Have you seen the "you are not special" graduation speech that is
flooding the airways right now? It basically tells graduates that they
have been coddled, pampered, received a trophy for showing up and have
been misled to believe that somehow the world owes them something at
this critical stage of the game. That entitlement is a word not a
philosophy of life.
As I talk to people from all over the country who are in healthcare
management, the biggest complaint I hear is that the new generation of
potential employees fail to meet the basic standards needed to ensure
trust in their ability to complete assigned tasks accurately and in a
timely manner without expensive layers of management looming overhead.
We cannot discipline without HR telling us that there is not
sufficient documentation in their personnel file to do so, and hours are
wasted in counseling people to simply do their jobs.
We offer incentive programs to get employees to raise the bar of
productivity and we turn blind eyes to clearly non-productive activity.
Now before you start writing that comment that says, "my employees are not like that".......let's put all this in perspective.
Somewhere in-between "you are mere cogs in the wheel" and "your are
entitled to work and check the latest Facebook updates every 10 minutes"
is that magic middle ground that employees need to hear.
As managers, your first obligation to employees is to clearly outline
to them the expectations in a way that not only gets the message across
but also encourages them to reach outside the box to maximize their
efforts.
Employees best respond to managers who demonstrate the work ethic
they are trying to instill. They respond to fair honesty, they respond
to "I don't have all the answers, give me your ideas of how we can do
this better". They respond to real leadership. Leadership that has clear
goals, is patient centric, and who knows how to inspire employees as
well as teach them new skills.
Accounts receivables does not manage itself, it takes a village to
run a practice, and employees will respond to a raised bar if given the
right tools and right message.