Developing Secondary Skills To Build A Stronger Team

What attributes or traits come to mind when you think of an NFL player? Most likely the terms strong, fast and explosive, to name a few. What comes to mind when you think of an optometrist or an eye care practitioner — how about knowledgeable, attentive, empathetic and accountable?

When pinpointing the skills a football player needs to develop, physical strength is an obvious front runner. However, identifying secondary or complementary abilities a high-performing athlete needs requires more thought.

Take a look at what is involved in key plays that can make or break a game — precise footwork, falling in the right direction, remaining calm under pressure and being mentally resilient. Perfecting skills and successfully executing in critical moments is often a result of using less-than-traditional training approaches — such as ballet, yoga, taking personality assessments and strengthening emotional intelligence.

Though eye care professionals will likely never play in the NFL, we also frequently utilize our arsenal of secondary skills — ECPs are the masters of wearing multiple hats. Let’s take a page from an athlete’s playbook and develop our complimentary skills to not only provide excellent patient care but to be a strong member of your eye care team. Here are some areas to consider — for yourself or your staff:

Emotional Intelligence

In recent years, there has been a renewed and increased focus on Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ —Emotional Quotient). These “soft skills” are an important element in creating a cohesive team, and essential for leaders. The ability to perceive, understand and manage your emotions and feelings includes:

• Self-Awareness: The easiest way to determine your baseline skillset is to take an assessment(s). Found online, these take only a few minutes and can identify your abilities pertaining to personality traits, leadership, decision making, skill strengths and even what tasks interest you most.
• Social Skills: Different from communication skills, social skills refer to the interaction with others. We’ve mastered this with patients, but why does it seem more difficult with staff members? It doesn’t have to be! Be observant of social cues from specific people, which can provide good instinct on timing and context for conversation. Making an effort goes a long way and is the start to building a solid foundation in any relationship.
• Empathy: All staff members have the capacity for empathy — we see it every day while they are caring for patients. Being empathetic with team members is key to building trust and psychological safety. Applying the longstanding’ “put yourself in someone else’s shoes” is a great place to start. Similar to leading from where you’re at, sit in their “seat” to understand more completely, from their perspective.
• Relationship Building: The point of all of the above is to build authentic and trusting relationships with your team. The different personalities amongst your team members provide varying depths of relationships, but as long as your team sees that you are being intentional about building your relationship with them, that’s what matters.

Leadership

You don’t have to be in a position of authority to lead — lead from where you’re at. Anyone can influence, support and guide others. Key leadership skills include:

• Communication: While good communication skills are vital for patient care, they are also necessary to create a functional team. Communicating in a way that everyone on the team understands can take time but is worth its weight in gold. Good communication can lead to coordination amongst team members, saving time and money from efficient workflows, and identifying and achieving shared goals.
• The Why: Regularly communicating the vision and mission of the practice is an important step to ensure that all staff members understand and operate with them in mind. It is the leader’s responsibility to help employees understand how and why their tasks relate to the mission and organizational objectives. While your mission may be on a wall sign or on your website, employees’ efforts are ultimately how your practice will deliver service to stay true to the mission.
• Inclusion: A diverse workforce allows you to serve a diverse patient demographic, but only with inclusion. Each and every employee should feel welcome and that their contributions are valued. This may seem difficult with busy, fast-paced schedules, but it is key to keeping employees engaged, which can in turn improve retention rates. Make an effort to remove any obstacles that may prevent all voices from being heard and to provide fair and equal treatment to all employees.

Experiential learning is essential for the development of these secondary skills. Fortunately for us, there are a variety of educational opportunities within our reach — key opinion leaders in eye care frequently speak on these topics. Whether virtual or in person, keep an eye out for COPE and ABO continuing education courses — even if you do not need the credits. Many doctor alliances provide leadership education as well. As a last resort, look up some Ted Talks or books on the skills you seek to develop — or participate in any of the above as a team and discuss afterwards.

As you and your team members improve your emotional intelligence and leadership skills, you will learn to communicate better and navigate challenges together. You will enhance the effectiveness of your team, improve overall culture, and stay true to your mission and vision.