If Your Team Can't Find You... It's Time To Add A Leader

In this show, I tackle the real question behind manager overload: when an eye care clinic needs more leadership coverage to protect retention, productivity, and culture. We share clear warning signs, practical alternatives to hiring, and what to look for when choosing the next leader.

• employee feedback as the first red flag when support is missing
• why manager availability shapes psychological safety and retention
• the "15 direct reports" tipping point and why weekly one-on-ones matter
• the real cost of turnover and how it compares to added management
• manager burnout as a measurable operational risk
• how lack of leadership drags down training and productivity
• culture and trust erosion as a slow moving failure mode
• using team lead and coordinator roles as a low risk stepping stone
• selecting leaders for people skills and emotional intelligence, not just niceness
• why “knowing everything” can hurt leadership and empowerment
• promoting from within to build growth paths and fresh ideas

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show on your podcast app and share it with someone who would value the content. I also invite you to subscribe to my HR newsletter for Eye Care Leaders. You can find information about that at www.seasoned-advice.com.

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This episode is brought to you by Seasoned Advice HR, where I help eye care clinics to hire, retain, and manage better — helping you get Better Results Through People. Learn more at seasoned-advice.com. 

Contact me directly at mike@seasoned-advice.com 

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Transcript

Welcome And The Core Question

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Greetings and welcome to iCare Leadership Live. This is the podcast for iCare leaders who want to level up their leadership, create better cultures, and improve the financial results of their clinics. Now let's join the show. Greetings, everybody. Today's topic is do you need another manager in your eye care clinic? And I imagine that this is a question that a lot of you think about because you're probably saying, uh, I'm overloaded, I don't have enough time to do all the things that I need to do. And you've probably given some thought to whether you need help as a manager. And I'm here to talk about that. That's a key question, and I'm and I'm glad you're asking yourself that. And what we're going to get into here in this podcast is what are some things to think about? What are the reasons why you should consider adding a manager or supervisor or leadership position? Maybe some of the things that would make you not do that. Uh, and maybe a little bit about what to look for if you decide you're going to do that.

Staff Feedback And Support Gaps

SPEAKER_00 1:27

So, what are some reasons to add a manager? And and what are some of the signs that you need to add another leader in your office? Well, one thing to think about is what kind of feedback are you getting from your employees? You know, if your employees are saying, we can't find a manager, we don't feel supported, um, we're when we have an issue, the manager is unavailable. That is a real red flag because you need your employees to feel supported because they're they're over there handling issues without you. And they're feeling unprepared and underinformed about how to handle those issues, or else they wouldn't be looking for you. And so if they are looking for support and not getting it, that is a bad sign. The other thing that can happen is they may just say, you know what, I'm I don't really enjoy being somewhere where I can never get my manager's attention or get time from my manager. And that's a that's that's a real thing. You know, if you're a technician or you work at the front desk, uh you are under a lot of pressure. You know, patients are coming in and they're lining up and they're being demanding and and they have questions and issues. And as an employee, you're trying to handle those the best you can. But there will be times when you feel unsure and you want to have a manager step in. And if that manager is unavailable, you're just gonna, you're not gonna feel good. You're not gonna feel good, you're gonna feel unsupported, and it's gonna cause you stress. And if you know anything about how I look at employee retention, the first thing I think about is is neurology and safety. And if you are doing things that make employees feel unsafe, i.e., or EG, for example, uh not being there when they need you, that they are gonna feel unsafe. They're gonna feel like it's a they're gonna feel a threat, perceive an emotional threat, and that tends to produce turnover. And so all coming back full circle here, if your employees are feeling unsupported, we need to add some additional support. And sometimes that comes in the form of a new manager, or maybe like a team lead, or some level of a structure to give them support. Okay, so that's one sign.

Too Many Direct Reports

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Another sign is if you are managing more than say 15 direct reports, if you have more than 15 direct reports, then you are likely starting to become less accessible. It's hard to really have a good relationship with each person individually if you're over 15 or so. Now that is going to vary a little bit depending on the experience of the of the employees and their competence. But assuming you're dealing with an average array of employees, average array of experience levels, um, I would say around 15 is when things start to break down. You know, one of the things I recommend is to meet with your direct reports one-on-one once a week. And if you have too many direct reports to do that, then that is a sign that you're overloaded. And it's a sign that you're not gonna be able to build the kind of trust with your staff that I would consider ideal for employee retention. And we know that losing an employee, let's say an ophthalmic technician, is gonna cost your clinic about $25,000. That's the value of an employee turnover. And and there are many things, I'm not gonna get into that, but but there's a real value to employee retention. And so, yes, there's a cost to having additional management, there's but there's also a cost to turnover. So just remember that that you know, when you're thinking about maybe adding staff or management, um, if you can retain employees, if it can help you retain employees, there's a real uh benefit. Um, what are some other signs?

