Manage Your Team
Do You have a Company Policy Manual?
by Bill Kinnard
Think back to when you were in kindergarten. The teacher started the year with a few basics. "Class, each day you are to place your coat over here and your lunch box here, and you are to raise your hand if you have a question. You must ask permission before going to the bathroom and, when we go to lunch, we will line up in a single file line and there will be no talking. I will mark you tardy if you are not here on time and, if you continue to be late, we will notify your parents. By the way, if you don't behave in class you will be sent to the principal’s office.”
Remember those days? Everything was pretty structured. To be sure the students fully understood the rules, the teacher would normally do two things: first, the basic rules were often written on the board as a reminder; and second, for at least the first several weeks, the teacher would review the rules at the beginning of each day. Before long, each student fully understood what was expected of them and they knew what the punishment was if they disobeyed.
Benefit from Emotional Control
By Bill Kinnard
Having emotional control means having the ability to maintain a rational and objective demeanor when faced with stressful or emotional situations; a measure of self-composure in a difficult situation and the ability to act objectively, rather than impulsively or emotionally.
Why is this skill important?
A person who has good skills in the emotional control capacity is comfortable handling emotional employees or co-workers. They are able to distance themselves from the emotions involved and logically deal with the situation at hand calmly, sensibility, and compassionately.
Employ an Empathetic Outlook
By Bill Kinnard
Empathetic Outlook: The ability to perceive and understand the feelings and attitudes of others; the ability to place oneself “in the shoes” of another and to view a situation from their perspective.
Why is this skill important?
A person with a good empathetic outlook is conscious of how his or her actions impact others, and will utilize this knowledge thoughtfully in a wide variety of scenarios from interacting with others to managing others.
According to the dictionary, empathy is “understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another person.” In other words, empathy is understanding how someone else feels as if you are feeling it yourself.
An empathetic outlook will enable you to make the most of your interactions with others. If you are attentive and understanding of other peoples’ perspectives, you will be much more likely to meet and exceed their expectations by providing the best solutions and presenting them in the most effective manner. In addition, by being open and empathetic, you will be establishing an environment of trust and understanding. You will build a reputation for being attentive and fair in your dealings with other people.
Gaining Team Commitment
By Bill Kinnard
The best managers are people who not only get results on projects they head up, but they seem to be exceptionally good at motivating other people to achieve results. Most of us have had an experience in which we worked for someone who believed in us so strongly-and empowered us so effectively-that we accomplished more than we thought we ever could.
Gaining commitment is the ability to develop and invoke a self-starting attitude in employees in their pursuit of goals; the ability to motivate employees to do their best and to provide them with practical, concrete ideas and methods by which they can achieve their goals.
Conveying Role Value
By Bill Kinnard
Conveying role value is the ability to draw upon a variety of capacities (empathetic, interpersonal, and leadership) to instill in an employee a sense of value for the task at hand.
Why is this skill important?
Conveying Role Value is the ability to convey to another the value and importance that a given role carries with it. This is NOT a measurement of a person’s ability to understand a role’s value, but to COMMUNICATE that value to another or a group of others.
People who have strongly developed skills in Conveying Role Value are able to effectively instill in their employees a belief that what they are doing has value. They are able to paint a clear picture of how and why each person’s role is important – to themselves, to the company and to others.
People who aren’t as skilled at Conveying Role Value may have two problems: either they don’t appreciate the value in a role adequately, or they may not have the ability to communicate ideas or concepts to others effectively.
Bring Out the Best in Others
By Bill Kinnard
Developing others is the ability to understand the needs, interests, strengths, and weaknesses of others, and to utilize this information for contributing to the growth and development of others.
A person who has good skills in developing others will be able to accurately identify the strengths and weaknesses of an individual, evaluate these traits against the requirements of a job or goal, and then design a program that will effectively elevate that person’s skills to the level they need in order to achieve success.
Is the Unknown Keeping You Up at Night?
By Ashley Bowers, President of TTI Performance Systems Ltd.
As business owners and managers, it’s not uncommon to be awakened in the night with questions of “Where are we going?” “How are we going to get there?” “Do we have the right talent?” Though the tried and true approach can be satisfactory for the time being, businesses cannot continue to operate as they’ve always done or hire as they always have and expect to see growth. Meanwhile, institutional change should never be capricious. The tool every organization should use to ensure success in the marketplace is a strategic plan
Correct, Don’t Break, Part 2: Improving Your Skills
By Bill Kinnard
Dealing with employees can be difficult – especially if you don’t like to do that kind of stuff. Sometimes it can feel like you are running an adult daycare. This employee can’t get along with that employee; this person keeps dragging personal issues into work and it affects everything he or she does; that person’s attitude is affecting other team members around them. Why can’t they just do their job, you pay them, and they can go home.
