One of these lessons came as a result of the employment of a new admin team member.
I dropped into one of my clinics (unannounced as usual – just the way I liked it ) to find my brand new admin team member in one of the back offices deeply engaged in her Facebook account.
She was so involved in what her Facebook friends were up to – she failed to notice me standing in the doorway watching her waste valuable time – which I was paying her for.
The scariest thing was that when she finally noticed me – she said a casual “Hi Paul” and proceeded to get back to her important Facebook activity.
I was – as you can image – ropable.
How dare a team member spend their day wasting time watching cat videos or reading about their best friends weekend – while I am paying their wages.
Once I had calmed down – I sat with this team member and asked her about the Facebook use and what made her think it was OK for her to spend valuable time on her own Facebook account.
The answer floored me – and to this day is one of my biggest business lessons – she said:
“Sue said if there was nothing much to do you can just muck around on Facebook – that’s what I do if it is quiet“.
Sue – by the way – was the admin person my new girl replaced – and was the person I had appointed to train my new team member.
It was right then and there I realized the lesson:
NEVER Get the Outgoing Team Member to Train a New Team Member
Every new member of your team is an opportunity to re-invent yourself (as the owner) and re-invent some aspects of the business you are not happy with.
If you make the mistake of allowing outgoing team members to train the new ones – then many of these problems will just continue.
Whenever you start new team members I suggest you make a list of all the little things the outgoing team member did (or did not do) that annoyed or frustrated you – and make sure these issues are corrected in the training program of the new arrival.
This situation was totally my fault as a busy owner so it would have been unfair of me to discipline the new team member.
As I always say – “The Fish Stinks from the Head Down“.
My first mistake was not knowing Sue was spending her day on Facebook.
The second mistake was letting Sue train the new team member so this leak continued.
I encourage all health business owners to look at new hires as an incredible opportunity to fix issues and problems in your health business.
I wish I had learnt this lesson sooner.
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