Why Good Teams Still Miscommunicate

If your team cares about doing right by clients and each other, why does communication still go sideways so often? Our panelists dig into that question this episode, and the answer isn't a lack of effort — it's that we all show up wired differently. Different motivators, different learning styles, and moments where passion or emotion take over can make even well-intentioned people miss each other. 

We also get into what leaders can do to reduce day-to-day friction without becoming full-time mediators: starting from a clear "why," staying consistent about practicing communication as a team, anchoring conflict in shared values, and building enough trust that people can work things out without leadership stepping in every time.

Host = Brenda Tassava Medina, CVPM, CVJ, President of Encore Veterinary Consulting

Panelists:

• Amy Brauns, RVT, CVPM, Hospital Administrator at Everhart Veterinary Medicine
• Tiffany Consalvo, CVPM, CCFP, Director of Leadership & Operations at Encore Vet Group
• Crystal Hardison, RVT, CVPM, Practice Manager at Winterville Animal Care

Thank you to Joan Marshall of PIMidlantic for sponsoring this episode! Want to take the Predictive Index Assessment? Click here!

Thanks for listening!

Website: https://encorevet.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Select Clean Quick Consult is sponsored by PI Midlantic and Joan Marshall. Predictive Index helps veterinary leaders better understand what drives their people so they can hire more thoughtfully, improve communication, build stronger teams, and lead each employee more effectively. Joan is a former human resources executive who used PI within several companies before becoming a PI Midlantic consultant nearly 25 years ago. To learn how Joe Bond can support your practice, contact her directly at jmarshall at pimidlantic.com. Welcome aboard. If you're listening to Flight Plan Quick Consult, your go-to podcast for veterinary insights that are fast, focused, and designed to elevate your practice. I'm your host, Brenda Tasma 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. Let's buckle up and plot our course to why good teams still miscommunicate. With our guest panelists, Amy Bronze, Crystal Hardison, and Tiffany Consalvo. Tiffany, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

I have been a lifer in this industry. So I started when I was really young. I was a CSR. I went to Purdue University where I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, and then I gained experience in the practice and fell in love with leadership. So I have been in this industry since 2005. So 20 years, over 20 years now, and done a variety of things over the years. So consulting, I've been able to work one-on-one with practices. I've done some speaking, building websites back in the day. Um, and currently I am the director of practice leadership and operations at Encore, where I help support 27 different locations all over the United States. So lots of experience, both privately and corporate practice, and I'm loving every minute of it.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

So well, sounds like you're one busy lady, so we really appreciate you being with us today. Up next is Crystal.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Hey, I'm Crystal Hardison, and I've been in the field since 2008. I started in the kennel and worked my way up. I went to school and got my RVT. Um, or that led into management and got my C VPM. I'm currently managing um two locations, um, a three-doctor practice and a one-doctor practice. So a variety of different skills to lean on.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Well, thank you for being with us today, Crystal. We're looking forward to your insights and bringing us a ray of sunshine.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Hey guys, thanks for having me. Um Amy Bronze, I am a hospital administrator for a privately owned three location practice. Um, been with this practice for 28 years. Um, started as a CSR when I was a teenager and sort of just worked my way up um through the levels and got my RBT. I taught in tech school for a little bit and then got my CBPM. Um, and now I'm digging into sort of looking into consulting and doing fun stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

So well, we're so happy to have you here today, Amy. So um miscommunication. It can be a big old Pandora's box of conflict and trouble. And often at least one person isn't even aware of the friction or tension when it happens, you know, and that's I think a big part of why miscommunication happens, is they're kind of oblivious to it even happening around them. But we see many of the best cultures and closest teams still experience this every week to almost every day. So I've got a couple of burning questions for our panelists, and let's start with Tiffany. Um, why do smart caring people misunderstand each other so often?

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Oh my gosh, I love this question when I saw this come up because I'm passionate about communication. About 12 years ago, I got certified in disc communication, and then Encore has just brought us with predictive index, and so I have all this communication knowledge and I still mess it up all the time, right? And I'm like, I know this stuff, and um I think it comes from though we know a lot about communication, but there's still this human element of we have different motivators. So I might be coming at an issue and I want to check it off my list and get it done, and somebody else is coming at that same issue and they want to make it perfect and they want all the details and they want to really sit down and go thoroughly through it at that time. And our motivations might lead us to miscommunicate. I think when we're stressed out in the moment, it's still going to be like, Can I pause? Can I can I assume positive intent? Can I come at this from the right direction in that moment? And sometimes, yeah, I'm on it and I'm like, yes, I can see that I'm talking too much, or I can see that I jumped in when I shouldn't have, or I should see that I should pause. And other times I can't. I'm either passionate about something, I'm emotional about something, I didn't get enough sleep the night before. There, you know, there's just all these little things that happen in our life. It makes me think of that Brene Brown quote where she's like, you know, tell them what energy level you're coming at it with, because that helps somebody else, you know, kind of understand. And then just know there's a human element of communication. Like we're constantly working on it, we're never perfect. And so that also we don't master communication. I think it's one of those things that we have to keep working on and bringing that back up forefront over and over and over. And so I just try to assume positive intent and assume good things from other people, but know that I'm human and I'm probably gonna still mess it up here as we go, just how it is.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

