Physiatry Practice Management Resources

Laura Sachs, B.A

Generous helpings of praise and criticism are key ingredients for good staff management and motivation. Unfortunately, most employees muddle along day after day without any clue as to how they’re doing. Thus, their bad habits and mistakes continue, and their best efforts and achievements go unrewarded.

Many employers feel uncomfortable facing their staff with comments about their performance, either positive or negative. They assume, incorrectly, that employees already knows how they’re doing. They take good work for granted and curse the bad work silently, to themselves.

Clearly, anyone supervising others needs to learn how to give feedback sensitively, at the right time, and in the right way. With practice and guidance, praise and constructive criticism will become second nature and a great tool for boosting morale and performance.

Why Praise is Important

A few well-chosen, well-timed words from you can sometimes do more for an employee’s morale than money, promotions, or other tangible rewards. But in most cases, the little feedback employees receive from their supervisors concentrates on their weaknesses and mistakes.

Although criticism is important, the boss who never seems to remember good work may be his or her own worst enemy. Over time, employees will feel unappreciated, defensive, and angry and will reduce their efforts.

. . . most employees muddle along day after day without any clue as to how they’re doing.

10 Tips For Giving More Positie Feedback

Praise should not be limited to formal performance reviews but doled out generously on a regular basis. Listed below are ten specific ways to give positive feedback:

1. Keep a written record of each employee’s good work, such as meeting deadlines, developing good relationships with patients, or mastering new skills. Keep these lists in your personnel files and refer to them at performance reviews.

2. Praise good work publicly when you can. For example, you might congratulate successful efforts at staff meetings.

3. At the performance review, ask the employee what he or she has done right since the last review. This is your chance to catch up and reward good performance you haven’t noticed.

4. Catch your staff doing something right and commend them for it. Don’t look only for monumental efforts or results. Each of us is proud of our accomplishments, whether large or small, and values recognition.

. . . anyone supervising others needs to learn how to give feedback sensitively. . .

5. Be specific with praise. Use the same approach you’d use if they’d made a mistake, only tell them the good things they’ve done. For example, instead of saying, vaguely, “You’re very good with kids,” you might say, “I’m very impressed with the way you handled Alicia Hills this morning. She was very frightened but you turned her around in no time. Great going!”

6. Praise promptly. If too much time elapses, you may avoid saying anything because you’re embarrassed. Or, you do say something and the employee wonders why you’re just now getting around to it.

7. Don’t overdo it. Too much praise seems insincere and is just as ineffective as too little.

8. Praise employees for specific things they’ve done, but from time to time, let them know that you also appreciate them for who they are. Tell each person how important he or she is to you and your practice overall, and why. For example, write a personal note of thanks to each employee at Thanksgiving, enumerating the many reasons you are thankful to have him or her in your practice.

9. When the employee accomplishes something important, put your praise in writing. A letter of commendation or thank you card sent to the employee’s home (with a copy in the personnel file) can be extremely effective (See sample letter, Fig. 1).

10. Praise your staff as a whole, but also look for chances to praise and reward individuals for their outstanding efforts and achievements.

Response to Praise can Help You Increase Productivity

The next time you praise a member of your staff, study the reactions you receive. Praise triggers reactions from the deepest parts of the personality. Knowing what makes people tick, based upon their reactions to praise, can be a great help in unlocking their potential.

The important thing to look for is not so much the response to an isolated incident, but rather, the pattern of reactions to praise. Although there are of course exceptions, the following is often true:

• People who respond to praise with disbelief often try hard to be accepted by those around them. They’re often willing workers who are eager to please.

• People who turn praise into a joke are usually trying to keep a certain distance from you and others around them. They value privacy and make it hard to others to form close relationships with them on the job. Similarly, employees who make light of or belittle their own good work may want to avoid the spotlight.

The next time you praise a member of your staff, study the reactions you receive.

• People who pass on a share of the credit to others generally enjoy teamwork and work well with others.

• People who respond with embarrassment are usually sensitive, hard-working, and trustworthy employees. However, you may find it hard to supervise them without hurting their feelings or embarrassing them from time to time.

• People who react by changing the subject and continuing with the business at hand are often no-nonsense achievers, independent thinkers, and potentially, well-organized managers.

• People who accept praise graciously and easily are generally assertive, independent, and well-satisfied with their own performance. Such people may have the potential to take on more responsibility.

Never criticize a staff member in a chance encounter or in front of other employees or patients.

Giving Criticism That Gets Results

Few people like to be criticized. However, you’ll find that your staff will accept criticism more willingly if you offer it in a constructive, rather than a destructive manner.

The following guidelines will help you obtain the results you want without making employees feel “put down,” angry, or alienated:

1. Choose a good time to discuss employee problems. Never criticize a staff member in a chance encounter or in front of other employees or patients. Avoid coming down on employees when you or they are in the middle of major work or a personal crisis. And, don’t have a talk at the end of the work week, when the employee is likely to go home and stew over your criticisms all weekend.

2. Pinpoint the specific behavior(s) you want to criticize. Be precise and use a concrete example. For instance, don’t give general criticism like, “You always misplace things.” Rather, say, “You misplaced Mrs. Brown’s file. That’s the fourth file you’ve misplaced this week.”

3. Criticize the act, not the person. For instance, say, “The file drawer is very disorganized,” not, “You’re a slob.” Or say, “You’ve refused to work overtime three times this month,” not, “You’re lazy.”

4. Be certain the change you seek is possible. Don’t ask for results the employee is unable or unwilling to make. For example, don’t say, “Would you please stop blowing your nose? That allergy of yours is driving us nuts.” Rather, you might suggest, “Might you be able to blow your nose away from patients? They may not know you have allergies and assume you’re sick—and contagious.”

5. Offer the person motivation to improve. Will your criticism help that individual grow personally, achieve greater success, make the job run more smoothly, improve his or her relationship with you or others, or offer some other benefit? If so, focus on this positive aspect. For example, you might say, “Re-filing patient’s files promptly and correctly will make it much easier for all of us to find the files when we need them.”

6. State clearly what you want the person to do, and when possible, establish deadlines for results. Again, be as specific as you can. Spell out the precise changes you’d like to see. For example, don’t say, “Please be more considerate.” Instead, say, “Please wait to take your lunch break until you know the phone and reception desk are covered.”

7. Make sure you are understood. If in doubt, ask the person to repeat your criticism in his or her own words.

8. When appropriate, state your criticism as opinion, not proven fact. That will make it easier to take. For example, don’t state as fact, “You don’t try hard enough.” Instead, offer the opinion, “It seems to me that you could try harder when . . .”

9. Indicate your willingness to work with the individual to improve. When appropriate, admit some responsibility for management failure, and try to find joint solutions.

10. Curb your anger. Body language and voice tone convey your attitude as much as what you say. Even the most constructive criticism loses its effectiveness when delivered through clenched teeth.

11. Don’t criticize with humor or sarcasm. It only weakens the impact of your criticism and can backfire by making the employee think the criticism isn’t serious.

12. Avoid comparing the employee to other staff members, or to his or her “infallible” predecessor. Each person is unique. Comparisons almost always cause hurt, and make co-workers competitive and resentful of one another.

Criticize the act, not the person.

13. Don’t exaggerate. Telling an assistant she “never” fills out forms correctly, when of course she does sometimes, may result in your total message being ignored.

14. Don’t assume you know all the facts. Before you criticize an employee, make sure you know why he or she behaves the way he or she did. You may find that your employee’s behavior was caused by factors outside his or her control, such as office policy, other employees—even you.

15. Don’t save criticism. Storing up complaints and dumping them all at once can be devastating. n