Your Managers are Drowning...Here's Why

In this episode of FlightPlan: Quick Consults, we tackle a critical challenge for veterinary practices: overburdened practice managers. Our panel breaks down the avalanche of responsibilities—admin, HR, bookkeeping, inventory, client complaints, and more—that keep managers from truly leading their teams.

We explore practical solutions, including delegating tasks, outsourcing, and structuring leadership support so managers can focus on what matters most: leading people, building culture, and driving results. 

If you’re looking for ways to empower your managers, reduce reactionary chaos, and strengthen your practice from the middle out, this episode is packed with actionable strategies and expert insights.

Panelists for this episode include:

• Host = Brenda Tassava Medina, CVPM, CVJ, MVLCE, President of Encore Veterinary Consulting
• Katie Esposito, CVPM, Account Manager at Clarus Technology
• Susie Crockett, CVPM, Director of Practice Management at Noah's Animal Hospitals
• Debbie Hill, CVPM, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Consultant at Encore Veterinary Consulting

Thanks for listening!

Website: https://encorevet.com/

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Instagram: @encorevetconsulting

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/encore-veterinary-consulting

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:11

Welcome aboard. You're listening to Flight Plan Quick Consults, your go-to podcast for veterinary insights that are fast, focused, and designed to elevate your practice. I'm your host, Brenda Tassimo Medina from Encore Veterinary Consulting. Whether you're between appointments or heading into a strategy session, we've got takeoff ready tips, tools, and takeaways to keep your team soaring. So buckle up and set a course for why your managers are drowning. Today's panel includes Debbie Hill, Susie Crockett, and Katie Esposito. Katie, tell our listeners a little about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Hi all. So I'm Katie Esposito and I have been in veterinary medicine for my entire life and started in the kennel and kind of worked my way up through the hospitals. In the process, got my MBA and CVPM and then went into regional operations for about four or five years, and have recently joined a company called Claris Technology that is still in vetmed but on the software side. And did that because I see that we need we need some help in our industry in making access to care more accessible. Um and that the product is is amazing. And I'm feeling very strongly about my decision to kind of come out of hospitals to do this. I also live in Massachusetts with a dog and four cats. So that's thanks for joining us today.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Next up is Suzy Crockett.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Hi, I'm Susie Crockett. I am a proud Purdue grad. I have an organizational communication degree, and so I love to chat. So I'm very excited about today's podcast. I've been in VetMed for a little over 25 years. I started as a CSR and kind of have gone through a lot of different positions here. I earned my CBPM in 2009, and I'm currently the director of practice management for a group of independently owned hospitals in Indianapolis area where I oversee practice managers and operations for multiple disciplines of ER specialty GP low cost.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

Great. Thanks for being here today, Susie.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

And not to be missed, Debbie Hill. I'm Debbie Hill. I'm a newly retired hospital administrator, and I have lived today's topic. I came into the profession like Susie as a receptionist before the cool titles and spent 37 years in veterinary management for small animal practices, most of those years with multiple practices. I've worked every phase from startup to selling. And the one thing I learned is that I needed capable people in the trenches. And so we hire them and we work in Silly. So today's topic is spun on for me. While getting my C V PM and HR credentials, I taught management and communication for Patterson for 13 years and spoke nationally, helping practice managers and owners know that they're not alone. My practices shared the exact same struggles. My team's not any smarter than anybody else's. So when I tell you what we do and don't do, it's what we've done and don't do. Retirement means I've got a little more time on my hands. And so my brain is still swirling with all things management. And so I'm finding ways to share those experiences with consulting work, some curriculum and side projects. I love all things management. I've seen what works, I've seen what doesn't. I want practices to succeed. And my personal mission is to share what I've learned with other practice managers and owners. Well, thank you, Debbie.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

I'm excited about this panel because you come from a management world, but you've also worked with managers in very different in different capacities. So I think there's a lot of diversity, but um I'm anxious to hear what y'all have to say. So my first burning question, and I'll pitch it to Katie first. Um, what responsibilities are we piling onto practice managers that actively prevent them from leading?

