This week on the podcast, Andy and Stephanie dive into a repeat mailbag question - what do we do when someone is in their first 90 days and their “review” is coming due and it is looking not so great. We have received a handful of emails from people asking about how to handle giving feedback that things aren’t going as well as the hospital expects and how to handle moving forward beyond 90 days when you just aren’t loving someone’s performance.

Some of the things that Stephanie and Andy discuss:

The world is messy. Our job as leaders is to balance the needs of the business and the support of our team members. If we have gotten to 90 days and we are just now talking about performance issues, we aren’t really doing our jobs. This is a classic case of where we can set someone else up for failure!

Know the law. Consulting with an employment lawyer before you decide how to proceed with probationary employment is super important. Even if you aren’t considering termination for someone, knowing what should be in your handbook policies and what your probationary period should look like from a policy perspective is super important!

In veterinary medicine, we are often rushing from one thing to the next and we do not take the time to slow down and actually be in the moment. This is where we fail ourselves and our teams. Because giving feedback when it is actionable and someone can affect change in the immediate future is absolutely key. Focusing on something that someone already did and cannot change does nothing but make them feel guilty! Imagine if you were stacking a handful of things that happened in the past together and then sharing them with someone - that could feel super demoralizing and make someone immediately disengage. We talk through “the mention”, as Andy calls it, and how to effectively feed forward so that we are focusing on actionable change that someone can take to improve!

Links:

Upcoming events: https://unchartedvet.com/upcoming-events/

May 30: New Grad Mentorship 2.0

Dr. Lindsay Gallagher will guide you in creating a plan to help you support a recent grad veterinarian in your practice.

Set your new grad up for success, learn the common new grad struggles and how to spot them early, and supercharge your mentorship skills so your new grad will learn faster, work smarter, and love you for it!

All Links: https://linktr.ee/UnchartedVet

Got a question for the mailbag? Submit it here: unchartedvet.com/mailbag