Becoming a good colleague (Part 2)

Once you've accepted a post at a practice, you'll need to learn how to manage people. You'll also need  to take care of yourself to avoid burn-out. This chapter tells you how.

How to supervise and motivate staff

Whether or not your role in the practice includes direct responsibility for other staff, it is highly likely that at times you will be asked to supervise the work of other team members. This could be the team of nurses or technicians that are working with you in the operating theatre or the lay staff in a branch where you are the most senior staff member on site. Whatever your role, having an understanding of how to get the best from others will help you.

Respect others

The most important rule for any supervisor is “to respect others at all times”. You should always demonstrate respect for your colleagues, whatever their role or background, or however well you perceive they carry out their roles. It is helpful to remember that everyone who works in a veterinary practice does so because they want to help animals have better lives, and so it would be extremely unusual for a member of the team to come to work with the deliberate intention of doing something wrong.
There is therefore no excuse for showing a lack of respect for our colleagues by shouting or raising our voice, behaving in an intimidatory way (bullying), referring to them by anything other than their chosen name, or making comments that refer to their gender, sexual preference or religious beliefs.

Giving feedback

One of the key roles of a supervisor is to provide effective feedback to team members. Giving and receiving feedback is an important component both for improving the performance of individuals and for identifying process improvements.

There are many complex psychological models for giving and receiving feedback; however, one simple method that works in most circumstances is “The Feedback Burger”.

Giving effective feedback is like making a burger. You start with a base “bun” of praise, then provide the meat for the filling by focusing first on your observation of the action you wish to review, then your perception as to the effect of this action on the issue concerned, then question the team member(s) for their ideas or suggest the improvement required, and finish off with the top bun consisting of a summary of the action agreed, and a layer of praise for agreeing to this outcome (Figure 7).
 

Praise in public, criticise in private

Let’s be generous with the praise and discreet with the criticism. If there is any behaviour by our colleagues that bothers us, we should try to resolve it with them, by raising the matter in private (Figure 8). Your boss will not trust or support a young employee that systematically criticises their co-workers.

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