SPEAKER_02 4:13

So I feel like this is a loaded question because I think most of the things we put on the practice managers are preventing them from actively leading the team. Um, there is a lot on their plate, going back to my practice manager management days, um, something that paperwork altogether is what I will say. Admin. And some of the things I feel are not practice manager equipped are the HR issues we put on them. Um we put every single disciplinary action, good, bad, on on our practice managers and don't really give them the training usually to take care of those things, as well as we do all the accounts payable, accounts receivable, um, payroll, inventory, you name it, and they do it. So um it's a very loaded question because all of that takes them off of the floor 90% of the time, where they should be on the floor probably 90% of the time and in the office 10% of the time.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Yeah. Yeah. I think the one thing, you know, one of the things that I I felt I never needed to do, but I was doing all the time was the bookkeeping. And um, when I went to um when I moved to Indianapolis, that was one of the things that that I was gifted was here's a bookkeeper. She's gonna come in two mornings a week and she's gonna produce all your PLs for you. And it was like such a gift because it did free up some of my time. What about you, Susie? What responsibilities do you see that were piling on practice managers that prevents them from actually leading?

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Uh yeah, and I love this topic because I agree. I've seen this in all of our practices. I currently see it in our practices, and then sometimes I feel guilty because sometimes I'm the one dumping. Um, and I'm trying to be very cautious about this overloading without support concept that I've kind of grabbed onto. But um, it was a tough question. I mean, I understand because the practice managers do need to manage. So they do have to have all these other things on their plate. Um, but similar to what Katie said, inventory ordering, um, compliance paperwork and compliance issues, I think is huge managers typically have to end up dealing with that. Client complaints, right? We're dealing with that side of things, equipment issues, our vendor communication, we love that, but we have to do those, and those take a lot of time to cultivate those relationships so that they're beneficial to our practice, but it doesn't allow us, it takes away from our time to lead, coordinating all the meetings that we have. And sometimes we have meeting after meeting after meeting. Um, and you know, again, all the paperwork and the payroll and the finances and all of that kind of reporting just takes a lot of time and energy away from being able to lead. Because if I'm spending two hours, three hours doing detailed reporting, I've kind of reached my mental capacity to go deal with then an emotionally led um team conversation.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

So okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

What about you, Debbie? What are your thoughts here? Uh well, kind of like these guys, I think we give them everything. We hire uh a great management candidate, we give them a job description that tells them what they'll do, and then we give them everything else. And if they're a credentialed technician, then we expect direct patient care as a focus. And don't get me wrong, I have always loved when I can get a certified veterinary technician that's also, you know, open to management and has some skills. But what I find is if they're in surgery, then somebody complains about inventory or the schedule's off. And if they're having admin time, then they're clearly just goofing off and you know, they're the only person that can place a catheter. And then I think, well, then where's the training? Train everybody else to place a catheter. I think, but they can't train because they still have to be the only one in surgery and they still have to make sure the inventory got offered. I mean, we just give them so much. Um, I kind of thought with this that um that training becomes one of the biggest areas of concern. I mean, there's some great um technologies out there now that will create the training for you, that give you the training. And yet what we find is we give them these great training programs, and then there's no accountability. So, you know, Janine still can't place a catheter and she's been your vet assistant for eight years. And it's like, well, that's just Janine. Like, well, then you're always going to be placing the catheter. But I don't think managers have to be the only ones training, and we kind of pull that on ourselves as like, you know, throwing up your hands and saying, fine, I'll do it, is just not the answer. And that tends to be like you got to the top of the food chain because you would do it all, and now you're unhappy because you're doing it all. It's like, you know, we give make him do everything.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

