Leaders Get the Best from Their Employees

The Clipboard

My father was an engineer who designed power plants. His first day of work was an education— one that applies to many fields. We must learn the core features of our business, but why not borrow from things that have worked elsewhere.

On my Dad’s first day in 1958, he arrived at the power plant in a suit and tie. The plant director didn’t even look up when he walked into the office. He simply said “grab a hardhat and a clipboard. I want you to talk to all the workers. Take careful notes of everything they say. Write down names, activities and dates. Underline everything important. If anybody asks, you work for the old man.”

Each day he reported to the office, got a new clipboard, and went out on the site asking questions. Every evening he returned the clipboard overflowing with notes. After about a month, he noticed that the boss was throwing his papers in the trash.

He asked what was happening. At that point, he was told to have a seat and the director enlightened him. He was a “suit” on the scaffolding taking notes for the “old man.” The boss said that efficiency and quality were both up dramatically.

Oversight

Having someone with the title of supervisor does not mean that people are actually being supervised. The supervisor needs to be present. More importantly, the supervisor needs to interact in a conscious manner with the staff. The job must be understood as well as the roadblocks. Calling someone into the office to discuss this pays some dividends but meeting them on their own ground to understand the realities of the job is even more important.

Furthermore, for most people, the presence of an authority figure can alter behavior. Although we don’t want to add stress and create performance anxiety, we do want to make sure our staff is really performing. So we are back to “trust but verify.”

The oversight must be carefully tailored to the specific people/personalities in the clinic. Some people might view the monitoring as micromanagement, especially those who are independent high performers. As with almost everything we need to accomplish, this is not a cookie-cutter project.

Having an unknown commodity as the monitor can add a fresh perspective. It can help you (and the staff) discover issues that could be improved. It can also create a heightened emphasis on performance. Obviously, you can’t use the same person every time. One possibility is for the manager or office administrator from another practice to come into your office and then repay the favor. Both practices benefit directly and then have the opportunity to learn from the other practice— sort of a free consulting program. Several office managers could rotate.

Keep the notes. Ask the observer what they learned from their time monitoring the clinic and what challenges or adjustments would benefit the staff. Keep the process going.

Epilogue

My father used this same approach on every site he developed for over 40 years. In the long run, he learned that it improved the speed and quality of the work and simultaneously educated the junior engineers in all of the complexities of the trades not taught in engineering school.

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