How to Give Critical Feedback to Your Functional Medicine Staff

Do you often avoid giving feedback to your front desk because you are unsure what to say or how to say it? Have you been looking for ways to encourage your front desk to learn from their success but also their mistakes? Want to help them arrive at their own solutions instead of asking you for everything? Easy to learn communication skills will help you with all these, plus will help you help your team build on their strengths and discover ways to improve your office.

Table of Contents

Use the Right Words

If you want to help, others get into a learning mode and growth mindset; the language you use matters. Avoiding certain words like never, always, only, can not and instead use words like learn, develop, grow. Try out and progress. The first set of words can trigger the mind into a fixed mindset, meaning that one can not change something. If your front office believes they are only good at certain things, this can prevent them from learning new things. However, using the second set of words can help them see there is room to grow and learn new things, and their brain will have the growth mindset that is needed.

Also, your tone can help when it comes to your words. Make sure you are keeping your tone as helpful. Screaming and yelling when a mistake is made will not allow anyone to learn. Instead, take a calm and collective approach to explain what they did wrong and what they did right. Also, always leave room for staff to ask questions.

Leverage Mistakes

Not everything is easy to teach, and often people learn through trial and error. Avoid thinking about the mistakes and mishaps as failures and think about them more as learning opportunities. As you see your front desk learn new skills, cheer them on even if they fail, encourage them. The next time they make a mistake, ask them what they learned from the error, what they would do differently, and how they can change the outcome. Instead of blaming them, getting angry, and blowing up, try turning the mistake into a learning opportunity.

Always Start By Stating Your Intention

No one likes having a difficult conversation, and no one likes receiving negative feedback. However, it has to be done. When you are giving feedback to your front office, make sure you state your intention upfront. Try to stay as positive as possible. If you are trying to provide feedback on billing problems, you may say my reason for this conversation is to clear up our billing matter. Thank you for billing promptly, but we need to work on our billing codes and insurance errors not to have as many denied claims. Another example: thank you for helping answer the phones, but we need to answer by the third ring. Try to explain exactly what they are doing wrong and right in the feedback to improve on their mistakes.

Always Give Feedback

Although giving feedback is not always fun, you should be willing to give it. If this is hard for you, work on it at home with your family until you are more comfortable in a work setting. Feedback provides everyone an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and to grow. In turn, this is how you create a learning environment where the employees thrive, and the practice improves and grows.

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