So I have a follow-up question, which isn't one of our burning questions. So, but you all brought up things that must be done, but are basically like busywork, paperwork, administrative duties. So I just want to throw this at you. How do you feel about um managers, you know, taking a day and doing all those things from home? I mean, what's what's your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I'll take that one. Um one of the things I see is that we have this shift in the workforce in general. And so you've got an old school mentality that says, if you're not where I can see you, you're not working, which the last five years have proven to be not true. Um, and yet you want to do all these admin things while somebody's coming to tell you that you're out of microscope slides, or I don't know if you know, but you know, Liz was mean to me, thinking I've still got to get payroll processed. Um, but I mean, I'm a big fan of outsourcing. A lot of this, you know, uh angst that we take on ourselves could be outsourced, but um, I I'm all a fan of saying, hey, one day, like the four days come in, be with the people, talk them up where they need them, train them. But for the mind task, I need to not have somebody come in to ask me if I'm busy.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Katie. I feel differently. Um, I feel like managers should be there five days a week because we want to see it, feel it, hear it, all of the things. I've found in my experience that dedicating a few hours each day to admin is was the best way for me to make that happen and still be in the still be in it. Um I think that part of this is that we need to allow for more help and leads that are that are taught to lead and help the practice manager, and so delegation can happen, and then no one needs to not be in the office. What about you, Susie?

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah, and I was waiting for the word, and Katie hit it on the head. So I do a lot of work in time management and delegation, and it's such an important concept that we don't talk about enough as we're training managers, and so I'm a fan of time blocking. So I agree with Katie. I like to see my managers in the practice, but I'm a fan of time blocking. So I'm gonna take from 9 to 11 on Tuesdays, and that's my time. And my team is aware that that's my time, and they know that unless things are really, really like literally on fire, and I just need to leave the building, they shouldn't be interrupting me. Um, and they can navigate their own their own problems, but they have to be able to be given permission. And that's where the delegation comes in, that I have the authority to make a decision without bothering the manager, without bothering leadership. And so um creating a sub-let level of leaders um and delegating out some of these tasks that do need to get done, but they don't need to be done by the manager isn't really important.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

I think that the time blocking is a great approach. And I know a lot of managers are like, but I have an open door policy. And it's like, but if your door is always open, it's always open to interruptions. And so I've encouraged a lot of managers to set office hours. Like I am available between these times, you know, so that I have, you know, an open door, but I also have to do those time blocks and helping the staff to understand the why behind that really helps. I used to, um, my daughter had a Sunday event every week, and I drove by the office, dropping her off at that and picking her up. And I was like, man, that's three hours I've got to wait on her. And the office is right there. And so I would go on Sundays, and that was like my big three-hour block to like get a lot of stuff done uninterrupted. Um, so I wasn't working from home, but I was kind of doing a modified version of what all three of you mentioned, and that worked for me. So I think um, and it freed me up to be on the floor, as Katie said, the rest of the week, um, and available to the people.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Brenda, I was gonna throw in one thing too. Like, if you're the only person that is allowed to call the plumber, kind of to Susie's point, it's like there's a time block, but they can't call the plumber because we haven't delegated like who the plumber is. It's like keeping a maintenance list. Uh, in our practices, we always had a patient called maintenance for the practice, and all the contacts were there because if the toilet's overflowing, someone needs to make it stop. It doesn't have to be the manager. Um, so a lot of times we delegate in in talk, like we talk about it, but then we hold the special tools. Like if you're on vacation and you're the only person that knows where the screwdriver is to the autoclave, well, that's on you. Like, share the resources.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Absolutely. So we need to delegate and then empower people, I think is a big is a big lack in our industry, is we need to teach them how to do these things and then allow them to do it and not hold the key or the screwdriver to the autoclave. So I think we do fail at that a little bit in our field.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

So my second burning question comes out of it uh uh something I'm dealing with with one of my clients is that they're they're really trying to build that leadership team so that they can take some of the things off of the plate of the manager and have her available. But the thing that they are encountering right now, of course, there's bumps in the road when that happens, but she has become this emotional and operational catch-all. So, how can owners and that leadership team better structure support so that that manager doesn't always have to catch everything emotional and operational? Let's start with Susie.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

