Customer Dog
I am soon going to transport you to one of the finest descriptions of a …. I have ever seen. This… is a person known to contracting companies. I can’t tell you what a … is because this story is so well written I would spoil it.
In the past, when I let cynicism get the best of me, I would call this person a fire hydrant.
In an other life, I used to be a …
Read this most excellent story here.
Should You Work Here?
The company owner is its main salesman. He personally handles all of the major accounts – even when he is on vacation with his family. The owner has his hands in every inch of the business. In a recent twenty minute span he was out in the parking lot by the service trucks yelling at a technician for his dirty van, back in the warehouse screaming because he couldn’t find a component in the staging area for an upcoming job, by the dispatcher asking where Don is and making a pit stop by Michele’s desk to check on a receivable. The owner routinely takes on work that is beyond the capability of the technicians and installation work when the company employs no installers. Yes, he’s even been out in the field installing a job himself.
The company described above needs a focused product to sell, smart business systems and competent people to make the company go.
As a hard working technician who wants to professionally develop on board a ship with a destination, how do you know whether or not your owner is capable? Or, if you are trying to hook up with a company to get you there, how will you be able to recognize a competent captain?
Read Built to Sell. This is an easy to read story about a business owner who desperately wants to sell his business and enjoy his family and life. To help envision what sort of shape his business is in think: 1973 Ford Pinto for sale. Proceeds to finance my daughter’s education at Harvard. What does Aerosmith say? Dream on, dream on, dream on.
While this is a work of fiction, it is an example of real life businesses and their often misguided owners. The business owner gets a family friend to help him turn his company around and make it into a desirable and sellable company.
The process in which this company turns around is the map you need to help identify a competent company to work for. The author, John Warrillow, weaves this process into eight steps. While some of the steps will not pertain directly to your quest, the ones that do are enough. Here are the first five:
- Create a Standard Service Offering. This means selling a service that your company is really good at.
- Create a Positive Cash Flow Cycle. You’ll hear it on the street if the owner doesn’t have positive cash flow. “Sorry Bob, XYZ Mechanical is three months behind payment. You’ll have to get a check if you want this item today.”
- Hire a Sales Team. John recommends at least two salesmen. Competition upholds a healthy atmosphere. Consider it a humongous red flag if the owner is the company salesman.
- Stop Accepting Other Projects. This one might be the key. Your company needs to do what it is wired to do. If you are trying to perform work you are incapable of, everyone suffers.
- Launch a Long-Term Incentive Plan for Managers. This is a very cool one. You need your manager to be engaged and relatively happy at what he is doing (remember he is your career’s primary ally).
Items six, seven and eight are not really relative to your mission.
For the most part, owners are sincere people who want to do right by their family, self and you, their team member. To be brutally real however, many are not cut out for this role. This doesn’t mean that you disrespect them, make fun of them and talk about them behind their back. It simply means that you shouldn’t be working for them.
Pick up a copy of John’s book today and get yourself on a ship with a destination that helps your family, personal development and career.
Don’t Train, Unleash Potential
Don’t do to. Do for.
I’m not too fond of the word train unless it has something to do with dogs or monkeys. I like the word educate. Managers teach. Teachers educate. While you look to your manager for education, you should also look to make sure he brings his sawzall to work everyday. The imaginary sawzall represents his ability to understand your learning needs and his ability to cut away whatever is covering up your potential.
Very few managers invest themselves enough to understand your strengths and potential. If you have a manager who is reaching out to you, attempting to understand you and suggesting or providing learning resources, do not take his gestures lightly. Follow his guidance. And make note of his actions. You’ll want these characteristics in your next manager.
Think of progressing through managers this way. Your first car was a basic model that included a couple of options that you liked. When you went to buy your second car, you made sure it had these options and then looked to upgrade with other features and options.
In the future you might have to make trade-offs when choosing managers. But never trade-off the manager who has a history of reaching out to his technicians, the one who educates and the one who unleashes the potential of his students.
Are You an Obedient Technician? Part II
Do you make waves at work? I’m not talking about whining, morale-depleting, soul-sucking technicians who hate being a technician. Or the type of technician who complains without trying to make things better. I’m talking about:
- Dave, we should do this
- Dave, I don’t think you’re on the right track
- Dave, let me try this
- Dave, I gotta stay here until I fix it
- Dave, you gotta get me in more classes
- Dave, we need more training
- Dave, we’re sick and tired of pizza
I love the technician who is making waves like these! Hands down, working with technicians who are making the right kind of waves, is more work – a lot more work. But the rewards are so worth it.
As a technician, you know when you are being a pain in the behind. The manager who recognizes when your being a pain is all about trying to improve and make things better, is the manager you want to keep.
Are You an Obedient Technician? Part I
Does your manager want you to fit in? Fit in as in, “do what you’re told and don’t make waves.” While most manager might not necessarily be so brash, this mentality is still often there, running under the visible surface.
As a manager, my one of my greatest obstacles over the years was getting techs to adhere to a baseline set of policies and procedures. While one could question my ability to assemble a quality team, almost all managers deal with this. For the record, I am not a big believer in too many policies and procedures. Some important ones are techs arriving at work on time, completed paperwork turned in on a timely basis, clean trucks, wearing clean and proper uniforms, proper care and handling of company tools and documentation of additional work to name a few.
When managers’ time becomes occupied with policing adherence, it takes time away from both business and employee development. I would much rather spend time helping a coworker with career development than I would making sure his truck is clean or chasing after him to clean it.
You are working for a decent manager and with a great team if your manager is not spending too much time on making sure the policies and procedures are being followed (as long as they are being followed). Feel good in knowing that you and your coworkers are doing a good job. At this point your manager should be totally involved and immersed in business and personnel development…unless you work for a large corporation that has their managers heading down too many rabbit trails, chasing too many rabbit tails…but we won’t go there right now.
In Part II I’ll talk about making waves…
