Practice manager: Is this you?

  • You forgive easily and give everyone a chance to do better.
  • You know that sometimes people have hard days.
  • You have so much compassion and understanding.
  • You sometimes look the other way — and hope the situation will go away.
  • You want your teammates to love each other, and you!Boundaries, giving too much grace

You say things like:

  • You’re late again? It’s okay. Please try harder.
  • Beth, you didn’t get that done? Okay, I’ll get Kelly to handle it.
  • I know you’re having a rough time. Don’t worry about it.

There IS Such A Thing As Too Much Grace

Emotional intelligence and profound empathy are incredible things, but uber-kindness and too much grace can also create an environment where:

  • There are no consequences. When an employee repeats the same mistake and is only met with kindness and forgiveness — but no real consequences — it can have a system-wide, detrimental effect.
  • You get taken advantage of. When an employee realizes there are no consequences, they are likely to continue taking advantage of you — even if it’s not malicious on their part. Even when you have the best intentions in your heart and give someone a chance to do better.
  • Other team members feel frustrated. Constantly letting one challenging employee push the envelope can make the other hard-working, rule-abiding employees upset. This can lead to hard feelings, arguments, a drop in work ethic or them leaving altogether.
  • The practice suffers. From morale and productivity to employee retention and the bottom line, too much niceness can keep you from creating boundaries and rules that are healthy for the practice.

Setting Healthy Boundaries

At Great Practice Design, we love that you are so kind and give grace — but kindness in lieu of boundaries won’t help you get what you want. We want to protect you, make your job easier, and help you get practice-growing results from your team!

Consider:

  • Are you being too kind? 
  • Is niceness in your practice bad for business? 
  • Is looking the other way getting your practice where it needs to be?
  • Does giving chance after chance help you, or hurt you?

Being kind and giving grace is a beautiful gift. But at what point does kindness and grace turn into enabling bad behavior? Sometimes the real kindness is teaching someone that there are repercussions for poor performance. Here’s how to set boundaries with medical practice employees.