All right. So I I think that this is I just love this topic so much because I think when we have every issue flowing through one manager, we spend our days reacting versus leading or planning, right? Which I think is also really important. And so we kind of have become these emotional shock absorbers because we're just like we get shocked and then we have to like reset. Um, but I think, you know, it kind of is back to basics, right? Number one, clarifying their role. What is the role that you want the practice manager to be playing, like that job duty Debbie was mentioning too, um, and building a leadership team instead of solo leaders? There can be different arms to your structure so that if there is a client issue, maybe that doesn't have to go to the manager. If there is a vendor who comes in, maybe you know that's part of your time blocking, vendors come in at a certain time. Um, but one of the biggest things that I'm seeing now is kind of defining decision authority. So we have a lot of leaders who um leaders without titles sometimes even, um, and we don't have a clear definition of what is their authority level for business decisions. So maybe clarifying that a little bit better and deciding where they can act independently instead of having to go to the owner doctor who may not be on site. Um, because I think that's the other roadblock that managers have with time of getting all of the things done is that they're hamstrung themselves, right? They don't have ultimate decision-making power depending on their company structure. So making sure that we have clarity there and reducing the bottleneck of those decisions is a really good system in place that I think is a good place to start.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

Awesome. Thank you for that. Um, Debbie, what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 16:38

No, I kind of took what Susie was uh talking about. I was thinking about um the managers, they they can share the task. Like I don't know how the marquee works, I don't need to know how the marquee works, somebody else does. Um, you can share the social media task, you can share the task. I like a level of um supervisors and leads, but I find often we just pick a person because they have perfect attendance. I don't know why we pick them, um, but I don't know if they're qualified. Like, can you lead people? Can you make get sure the tasks are done that have to happen? Um and sometimes I see that, but then what I hear is that managers, you're you said hamstrung, and I thought that's the same thing. Like we have got people in place, we've empowered them, they've got skills, and yet sometimes owners and leaders think you're still the only person that can answer that question. It's like, no, I've sent this person to courses, like I know they can. Well, you need to do it. Like, yeah, you know, I get it, managers can only go so far when their hands are held like that. Um, delegating and using technologies that make sense for your practice, there's lots of great tools out there. But if it's not saving you any time on the people ish to deal with the people issues, then maybe it's time to revisit their value. I mean, I love them all, but I've had time over the years to think, you know what, this one makes no sense for us. And this one, don't know how we could get by without it. Um so I think if I'm looking to prioritize how to use my time and my um staff's time, then I need to know if it's really helping us. Because sometimes the details of checking on a technology is time sucking itself. Like I don't want to read every single thing that ever came through on there. I presume that whoever I put in charge of it is doing that, but I should have had the conversation explain the expectation to. Thanks, Debbie.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

What are your thoughts on this, Katie? So I think as far as the emotional portion of it, um, that's huge. You know, I used to joke that I could probably get a license in therapy, jokingly, um, after all my years in practice management. Um, but I think something that has come become very important is having an EIP and employee assistance program. And I think everyone should offer it and it should be used versus using the practice manager for that. And even having an, you know, a plan like if we have a private practice, making sure that the health plan allows for therapy and mental health because people will go to that if it's offered to them. Um, and it does take some of the burden off of the practice manager, especially if they have say five calls a month with the EAP line and it's something, you know, the manager is busy, so I'm just gonna call the line and talk to them. And I think that's really important. Um, because it's a lot, you take on a lot in everyone's issue. Um so I find that to be the most important thing.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

Yeah, I agree. This is one more follow-up question for you all. How long do you believe it takes to build a strong middle-level management team to take the load and burden off of the managers?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

You're thinking more than a week then? Because you know, we gave it a role. What's a problem?

