The Private Practice Success Podcast

56. 3 Reasons Your Team Sucks (and it's not what you think)

• Gerda Muller • Episode 56

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In Episode 56, Gerda tackles one of the most common and probably most frustrating challenges in allied health private practice being: when it feels like your team sucks!

With her trademark honesty (and a little humour), Gerda unpacks why nine times out of ten it’s not your people who are the problem - it’s the way they’re being managed and led. 

This episode is an important invitation to look in the mirror, take ownership, and fix the real cause of underperformance,  so you can build a team that’s aligned, accountable, and genuinely enjoyable to lead.

In this Episode, you will learn (among others):

  • Why “my team sucks” is usually a leadership and management problem (not a team problem).
  • The three core reasons good people underperform.
  • How to create simple, practical systems that set your team up to succeed.

Who This Episode Is For:

  • Practice owners who feel frustrated, disappointed, or stuck with a team that isn’t performing.
  • Leaders who want to improve culture, accountability, and outcomes without becoming a micromanager.
  • Anyone who wants a team that helps the business run smoothly rather than creating more work and stress.

Tune in for a practical, no-fluff conversation that will help you strengthen your leadership, lift performance, and build a practice you can’t stop smiling about.


>> REGISTER for the 2026 Blueprint Planning Session HERE <<


Connect with Private Practice Success & Gerda here:

Well, hello there awesome private practice owner. My name is Gerda Muller, and you are listening to the Private Practice Success Podcast, and this is episode number 56. 

Today I want to talk to you about the Three Reasons Your Team Sucks (and it's not what you think it is), so keep listening. Now, I know that that sounds like a really negative episode title. But bear with me here, because this is actually a very common occurrence within allied health private practice. You know how I know this? Because practice owners tell me this all the time. When people reach out to work with me, they complete a short triage form where they are asked a couple of questions, that allows me to get a better understanding of their business, and then I can make an assessment as to whether I can help them.  If I can, I will tell them how, and if I can't, I will point them in the direction of somebody else that can help. 

On this form, there is a question that asks practice owners: What do you think is your number one challenge within your business? And it's really always interesting for me to hear what people share. Some people give me a long big love letter of challenges, while other people give me two words, and everything else in between. Obviously, the more people give me, the easier my job is in being able to assess whether I can help or not, and who the right person is to help this particular practice owner.  But my point is this, one of the most common challenges that practice owners share with me is team challenges. 

When I say team challenges, I'm not talking about recruitment now, because I'm giving you recent data. A couple of years ago, recruiting teams was one of the biggest issues. Recruitment's actually really improved significantly in a positive manner over the last 18 to 24 months, so it's much easier now to recruit than it was previously. But the challenges that people have with team now, is team not performing, and people give me various different versions of a team that's not performing. Now, this can be an admin team or clinical, but I must say in the majority of situations, it is specifically clinical team members that people are talking about.

The thing is this, whether you are an allied health practice owner or any other small, medium, or large or corporate, even big ticket business - managing people has always been, and will continue to be one of the toughest departments within your organisation. Why? Because you're dealing with people and because people are all different. And the thing is this, it is actually nine out of 10 times, not your team that sucks. It's not the team that sucks. It is actually your management and leadership of your team that sucks and is causing the problems within your team. I know that that might be hard to hear, but that's the truth. Now, I'm not saying that you need an MBA in management and leadership, please don't try and overcomplicate things. I can tell you I don't have an MBA or any type of post-grad qualification - other than having run a business and having made every mistake in the freaking book. I don't have any of those, and I think I'm pretty okay at it, right? Because I've got an amazing team.

My team does not suck, they are awesome. They are not perfect, but guess what? Nobody's team is perfect. But there's a couple of things that you need to do - and do consistently in order to proactively manage and lead your team. There's going to be times that management is required, and there's going to be time that leadership is going to be required. And you need to know as the business owner in a small to medium sized business, when what is required. You can't just lead and not manage, and you can’t just manage and not lead. You need to have a combination of the two because those two things serve different purposes okay, so let's not overcomplicate things. You can do this, I know you can. Because if I can do it, so can you. So to be clear, although the title says Three Reasons, your Team Sucks, it's not them that sucks, it is your management and leadership of them.  Assuming, of course you didn't hire an asshole. If you've hired an asshole in the first instance, I can't help you, because no management and leadership is going to turn him into the opposite of an asshole because once an asshole, always an asshole right. And if you currently have an asshole on your team, then I would recommend that you either terminate their contract if that is possible. Let's say if they are an independent contractor or a casual employee, or if they're not, you need to commence a formal, appropriate performance management process in order to manage them out. Because the worst thing you can do is to leave an asshole in your business. It will wreck your entire team culture. Do not do it. 