Last month, we talked about the skills required to properly correct the actions of others that create problems in our company. This month we will look at how you can improve your skills in correcting others and how to use them in terms of settling disagreements as well as disciplinary action with your employees. Skills in correcting others doesn’t come naturally for many people, but it can be learned.
Read more: Correct, Don’t Break, Part 2: Improving Your Skills
Correct, Don’t Break (Part 1)
By Bill Kinnard
Why can’t they just do what you asked them to? It’s not that hard. You spent the time thinking through the processes you want them to use. Every time they pull up to a customer’s home, they will park on the street, be prepared, know the customer’s name, use it within the first 30 seconds of the conversation, wear shoe covers, etc., etc., etc. They just don’t seem to get it. You asked them to do something – they work for you - they should just do it! Right? You have sat down with them a few times now and asked them to change but they still don’t seem to get it. Can they be fixed?
If People Aren't Following, You're Not a Leader
By Bill Kinnard
Not everyone is cut out to be a leader. As the owner of your company, you have to find the right people to put in leadership roles. In his book, “Leadership Gold,” John Maxwell puts it this way:- If You Send Ducks to Eagle School, You Will Frustrate the Ducks. Leadership is all about placing people in the right place so they can be successful.
- If You Send Ducks to Eagle School, You Will Frustrate the Eagles. As a leader, you should always challenge people to move out of their comfort zone, but never out of their strength zone.
- If You Send Ducks to Eagle School, You Will Frustrate Yourself.
Choosing the Right Tool for the Job
By Bill Kinnard
In many areas of the country, the economy is starting to pick up just a bit. Many contractors are ready to take a step and bring on one more person. Or maybe you had a team member who left, and you are looking to replace him or her. There are still a lot of people out there looking for work, but you can't afford to hire just anyone. You need to get someone who will fit into the culture you are looking to create at your company.
Training a Balanced Decision Maker
By Bill Kinnard
Over the years, I have been in various leadership roles. I remember making one move to a new position, and I was a bit concerned because I would no longer be doing technical troubleshooting. I liked technical troubleshooting, and knew I would miss it. As it turned out that wasn't much of an issue because I found myself still troubleshooting - the problems were financial instead of technical. I adapted well once I found a new set of tools.
The bigger surprise - and I’m sure many of you can relate -- is that I found myself running an adult daycare. You know how it goes - this person can’t get along with that person, this guy is having issues with his spouse and isn’t very productive, or that person is having trouble being part of a team. You have to deal with all that before you can do the rest of your job. Does this sound familiar?
Balanced Decision Making
By Bill Kinnard
You’ve heard the saying “Common sense isn’t always common.” Sometimes it’s so frustrating when some of our employees or managers make sound, dependable decisions, while others make decisions and you find yourself wondering if this guy missed the truck when they were delivering common sense. Your company’s success depends on all employees making sound judgment calls on a regular basis. Not everyone is good at this, but you can help them grow. Let’s take a look at this process of balanced decision making.
Balanced Decision Making
By Bill Kinnard
You’ve heard the saying “Common sense isn’t always common.” Sometimes it’s so frustrating when some of our employees or managers make sound, dependable decisions, while others make decisions and you find yourself wondering if this guy missed the truck when they were delivering common sense. Your company’s success depends on all employees making sound judgment calls on a regular basis. Not everyone is good at this, but you can help them grow. Let’s take a look at this process of balanced decision making.
The Rock Star Salesperson
By Bill Kinnard
You finally have a team of installers and service techs in place who rock. They can do the work you throw in front of them with ease, efficiency and profitably. In fact, they can do so well, you really have to start selling more. They are bringing in qualified sales leads on a regular basis, and you can‘t get to them all in a timely fashion. It’s time to start looking for a full time sales person, but what kind of person do you need for this?
The benchmark of a quality Residential Sales Person is straight-forward. Let’s take a look at what it takes to be a superior performer in this role. As with the past benchmarks, requirements for this position fall into three different categories. We will look at each.
