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With four of us in the family who are all into health
and fitness, we used to attend this particular practice.
The actual environment is lovely; however there was always
a high turnover of physiotherapists. It's only a small practice
yet it seemed that apart from the owner and one other physio
who looked after us, the rest seem to come and go fairly
quickly.
I could easily see what the problem was...the owner. He
lacked fundamental communication and business skills. Sure
he knew his 'stuff' about how to help someone heal their
body but he sorely missed basic skills in leadership and
managing his own staff.
The funny thing was he had a 'Mission Statement' in his
office stating "Our people are our number one asset". How
often have you seen this in businesses around the country?
Quite often the opposite is true.
If this business owner's people were his no.1 asset then
he should have got the message by now, that with the high
turnover of staff, there was one common problem... himself!
Not only was this business owner sadly lacking in leadership,
business and communication skills, it was reflected by the
people he hired. And it was no use trying offer advice to
him... he thought he knew everything.
Due to his lack of knowledge and personal development,
heaps of time was wasted and potential business lost. Then
there was the stress of having to work extra long hours
whilst he was finding new employees. This also caused uncertainty
for his patients. In fact we ended up leaving, because we
were fed up with a number of things: hearing from the staff
about how poorly they were treated by the owner, we were
often seen late (their lack of time management) and how
we were often treated in a rude manner by the receptionist.
I must admit if it wasn't for the pleasant physio who had
loyally stayed there and looked after us most of the time,
we would have left long ago.
From an employee's perspective, they often leave because
they are unappreciated. They are taken for granted. I knew
that had happened in many instances in this particular business.
The owner had hired some great people but he himself was
difficult to get along with and made it very uncomfortable.
He was a perfectionist and if his people didn't get things
'right', he'd let them know...all the time.
When I ask new clients how often they get together with
their people on an individual or group basis to discuss
their performance and get their perspective on how they
find their jobs and how to improve things, a common response
is "it's something I've been meaning to do". I'VE BEEN SO
BUSY!!!"
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