Why do I have to do what you’re asking me to do?
If an employee of yours asked that, your response would likely be harsh.
What do you mean why do you have to do it? You’re an employee here. I sign your paycheck. You have to do it because I told you to do it!
In reality, most employees wouldn’t actually vocalize that complaint to their boss, so the scenario above may never actually materialize in your office. However; it’s likely that many of your employees have silently asked this very question.
Why do I have to do this?
Why is this important?
What if I just didn’t do it?
In a book titled Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed to and What You Can Do About It, the authors researched the top reasons employees don’t do what they are supposed to. Guess what the #1 reason was? The employee didn’t know “why” they should do it.
As a boss, you might not feel like you should have to explain the Why, but I suggest working it into conversations with employees and observing if it has any impact on performance or production.
We need to arrive to work on time BECAUSE when we don’t patients are kept waiting and it leads to a poor first impression of our practice.
We need to make fewer billing errors BECAUSE if we don’t get paid, we can’t continue investing into employee raises and bonuses.
We’re asking you to learn this new skill BECAUSE it will enhance the experience for the patient which drives word-of-mouth referrals.
I can’t promise you this will always reap positive benefits, but considering it’s the #1 reason employees don’t do what you want them to do, doesn’t it make sense to at least try to address the issue for the employee?
I’m asking you to do this BECAUSE it just might work.
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