Hiring (an exceptional!) lead install technician
By Bill Kinnard
The installation part of your business has been going pretty much according to plan. The guys are performing well and staying on schedule ... for the most part. You have not received negative feedback from your builders or customers. But, your previous Lead Installer left the company several months ago and you need to replace him.Don’t make the mistake of simply hiring the applicant who has a lot of experience with a company that is well-known in the area. You may be overlooking the top candidate from within your own organization. Let’s take a look at the Behaviors, Values and Skills that make an installation team as effective as possible:
Don't ruin your best tech with a promotion
By Bill Kinnard
John has been with you for several years. He's a great service technician and seems to enjoy what he does. He doesn't complain and is always willing to help when you need something extra. You've been considering promoting him to service manager - after all, who could manage the department better than your best tech, right?
I've seen it dozens of times. A company promotes their best service technician to Service Manager only to see that he is no longer any good. I have seen it compared to sports figures that negotiate a new, big contract only to be a disappointment once they got the money. I know, the money is nowhere close to professional sports figures, but the situation is somewhat similar.
Let's take a look at the skills, values and behaviors needed to be a great service manager, and then I want to come back to this point. There is likely a very good reason they don't perform well in their new role.
What makes a great service technician?
By Bill Kinnard
You're interviewing yet another candidate for service technician. The cooler weather is just around the corner, and you really want to get this guy on board and up to speed before the service schedule gets really nuts. The last three guys didn't work out so well, and you really want to get it right this time. But how do you know? How do you increase your chances of knowing if this guy has what it takes to be a good service tech?
It's expensive to hire the wrong guy
As you found out with the last two techs you hired, it's expensive hire the wrong person. If you add up your time in the interviewing process, the time to train the new tech, then the time it took to realize things didn't go so well, the total amount of business you lost because he created a bunch of unhappy customers makes your head spin. In fact, the cost of hiring the wrong person can be twice what you paid them. Ouch!
So what do you look for?
The Traditionally Motivated
By Bill Kinnard
It’s another day of looking over your sales numbers. The year is going OK, in spite of the market. You hired a full-time sales person earlier this year, and he keeps busy. But, you’re just not sure what he's busy doing. Sure he brings in jobs, but the months always seem to be in fits and starts. One day it doesn't look like there is anything on the books, and the next day you’re slammed. The really frustrating part is he can't even give you a heads up on what's coming down the pipeline. You've talked with him several times now and shard the expectation that he updates you weekly on the jobs he's working on, but still nothing. How are you supposed to work as a team if the guy who's starting the conversation with the customer won’t share with you?
When Beauty isn't so Beautiful: The High Aesthetic Motivator
By Bill Kinnard
Travis, one of your installers, finally wrapped up a job that you had him working on. But it took him much longer than expected. You sure didn’t make any money on that job; he was over on time by 30%. As you think back to the visit to the customer's home during the sales call, you remember it was simple job. What could have taken him so long?When asked about it, Travis got a little defensive. “It takes time to get the installs to look right,” he says. This is a common theme with Travis. When he is done with a job, the entire installation is a thing of beauty. Nothing is out of place, but it takes him forever to get it done. What’s more frustrating is the only time he seems to get riled up is when you want him to go faster. He can’t make the jobs look good and get them done in the time that you put in your quotes.
Sound familiar? If yes, you could have a highly motivated Aesthetic individual.
Read more: When Beauty isn't so Beautiful: The High Aesthetic Motivator
Can You Be Too Self-Focused?
By Bill Kinnard
You haven’t heard from Steve, your salesman, in three days. You’ve talked to him twice about keeping you informed about new jobs he’s working on, how many jobs he’s quoting and his closing rate, but he never follows up with you. It seems like he thinks he works for himself and makes his own rules. Sure, he’s bringing in the work. But, you never know what he’s working on. As a result, you end up with massive amounts of tension between the two of you that is heading down the road of parting ways. Is that the only possible outcome or is there a better way to work with Steve?
Over the past few months, we have been looking at the traits that motivate your employees. To date, we have talked about the Utilitarian, Theoretical, and Social motivators. If you have not read those articles, you may want to go back and review them. This month, we’ll take a look at the Individualistic/political motivator.
Can You Be Too Social?
By Bill Kinnard
Can you or your employees be too social? That’s a good question. After all, you are in the service industry, which means dealing with customers every day. Regardless of the trade you are in, you are in a relationship business, and people buy from those people who they know, like and trust. If they don’t know you, like you or trust you, they are not going to buy from you.