We are assuming for the purpose of our discussion today, that you actually hired fabulous people, that at the core they are amazing great human beings. You have chosen really well when you went through your recruitment and hiring process. But now you've reached a moment where you go, oh, my team sucks. Maybe - and I'm thinking of some of the reasons people have given me - maybe your team is underperforming, maybe they are not reaching their KPIs, and you are fearful of performance managing them, because what if they leave? It was so hard to get them in the first place, and you've invested a lot of time, money, and effort into them - you feel -  and they might go. Or maybe they get upset at you, maybe they start crying, maybe they call in sick tomorrow because you are going to have this conversation with them.  There are so many things that practice owners are fearful of doing when it comes to managing their team, and leading I will say. 

Whatever it is, it’s been happening for you on the ground. For you to have that feeling and that thought that you've probably not shared with anybody, because inherently you might feel (in some instance), that it is a reflection on you as the business owner, on the person that is made to manage and lead this person. Stick with me because we're going to work through this, because there's a cause, and there's a solution to what is happening here.

Reason 1: Insufficient Onboarding & Induction

The first reason why your team might be sucking right now, albeit due to no fault of their own, is because you hired a great person, but then you do not provide sufficient onboarding and training once they've gotten started. So we are talking about onboarding and induction here, right? So somebody's having their first day, you now need to teach them how to do their job. Even if it is a psychologist that has previously worked at another private practice, you can't assume that they know what to do. Even if it is a receptionist that has previously worked at another private practice with the exact same discipline, you cannot assume that they know what to do. 

And you might be going, ‘I don't make those assumptions, Gerda,’ and I'm sure you don't. I am pretty sure that you've got some level of first day orientation and induction and onboarding. I'm sure you do. But unfortunately a lot of people just chuck people into the deep end, and I've been chucked into the deep end, I know what the deep end feels like - great people will kick and use their arms and their legs and they will swim and swim and swim and swim, but it's going to take them longer to get to where you want them to be. And guess what? They might get to the edge of that swimming pool and they might go, bugger this, I'm out of here.  Or they might even drown and just go, this is not what I signed up for, I'm out of here. So it's really important for you to reflect on, ‘Am I giving proper training?’ 

A  lot of people might go, ‘Yeah, of course I do. You know, this is what we do on day one. This is what we do on day two, three and four and five.’ Maybe the first week, maybe the first two weeks. But then what? What happens after that? That is still not enough. Not if you want an amazing team. Not if you want a team that can be part of your self-running practice. You need to put in the freaking work and you need to do it properly, or it's just going to frustrate you - and them for that matter. I'm not saying that you need this huge, big, formal, expensive portal of onboarding assets that people tick through, no. Let's not be black and white here, there's a lot of grey and in-betweens in terms of what you can offer. 

If you have had new people come on board and they're not performing as they should, you have to ask yourself the question first: Have I provided sufficient role specific onboarding and training for this person? You need to be really honest with yourself here, because a lot of times - and I see this time and time again, and I have been there - by the time you've made the decision to actually recruit, you've gone through that process, somebody's on board, and you're so freaking excited. It's like finally I have a practice manager, or finally I have a clinician, or finally I have that reception, finally I have a clinical team leader - you're so excited that that person has come on board. Maybe they are one kick ass person and they are really fired up and motivated and excited to help you, and then you hand over too much too soon and too fast, and it comes back to bite you in the butt. Don't do it. 

This is where you need to have that patience. You would've heard me, I think I spoke about patience in the last episode. Patience is so important when you are running a business. I'm not saying patience in the delaying decisions, because I sometimes think practice owners think, oh, that means I need to wait on stuff. I'm not saying wait. There's a difference between making slow and fast decisions, versus, having patience in terms of knowing: what is strategic patience here. How do I get to the outcome that I want in a way that serves both myself, my team members and my business.

I'll give you an example. When we hire a new receptionist at my group private practice, we actually have a 12th week induction program for all our front desk staff. So, yes, you know, the first day or two is most of that standard onboarding and induction. Learning about the business and that type of thing. And they end up, you know, I would say in inverted commas  ‘thrown into the deep end at the front desk’ where somebody's there teaching them and they're doing all the things. But we are very structured in our expectations, where we go at the end of week one (on that Friday), they will have a meeting with their line manager, which is generally the practice manager. During that meeting, they will go through a list of items and they will sign off on that specific list of items to say at the end of week one, this is what we have covered.

