Over the past three years, we have become familiar with the term “Great Resignation,” where record numbers of workers voluntarily quit their jobs. In our practices, we may fear that at any time a team member will announce they are leaving.

A 2009 presentation at the Disney Institute contended that the number one reason team members quit is not salary, customers, or the workload. The main reason people leave is the leader and/or the culture the leader has created. In my experience, this continues to be the major reason why these team members leave.

If I learned anything from what has happened since March 13, 2020, it was if I wanted my team to stay with me, I had to become a better leader, one who established a culture that gave team members space to grow, included them in business decisions, and gave us all time to breathe. Here, I will summarize six steps that can create a framework for a culture that can encourage staff retention.

1 ACT ON YOUR TEAM’S STRENGTHS

Knowing what your team is good at is crucial for running your practice, and it can also help ensure they stay.

At my practice, we started a new assessment tool called The Six Types of Working Genius, by the Table Group, which evaluates what kind of work employees enjoy doing and what tasks they find draining. Other similar tools include DISC, Strengths Finder, and the Myers Briggs personality test.

We recently used our assessment tool to help place a team member hired for the optical, but who found she didn’t like the work and was ready to leave. We found out she was more suited to working with our clinic team. We moved her there as soon as we had availability, and she was much happier there and adapted to her new tasks quicker than most in the role.

2 INVEST IN YOUR TEAM

When I decide to take my staff to a meeting (e.g., SECO, The Vision Source Exchange, a local education meeting), I am investing time and money in them, so they can grow as professionals. I want them to seek growth and knowledge and learn how to deliver a “wow” experience to our guests, as well as make them grow closer as a team.

When at these meetings, I highly recommend you and your team also attend a few talks revolving around practice culture. These opportunities spark great conversations between you and your team members to help create the culture you all wish to have in the practice. I’ve had many productive conversations like this with my team after we’ve attended such courses together.

3 BE VULNERABLE

While we need to be leaders of our practices, our teams want us to be vulnerable with them: To be self-aware enough to know we don’t have all the answers. The belief that we are to “leave our challenges at the door” and “buck up buttercup” for the day ahead is not realistic. The staff need to see you being human and vulnerable and to know it is OK for them to be human and vulnerable, too. One of the best vulnerability tools I can tell you about is from a book called The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni. This is based around asking someone three questions:

• Where did you grow up?
• How many siblings do you have and where are you in the order?
• What was the most difficult thing to overcome in your childhood?

Sharing personal histories is a great way to unify a team. We did this in my office and I was amazed at the similar backgrounds of those who had been at each other’s throats (behind their backs). It gave team members a chance to see their commonalities, what shaped them into who they are today, and gave them more compassion for each other.

Further, according to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, “leaders who create the space for true vulnerability build psychologically safe work environments in which people feel welcome to be themselves,” and that those employees make more valuable contributions to the work place. (See bit.ly/HBRvulnerable ).

The practice is still your responsibility, but it’s OK to admit that there’s a lot of exhaustion and frustration in the world, as well. For instance, I’ve started my daily meeting with personal issues, like, “I did not get a great night sleep last night because the cat coughed up a hairball at 3 a.m. and I was trying to get her to the hardwood before she cast it all over the duvet.”

4 GIVE TIME FOR GROUP DISCUSSION

It’s natural for your staff members to want to feel heard, and you need to make time for this to happen by scheduling time for it as a group, as well as individually (more on that in the section on “Engage Your Team”). As a group, create a few meetings during which people can talk about what’s on their mind.

At my practice, the first meeting is the Daily Stand-Up Meeting. This is just like it sounds and should happen at the very beginning of the day before the arrival of any guests (our practice’s term for patients). It lets us identify the challenges and openings in our schedule, remind the team of what new things are starting today, and gives time for the team to share a win (e.g., “My child set a new record for the high school swim team last night.”). It gets things focused on the day ahead and lets us unload the other stuff before we get started.

The next meeting is our weekly office meeting. We do ours on Wednesday morning from 8:25 to 9:25. The doors are locked and the phone goes to voicemail. When someone tries to come in the front door (which is locked and has a great big sign saying we’re having a meeting and will open at 9:30), we don’t answer it. That time is valuable and belongs to the team. We review our goals and where we are, and talk about issues facing the practice, such as:

• The difference between a medical exam and a vision exam and why we bill medical to health insurance and visual health items to the vision plan.
• New products we are launching (costs, uses, etc.).
• Policy changes we are making or should make.

