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Productivity is important in every industry, but perhaps none more than healthcare. You're handling people's health and wellness, after all. That said, it's not always easy to promote productivity, especially when you have so many different personalities and so many different positions present. Luckily, adapting your expectations to each employee is easy—and it can create the most efficient organizations around.
Different strokes for different folks
According to an article by Fast Company, there are four different productivity personas: the prioritizer, the planner, the arranger and the visualizer. They are mostly differentiated by their patterns of thinking—while some folks approach their work from an analytical perspective, others seek organization and sequence. Still others are expressive or intuitive.
And yet another analysis of productivity styles is covered in "People Styles at Work," by Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton. Though it uses different names (analyticals, amiables, expressives and drivers), their descriptions are quite similar. Analyticals are organized and systematic, while amiables are hardworking and friendly. Expressives, on the other hand, are energetic and assertive, and drivers are more focused on the work than the accompanying relationships.
One destination, many paths
The way people think makes a big difference in how they approach their personal jobs (which is why a one-size-fits-all approach is rarely effective). The key to garnering the most out of your team's talent? Working with, not against, their personal productivity habits. It's actually pretty simple—while specific, measurable goals must be met, there are half a dozen ways to achieve them. Sometimes this means letting your staff chart their own courses toward success, while other times it means crafting a more specific job outline for them and adjusting expectations accordingly.
An example? Give your analytical employees number-driven goals that utilize their calculating approach to their work. For your expressive employees, try giving them more subjective, emotion-based goals instead. They will throw themselves wholeheartedly into achieving them. So long as you have a healthy mix of each personality, your hospital, clinic or practice will be able to achieve everything it needs to.