owners who recognise and encourage Practice Managers when they see extra effort or risk taking get more of that behaviour in the future. Doing regular meetings between the Practice Manager and owner are important to be able to brainstorm and ‘flesh’ out ideas towards the practice goals. Use this as a time to take some risk, show some recognition and feedback.

A great podcast to listen to is The working life, episode on The Art and science of feedback, looking at the different ways to provide feedback and recognition to your team and understanding not everyone processes this the same.

    5. Positive work culture

You will find me always ‘harping’ on about values here. The values of your practice are a very important factor in creating a positive culture. When your team, right from the owner, through the practice manager are aligned and following the practice values, the practice is set to succeed in a positive culture.

When the work culture was positive, where people felt valued and respected, empowerment was higher. When the work environment was full of conflict, lack of structure and no clear boundaries of values empowerment was much lower.

By showing the values through the relationship between the upper management team this almost always shows a positive culture throughout the entire team.

    6. Giving Practice Managers authority through a solid role profile and clear expectations

When a team member has the authority to make a decision, they feel more empowered. If they make a decision that gets reversed by the Owner of the business, the empowerment dissipates.

This point does come hand in hand with showing support and gaining trust as the owner the business.

The Practice Owners has a duty to ensure that employees are skilled and knowledgeable enough to make a good decision before they are given authority. The more control people have over their work and how it is done, the higher their sense of empowerment.

Taking risks, being solutions driven, putting forward ideas and strategies and having the added empowerment to execute and follow through is a solid overview of this authority.

There are many tools out there for your Practice Manager, some more engaging and encouraging then others. Keep your lines of communication open, look at the training offered before the discipline actions (the old saying ‘you don’t know, what you don’t know’).

Forums can offer advice and guidance but can also sometimes promote negative and often conflicting views. The practice Managers association will provide a guidelines and updates that are industry specific benefiting the Manager and the Owner alike

For a more tailored approach in providing support, look for a Practice Management coach or mentor to support you as the Practice Owner and/or Practice Manager through your practice strategies, action plans, goal creation and execution. The role of a Practice Manager is one that is forever changing, diversifying and all about innovation. The role is not alike any other practice and often is tailored to the individual Practice Managers skillsets or Practice Owners perceived needs, sometimes adding additional costs through more bums on seats to fill a gap in learning. Spending the time to develop your Practice Manager ultimately helps in developing the practice as a whole.

For advice on Coaching and mentoring, book a FREE discovery call jump here: https://meetings.salesmate.io/meetings/#/practicepartners1/scheduler/free-discovery-call