How to Manage Your Clinic Managers
How do you manage your clinic leadership? Hint — it’s not the same way you manage your staff.
In ophthalmology and other healthcare clinics, your practice managers and supervisors are the critical connection between the practice owners and the staff in the exam lane. They’re the ones who translate strategic vision into daily tasks, create a culture of awesome patient care, and ultimately determine the quality of employee retention in your clinic.
Yet, many busy practice owners and doctors treat their managers like highly paid staff members. This oversight is a major cause of burnout, poor performance, and high healthcare turnover.
Managing managers requires a different, more strategic approach. You must measure their results, hold them accountable to key behaviors, and—most importantly—give them the support they need to lead.
The Major Traps to Avoid
These are some of the primary goofs I see physician-owners and executive leaders make when it comes to managing managers:
Negligence: Managers can get comfortable. Over time, without your involvement, they may backslide into detrimental behaviors or low-grade caretaking. Don’t assume that 20 years of experience in your clinic means good leadership.
Making the wrong hire: Too often, physicians promote a front-line employee into a leadership role because they are a great technician or they are highly responsible for their own work. This just isn’t enough to make a successful manager.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing: Some managers look great to upper management or clinic owners, but they are secretly creating a nightmare for the staff. You have to dig deeper if you want to understand how employees are being affected by your leaders.
Getting too cozy: If you and your managers get too comfortable, too familiar, and too personal, the staff will see that and they will begin to lose trust in you as a practice owner or practice administrator. Keep things professional. Be close, create trust, but stay professional and objective.
Failing to appreciate what you have: A great manager is worth a lot. Failing to compensate them well, provide them adequate support, or notice their contributions will kill the golden goose. You could lose an awesome leader — and subsequently, you’ll lose some of your outstanding results.
The Leadership Results to Measure
When evaluating your managers, it’s easy to focus on just a few numbers. But to truly assess a manager’s value, you need a balanced scorecard that looks at both operational results and their impact on your team.
The Quality of Their Hires and Retention Rates: This is the clearest measure of a manager's success. Are they hiring employees who thrive and stay? Track their team's staff retention rate and the performance level of their new hires. A manager who consistently hires A-players who remain engaged is adding immense value.
Progress on Key Business Metrics: Determine the two or three most important metrics for your practice's success and keep the focus laser-sharp. This could include Accounts Receivable (AR) days, Patient Volume/Flow, or Revenue per Patient. Don't dilute your focus with a dozen competing goals: keep your key measures to just a few.
Patient Satisfaction Scores: The manager's behavior and the stress level of their team directly impact patient experience. Consistent low scores are a clear management issue.
The Behaviors to Expect: Going Beyond Surface Measures
A great manager isn't just someone who solves problems; they are a developer of people. They model the culture you want and create an environment where staff feel safe and motivated. You must explicitly communicate these key behavioral expectations:
Be a Developer of People: Managers should consistently spend time one-on-one with their direct reports to discuss performance, set goals, and listen to concerns. They should provide ongoing teaching and training, acting as a coach rather than just a boss.
Be a Fountain of Appreciation: Managers must regularly give staff specific, sincere appreciation and praise for good behavior and good results. They must be a leader who supports and backs up their direct reports, especially when dealing with difficult patients or providers.
Be the Accountability Officer: They must hold their direct reports accountable for both bad results and bad behavior. A failure to address poor performance is a failure to lead, forcing the practice owner to step in and fix the manager's problem.
Be a Cultural Leader: Expect them to create and share a team vision that aligns with the clinic's purpose. They must be visible to all employees, act fairly, and take ownership for their own decisions and results.
Tips for Managing Your Managers Effectively
Your managers are high-level investments. Protect that investment by managing them with the same intentionality you use for your strategic business goals.
Delegate Authority, Not Just Tasks: You hire managers to free up your time. Empower them to make frontline decisions (e.g., handling immediate patient issues, making minor staffing changes) without needing your approval for every step. Clearly define the boundaries where you expect them to ask permission, make a recommendation, or simply act independently. Wasting their talent by micromanaging them is the fastest way to lose a great leader.
Back Them Up Publicly (Coach Privately): When a manager makes a decision—even a slightly flawed one—support them in front of the team. If you need to correct or coach them, do so in a private, one-on-one conversation. Undermining a manager in public destroys their credibility and makes their job impossible.
Focus on the 20% That Gets 80% of the Results: Don’t overload them with dozens of goals and projects. Have regular conversations where you focus on the two or three high-impact goals that will deliver the most significant results for the clinic. This focus prevents burnout and ensures critical priorities are met.
Review the Reviewer: Conduct regular audits of your managers' performance documentation, feedback practices, and fairness in applying policy. Seek out staff feedback directly to ensure your expectations are being upheld. This ensures the manager is not creating legal risk for the practice through inconsistent discipline or poor documentation. For a deeper dive into making manager feedback effective, you might find my blog posts on feedback to be a valuable resource.
Share Your Vision and Connect Personally: Your managers need to understand the "why" behind the decisions you make. Share your long-term vision with them often. Also, spend time getting to know them personally; the trust and loyalty you build through connection will pay dividends when the clinic faces a crisis.
Hold them accountable for the results and behaviors described in this blog post. If you don’t address your expectations, then who will?
Managing managers is the highest-leverage work you can do as a healthcare leader or owner. When you clearly define success by measuring results and holding them accountable to the right behaviors, you empower a layer of leadership that drives efficiency, improves staff retention, and ultimately, frees you up to focus on the future of your practice.
Ready to build a stronger leadership structure? Let's connect. Contact me to learn more about how fractional HR can empower your healthcare practice.
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