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Assessing, improving your physician management style, part 3
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Finally, I’d like you to score yourself on the following quiz, filling in the blank lines with one of the following four words:
“Always” — 3 points
“Sometimes” — 2 Points
“Rarely” — 1 Point
“Never” — 0 Points
1. I ___________ ask for something by saying “please.”
2. I ___________ acknowledge something provided to me by saying “thank you.”
3. I ___________ praise staff publicly and with sincerity. Even if I have to fake it.
4. I ___________ reprimand privately, and through supervisors whenever possible.
5. I ___________ accept personal responsibility for anything that’s going wrong with the practice and attribute to staff responsibility for anything that’s going right.
6. I ___________ believe that everyone is trying to be the best they can be. If they fall behind, it’s either because they were not correctly selected for the job, not correctly trained or not correctly motivated.
7. Rather than getting mad at staff, I _________substitute time I’d spend grousing with meaningful personal work to correct the problem.
8. I ____________ speak kindly and respectfully of (and to) others, even when they disappoint me.
9. If I was unhappy about a tech’s performance, I would ____________ see myself saying to my administrator or head tech something like, “I know we were really short of techs when Susan was hired, and that she’s probably trying her best, but I’m a little concerned about her progress here. What do you think we should do?”
Give yourself the appropriate points for each answer, and add up your score. A score from 0 to 12 means you may need a “personality coach.” I’m not joking. Select a trusted staff member or colleague, let them in on your score and your desire to change, and empower them to give you their honest assessment of your progress at the end of each working day.
A score between 13 and 24 means you have room for improvement, but can probably “self-coach” yourself toward being a more effective physician-manager. It’s certainly worth the effort. Even if you’re missing out on only 10% of your employees’ potential performance because of your management style, this could translate to a five- or six-figure personal income loss each year.
A score above 24 probably means you should be writing this blog, not reading it. Keep up the good work!
Click here to read part 1 and part 2 of this blog series, Assessing, improving your physician management style.
John B. Pinto is president of J. Pinto & Associates Inc., an ophthalmic practice management consulting firm established in 1979. John is the country’s most-published author on ophthalmology management topics. He is the author of John Pinto’s Little Green Book of Ophthalmology, Turnaround: 21 Weeks to Ophthalmic Practice Survival and Permanent Improvement, Cashflow: The Practical Art of Earning More From Your Ophthalmology Practice, The Efficient Ophthalmologist, The Women of Ophthalmology, Legal Issues in Ophthalmology and a new book, Ophthalmic Leadership: A Practical Guide for Physicians, Administrators and Teams. He can be reached at 619-223-2233; email: pintoinc@aol.com; website: www.pintoinc.com.