Practice Management Alert

Clear communication has never mattered more than right now.

If you’re a practice manager or other office administrator, you hold a position of leadership in your workplace. You’re also probably the cornerstone of communication between staff of all roles.

Try these expert tips on healthcare leadership and communication, and make sure you’re serving your staff well, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Identify Skills, Then Build on Them

Leadership is defined as a process in which a person exerts influence over others and inspires, motivates, or directs their activities, says Brenda R. Edwards, CPC, CDEO, CPB, CPMA, CPMS, CRC, CPC-I, CEMC, in a presentation for 2020 Virtual Denver Regional HEALTHCON.

Some leaders are born with natural gifts, skills, and abilities, but the ability to lead is a collection of skills that can be learned and improved upon, she says. “Leadership motivates, whatever it might be.”

“Believe it or not, most of us aren’t naturals or aren’t naturally thinking of ourselves as leaders or thinking that we have those skills or abilities; and so it’s something that, if you’re actually interested in learning more, they’re skills that you can learn and grow,” says Rhonda Buckholz, CPC, CPMA, CPC-I, CRC, CDEO, CHPSE, COPC, CPEDC, CGSC, owner of Coding and Reimbursement Experts in Seneca, Pennsylvania, during a presentation for 2020 Virtual Denver Regional HEALTHCON.

Underscore Good Leadership Through Communication

Good leaders aren’t born, and in a practice setting, every interaction with other staff can bolster their teammates trust and their leadership credentials — or dismantle them.

Communicate expectations clearly and consistently, Edwards says. This includes sharing short-term and long-term vision and strategy for your practice (at least information you are able to share), which allows individual staff members to see how they fit into an organization. Make sure you include everyone, to underscore inclusivity, as well as to eliminate scattered chatter or fodder for rumors.

Make a point to delegate tasks to your team members, which is empowering for everyone, Edwards suggests. This both frees up your time and helps you identify where other folks can excel. “You’ll never realize how competent someone is until you give them the chance to do something,” she says. Plus, extending that trust builds confidence in everyone, as well as strengthening the relationship.

But make sure you are actively listening, too, Edwards says — even when the “listening” is actually reading between the lines. For example, not everyone likes to be managed in the same way. If some teammates aren’t responding well to your preferred management style, you may need to make some adjustments.

But while you should feel empowered to manage individuals in a way that best suits them — and you, together — make sure everyone is on the same page in terms of rules, and know, particularly right now, when things aren’t back to normal, which rules will be enforced.

Focus on These Tips Right Now

While good leadership may not lead to growth in trying times like these, it can definitely help mitigate or prevent failure, Buckholtz says.

“You’ve got to focus on the positive and really look forward to those types of things; there are certain things that you always need to keep in mind as a leader,” she says. “People are emotional beings, and so we’re not principally logical or emotional — we need to be able to understand how to connect with people emotionally. That’s really important to being a good leader: to understand those types of things in order to do better and to be able to work more effectively with others. We need to be able to emotionally connect with them.”

Integrity should be a particular priority right now when there is so much uncertainty and people are looking for guidance. The saying that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking is especially important right now, Buckholtz says.

Your team needs to believe that you have integrity, because without it, you’re not going to have the trust of your employees and they’re not going to follow you, she says. “Integrity is something that was challenged during COVID, and so, you know, it brought a lot of stress and a lot of new normals for us. Or what we’re calling normal now might not be our new normal next month, right? But it brought a lot of stress, and the financial distress it caused in the healthcare industry is seriously unrivaled.”

On the whole, many practices were not prepared for the pandemic, either clinically or financially. Practices need polices in place to ensure the safety of both employees and patients, she notes. There may have been tension if employers furloughed employees and the employees didn’t want to come back when needed, both out of fear of the virus and due to the recently expired assistance for the unemployed.

“People are afraid in healthcare to come back to work right for the first time; they’re really understanding the nature of the job that they signed up to do on the clinical aspect and the exposures,” Buckholtz says. But there are ways to show integrity when dealing with all of these scenarios, which sends a clear message to everyone, she notes.

“You don’t want to ask your employees to do something that you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself, so you want to keep that in mind” when establishing and enforcing policies and procedures for employees.

Also, “you want to follow the CDC guidelines, simply meaning: Don’t ignore the risk to make a profit. You want to make sure that your employees believe that you act with integrity,” Buckholtz says. “Don’t get me wrong — if we’re running businesses, profits are important. That’s what keeps them paid, and that’s what keeps us buying things and keeps things moving forward, but we don’t want to cut corners and put employees at risk or patients at risk. So, you want to hold yourself accountable for policies and procedures.”

Bottom line: Being transparent and consistent in your communication can help you lead your team through even these rough times.