How To Deal With Team Dynamics

Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 6:25 pm by Denise O'Berry

I am having a difficult time coming up with anything new. I am the office manager at a chiropractic clinic. The doctor is not only my boss, but the owner, as well. Lately, he has not really had anything new to share. We only have two other girls in the office. Seems as if maybe we have an age issue. I am 49, he is 34, one girl is 25 and the other 30. The girls are cousins. No matter how much I’ve done to help the business, I get the feeling I am being shut out by him. Communication is clearly not happening as it should. This doctor is very moody and keeps me feeling on edge a lot of the time. Seems that he relates pretty well with the others. They all have small children in common. My son is 18. There’s been many accomplishments in the six years I’ve been there. What would your opinion be? What kind of meetings should I try to have at this stage? Nothing seems to be working. He pretty much acts childish and displays behavior that isn’t becoming for a professional. Please tell me what you think. I’m tired of being the mother hen in this office.

The Team Doc Says…

Like it or not, it seems as though the “Mother Hen” role has been placed squarely on your shoulders. You are the lone Baby Boomer in this office which may be causing a generation gap issue.

The first thing you should do is talk one on one with the doctor about your concerns. Plan ahead for this discussion.

You said there have been many accomplishments in the six years you have been there. What are they? Have a detailed list ready to talk about. Ask how he feels about these accomplishments and how he thinks they are working to improve his practice. Make sure you let him know you are there to make him successful, but you need his help to identify and achieve his goals.

It would be a good idea for you to clarify your role on the office team at this point.

Then have a discussion about where he wants to take the practice and what he sees as the issues. Listen very well at this stage and let him talk.

If you can think on your feet and provide some options for achieving his goals, offer solutions. Otherwise thank him for the ideas and set a date for follow up. Then formulate an action plan to achieve what he has communicated to you and present this to him at your follow up meeting. it would be a good idea to involve the other team members in this action planning. People have a tendency to “buy into” those things they were a part of.

Once you have an agreed upon strategy, get the other office members involved in implementing the solutions. It would be a good idea for you to take a look at “How to Build a Small High Performance Team.”

Good luck and let me know how this works out for you.