In order to have a successful practice, you need to be set up for success. This set up comes from the team you chose to help run your practice. Learning to invest in your employees is a crucial part of running your own practice, that will ultimately lead to it’s success or failure.
How can you be sure you are investing in your employees in a meaningful way? How can you be sure that your employees are satisfied with their job and that this job is a good fit?
Employee development is becoming increasingly important in companies. Those who are graduating college are looking for companies that take interest in them and continue to develop them. The more you invest in your employees the more they are going to invest in you, your practice, and your patients.
Investing in your employees is as easy as understanding where their strengths and skills lie. You want to be able to form a team of qualified individuals who enjoy the work they are doing, and feel like the job fits their skill sets. No one enjoys doing a job they feel unqualified for.
Strength Finders Assessment
A great tool to use when wanting to understand your employees better is The Clifton StrengthsFinder. The Clifton StrengthsFinder is a powerful online assessment that helps individuals identify, understand, and maximize their strengths.
Dr. Donald Clifton researched positive psychology and found 34 consistent strength themes. Through those themes he created assessment that measured individuals areas of skills.The assessment is comprised of 177 questions that takes about 30 minutes. After you take it you get your top 5 strengths areas as well as developmental tools to help maximize your specific strength profile.
By having your employees learn their strengths you are able to understand the best way to invest in them. You know the best ways to help them develop themselves into being successful.
Don’t Focus On Weaknesses
It is easier to see areas where your employees might be lacking, but it is no help to focus on their weaknesses. You wouldn’t ask a wrench to do the same job you would ask a hammer to. Not only would the task be uncompleted, but both the hammer and wrench would feel like they weren’t being used for what they are designed for. This concept also applies to strengths, you want to gear work towards your employees whose natural strengths lie in those areas. It is better to focus on areas that they are already succeeding in and strengthen those, than work on areas of weakness that isn’t how they naturally work.
This helps solidify your relationships between you and your employees because you are able to better direct them in areas where they need direction, as well as let them handle areas where they succeed. You are able to help develop them into more of who they already are, simply by identifying what they are good at.
Productivity Increases
Knowing strengths helps increase productivity. According to Dr. Clifton’s research People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their work and three times more likely to say they have an excellent quality of life.
Knowing your staff’s strengths will only allow you to invest more deeply in them, as well as help your practice become successful.
