Staff Management

Questions to Ask Practice Team Members to Really Get to Know Them

Photo courtesy of Dr. Ted McElroy. Dr. McElroy (back row, second from right as you look at photo) shares the questions that have allowed him get to know his practice team members much better.

Key questions to ask

By Ted A. McElroy, OD

April 30, 2025

How well do you know each of your practice team members? I have key questions I ask each employee to really get to know them.

Before sharing those key questions, however, you must understand why it’s important to get to know each of your employees.

I will start with a story to illustrate why I devote at least one hour once a quarter to spending time with each of my team members.

A Lesson from the GA Optometric Association

Years ago, at our Georgia Optometric Association Summer Meeting, I was discussing with two other ODs and a former sales rep, Larry Savage, what he had noticed in our offices. (Larry also happens to be married to one of the other two ODs in the conversation.) Larry said the moment he walked into each of our offices, he knew we had successful businesses.

The BS alarm went off immediately on my dear friend and idol, Mike Rothschild, OD, a great American. Mike asked, incredulously, “How did you know that?” Larry answered, “Because I could see that each of you were engaged with your teams in the practice. Every time I see an owner engaged with the team, I know they have a successful business. The sad part is most owners are doing everything they can to avoid their team.”

Understanding Your Team

If you don’t know your team, you will not know what motivates each of them. You will not know what things suck all the life out of their being. In short, you will not know them. And we all want to be known.

That is why it is important to invest one hour with each team member once a quarter. It is important that this time is scheduled. It is set apart for them and you; purposeful, intentional and prepared for.

It is important to know what is important to the team members. It is not all about learning deep, personal, dark secrets. However, there are many things we hold dear that are very important to us, which someone else would benefit to know:

What are your hopes and dreams?
What are the things about your day which keep you up at night?
What would you rather be doing at work which you are not doing?

Building Trust

You cannot just ask someone the above key questions right at the jump. You must have a level of trust first. Trust comes from showing up and doing the work. The best way to get to know someone is to ask questions.

Setting the Scene for 1:1 Meetings

For the setting, I have the 1:1 in a neutral location, an exam room, in the chairs our guests’ accompanying visitors sit in while the guest has an eye exam.

I ask my Operations Administrator, Allison Thompson, to sit in on these with me. It is nice to have another set of ears to hear what I don’t hear. No one person is the same as anyone else. We all speak our own “dialect.” It is great having a “translator” of sorts to hear the different conversation than the one I thought I was in.

Preparing for the Meeting

Here is how I start the process. I send each team member an email on the Monday before our Friday 1:1 meeting:

“I am looking forward to our time together Friday. The responsibility for this time being effective is not solely on me, but it is mostly on me. Therefore, I have a few things I wish for you to ponder going into our time Friday.

What’s on your mind? (What have you been contemplating needing to discuss with me, but there hasn’t been enough time, the right time, the right context or the right amount of will, etc., to see this to be important enough to bring it up to Ted?)
What have I not been getting from Ted/Allison, that is needed?
If I could fix one thing by waving a magic wand, it would be __________. And, if I saw ______________ occur, I would know it was starting to happen, was already completed or was at least heading in the right direction.
What kinds of things do I do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, to put me in a place to achieve greatness?
What is the one thing that Ted/Allison does that drives me crazy? What is the one thing I hope Ted/Allison will never stop doing?

I cannot guarantee we will get to all these key questions, and I cannot guarantee this will be all we will discuss. If there is something you feel that is even more important we need to discuss, aside from the above points, bring it to our attention either at the start of our time, or even better, by an email response to this so we can have some time to ponder too.

We will begin at 2 p.m. Let me know if you have any questions or need any clarification. I am looking forward to spending time together Friday.”

The Power of Simple Yet Key Questions

I know what you are thinking…this is way too simple. The questions need to be more complex, digging deep into their soul. Nope, the team needs to know you are available, want to see them succeed and are willing to help.

These questions will unlock some aspects of the business your team wishes they could tell you but don’t know how, don’t think you care or are too afraid to tell you because they feel like they need permission to tell you.

Unlocking Greatness

These key questions unlock the greatness within your team. It is important they get the questions before the meeting. This is not a board exam, nor is it an inquisition. It is a time for both of you to grow and become more engaged with what is important to each of you. Make sure you hold space for the team member to go in a different direction than you wish to. It is their time which you have set aside for them.

Embracing the Challenge

You may find this a difficult exercise at the start. I found it hard to not explain away everything brought before me with “But you don’t understand.” or “You didn’t see…”. But I was able to fight that urge, to stay curious and learn to say, “Tell me more about that.” And: “And what else?” When I started realizing this was a way for them to hold up the mirror in front of me and see the “me” they saw, it made big changes for both them and me.

A Memorable Moment

I once asked my favorite question, “What is one thing I do that drives you crazy?” in front of an audience during a Learning Lab at the Vision Source Exchange.

Samantha, who I worked more closely with than anyone in my practice, and still do, said, “It drives me crazy when you go to sit on your exam room stool, you find it is lower than you think it should be and you turn to look at me as if I lowered it. You don’t understand that it is the hydraulics in the stem of the chair that are bad and you are too cheap to replace it.”

I walked out of that talk, taking Samantha with me, to the exhibit hall floor and purchased a brand-new exam room stool as soon as we were done.

The Importance of Open Communication

None of the questions you are asking should require a “run past the HR attorney” (California notwithstanding). These are questions that should help you unlock the potential in each team member, and you as well. I am not a lawyer, so you do you. But I did not think it was necessary.

The Desire to Be Known

We all wish we were known by others. Being known is more than just a bunch of your friends yelling out “Norm!” when you walk into “Cheers.” (Those of you of a certain age will understand. The rest of you can run that through your AI agent of choice.)

If you want to know something about someone, ask them.

Read another article by Dr. McElroy

Ted A. McElroy, OD, is the owner of Vision Source Tifton in Tifton, Ga. To contact him: tmcelroy@visionsource.com

Review of Optometric Business