The last team meeting is held offsite, either quarterly or semiannually. During this time, again, the office is closed and the phone goes to voicemail, with the on-call doctor listed as the emergency number. We now have all day to dig into building trust, dealing with conflict, making decisions around those conflicts, holding one another accountable, and putting our practice first, above the different departments and individuals.

When people have these issues dealt with, they are now tied to one another and the practice, and they are less likely to leave for a few dollars more.

5 ENGAGE YOUR TEAM PERSONALLY

Several years ago, my practice had a visit from a friend of mine who was a contact lens sales rep (though not for any companies we were then doing business with). My friend said from the moment he walked in, he could tell we had a great office from how engaged I was with our team, and that most practices with that kind of leadership engagement were very successful. However, in those practices that appeared to be struggling, the leaders were doing everything they could to avoid their teams.

This engagement with my team members comes from a long tradition of holding one-on-one meetings with staff. During these meetings, I would typically ask three questions:

1. What have you been/are you working on?
2. How is that going?
3. What can I do to help?

Team members are often shocked to find out we care what they are involved with daily, what the progress is, and where they needed help getting past obstacles. Usually, the answer to question number three was, “Nothing. I got it.” But many times, it was they needed help, or instrumentation, or just someone to listen to them and to know they weren’t alone in whatever was troubling them (empathy, right?).

Recently, I have graduated to some higher-level questions such as:

• If we could resolve one issue to improve your role, what would it be?
• Tell me one thing that I do which drives you crazy? And what is one thing you never want me to stop doing?
• What is one thing you feel like you need from me that you have not been getting?
• How do you feel set up to win in your role? Set up to lose in your role?
• What are your top three suggestions for how I can be a better leader for our organization?

These questions are not only for the team member’s benefit. These questions allow them to hold up the mirror for me to view myself, to be more self-aware of how I am leading them. I still take time to give feedback. But we look at this time together as a coaching session for us both.

6 HOLD YOUR TEAM ACCOUNTABLE

This part is going to be tough to read, but telling people what they need to hear is very important to holding on to the people you wish to keep. Let me explain.

First, the team wants to know where they stand, if they are doing a good job, and where they can improve. Not telling a particular team member they are not performing up to par to spare their feelings is not being kind – it is hurting them.

The moment an OD realizes a staff member is on the wrong path, I recommend going to them, showing some love and grace (they may not know they are doing some offense), and put them on the right path. Keeping information to yourself that will keep someone from getting fired is just plain cruel.

The problem is leaders will say, “Oh, I’ll just tell them later,” and forget. The next time the leader sees the problem resurface, it’s the team member’s birthday, or their pet is at the vet, or any myriad of excuses. Sometimes, when the leader finally decides to act, it’s when they just can’t take it anymore and then their frustration gets in the way of their judgment.

The second reason you must hold the team accountable is you will lose all the good people on your team. Great team members will not put up with the mediocre ones. They work hard to give a great experience, get stuff done, and make the practice look great for the guests. When the poor work ethic, or low attention to detail, or bad attitudes are tolerated, the great people go to where great work ethic, high attention to detail, and positive attitudes are appreciated. Also, if the leader is holding people accountable, the team will be more likely to hold each other accountable. This puts way less pressure on the leader to always be the heavy. But the paradox is the leader must prove they will hold the team accountable before the team will hold each other accountable.

BUILDING AN AMAZING TEAM

It is daunting to try to tell you the best way hang on to your people in such a short article. There are so many things that need to be told, but if you keep focused on the steps above you will find more and more of your staff will be staying.

I have heard many colleagues say, “Well, even if I invest in them, they are going to just leave.”

I ask them, would they rather invest in a team member and help them become amazing, with the risk they might leave, or have a team that never improves? For me, I’d rather have an amazing team. OM

DR. MCELROY practices in Tifton, GA at Vision Source Tifton. He regularly speaks at optometry and industry conferences, both nationally and internationally. He is also an administrator for Vision Source.