The individual, in this instance and example (the receptionist), will confirm that, yes, I'm across this. Or if they say no, then we can go, ‘Okay, what other questions do we have? How can we give you clarity? Do we need to put this on the agenda again for next week, so we can revisit it again?’ Right. Although they might do things and hear about certain tasks and responsibilities in week one, we might only sign off on that specific task or responsibility in week six or week 10. So it's about: What does this person need to learn and know fully by the end of week one. 

For example, I'm just looking at week one. Week one is basically around positioning, right? So the stuff that we would cover, and I'm looking at the headings here is background and the structure of TPP, which is The Psych Professionals.  We talk about phone and email etiquette, because that's a big part of what they do at the front desk. We also cover a basic knowledge of our services, for example, our two most common services provided at the practice. So we only look at the two most common services, we don't cover all 10 that we have. We've got lots of referral types, but we cover the two main ones, so those are the two that you need to fully understand by the end of week one, because probably most of the enquiries and referrals are going to be one of those two things, right? And then we'll have a weekly review at the end of the week. Then in week two, for example, we'll talk about appointment setting, invoicing, and we actually also do psych education and mental health in week two. So those are the three main things that we cover then. So at the end of week two, we sign off on those things, and we've got this for a full 12 weeks.

I can tell you since we've used this at my practice, we've never had to not pass a receptionist on probation. It works. And this is just a Word document. It's not over complicated. It's easy. It makes sense to that person. It makes sense to the line manager. As our business evolves and grows, we can update it with changes in Medicare and NDIS. We can just change it, which is much harder to do when you've got a fancy portal and all of that type of stuff, right? I always want to make sure that the systems within my business are optimised for efficiency, not for fanciness, it needs to be efficient. That being said, I like fancy, I can do fancy if I have to, but I will only do it if it's going to enhance efficiency. 

So very important, you cannot expect somebody to be great at their job if you don't give them the proper training that they need, and I've learned this the hard way. Just because a psychologist has been a psychologist for 10 years doesn't mean they don't get the same onboarding as a new grad. Yes, new grads will have more handholding along the way, and they'll have more questions, but they all need to undergo the same orientation and induction. Because the way you do things at your practice is going to be different from the other practice that they might have worked at. And it might be subtle differences, but there's differences, and you will just get frustrated if you haven't told them about it. If you've just assumed that they know what they're going to do, or what a lot of people actually tell me, I don't want to offend that experienced psychologist by teaching them something really basic. What if they get offended if I share this with them and go, ‘oh duh, I know that.’ I can tell you now, they won't be offended. They will walk away thinking that you've got a really professional setup. Because I can assure you the previous place they worked at probably didn't follow a proper efficient onboarding process. 

Reason 2: Unclear Expectation Setting

The second reason your team sucks due to no fault of their own, is because you are unclear about the expectations you have for them within their role. So it's a basic lack of clarity when it comes to expectations. Now you might think you are setting clear expectations, but are you really? A job description, beautifully written out that you've handed out on day one or two is not clear expectations. Expectations really communicate to the team members for you to be successful in this job, this is what I expect from you. So it is really a success criteria.  What is the success criteria attached to this specific role? And again, this applies to admin and clinical team members. 

Another word for success criteria is KPIs. Key performance indicators, right? I, as a general rule, do not put KPIs in an employment contract or really even in a job description, because KPIs, particularly in a small business, will change from time to time. Which means that somebody's success criteria will be different in the first three months than it would in the period after that. Because for them to be successful in that first three months to pass probation, for example, there would be set things that I would expect from them. Case in point, the example we did earlier where we've signed off on all the things that they had to learn every week, and there's then that expectation that they will be proficient in those things that we have taught them right. So as the person settles into their role, their KPI might change. 

As your business grows, and there's different things happening within your business, and this often happens at the start of the year when you - as the business owner - sit down and maybe you come and attend my Blueprint Planning Session happening on the 9th of January, 2026 - little plug - and you're sitting there and you are asking yourself: What is the goal for the business over the next 12 months? You need to go: Okay, for us to achieve these goals, what needs to happen in the business? And then you start to work out: What are the key performance areas that need to be addressed in order to get to those goals? Then from there, what are the key performance indicators, i.e., the success criteria that I need to successfully communicate to the team, so that they know what the expectations are for them to do their job. 

