KickStart: “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford
If only for the sake of your aching back (not to mention your own Personal Freedom) I sincerely hope your Home Services Business (HSB) is more than a “group of one”! If so, you need to meditate on Mr. Ford’s sage observation above!
By far the biggest challenge you will ever face as a residential services entrepreneur will be recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, motivating and managing employees. Am I “preaching to the choir” here?🤔 However…
Remember that managing your business will be infinitely easier (and MUCH more fun) IF you get your entire staff “moving forward together”! Hmmmm… this working together toward a common goal sounds like “teamwork”!😊
Just like in a family, much of this “moving forward together” comes down to clear, honest, open communication. This is why I strongly suggest that all HSB owners and managers…
Implement a regular, positive and motivating “Team Meeting”!
How often to have your Team Meeting? I suggest weekly. (Our company meetings were held every Wednesday at 7:00 AM with paid attendance mandatory and yes, the company provided coffee and donuts!) 🍩🍵
True, some of my readers have told me, “Steve, we tried the meeting thing but we didn’t see any results and it cost a lot in lost production time…”
Understood! And yet, properly structured my clients tell me their Team Meetings produce motivated, excited, committed and organized employees! BUT only IF the owner and managers avoid these common staff meeting mistakes…
TRAP #1: Preaching to your staff. Your employees aren’t stupid (at least I hope not) and quickly see through hypocritical sermonizing. Even if they tolerate it, your people have a low boredom threshold and will tune out with with a shallow, weekly “rah-rah” speech. (It’s even worse when delivered by the company’s owner!) I suggest you…
Try this: Bring up customer complaints from the last week. (Without mentioning the guilty employee’s name.) Then humbly ask, “Where did our system(s) break down here?” And then ask your most important question: “What specific changes can we implement to make sure this problem never, ever happens again?”
HINT: Visibly take notes of your worker’s suggestions, then verbally sum your observations up with thanks to each employee and promise to share the changes made in next week’s meeting.
TRAP #2: No “continuity” between meetings. Parliamentary procedure added the “taking of the minutes”(notes) 100’s of years ago simply because legislators couldn’t remember what they has passed in the last session!😲 Your employees (like all of us) are forgetful too.
Try this: Assign a different employee each week to take notes on what was discussed and WHAT was decided, along with WHO was going to implement the change(s) and WHEN the deadlines is. Then next week at the start of the meeting ask the same employee to “read the minutes” to the team and ask for comments.
TRAP #3: Beating up your employees. Yes, there are times where reproof, discipline and warnings need to be given. But the old saying is so true, “Reprove in private, praise in public.” Instead…
Try this: Make your company meetings a time for a) celebration and b) collaboration. In fact, I asked each of my managers to keep a running list of employees they wanted to recognize and praise for a specific action at our next meeting. Then each manager got a brief time every week to give a “shout out” to their deserving employees…
Hmmmm… one thing I see lacking above is the essential “individual accountability”. Let’s talk about this soon!
Steve