Remarks
Personality Profiling
Understanding your employees’
personalities—and your own—can help you manage your
practice effectively.
Have you ever had an employee in your
medical office about whom you keep thinking, “She is
pretty efficient at ‘this,’ but she can’t
seem to grasp ‘that’?” When you hire someone,
you would like that person to perform 100 percent of her duties
well since you are paying 100 percent of her salary. If every
employee is 100 percent efficient, then your office is 100
percent efficient. Perhaps when you consider employees’
personality profiles you can better engage them in the tasks
they both enjoy and can perform efficiently.
I am not going to try to tell you
what personality profiling is. As a physician, you are probably
more aware of that than the rest of the population. I am going
to discuss how you can use personality profiling to benefit
your relationship with your employees and make your office more
efficient.
In my position in sales, I try to
bring the basic DISC system into play in all my personal
interactions with clients, business partners, and co-workers.
If you have the ability to quickly assess the personality and
current mood of patients and office staff, would it not improve
the interaction? What I am referring to is basic, quick
interpretive thinking and not a time-consuming practice.
You are probably familiar with DISC,
but allow me a few minutes to set all this up. Originated in
the late 1920s by Professor William Martson of Harvard
University, DISC has been extensively enhanced and is now one
of the most widely accepted assessment tools in use today. It
is also relatively easy to apply compared with other assessment
types. The four prominent personality types are:
D - dominating
I - influencer
S - steadiness
C - compliance
Now, how you might apply this to
working with your patients is potentially a huge subject we
could discuss for weeks and months. Since you may not want to
stay with me quite that long, let’s just concentrate on
applying this to your staff in your medical office. When your
staff is in harmony, your patients are treated well and your
day goes a lot better.
First, as I mentioned, I am in sales
and not an expert in personality profiling. It is simply a
practice I use daily. You can certainly bring professionals
into the picture if you wish. It is a philosophy you can expand
however you see fit. Understanding your own personality type
and the types of people you work with on a daily basis is
imperative if you wish to create a successful business model.
Hiring people who are not truly interested in and suited for
the job can be very expensive and encourages turnover. We must
not only select individuals who serve a need and work
harmoniously with other individuals, but also draw out of their
duties a sense of satisfaction and a feeling they are reaching
their full potential. This diminishes turnover.
Now let’s see how DISC can
work. A lot of you, being physicians, will probably be in the
high “D” category. You are going to be the driving
force for everyone else—the quarterback for your
team—the chief. You are innovative and organized and want
quick results. You want everything abbreviated because you have
the ability to quickly assess a situation and make a rapid
decision. You change your mind very infrequently. These are
also qualities of some top producing sales people.
I worked with a physician who had
two “Ds” on his staff. It was an office with six
staff members and, while both of these Ds performed
efficiently, they were often butting heads with each other.
This did not promote harmony in the office. A third employee
quit before the doctor had a chance to correct the situation.
Although the Ds have outstanding qualities, they have to be
tempered with the understanding that “Rome was not built
in a day.” Just because something has been discussed does
not mean it is going to happen. High Ds often need a little
more patience and better listening skills. They also need to
realize everyone around them is frantically trying to keep up
with the pace they have set. If you recognize yourself in this
description, then being a little friendlier and complimenting
your staff when things are well done will help in gaining their
trust and support. They will feel more comfortable coming to
you with new ideas or problems they may have.
The high “I,” or the
influencer, is a very social person. He is charming and upbeat
with loads of team spirit and is instinctively a great
communicator. This is the person who is motivated by popularity
and acceptance. Think about putting a high I in patient
contact, especially in the initial contact phase. Lots of
interaction will fill their social needs. But be careful; these
same social activities may interfere with progress in the
office. You may have to curb too much time spent on the phone
chatting. The high I typically lacks organizational skills and
will need guidance from the high D on your team. If these
people have a defined system to work within—one they
understand and can embrace—they will be a joy to have in
the office.
Another physician client of mine,
who is also one of my personal doctors, has a receptionist whom
I’ll call Edith Bunker (Archie’s wife on the sitcom
“All In The Family” for those of you old enough to
remember) because I think of that character every time I visit.
“Edith” never has a bad day and every patient loves
her. She is concerned about each individual and her sincerity
is obvious. She often bakes these great chocolate chip cookies
for her coworkers and the patients. Now, my doctor has spoken
to her about the health aspects of this activity but when she
does not bring them in for a while the patients start
complaining and he ends up acquiescing. This doctor is great
and I like him very much but I believe, if you took a poll, the
patients would not ever think about going anywhere else because
they enjoy seeing Edith at the front desk.
Now, the high “S.” The
high S person is noted for loyalty. These are the Indians that
every chief needs. These are the team players. These are the
people who have an amazing ability to add a personal touch that
sets the team apart from the competition. As long as the high S
has a clear understanding of the business model, they will
carry it out with extreme devotion because they crave a stable
environment. This person is usually good in middle to upper
management and a personality type you may want to run your
office. They typically act as an extension of the leader. The
office manager in the office I mentioned above is like this. My
doctor has a brief weekly meeting with her to make sure he
knows what is going on in the office and discuss any issues she
may have. He recognizes the very important point that the
clinical side of running a practice is only a percentage of
what makes him successful. So, as long as you (the leader) set
the right example and create the right model, the high S will
keep your office running like a Rolls Royce.
High S individuals do have a need to
be recognized for their loyalty. Now, there are a few things to
remember. If a high S has a disagreement with others on the
team, watch out. They are inclined to hold it inside since they
do not like conflict or sudden change. This is when you may
need to get involved to resolve the issue because S people do
not want to create waves. They can sweep things under the rug
until they reach a boiling point and then you have a problem.
Finally, the high “C.”
These are the analytical problem solvers of the world. They
border on being compulsively meticulous and you may be smiling
right now because you are reading about yourself. High Cs have
the ability to offer creative solutions to complex problems
because they deal well with facts and calculations. They are
also inclined to focus so much on the hard data they can omit
the human factor. They can over-think the issue and make a
mountain out of a molehill. When you have a task or problem
that needs close attention to detail, the high C will strive
for perfection and set an excellent example for the rest of the
team. You may find the attention to detail slows things down
too much, especially if you are that high D we discussed first.
The high C can drive you crazy if you have to work on something
together because they move at a snail’s pace. Someone
with this personality would be perfect at operating and
maintaining your billing and collection procedures. They will
be accurate and make sure everything happens within the
appropriate time frame. Since they are bound to have contact
with other human beings, be careful they do not sacrifice some
communication skills because they are concentrating too much on
the numbers or the time frame.
Almost everyone is some combination of
these personality types with dominance in one area. I believe
if you keep DISC in mind when you are looking at your current
staff or staff members to hire, you can identify the tasks that
need to be done daily and the right people for those tasks.
Having this familiarity can also allow you to have team members
who work well together. You would like to concentrate your
energy with your patients and have your support staff perform
their responsibilities with care and efficiency. You can help
your staff operate smoothly with you, with your patients, and
with each other. g
Scott Beckett is a senior vice president
and mortgage consultant with a large mortgage banking company
where he specializes in working with physicians and the
health-care community. He is a consultant member with the
American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration
(ASHHRA). Scott can be reached at scott.beckett@suntrust.com.
The comments in Remarks are solely those
of the author and may or may not be shared by UO or its
advertisers.