Of course it helps for you to talk to them about what are the goals that we are working on over the next 12 months as a team together, because that's the word team. We are a team, right? And of course, you have a team when you have employees. If you've not watched the episode where I speak about the new contractor arrangements, please go and check that out because I do talk about the fact that contractors aren't part of your team. Business associates with whom you have a services facilities agreement, they're not part of your team. I would caution you on using that word. So I'm really talking about practices here that have that employee model, and therefore you will have KPIs for your employees because again, you won't have KPIs for contractors because they're not employees, they're not your team. Yes, you will have deliverables for them. The stuff that you need them to do right, and hence you are paying them to do and complete totally different cattle of fish. But for today, we are talking about employees, so people on your team. 

So you need to be really clear and ask yourself, If I had to go and talk to your team member right now, maybe the one that you're feeling a bit frustrated about, maybe they're underperforming, and I sat down with them and said, ‘Hey, nice to meet you. Can you tell me what are the three things that you need to do every day, week and month in order to be considered successful in this role?’ What would they tell me? Will they be able to articulate it? That's a very important reflection for you as the business owner. They need to know what you expect, and guess what? You need to be ready, willing, and able to tell that to them as well. No use having these expectations in the back of your mind and nobody knows about it. You will just be disappointed, so also ask yourself this then: When last have I actually had this conversation? 

In my practice we have these conversations on a monthly basis, we call them our progress meetings for 30 minutes. There's a monthly check-in because I want our team to know: What do they need to do to be successful? Because it's only when they are successful and they meet the criteria, that when we have their annual salary review conversation, that both they and whoever’s having that meeting with them - it's not me because I've got a self running practice, the person in charge on the ground - when they go into that meeting, both of them already know the outcome of that discussion. Because that employee knows whether they've met their success criteria. The business knows it, and we've been speaking about it every month. Every month. There's no surprises, which means there's no disappointment. We know what we are celebrating in that conversation, and if we've not met the expectations, we've already started to remedy it. It is so super important. If you can do this, you will have one amazing team. I can guarantee you that.

Reason 3: Lack of Consistent & Clear Feedback

Reason number three, why your team sucks due to no fault of their own, is as a result of your inability and or reluctance to provide consistent and clear feedback. What do I mean by that? Let's say you've listened to reason number one and you've gone, ‘No Gerda, I'm actually really good with providing onboarding, induction and training to my people. Hand on heart Gerda, I hold their hand every step of the way. I'm good with that.’ Beautiful.  Maybe you've listened to reason number two and you've gone, ‘No, I am really clear people know exactly what their billable KPIs are, or the booking targets or whatever the KPIs are at your individual practice. They know exactly what it is. I've told them, maybe I even reminded them.’ 

But when they aren't meeting those, and when they aren't performing, what do you do then? Are you actually having conversations around it?  Or are you perhaps avoiding those conversations? I know people avoid these conversations all the time because they themselves fear conflict. They might know that this specific team member might be highly anxious, and they know that this can be hard for this person to hear. Now you're going, ‘Oh, maybe I'm just going to hope that they will get better over time.’ And then it doesn't happen. Or you drop these little hints, instead of being really clear as to what your requirements are, or that they're not meeting expectations. 

It comes down to communication, people. Feedback is communication. Communication fixes anything in business. Communication is always the answer. Nine out of 10 times better communication is the answer, right, and I think you know this. But it is so important if somebody is not meeting expectations for you to give them feedback. I've just mentioned earlier that at our practice we have monthly progress meetings -  meetings where we can provide feedback, and I want to be clear here, that feedback is a two-way street. Very important. At my practice we refer to it as feedback loops. So a loop means something that goes around in a circle, like if you're in a loop. It's normally a negative connotation, like you're stuck in a loop, you're just going around in circles. For us, a feedback loop is a really positive thing, because it means there's a loop of feedback, when we are having those meetings. 

You as the team member can come into that meeting, and I like to refer to it as spill the beans. Tell me everything and anything that you're not happy with that's not working, that's annoying you, that you don't like - anything. I want to be clear,  this is not a whinge and a wine session, I do not believe in making excuses, being in the null or rationalising and sitting in justification, that's not who we are. But that doesn't mean you can't provide feedback. It's in how it gets delivered. It's the vibe and the tone, and the energy behind it without becoming too woo-woo. It's about going, ‘This is what I'm seeing, this is what I'm experiencing.’ And the team member does that with us. But we, as the business, (the line manager does exactly the same thing), they can also do that and go, ‘This is what we are seeing, this is what we are experiencing, this is what I'm noticing. Are you seeing that too?’ Without going into whinging and complaining again, that's not what we are about. We are all about accountability, ownership and responsibility. 

