Working with Inexperienced Employees


SkyWatcher's picture

By SkyWatcher - Posted on 23 October 2009

"Michael" is a health care professional who bought an existing business in Ukiah. He moved from southern California to get away from the hustle and bustle of urban life. He inherited his "new staff" along with the business. He told me he was struggling with his employees.

The kind of problems he was having with his staff turned into a long list of complaints. His employees:

  • have to be uplifted by him
  • don't have the rooms prepared when he enters to see the patients
  • are lazy
  • don't anticipate what to do next
  • don't have proper training
  • are not capable
  • are inexperienced
  • are clueless
  • don't have a framework of comparison
  • have a hard time asking patients for money

I used Lindsay Kinney's Ultimate Truth Statement process to come up with a specific goal that Michael wanted to be true about his business and staff. (With an Ultimate Truth Statement, you say what you want and how you will feel about it in the present tense.) His UTS was: I feel in control, available and capable of my finest uninterrupted performance with my well-prepared staff. Before we started tapping, Michael was at a 6 (10 is ideal) with his UTS.

The intensity of his statements concerning his staff were registering at a 4 (10 would be the worst). His set-up phrase was, Even though my staff makes it difficult for me to do my very best performance, I deeply and completely love and accept myself. I asked him what would be a funny Reminder Phrase, and after thinking about it, he chuckled and said "the usual suspects."

As he tapped on his meridians, I had him repeat all of the complaints he had about his staff and sprinkled in his Reminder Phrase. After a couple of rounds of tapping, I asked him to close his eyes and see if he had any insights. When he opened his eyes, he responded, "they are very good people. They are giving, compassionate, and empathetic. They have high integrity and do what is right. They are responsible and committed." His intensity level had dropped to a 2-3. I asked him say his UTS, and his intensity for it went up from a 6 to an 8.

Michael started tapping directly on his meridians, repeating the complaints that he listed earlier. One round of tapping brought the intensity level down to a 1. I read his UTS aloud to him and he said it went from an 8 to a 9.

I had him do a floor to ceiling eye lift as he thought about the problems with his staff, and that brought the intensity from a 1 to a zero. I read his UTS again, and his intensity rose from a 9 to a 10.

In Michael's last insight, he realized that he had been focusing on tasks instead of the conduct of his staff. Michael said that sometimes he used the wrong rule of measurement. He realized his staff was promoting the ideology of his practice and that was incredibly valuable.

I suggested that he give genuine appreciation to each of his staff daily, and to find ways to communicate and simplify directions about new procedures. Whenever he gets frustrated or upset, I encouraged him to go into his office and tap about what was bothering him.

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