A great medical practice team doesn’t require employees who all think alike.

In fact, you need different strengths. You need someone willing to make a decision when the office is stuck. You need someone who catches the detail everyone else missed. You need employees who build relationships, and you need people who see possibilities nobody else considered.

The management challenge is getting those different people to communicate and work together effectively.

AHRQ’s current TeamSTEPPS program is built around this principle. The evidence-based program is designed to improve communication and teamwork among healthcare teams to support better patient outcomes.

Build Your Team Around Complementary Strengths

It can be tempting to value employees who work the way you work. If you’re extremely detail-oriented, the employee who asks numerous questions may seem thorough while the employee generating ideas seems scattered. A fast-moving manager may have exactly the opposite reaction.

That’s dangerous because your practice benefits from complementary strengths. Don’t try to build a team composed of only one personality style – different styles bring different strengths to an organization.

Your goal isn’t to create identical employees. Your goal is to build systems that allow different employees to contribute their strengths while meeting the same performance standards.

Make Meetings Work for More Than the Loudest Person

Look closely at your staff meetings. Who does most of the talking? Who immediately answers every question? Who rarely contributes until after the meeting?

You may be unintentionally designing meetings for one communication style. Instead, send complex topics ahead of time so reflective employees can prepare. Provide an agenda so detail-oriented employees know what will be covered, while keeping the meeting focused enough that action-oriented employees don’t disengage.

At the end, clearly identify decisions, responsibilities and deadlines. A good meeting isn’t one where everyone talked; it’s one where everyone understands what happens next.

Match Your Message to the Employee

The same management message can be framed differently without changing its substance.

Suppose you’re changing your practice’s insurance verification workflow. With an action-oriented employee, start with the result: “Beginning Monday, insurance must be verified two business days before the appointment.” With a big-picture employee, explain the objective: “We’re changing verification so we can catch coverage problems before patients arrive.”

With a relationship-focused employee, explain the impact on staff and patients and give them time to absorb the change. With a detail-focused employee, provide the written workflow, exceptions and escalation procedure.

Everyone ultimately receives the same required information. You’re simply changing how you introduce and explain it.

Use Clear Communication for High-Risk Work

Adapting your communication style doesn’t mean withholding important details because an employee “isn’t a details person.” Healthcare work requires accuracy, and critical information must still be communicated.

AHRQ recommends healthcare communication that is complete, clear, brief, timely and respectful. When a task involves patient care, compliance, billing, medication, test results or another high-risk activity, clarity and confirmation should take priority over personality preference.

Consider using standardized handoffs, written procedures, check-backs and other closed-loop communication techniques for critical tasks. Personalize the delivery—not the underlying safety standard.

Change the Way You Introduce Change

Few things reveal communication differences faster than a workflow change.

Your action-oriented employee may say, “Fine. When do we start?” Your detail-oriented employee may immediately identify six unanswered questions. Your people-oriented employee may wonder how coworkers will react, while your big-picture employee may start suggesting ways to redesign the entire process.

Don’t treat these reactions as resistance. Use them.

Ask your fast-moving employee to help identify the fastest implementation path. Ask your detail-oriented employee to review the procedure for gaps. Ask your people-focused employee where staff may need additional support. Ask your big-picture employee whether there is a better way to achieve the objective.

Now personality differences become implementation resources rather than management problems.

Give Feedback in a Way Employees Can Use

Performance feedback should still be specific and consistent, but your delivery can influence how well an employee hears it.

A results-focused employee may respond best to the issue, expected outcome and action required. A relationship-oriented employee may need reassurance that the discussion is about correcting a particular behavior—not damaging the working relationship.

A detail-oriented employee will probably want examples and evidence. A big-picture employee may benefit from understanding how changing the behavior contributes to a larger team or practice goal.

Don’t soften a serious performance issue until the message becomes unclear. Adapt your delivery while keeping expectations unmistakable.

Don’t Use Personality Assessments as a Shortcut for Managing People

Formal assessments can be useful development tools when appropriately selected and administered, but they should not become substitutes for observing employee performance and communicating directly.

The American Psychological Association advises evaluating workplace assessments for reliability, validity and fairness. Even the MBTI’s professional ethical guidance warns against treating personality preferences as absolutes and states that its results should not be used to screen applicants for employment.

Employers should also understand applicable employment-law requirements when using tests for employment decisions. The EEOC explains that federal antidiscrimination laws apply to employment testing and selection procedures, including personality tests, and the ADA restricts disability-related inquiries and medical examinations.

For day-to-day management, focus first on what you can actually observe: how employees communicate, how they perform their responsibilities and what helps them work effectively with others.

Create a Communication Standard for Your Practice

Individual flexibility works best when your entire practice also has common communication expectations.

Decide what “good communication” means in your office. For example, employees may be expected to communicate respectfully, acknowledge urgent messages, confirm high-risk instructions, document required information, raise concerns promptly and clearly identify when a task has been handed off.

AHRQ’s TeamSTEPPS resources are useful here because they were developed specifically for healthcare teams and include tools addressing communication, leadership, situation monitoring and mutual support.

Once you establish the standard, train your team on it and reinforce it consistently.

Turn Different Personalities Into a Practice Advantage

The next time an employee responds differently than you expected, don’t immediately try to correct the difference. Get curious about it.

Ask whether the employee needs more information, less information, more time, a clearer goal or an opportunity to discuss the issue. Then adjust your approach without lowering the performance standard.

The strongest medical practice isn’t necessarily the one where everyone thinks alike. It’s the one where employees with different strengths know how to communicate, coordinate and get the job done together.

Keep Your Team Current With an All-Access Pass Great teamwork requires more than good communication. Your employees also need current knowledge to keep up with Medicare fee schedule updates, coding changes, payer requirements, HIPAA, OSHA, billing compliance, credentialing and other regulatory issues that affect your practice. With a Healthcare Training Leader All-Access Pass, your team can access expert training throughout the year instead of waiting until a knowledge gap becomes a costly problem. Keep your employees learning, your procedures current and your practice better prepared for the next healthcare change.

 

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