The thing is, as a business, we can't take ownership of something that's not going right if a team member doesn't tell us. So it's your job as the business owner, and also your team of course on the ground, on having these meetings to create an atmosphere where a team member feels psychologically and emotionally safe - I'm assuming they're going to be physically safe, right? But, you know, that goes without saying - but for them to feel safe to provide that feedback. Which means that when you hear that feedback, you or the line manager can't become defensive. We all need to learn how to deliver good feedback, and how to receive feedback. I can tell you, people often think that they are better at taking feedback and delivering it than they actually are - nine out of 10 times. 

When we interview people within our practice, both admin and clinicians, we actually talk to them about feedback. We ask them about how they feel about feedback. Are they open to feedback? How do they react to it? How do they like to receive feedback? How do they like to give feedback? It is a really important conversation to have, and it's so important for us in my business, that we do that in the interview already, because it's part of our DNA that what we do at the practice is provide feedback. It is important that when we take people on board, that they know right from the start that this is the expectation, that you will give us feedback even if it's not pleasant feedback. But you know what? We can model that, we can receive that, and we want to work together as a team and as a business to grow. Feedback is incredibly important for us to improve what it is that we are doing as a business. The service that we are delivering, therefore the outcomes of the clients. It enhances the professional and personal development of each and every person on the team. So it is a good thing. Feedback is incredibly important and essential. It is with gold.  If it's been hard for you to receive feedback, and or to give feedback to your team,  I want you to start today. It can be with a very small conversation. It doesn't have to be a big thing, you don't have to all of a sudden do a fancy 10 question survey. It can be very simple.

When asking for feedback, it is of course very important to ask open-ended questions. Do not ask, do you have any feedback for us today? Because nine out of 10 times people are going to go, ‘No, it's all good.’ You almost need to force people to go there, especially initially when they're getting used to engaging in feedback loops. A question you could ask is an open-ended question, is something along the lines of ‘What can I do, or what can I stop doing, that would make it easier for you to insert whatever it is that is happening for you to do your job. For you to complete this task for you to be able to do A, B, and C.’ And then you wait. And if the person says nothing, you don't let them go away. You don't let them not answer. You go, ‘I really want you to share with me just one thing. Doesn't matter how big or how small. Really dig deep and share that with me.’  So that people need to start practicing the feedback muscle, and you need to do this regularly. Just like you can't build muscle if you only go to the gym once every six months or once every three months for that matter. If you want to build muscle, you need to go to the gym two to three times a week. 

Now you don't have to ask for feedback two to three times a week, unless it just comes up in conversation. But I would say at least once a month when we have those progress meetings, we want to ask that question because it's just part of our culture and it's ingrained within my business that that is what we do. So for you, as this is relevant, because I want to make this relevant to you, really ask yourself: If I've done the great onboarding and induction and orientation, I've set the expectations, am I now actually holding the line through feedback? Because if somebody's not meeting my expectations, am I telling them yes or no? Or if they're going off track, am I capable and willing and able to bring them back on track? How good am I at laying down the guardrails to keep people on track, to help to ensure that they achieve success in their role. Because when we have those annual, performance reviews and we are discussing increases in wages and salaries, I want that to be a positive outcome for that person. I want to help them get to that meeting, where I can say, ‘Of course, we are going to give you an increase,’ because they have been successful in their job. Otherwise all you're doing is just kicking the can down the road, and then you need to have an even more uncomfortable conversation at that point in time. Then people are actually even more likely to potentially go, ‘This is not working for me, I'm out of here.’ And I don't want that for you. 

What I want for you is an amazing team that lights you up. That's what I want for each and every one of you.  So really reflect on today's points. It can be one little thing that you can tweak that will make all the difference. Because at the end of the day, your team doesn't suck, and yes, it's hard to accept that. Maybe it's my management leadership style that sucks to some extent. But again, one step at a time, and before you know it, you will have created an amazing team and culture within your business.

Thank you so very much for tuning in, and as always, remember that I am here to help you build a practice you can't stop smiling about. 😊

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Gerda Muller

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