Culture and show more love? What does this mean? Although 2022 has not been marked by on-going or sporadic lockdowns, it has been an extremely challenging time running a service based business that is customer facing. Staff illness, due to COVID or other illness, customer illness and cancellations has made revenue unpredictable and the supply of services inconsistent. There have been times this year (on more than one occasion) where we have had to provide services with half of our staff away on either pre-planned annual leave or unexpected sick leave. This has put an enormous amount of pressure on all the other staff, more anxiety, and due to the stress, more illness.
All the staff are working extremely hard with the added work and financial pressure just keeping up with the day-to-day activities, forget about adding more “stuff” such as building team activities on top of the mix.
It was at the start of this quarter, in our branch management meeting that we discussed, as a team, that this is exactly the time, that we need to double down and work on the welfare and moral of our staff and group as a whole.
In reviewing Tristan White’s book, Culture is Everything, in particular the section Show more love, that we began to make the following changes
Regular check-in when they have had a tough day
When we have seen that a junior (or fellow senior) staff member has had a tough day, due to the number of clients they have helped or the complexity of the clients they have seen (or a senior staff member has had to have a tough conversation with a staff member) an additional phone call from their direct manager has made an enormous difference.
For me it has meant making an additional phone call in the car on the way home after my time at work to talk to a staff member. I have not needed to solve any problems, often just listen and let them reflect and discuss the complicated situation they have had to face or the emotions they had to work through during the day. That little bit of acknowledging and discussing their feelings has made a huge reduction in their anxiety and their stress levels.
In addition, that warm, sincere thank you or acknowledgement of their effort from a senior manager is a huge moral boost for a staff member who is made to feel that “they matter” and their work has made a difference that day.
I was not doing this regularly enough at the start of the year and this was mentioned in an exit interview by a staff member, that it would have made them feel more important and acknowledged if this was a regular habit. Although it was tough to hear at the time, I took it on the chin and realized, I could do better as a manager with a little extra effort and a better listening ear.
This minor change has already had benefits, with surprising and positive conversations with hard working and dedicated staff members
Are you regularly calling and talking to your direct staff members when they have had a difficult or complex day?
Budget when things go wrong
This was a great concept I learnt from both Tristan White and Tom Peters’ book, The little big things. Tom discussed the “unlimited budget for flowers” for when things go wrong. The concept is to have a budget to send flowers (other appropriate gifts) to staff members when they are unwell or something stressful has happened in their life. Again, whilst they are going through a time of stress and anxiety, making them feel that they are important and acknowledged goes a huge way in making an improvement in their mental health at a time of need and stress.
Recently, when one of our staff members was away with an injury, one of our branch manager’s organized a special hamper of chocolates, which went a long way.
Another time, a few months ago, a branch manager organized flowers to be delivered to a staff member who was unwell. Unfortunately, they forgot to write a message in the note, so the flowers were delivered late at night, with only the manager’s name on the message. This led to an awkward, but very funny conversation between the two staff members the next day (and a lot of laughs for the other senior staff).
What budget have you set aside to make your staff members feel good and appreciated when something goes wrong?
Work on the team culture, especially when there is underlying friction
About 3 months ago, when there had been a few staff members leave and change in one of our branches, there had been a noticeable change in the “feel” working in that branch. Although the actual work ran smoothly, staff had noticed a change from a fun and warm workplace to a very work focused culture, a “colder” place to be.
Again, although it was uncomfortable to hear this feedback, especially seeing that we had worked on having a great culture in that practice in the past, it did mean digging into the uncomfortable and getting to know each other as a team once again.
We started by using some of our regular branch meeting for team building instead. Using Patrick Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a team as a model, we began with the simple exercise of getting to know each other through a personal histories exercises. This is an amazing process, because even when teams have worked together for many years, this exercise always allows the members to get to know each other a little bit more and breakdown a few barriers.
Next, we went through and discussed each other’s personality profiles in detail, specifically, each member’s biggest strength and biggest weakness. This allowed the other staff members to really see how each particular staff member “saw the world” and how they like and don’t like to be treated.
Although there are other parts to the process, the last most important part was getting to know and understanding each individual’s communication do’s and don’ts. This was extremely important in the building of trust and so that each person felt “heard” during each conversation and meeting. It made sure that the louder and more direct staff members did not dominate a conversation and the quieter and deeper thinking staff members got a say and were not ignored.
The result was an enormous change in the group dynamic. The team really started working together in a cohesive manner and it became a “fun” place to work once again.
This program was so successful that it was rolled out to all the other branches, with almost immediate improvements in culture within weeks of starting the process.
Are you spending time, as a team, getting to know each other a bit more to build more trust?
If you would like to read more articles on business and leadership, visit:
References:
Lencioni P (2002) 5 Dysfunctions of a team
Peters, T (2012) The Little big things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence
Join the discussion and have your say?
- Comment below!
- Call us on (03) 9857 0644 or (07) 3505 1494 (Paddington)
- Email us at admin@mdhealth.com.au
- Check out our other Health Business blog posts here
Our clinical staff would be happy to have chat if you have any questions.