SPEAKER_03 19:48

Realistically, because you know, this is something that you know I work with a lot with our clients, and I think that sometimes it's a I promoted them all, I gave them all job descriptions, and they went through a little bit of leadership training, they should be good to go, right? And that's not necessarily the case because you've got to build that strong team. So, what would be a realistic range of time, do you think?

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yeah. I think it I think it's a trick question because I think we're always learning. Um, and so it's it doesn't stop. There's no finite end to me, right? My middle managers are still learning and growing and I'm developing them um on a regular basis, but just to get them up and running, right, I think is is really what we're thinking about here, is honestly I would want somebody who's been in my practice for a year, ideally. So they kind of really understand the culture, they understand the workflow, they understand what we're about. And I can see that they have lived and breathed our mission and our vision and our values, because that's the kind of leader I want. And I don't think you can see that in somebody for 30 days, 60 days before you decide to put them in a leadership position. So I think we start too early for starters. But once you kind of get past that year mark, I think if you're dedicated and you're giving time to teaching them the leadership skills, um, I think 90 days, just like we would for any other position start, would be minimum, in my opinion, before I would let them kind of go on their own. And we think about how we bring in technicians and CSRs, um, we pair them with a buddy, um, and then we have mentorship after that. And so that first 90 days is really pivotal. So I think that that would be kind of my marker if I was looking at when they would be comfortable, right? And should be able to kind of stand a little bit on their own.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

I would say similar. I'd look at that six months, but I think um Susie hit something important. A lot of times we are in the interview stage and somebody shows a lot of potential either in a statement or their paperwork, and we're like, wow, this is gonna be the person to be the tech lead. And so we're all set with it. We've had some kind of nod to them, and they're expecting. to be their role right in. But I need them to be there. I think that year in the practice is good. They need to know who the players are and what the conversations are. And a lot of times we we start too soon, but we also make our expectations early on. All of a sudden it's whatever, 30 days into a person it's been with you a year and a half, they're now to lead something. And you know we're we check that off our box. Like managers like, sweet, I've got somebody doing it. And we're not making any time for mentoring the leadership point. We're happy to have handed off the task. I believe that relationships are going to be the key to 2026. Some of you have heard me say that 14 times this year. It's going to be clients, it's going to be team and we're still talking about tasks for managers. And why are we frustrated? Because we're still talking about tasks when we can't trust people to do what they said they would do. Thoughts, Katie?

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Again, a little different I um I think I'd like to get things done a little bit faster because and I would be willing as a manager to commit myself for six weeks to everything with a new manager. And then letting them start to kind of go out on their own because my experience has shown the longer I kind of hold them back, the more frustrated they get. They start doubting themselves. I might get frustrated that I'm still talking about it and that's my personality. So I want to you know set some goals in those first four to six weeks and then say let's try it. I'm still here let's still talk about things if they don't work out great but you need to kind of learn on your own as well. But then after that point setting milestones checking in you can't just give up after the six weeks you have to continue making the effort and you know maybe less of an effort but it's not it's not just like done. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Milestones I th that just hits the mark the the mark on the head for me because I was thinking about um my leadership team in Indianapolis and the evolution there and it was a such a strong team the big milestone where I knew like they've got this was I went on vacation and it was the first time in years years that I've been on vacation and no one called me or texted me. And it was one of those things where I was like is everything okay you know but I held myself back and when I returned to the practice my HR manager came to me and he's like how was your vacation and I said it was great. I was like it was really kind of strange though because no one called me and he's like that was our goal and as a leadership team they had said our goal is not to call Brenda during her vacation we can handle this. And that was a huge milestone for that team. So it took two years but it was like Susie said it was an evolution it was continued growth and um them realizing that they could do it. So well thank you all and thank you for flying with us on Flight Plan Quick Consults if today's insights helped you climb to new heights be sure to subscribe leave a review and share this episode with your crew until next time keep your mission clear your team aligned and your practice soaring