In order to answer this question, we must define what we mean by "social." We are in the middle of a several-month series talking about motivators. If you understand what motivates your employees -- what gets them out of bed in the morning -- then you have one of the keys to maximizing their productivity. If you can match the employee with a job that rewards those motivators, their performance will skyrocket. You will see them approach their job with a sense of purpose and energy that employers can only dream of.
Understanding Employees with a Theoretical Value System
By Bill Kinnard
Remember when your kids were three or four years old and they would ask question after question. Why are you doing that? What is that tool used for? Why is the sky blue? Every time you gave an answer, the response would be “But why?” You would do your best to further explain the reason God made the sky blue and would eventually run out of answers that would satisfy the inquisitive mind. For some of you, these questions may have stopped after a few years. But, for others, well, let’s just say your still trying to come up with the answer to the next “Why?”We are in the middle of an article series that talks about the six different motivators of your employees. This is what gets them excited – what gets them out of bed in the morning. This is what can make the difference between someone showing up for work and trudging through their day and approaching each customer contact or task with the vigor that you can only dream about. Last month we talked about the Utilitarian and their need for material or monetary reward. If you missed that one, you might want to go back to the archives and check it out.
This month, we’ll take a look at the Theoretical value system. These folks are all about truth. The bottom line for these people is the accumulation of knowledge. The pursuit of this knowledge is where it’s at for them. They get excited and have fun when they can gain more knowledge. The primary goal in life is to organize and systematize knowledge – knowledge for the sake of knowledge.
Read more: Understanding Employees with a Theoretical Value System
The Utilitarian - It's All About a Return
By Bill Kinnard
Last month, we talked about getting your employees into positions that reward their personal value system. If you do this, you will see their productivity soar. Your value system is what gets you out of bed in the morning. It’s what gets you excited about the things that you do.This month, we'll start looking into the first of the six motivators - the Utilitarian. This value system rewards those who value practical accomplishments, results, and rewards for their investments of time, resources, and energy.
Selling with Style – The buying habits of the High C
Everyone is a sales person. Everyone is selling something every day.
Can you believe it? You made it out of there alive. That guy was drilling you every minute of the sales call and each time you gave him an answer, he either challenged you or had another followup question to throw at you. And when he started asking me about the new unit that just came out…what was that all about. I haven’t even rec’d the details on it yet. How does he know so much about it?
Sound at all familiar? Every o nce in a while you run into this person that wants to know everything but isn’t ready to make a decision just yet. How do you deal with this person? Over the last few months we have been looking at the buying habits of the four personality styles. We have covered the D, the I, the S and this month it’s time for the C. Once again, I need to remind you that none of these styles is any better then the other, they just are. The intent here is to help you understand that each of the four communication styles has a different approach to making a purchase. You need to understand these differences if you are going to succeed with each. Let‘s take a closer look the buying habits of the High C individual.
Read more: Selling with Style – The buying habits of the High C
Selling with Style – Buying habits of a High S
Everyone is a sales person. Everyone is selling something every day.
Have you figured out people’s buying habits yet? Tough one, huh? You offer three choices and show the customer why the system you think will best fit their needs is the one they should go with and yet they don’t follow your lead. It’s a good thing you decided to included three choices in your proposal to all customers and let them choose which one they like best because in the end, some people just seem to pick the an offering that is plain vanilla. Sure, it will work, but they could have had something really nice; something that when they take into account the payback that you showed them, seemed to be a “no-brainer”. Why is it that some customers make buying decisions that seem to go against all common logic?
We are in the middle of a series titled Selling with Style, where we will look at the buying habits of each of the four behavioral styles. It is important to know that there are no absolutes, but there are some very strong tendencies of each of the styles in their buying habits. Let’s dig a little deeper into the buying habits of the High S buyer.
Selling With Style - Buying Habits of High I
Everyone is a sales person. Everyone is selling something every day.
Think back to the sales call you made last week. You remember; the guy who was a real talker. He was very friendly, and even though he wanted you to stop by and give him a price on that new system, you instead found yourself stuck in a conversation that had nothing to do with the services your company provides. How did you end up spending so much time with him? Sure you got the sale, but it cost you a lot of time and you’re still not sure that you got all the details nailed down with him.