So this is too true. And I love the self-awareness that you brought to the table. Crystal, managing two very different practices, very different sizes, different people. Why do smart caring people misunderstand each other so often?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

I think Tiffany kind of said it, like you don't ever master it. And so we talk about it, we learn about it. Um, but in the moment, um, you know, sometimes it's hard to pull on those skills. Um, and you do get a variety of personalities that, you know, spend a lot of time together. And sometimes um the behaviors don't always align. Um, and so peek teaching people to be self-aware, um, not everybody comes into it being self-aware of their communication style or personality types, um, or their behaviors, or the fact that, you know, yes, you may have a specific communication style, but you can control your behavior. Um, and then, you know, when it's crazy and people are doing a thousand things, those skills are the ones that kind of fall away sometimes. And so people just react or don't pause and don't assume good intent.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

So I love what you said there about behavior, and you mentioned personality before that. So I just want to throw an extra question at you, which is how do you explain to people the difference between personality and behavior? Because I have had like, you know, I do this workshop called um commitment to mutual respect, where we really set behaviors for the workplace for everybody. And I've had at least one instance where somebody in the workshop was like, but that's just my personality. I can't do that. How do you how do you talk somebody through that?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Um, I think that's a common reaction because I've had that too. Um and I'm not asking you to change who you are. I'm just asking you to be aware of your actions. Well, we we can be aware of our actions, we can be respectful, we can agree that we all want this workplace to be a certain way. We want to have the same values. Um, and that's uh to me, that's just kind of how I approach it. Like not trying to change who you are, your personality, you're gonna naturally fall into those, but you can be aware of how your actions affect other people. Um, you can be aware of what you need from other people, and we can talk about those things and we can try to find a common ground.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yeah, we're blessed with our personality, but we choose our behaviors, right? Yes. Amy, um, talk to me about smart caring people and why they misunderstand each other so much.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

So one of the words that jumped out at me was caring with our teams. And that is sometimes one of our biggest areas of miscommunication because we're overly caring sometimes, and those emotions sort of get in the way of what's really happening and not taking that step back to see what is what's really the problem. Um I'm I'm a self-admitted fixer. As soon as I hear something, I want to fix it. I want to provide the answer. Um, so sometimes being in that role, I'm not listening to everything that's going on because I already know what's going on and I want to fix it right away.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Um that is like, and help of Brenda's coaching.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

I've been working on it and it does help. Um, another one is we struggle with this with our leadership team, and we're developing new ways to to sort of flush out the wrinkles with it, but we have a hard time with perception on when we're communicating goals or plans or these are the next steps. Um, I think I'm voicing it very clearly and it's very apparent on what I expect the results to be. Um, but the perception of each one of my team members is very different. And when it came time to say our goals were completed or this was done, I was like, well, that's that's sort of not what what we wanted. Um so making sure that at the end of a conversation or communication session, whatever, that everybody sort of repeats what's going on and what their perception of the finished task or goal, or even sort of go through what was the main point of this conversation so that we are all on the same page because there have been so many times where we all left thinking we were on the same page. And then when we come back, we were we were all different chapters. We weren't even in the same general area of what we were looking for. So um I think emotions and perception are two really big issues with communication at our level and even with the support staff.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Yeah, yeah. No, really, really good insights and points. And I think learning styles go into that as well, the perceptions, because we all have our preferred, you know, learning style. And uh I know mine is visual, so it's like, you know, my husband, he listens and he can pick something up. And it's like, no, give I have to see it. I need to see a chart or a diagram or whatever the case may be. And if I'm listening to it while I have a visual, then it connects with me. But without it, I I like have to listen over and over again. So I think that plays into things at times as well. Um, and with direct communication too.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

So it's your thing. Oh, I was gonna add something really quickly too, is I was thinking about that when Amy was talking. And another area of opportunity that I find is I do this exercise in um a training that I do, and I ask everybody to draw a house, and I give them like three simple instructions to drawing that house. And we all draw wildly different houses, right? When you guys all hold up and everybody's proud of their artwork, and we talk through that communication because I think sometimes we come at communication from different levels of experience, different knowledge bases, and some of us have a really big knowledge, and some of us are just learning. And so, if we wanted everybody to draw the exact same house, then we need to give them the exact same instructions or maybe a visual cue of what it looks like, and we forget that because we're busy in the practice, and so we drive by and we say, do this with that patient. And in our head, we're saying do X, Y, Z, and the person that gets it may not understand that. So I think that a lot of times there's friction in practices because knowledge bases are different or we might not be as clear as we thought we were when we were communicating. So just that made me think of that too when you they were talking.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

So no, those those are really good points. Yeah. So, Tiffany, I'm gonna ask the second burning question of you. How can leaders, you're all leaders, um, reduce friction without constantly mediating the conflicts that might be happening around you?