Burnout And The Hidden Costs

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Um, you know, your own feelings, you know, are you feeling burnt out? Are you feeling unsupported in your job and pulled in too many directions? That is an important data point. And one that you can take to your managing partner or the doctor that runs your clinic, and say, look, I I don't feel supported. I've got I'm being run ragged here. Um, because you know, as a manager, you need to have the mental clarity and the mental tranquility to be able to think productively about the clinic and its operations. And if every day when you think about coming into the office, the clinic, you're dreading it because you have too many things on your plate, then eventually you're going to burn out. You're going to kill the golden goose or the goose that lays the golden eggs, you know, which is you, right? Because you help the clinic function. As a manager, you help set the vision, set and hold people accountable and provide encouragement and appreciation. The manager is kind of like the oil in the engine. You keep the engine running and keep the engine lubricated. Without oil in the engine, it's not it's going to burn out. The parts are going to stop working together, they're good, they're going to burn out. Uh, we're going to have the right part, wrong parts in the car, right? So the the oil is key to making sure everything is tied together, and you are like the oil in the engine. We don't want that oil to drip out and evaporate and to to burn the engine out. And if and that's what happens when you are being overloaded. It's like running that engine at too many RPMs, you're going to burn it up. And so your own perception is also key here. That's a key um diagnosis um metric for if there is a problem here. Um, some of the problems that can be caused by by a lack of leadership are turnover. We talked about that, manager burnout, just talked about that. Also, employees are gonna be less productive um because if there if there is a if there's a lack of leadership. Why is that? Well, they're gonna have questions that aren't getting answered, they're gonna have training and development needs that aren't getting met. They're just being kind of thrown in because there's a lack of a lack of support from leadership. You know, I don't have time to train you, I don't have time to mentor you, I don't have time to meet with you every week. I'm hiring you, I'm throwing you in. Um, I'm hoping that the other team members will will train you. Um, I'm I don't have time to ask you how things are going. That's not an environment of high productivity. That's an environment of barely surviving. And and so productivity is gonna suffer when there's a lack of leadership. And you're gonna have the last impact of a lack of leadership is gonna be culture and trust are gonna continue to erode. You know, I talked about employees feeling like they don't, they can't find a manager. It's not just the times when they have like a patient question or they have a work-related question. Sometimes there's a concern that they have with a coworker. Sometimes there's a concern they have about the job itself, and they want to talk kind of big picture about their future within the clinic. If you are not available for those discussions, or when you are available, you're in a rush, you're not really paying attention, you're not listening, they are gonna realize that, you know, this is not someone who's gonna be able to help me with this issue. They're they're overworked, they're stressed. If they even try to get your attention on a big picture issue, they they are gonna realize that that you're too overburdened to be able to assist them. Okay. And so that's a big, that's a big issue, and that's gonna erode trust. And these are not things that happen overnight. None of these things happen, you know, over the course of a weekend, and everything's great on Friday, and then Monday, you know, there's no trust and people are being unproductive. It doesn't work like that. It happens slowly over time. The you know, the more you're getting burnt out, um, the as the trust begins to slowly erode as they notice, you know, gestures, facial expressions, tones of voice, you know, that you're demonstrating, slowly but surely people will start to realize um that you are just overloaded. You're not a person that they can go to uh with issues. And then standards will slip. You know, you're not gonna have as much time for giving feedback and sub and encouragement either. So there's just so many impacts, there's so many ways that being understaffed as a management team can hurt your clinic. Um, you know, some of the things that you can do, um, let's get into that here.

Delegation With Team Leads

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Uh, one thing that you can do, and that doesn't even require hiring a new manager is deputizing or delegating some of your work to um what I would call like a team lead or you know, a training specialist or a clinic workflow um quarterback or a guru or something like that, right? They you're not necessarily delegating true supervision. And I actually think if I think this is a good uh stepping stone to determine if someone is right for a true management position. And so I'm a big fan of this type of sort of intermediate step. So maybe create a flow coordinator role or a training coordinator, you know, deputize someone to handle all the training uh for that team. So maybe you have a front desk trainer, or maybe you have a clinical, you know, technician trainer. See how that person does. Do they have the people skills? Do they have the organizational skills? Are they committed? Are they encouraging? Do they have the technical knowledge? Um, are they willing to confront difficult issues, you know, as they come up? Create a role like that and see how they do. That that is a wonderful step before actually delegating true management to someone on your staff. Uh, and so I think that's a really good idea. So that's

