As a veterinary leader you have to de-escalate angry employee situations as well as talk to employees about actions or behaviors that may turn explosive. Here are some considerations.

Upset Employees

 

Upset employees benefit from the same deescalation techniques you use on clients.

 

• Listen. Remember that talking to another individual who cares is therapeutic, so let the person talk.
• Signal concern and attempt to understand. Use active listening skills and when the employee is finished talking ask good questions to provide you with clarity.
• Ideate together on possible solutions or share similar experiences that you may have had in your career. You may not directly fix the employees issue, but you provide them a sense that they have an ally, an outcome that is almost as good.
• Leave with an action plan even if it is to ‘think about it’. Time may be all that is needed to make things better and a later meeting will reinforce the employee’s sense that they are appreciated.
• Model the behavior you would like to see in them. ‘I enjoy talking to you, but like you, I’m facing my own pressures and I find it therapeutic to focus on my work. But don’t worry, I’ll swing by later today to check in on you. I’m glad you felt confident enough to come to me with this issue.”

 

Employer Concerns about Employee Behavior

 

But most of the discussions are initiated by us. These are usually smoldering issues, ones where ongoing, moderate employee misbehavior has finally pushed us to act. We’ve been hesitant to address things for a number of reasons, but the chief reason has been fear. We worry that the employee will react negatively to the feedback, hold a grudge after the meeting and be even more difficult to manage moving forward. We worry that the employee will quit when we are already understaffed. We may even be concerned about our own judgement. Are things really so bad?

 

Rather than walk you through the steps you take when speaking to an employee about a potentially touchy issue (though I will pull through in this department, I promise), I would like to walk you through a number of considerations that may help guide your decision making process about having the talk to begin with, your expectations for the outcome of the discussion, and the angles that you can take to make the most of your time. We’ll also look at what you can do as a leader to ensure the employee has the best chances of changing her errant ways or even better, reducing her inclination to make poor performance choices to begin with. As a part of your hospital protocols, you have proactively reduced aggressive cat behavior by eliminating some of the stimuli that lead up to it. We’ll consider the same sort of approach for your staff, a ‘Fear Free’ Approach to Employees if you will. Let’s get started.

What are we talking to employees about and is it worth it?

 

I created a list of the 6 chief things we talk to employees about. As you review each, consider whether or not your efforts to affect change in any one of these areas was high, moderate, or low.

 

Tangible issues related to policy or safety

 

• These are direct orders: “Melissa, don’t smoke next to the oxygen machine.”
• “Never go into radiology without your PPE.”
• “You must re-close and re-lock the drug lockbox each time you remove a drug.” “No one but you can punch in for you.”

Interpersonal Issues

 

• “Don’t be mean to Wendy.”
• “Be respectful of those that you work with.”
• “Avoid being so sarcastic when you are working with the surgery team.”

Personal behavior

 

• “Try not to be so negative all the time.”
• “Talk slower during stressful times. Try to stay focused and not get so hyper.”
• “Don’t gossip and exaggerate.”

Performance

 

• “Stay on task.”
• “Double check your work. Prioritize better.”
• “Don’t procrastinate.”

Have a positive attitude towards work. Be engaged

 

• “Show initiative. Be present.”
• “Act like you want to be here.”
• “Take pride in your work.”

Developmental/ Growth-oriented

 

• Take on leadership responsibilities
• Build your managerial skills. Seek improvement

 

As managers and HR leaders, I think we tell ourselves that these employee discussions are more successful than they really are. For my part, I graded my success rate reasonably high on only the first one.

 

Data shows that my poor performance is standard.

 

• A meta-analysis in Journal of Applied Psychology (2017) looked at workplace interventions like coaching, feedback, and behavioral nudges. It showed moderate improvements, especially when tied to specific goals and manager involvement.
• But the same study noted that long-term effects fade unless reinforced continually. People relapse into old habits without consistent accountability or internal motivation.
• Studies show most people put on a PIP either leave voluntarily or are terminated—rarely do they become star employees.
• The Harvard Business Review noted that only about 6% of employees on PIPs become high performers post-plan.
• Research on “toxic employees” (Housman & Minor, 2015) found that removing one toxic person boosts team performance more than adding several high performers. Translation? It’s often more effective to remove negativity than to “fix” it.
• That same study also found that toxicity is contagious—which is probably why employers try so hard to address it, even if they rarely succeed.

 

This is important information. It shows that the time we are spending to directly impact less-than-ideal employee behavior may, in large part, not work at changing behavior. But don’t give up hope! There are other peripheral goals we can achieve by talking with poor performing employees that can return a net positive, provided we go about the discussion correctly.