SPEAKER_03 12:56

Yeah, I'm gonna go back to a quick story, and I won't make this too long. But when I first started at one of my hospitals working there, I got hired in, and there were three islands of doctors working there, and they all had their own way of doing things. And there was constant bickering, and there were people on the floor that were kind of raise up as many little leaders. And Brenda advised me on reading, Starts with Why by Simon Senect. And I will say, as a leadership team, we really went back and we said, okay, who are we? What's our purpose? Why are we here? And we did that foundational work, and I think out of that foundational work, we decided like this is who we are in the community, this is who we want to be. And then we set up protocols and job descriptions, and so got really clear on role clarity, who does what in the practice. And then we got really clear on protocols, this is how we want to do these things in the practice, and then we got really clear around checklist of like this is when you need to do those items in the practice. And so when we started doing that and people had a really good understanding of what they were, what was expected of them when they came into work, I didn't have much conflict anymore. You know, we still did, we started then doing communication training afterwards. So we set all that foundational stuff, our purpose, our job descriptions, our protocols, and our checklist, and then we did communication training and that kind of gelled everything together. And so when people got that, it reduced a lot of conflict. Now, I will say that took years. That wasn't something that you snapped your finger and fixed all the things, but I would say starting with that clear foundation and really putting the work in will reduce a lot of that conflict. Because my HR manager was like, man, I used to be mediating conflict all the time, and now I don't. We're building new things and doing new things because I think we had set that good foundation. So I really think that plays a lot into it. And sometimes people go to fixing the immediate issue of the conflict and they don't realize that they're why they have the conflict in their practice because they haven't done any of that work. And so I think you can solve a lot by putting in good, solid operational foundations.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

So I love that because I mean that's the work I do. It's building foundations or helping practice build those foundations. It you can't build a house of cards on jello, right? And you've got to have something to that's strong um and in place in order to start to add those other elements too. So I love that story. Um, and I remember when you were when you were working on that, and you were like the biggest follower of Simon Sinek that I know now.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

Yes, love it. I feel like that that was the catalyst that really started started us to explore how to do things differently and better and a journey of leadership breeding afterwards. So it was great.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Crystal, how as a leader, how do you reduce friction without constantly mediating in your practices?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

I try to we work on communication consistently, pretty much. Um not all team meetings, but very frequently. Um, and then just throughout the year, we kind of build it in. And sometimes we may be focusing on communication with clients, communication internally. Um the more we can learn about it as a group, then the more they use those skills with each other. Um, and also we really push to um focus on our values and kind of make that the root of a lot of conversations. Um and it's just it's a constant learning um environment, and communication is just something we're all learning.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

So you've both referenced things, you the why and the core values, and I think that that's just so intertwined. It's like our purpose, but then how do we carry those things out? And using your core values and keeping them um a part of that daily conversation is so key. It's not like you created them and stuck them in a drawer somewhere, right? And it's like, where did those go? What what was it? No, you you're you're incorporating them into their daily flow and the way that they actually go about their jobs, and I love that. Thank you for that, Crystal. Amy, how do you how do you not how do you avoid mediating this all the time? What what do you do to reduce friction?