Picking Leaders With People Skills

SPEAKER_00 13:36

one thing you can do. Um, another thing that you can do and that you should do is assess potential leaders based on their, you could say, soft skills or their emotional intelligence or their people skills. That is equally important to their technical knowledge. To be a leader, you do have to have technical knowledge, you do have to be competent in clinic workflow, you have to be competent in technician skills, you have to be competent in handling, you know, patient, uh upset patients, or handling the software. Those are things are all true. But equally important is the people skills, because this is a, you know, this is a leadership role, whether you're actually needing supervision or whether you are just putting someone in sort of a a specialist coordinator, quarterback type of a role, um, it's still a leadership position. You have you have given them some additional authority. And if this is a person who's who is going to abuse that authority or be uh bossy or commanding or or overly meek, uh and they're not willing to step into that leadership, you know, some of those behaviors or are things that you want to watch out for, right? So look for people skills. And I don't just mean being nice. Being nice is not what I mean by people skills in management. What I mean is being encouraging, being direct yet diplomatic, uh, being clear, being clear with your positive feedback, and being clear with um supportive, constructive or negative feedback. Clarity is really important, timeliness is really important. Positivity is important, but it's not positivity without clarity, positivity without constructive feedback is not useful. It's not useful. Um, so so we're looking for a comprehensive skill set that uh in people's skills when it comes to leaders.

Why Leaders Need Humility

SPEAKER_00 16:07

This show is sponsored by Season Advice HR Services, where I help eye care businesses to make more money and save more money by hiring better, retaining better, and reducing your HR risk. If you would like an HR assessment or ongoing HR support, please reach out to me at seasoned-advice.com. We talked about technical skills, you know. That that's something that you're gonna know that that you're gonna have to determine in your clinic of what level of technical competence is required. But people they will they will only respect that person if they have a certain minimum threshold of technical skill. But the cool thing is they don't have to know everything. They don't have to know everything. And so the technician who who knows every how to do every single thing, honestly, ironically, sometimes that's that's not the best choice for management because because they they're so into the details and the fact that they know how to do everything that they lack the humility to know what they don't know. Um, or they'll have a tendency to just jump in and do everything because they know how to do everything. And so why shouldn't I just do it? And so the person who doesn't know everything is more likely to recognize that someone knows more than they do on a specific thing and empower that person. And so sometimes it's helpful for them to not know everything, and it's it's actually more helpful for them to know where their weak points are and encourage others to explore their strengths rather than having the leader jump in all the time. So you want to look for someone who's willing to trust others, willing to empower others, and willing to support them even when they might fail. Even when they might fail. So those are the things that I would look for in a potential leader. Um hopefully this has been useful to you. Um, we've talked about what to look for, the hallmarks of when you might need to hire a new leader or create a new leadership position. And we've talked about some of the um some of the things to to look for in a leader, the the traits to select

Promote From Within And Close

SPEAKER_00 18:44

for. Um, there are some real benefits to to hiring from within. Okay. If you can promote someone from within, there's some benefits. It shows people that, hey, there are growth opportunities here. Um, and that will that will tend to make people want to stick around. It will tend to make them um have more trust in the leader. You know, bring someone in from the outside. Sometimes people can kind of be skeptical and take a little bit longer to trust that person. I'm not saying you should never hire from the outside. There's certainly a there's certainly a time and a place for that. But promoting from within is a good strategy. Um and again, it shows people that there are growth paths within your clinic. Um, another benefit that I want to point out uh when you when you promote someone from within or bring someone from outside is I have seen employees when they were promoted to a higher level, I have seen them really blossom and start to um share more and be more vocal and be more expressive about their ideas. And so you can get new ideas, right, from promoting someone from within or bringing someone from the outside. You're gonna get some new ideas and some fresh perspective on things that maybe you hadn't thought about. That people will see things in a new way that you hadn't considered. So that's a real benefit to creating leadership positions or bringing someone from the outside that that we don't often think about. And then one final thing, uh benefit I want to share for expanding your leadership team, whether it's an informal non-leader role or a formal management position, is you're going to be hiring and onboarding and training better and retaining better, because now you've got help with that onboarding. Maybe you're allowing this person to sit in on interviews with you and getting their perspective. You're engaging them with onboarding new staff. And so, new hires, when they come on board, they're feeling more supported because you aren't stretched so thin. Um and you're retaining better because there's another person that people can go to to feel supported. Um, so there's just so many, there's benefits to be had to growing your leadership team. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a formal supervisor. Um, in a future podcast, I'll probably talk more about selecting that manager, how to, how to, how to identify, you know, who that is. Um but hopefully in this episode here, you've learned a little bit more about what the what the signs are that you do need to hire and the benefits that can come from doing that. Um, I hope that was useful. I'd love to hear from you. Share your feedback with me. Uh, if you like this show, please follow uh here on YouTube if you're watching on YouTube or follow on your favorite audio platform. Um, and we'll see you next time here on iCare Leadership Live. Well, that brings this episode of iCare Leadership Live to a conclusion. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show on your podcast app and share it with someone who would value the content. I promise to bring you more guests and content to help make you a better iCare clinical leader. I also invite you to subscribe to my HR newsletter for iCare Leaders. You can find information about that at seasoned advice.com. Now go out there and lead with confidence.