 

How to talk to veterinary employees about poor behavior

 

The first thing you need to remember about a talk with an employee is that there you are unlikely to effectuate change on the more intangible parts of another person’s behavior. The compulsion to gossip? Constant negativity? Their nature of running amok when things get hectic? We could send the person to an experienced, licensed therapist twice a week for the next 2 years and they would emerge virtually unchanged. One or two meetings with you and a write up is certainly not going to do the trick. What we can do with such a meeting is the following:

 

• Learn more about what’s going on: There may be legitimate reasons why Emily is negative all the time. In fact, maybe this is the only place she behaves in such a way. Going into a meeting to learn more about what’s happening is better for Emily, the hospital, and you.
• Reduce tension: Maybe long term change is not possible, but a meeting now, however ineffective in the long term, may dial the temperatures down of everyone involved, including you!
• Make the issue clear: This meeting could make  it clear to the employee the specific part of their performance that is bothering you and others in the hospital. Saying it out loud may be just the kind of clarity the employee needs to see affect change.
• Build a connection: The only way this employee is going to change their behavior is if they recognize it and push themselves to make the changes on their own. The best environment for change is one where the employee feels supported and wants to change, not just for themselves, but for those around them.
• Set expectations, a timeline, and signal limits: Urgency may be helpful in some cases and threat of termination (or a write up) at some point in the future if things don’t improve can work to affect change…sometimes. It can also just end up masking the behavior, creating mistrust, reducing engagement, etc. But this step is just as important for you and the rest of the team as it is for the employee. It upholds standards and fairness of the workplace. It forces you to double down on the value of your mission and your core principles.
• Create a paper trail: By having the discussion and documenting it, you are providing evidence for everyone that you have done your due diligence as an employer to be fair and accommodating.

 

Template for talking to veterinary employees about bad behavior

 

For all of the reasons above, here is a template for how to talk to an employee about bad behavior.

 

• Pick the right setting – Private, calm, no distractions
• Start with curiosity – “Here’s what I’ve noticed. What’s your view?”
• Listen fully – Let them talk before you respond. As I mentioned above, if it doesn’t serve to affect change, it can, at least, reduce tension. Allow the employee to unload. Talking to someone who cares is therapeutic.
• Name the issue clearly – Be behavioral, not personal. This step illuminates the precise behaviors that are a concern and helps them to see that you are not out to get them, rather you are gunning for the behaviors they exhibit when they are at their worst.
• Affirm belief + build connection – “I want you to succeed. I’ve struggled too.” Showing the individual that you too have struggled with explosiveness, negativity, etc., may help them to not be so ashamed, show them that they have an ally, and signal that change may be possible.
• Set clear expectations + timeline – Be specific, with a deadline.
• Signal limits – “We need to see change, or we’ll need to take further steps.” This may work in motivating the employee, but know that it comes with a host of negative side effects especially if the employee leaves the meeting not feeling understood. Still it is necessary to signal to the team that the work environment is fair.
• Confirm understanding – “Can you walk me through what you’re hearing?” This step gives the employee one more chance to speak his or her mind and gives you insight into how you can relay your thoughts more clearly moving forward.
• Follow up in writing – Creating a short summary, next steps and/ or due date reminds everyone what happened and creates a trail demonstrating your fairness as an employer.

 

Leadership qualities and actions that can drive change

 

Early on in this article I referenced the value of creating a safe space for animals; an attempt to lower the risk of an explosive episode rather than what to do when an animal explodes. I posited what it would be like if the work environment itself set team members up for their very best behaviors.

Over the years, I have had a chance to watch the effect that impassioned, focused leaders have on employee engagement, retention and their ability to sweat the small stuff in service to the larger, more important (and I would say exciting) parts of the veterinary business: service, care, and medicine.

These charismatic individuals have a gravity that naturally attracts and retains gifted talent. Think whether or not you are putting these gravitons of inspiration into the environment. They are natural attractors to nearly all workers.

Drive

Regardless of their shortcomings, of their failures, or of the curve balls thrown at them every day, these leaders keep going. Employees look up to and want to emulate such unstoppable advancement in the face of the everyday slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

 

They don’t dwell on failure (They likely don’t have time!)

 

You may have worked for this individual.  She has had what might appear to be epic failures: death of patients, lawsuits, financial crises, but she wasn’t defeated by failure. What’s more she didn’t allow her failure to define her as ‘unworthy’. She recognized her failure, owned it, learned from it, and moved on. That’s inspirational to all.

 

Resilience

 

Their drive and past risks have strengthened them. They don’t cower from challenges, but face them. They are confident because they’ve proven to themselves that they can be confident. The rest of us like working for an employer that isn’t crushed by challenge but invigorated by it. In working for them, we too start to feel invincible.

 

They push

 

They are unabashed about asking, nay demanding our best. In fact, they can often be quite brash about it. Many team members complain about such working conditions, but survivors often retell these stories with great pride. In hindsight, they remember these work days as milestones as or character and skill growth.

 

Conclusion

 

The template for managing an upset employee is much like the one you use when dealing with an upset client. On the other hand, initiating a potentially explosive discussion with an employee requires some thoughtfulness. What are you trying to fix? What is the likelihood that the discussion is going to change the employee’s behavior? What are the other potential benefits to such a discussion even if the primary goal of changing the employee’s behavior is unlikely to be achieved? In any event, talking to an employee is best done in the context of trust. The more you use the discussion as an opportunity to grow a relationship, not necessarily change the behavior, the more likely you are to change the behavior.

Lastly, focused, driven, committed leaders are naturally inspirational. They passively signal to the team the value of keeping their eye on the big rocks: service, care and medicine; they consequently diminish the power of the small stuff (employee squabbles, workplace slights, etc.) bringing out the worst parts of an employee’s character.