SPEAKER_01 17:13

So it's so hard because you know I want to mediate and be in the middle of it and help guide.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Without being the fixer.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Without being the fixer. Um we I have sort of a story that sort of takes it way back in the beginning of when we opened our second practice and we had a really strong RVT. She was traveling from far away. Um we had Wednesdays were always like our the day. Like something was gonna happen, it was on a Wednesday. Um, and she was it was overwhelming and she was over in the corner and having some kind of small mental breakdown. Um, but I had all the staff running to me. So and so is so upset, she wants to quit, she hates it here, and I'm panicking, like she's my she's my person. So I run over and what they heard her say is I loathe Wednesdays, I don't want to work today. And all they heard was, I don't want to work. And it turned into this giant, she hates it here, she's gonna leave. I'm panicking. Um, and this was really early, like in my management career. So of course I'm like shutting down. So I'm like, what am I gonna do? Um, so I use that story a lot with my team when we start to talk about these communication issues is to make sure that they want to have a full understanding of the picture before they start to fix things or go for help. Um, the other thing is with our team is it was that constant, like we have that open door policy, which to them means if my door's open, they're coming in for every little thing and they're not communicating what the real problem is or are they trying to fix it on their own. Um, so one of the things that we did was I put cards on my door, and if they were coming into my office to talk about something, they had to take a card and they had to write down what the problem was, who was involved, and like what are you looking to get out of this? Um, and it sort of turned into coaching moments, and now it gets to the point sometimes where they come, they fill out the card and you hear them like and then they walk away because it gave them that opportunity to step back and look at the big picture and realize maybe I don't need to be here. This is something that I can handle on my own. And that too was not something that happened overnight. It took a lot of coaching with them on how to communicate with each other and not, you know, make you statements but make I statements and vice versa. Um so it was it was a tough transition. Um but at the end of the day, the way they now can communicate with each other or myself, knowing that they're coming in like, hey, I just need to vent. But they also know if this is an event solution, event issue and they're looking for solutions, they better have three solutions on that card for the issue they're bringing to me to help them learn how to communicate with each other and themselves on, you know, what do I need to do to keep moving forward? Um and I've learned a lot from that, from them in doing that with communication styles, behaviors versus personality, and how I need to approach when they come to me with issues, what my response should be, my body language, my um, you know, there's some staff members when I can be like, what the heck were you thinking? Why would you do that? For other staff members, I had to sit down and be like, okay, let's start from the beginning, you know. So just those communication styles can make a huge difference too in how they respond or move forward with things.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Amy, I love that you said that um you have to do a lot of coaching them to have the conversations because I find myself in that situation too. It's a lot of talking it through, it's a lot of what would you have said different? What would you have done different? Um a lot of getting them to kind of look at their actions and their words, um, and then encouraging them to have a follow-up conversation, but in a positive way.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

We do a lot of role play.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

And that's the way to do it, building that foundation. Tiffany, did you have something?

SPEAKER_03 21:19

I did. You could tell. Something, a couple of things that I would say, just little points for leaders is I had um when Crystal said core values, we started utilizing the traction model in our leadership team. And a few little nuggets, even if you don't go all the way down with traction, I think if you identify your core values, you share them, and then you kind of use that people analyzer tool where you go through and say, Do I need to have a conversation with any of my team members? Like, are they truly following our core values? And you kind of grade them to say, you know, Brenda, yep, doing the core values. Tiffany, nope, needs to work on this. And then I know clear conversations that I need to go have with myself and say, Hey, you know. Know what this is a core value that we hold really near and dear to our heart, and this is why it's important at this practice, and we don't tolerate this behavior, we need to see a change. I think having those accountability conversations are really, really like important. It's maintaining and mitigating those conversations that lead into other things because when the team sees you holding them accountable to the behaviors that you set in your practice, that can be really, really powerful. The other thing that we utilized was is it a training opportunity for a team member or is it a culture conversation? And that guidance from a leadership team helped my team understand where do I need to go tackle? Like, do I need to work with them on blood draws or do I need to work with them on a culture conversation? So just kind of identifying which one it is, because if not, we got into conversations about people in our practice that were lengthy and not really productive to our meetings. And so that was just a quick tool that we used during our meetings to say, hey, do you need to go tackle that from this or from that perspective? And then the last thing I would say that really, really helped is we identifying is this a single time that this happened? Is it a one-off situation? Does it fall into that like 80, 20%? Or is it something that we need to set new operations around? So if it consistently happened more than once, then we would tackle it as an operation because we knew that we needed to identify the issue and create these protocols with how we're going to do it in the practice. And if it was just a one-off situation, we needed to not focus on trying to change the world for that one thing. And I think though just keeping those things in mind too help to mitigate conflict in the practice and really help you move forward.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

So a second, we are a big track and traction practice. Um you're speaking my language. Um, the people analyzer has changed the way we communicate with our team because it takes the emotions out of it, right? It, you know, it might be you're having a bad day, they're having a bad day, but it's a very black and white. Like this is the core value. Are you following it? Yes or no? It's not based on our emotions or views. It's based on yes and no. Um and it has made conversations much easier and much easier to give and much easier to receive too. When you're getting people analyzed, it's easier to receive that feedback in that format. And it really helps with um transparency and perception, is all sort of covered in that people analyzer.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Yeah, for our listeners who've maybe not heard the word traction before, um, check out the book by Gina Wickman. Uh, I think that you'll really get a lot out of it as a practice owner and a practice manager. Thank you all for your very valuable insights. And I think there are a lot of takeaways today that practices can actually put into place. I would like to invite all of our listeners to do a quick flight check this week and ask yourself where is your team experiencing unnecessary friction? And then follow that up with is there a foundational element that's absent here that may be causing this friction? Thank you for flying with us on Flight Plan Quick Consults. Thank you to our generous sponsor, Joan Marshall, at PI Mid Atlantic. If today's insights helped you climb to new heights, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with your crew.