By: Kriss Barlow, RN, MBA | kbarlow@barlowmccarthy.com
This Spring I read this in USA Today, “3 out of 5 workers said they have already committed to more work than they can handle. Another 20% said they are at capacity and have no room to take on more.” Hmmm, sound familiar? In a world filled with good intentions, how do we manage the constant feeling of too much to do. And perhaps the other question, does our priority work suffer? As I reflect on this for field staff and physician relations managers, here are some starter ideas to re-align and hopefully, to feel better about your work, life and ability to manage both.
Define Must-do Work. For many field staff, the sole reason an FTE was allocated is the organization’s desire to earn new referrals. Sometimes it’s providers who are in the network, and for others it’s select targeted groups. Take a minute to jot down the primary reason for your position. Now, consider how much of your time, attention, planning and skill development time is dedicated to this function.
- Clarify: In your next monthly leader update take a minute to confirm the #1 priority. Spend a few minutes letting your manager know how you’d like to re-focus and if you need their help, call that out with one or two specifics.
- Organize: I recently read that 1 hour of planning is equal to 8 hours of doing. I suspect we can all think of a time when we were not as efficient or as effective in the field because we did not take the time to organize our route, our message, our questions or our visits around priorities.
- Optimize Execution: We’ve all heard the statement, “Doctors are busy and their time is valuable.” If you have just 5 minutes with a doctor, what will you ask, what will you hope to learn and then how will you respond? Done right, the doctor is left feeling good for spending time with the rep. Effective growth strategy relies on an earned, trusted relationship. Consider your visits in the past week. How would you score yourself for execution?
Manage the “Stuff”: Each of has days when the stuff manages us… meetings, paperwork, emails, onboarding non-priority doctors, getting lost in tracking. Each action takes time and good attention. It’s easy to feel overworked, and not have time left for the priority tasks- or those actions that feed the priority work. The stuff sucks huge amounts of time from field staff. How much time is it taking in your week?
The challenge for many is, “How do I say no?” Needy or important people ask liaisons without much consideration for anyone’s agenda except their own. We fall short in our time management and our ability to focus on the measurable work. If this is your issue, it’s likely true for other members of the team. Suggest a team discussion. The agenda may include creating consistent role clarity and spend time scripting your responses. When a request comes in really evaluate if the ask supports the organization’s strategic priorities. Limit the number of nice to do tasks per week. You can still do some, just not all of them!
Current physician liaisons state field work is their primary focus. They estimate just 35% of their time is in the field.
– AAPL Physician Liaison Benchmark Survey 2019*
Last piece of advice on this, get ahead of it. With many new doctors joining, you may want to proactively message how the liaison team will be supporting the onboarding effort- just one timely example!
Get Back on the Horse: Personally, time management is a forever issue… it’s sort of like paying attention to the bathroom scale. It will never go away! I am old enough to be well-aware of those things that fall into the stuff category. Sometimes I do them anyway. My goal is to be self-aware when I do activities that align with my priority goals and not. Awareness is super important. I also need to self-correct when it’s too much time spent. This requires I actively keep track.
Time is a precious and limited resource for field staff. It’s yours to manage. What techniques have you found to be helpful in managing your time? How are you able to stay focused on priorities?
*In the blog above I referenced some great data from the most recent AAPL Benchmarking Survey. If you are interested in more of the data the survey results are currently available for purchase through the AAPL site: https://aapl.wildapricot.org/event-3418296.