Last month we started a series titled Selling with Style, where we will look at the buying habits of each of the four behavioral styles. It is important to know that there are no absolutes, but there are some very strong tendencies of each of the styles in their buying habits. Let’s dig a little deeper into the buying habits of the High I buyer.
Selling With Style - Buying Habits of High D
Everyone is a sales person. Everyone is selling something every day.
Selling With Style - Blending Buying Styles
Everyone is a sales person. Everyone is selling something every day.
- People tend to buy from salespeople who have behavioral styles similar to their own.
- Salespeople tend to sell to customers who have a behavioral style similar to their own.
- Salespeople who are aware of their own behavioral style and learn to “blend” with their customer’s style are able to increase their sales.
Don't Go Back - The Compliance Communication Style
By: Bill Kinnard
This month we will continue our series on the four communication styles. Everybody can adapt to be something they are not. When that next potential candidate walks in your door for an interview, chances are, they will be adapting to be the person they think you want them to be. It is imperative that you understand the four communications styles and how they will interact with your current employees and your customers. Remember, everyone has a combination of all four styles but one or possibly two will be dominant. These dominant traits will dictate how the person will interact with others. As a review, the four styles are:
D – Dominance – How you deal with problems and challenges
I – Influencer – How you deal with people and contacts
S – Steadiness - How you deal with Pace and Consistency
C – Compliance – How you deal with Rules and Procedures set by others
I said it the last few months and will say it again. One style is not better than another. There is no good or bad – there just is. It’s also difficult for some styles to understand why others don’t think the same way they do. For example, people who are high D may not understand why everyone else in the world doesn’t see things the way they do. Everyone should view the world the way they do and, if they don’t, they're missing something. Remember, there is no right or wrong, there just is.
This month, we’ll take a closer look at the compliance communication style. Here are some of the traits of the high C.
Read more: Don't Go Back - The Compliance Communication Style
Don't Go Back – The Steadiness Communication Style
by Bill Kinnard
Over the last few months, we have been looking at the fact that many contractors used the slowdown in the economy as an excuse to trim back some of the dead wood in your company. You let go of those employees who were less than stellar performers and created a drain on the creative energy and productivity of your team.
Everybody can adapt to be something they are not. When that next potential candidate walks in your door for an interview, chances are, they will be adapting to be the person they think you want them to be. It is imperative that you understand the four communications styles and how they will interact with your current employees and your customers. Remember, everyone has a combination of all four styles but one or possibly two will be dominant. These dominant traits will dictate how the person will interact with others. As a review, the four styles are:
D – Dominance – How you deal with problems and challenges.
I – Influencer – How you deal with people and contacts.
S – Steadiness - How you deal with pace and consistency.
C – Compliance – How you deal with rules and procedures set by others.
It is important to remember that one style is not better than another. There is no good or bad – there just is. It’s also difficult for some styles to understand why others don’t think the same way they do. For example, a person who is a high D may not understand why everyone else in the world doesn’t see things the way they do. Everyone should view the world the way they do and if they don’t their missing something. Remember, there is no right or wrong, there just is.
This month, we’ll take a closer look at the Steadiness communication style. Here are some of the traits of the high S.
Read more: Don't Go Back – The Steadiness Communication Style
Don't Go Back: The Influencer Communication Style
By Bill Kinnard
During the last two months, we have been talking about the different behavioral styles of your employees and how they impact the success of your company. Anyone can make money when things are going well – sometimes in spite of themselves. To be successful, you need let go of those employees that are a drain on the creative energy and productivity of your team. You need to have employees who make a real contribution to your company. Keep in mind that when that next potential candidate walks into your door for an interview, chances are, they will be adapting to be the person they think you want them to be.
This month we will take a closer look at another of the four behavioral styles - the influencer. You need to know this communication style and how your employees with this style will interact with their coworkers and your customers. Remember, everyone has a combination of all four styles, but one or possibly two will be dominant. These dominant traits will dictate how the person will interact with others. As a review, the four styles are:
Read more: Don't Go Back: The Influencer Communication Style
Don't Go Back: The Dominant Communication Style
By Bill Kinnard
Everybody can adapt to be something they are not. When that next potential candidate walks in your door for an interview, chances are they will adapt to be the person they think you want them to be. It is imperative that you understand the four communication styles and how candidates will interact with your current employees and your customers. Remember, everyone has a combination of all four styles, but one or possibly two will be dominant. These dominant traits will dictate how the person will interact with others.