Case Study #3: Reducing Staff Turnover

The client: Gale Campbell is a dentist in private practice in Washington. His wife, Vickie, is the office manager and they have ten employees.

The issue: Chronic, high staff turnover in a high volume practice.

The process: When I was initially contacted by Gale and Vickie, their request was for me to come to Washington and “fix this team.” I explained that the fix had to start at the top and that meant with the two of them. “I had it all figured out,” says Gale, “that a few people were causing problems and I wanted to hire Shelley to fix the staff. She said ‘Doctor, let’s heal you first’.”

For several months, I held weekly coaching sessions with them — sometimes together, other times separately. We also used the EQ In-Action Profile to enhance their understanding of how they communicated with one another. Once we felt closer to understanding the likely reasons for the turnover problem, we scheduled a Renewing Teams workshop for the entire staff. This turned out to be a challenging day, and a turning point for the group.

The outcome: The problem turned out to be, as is so often the case, one of communication. Vickie and Gale made good business decisions but did not always present their decisions to the team effectively. By becoming more attuned to their own management and communication styles, team members began to respond more positively. For their part, staff became aware of and addressed their tendency to make assumptions and jump to conclusions.

“When Shelley said she wouldn’t come to our practice until she’d worked with Gale and me I thought ‘who do you think you are!’” says Vickie. “But she was absolutely right. She is so intuitive, perceptive, and on the mark.” A major piece of this puzzle was helping Gale and Vickie learn to communicate more effectively with one another. They were both open to learning and to change and that openness, in large part, was what made the coaching successful.

As a result of the honest discussion during the Renewing Teams workshop and the trickle down effect of Gale and Vickie’s improved communication, the staff gained awareness about the impact of their behavior, began to work more cohesively, and became more considerate of one another. At both the behavioral and operational levels, lists were created during the workshop of specific behaviors and ways of working together that the staff wanted to see changed or improved upon. After the workshop, team “champions” were appointed to take responsibility for follow-through in each area. “Moving forward,” says Gale, “we have a six month horizon mapped out. We’re moving out of this poor functioning phase we are in now and it’s going to take probably a year. We’re using Shelley as a sounding board to help us meet the goals we’ve agreed to.”