His Head, the Door and Your Room
You’ve heard it before. This guy has such a huge ego his head won’t make it through the door. Maybe that guy was you. Maybe not. If that guy was you (and you never changed), chances are you’ll never figure out how to get this guy into your room. Make that you’ll never even try to figure it out.
The trades are so short on talent that it’d be a shame to not at least consider trying to work with a technician whose ego is bigger than a 500 ton air conditioning chiller. Pointed in the right direction, engaged and packing a degree of civility, the technician with a large ego can be an invaluable asset…providing he really is talented and knowledgeable.
If our super tech degrades, is cruel to other techs and is causing morale problems, then all bets are off. But let’s continue this discussion based on a I am God’s gift to technicians and am master of the technician universe technician.
The problem that I’ve seen with most managers in dealing with their super tech is their inability to hang up their own technician boots. The manager seems to become enamored in the detail and takes his eye off the outcome. Most managers and their super techs will not argue about the outcome. They agree on satisfied customers, repaired systems and installed systems that work. One key for the manager is to let his super tech work his own way to the desired outcome.
Many super techs with huge egos are walking gold mines of knowledge. The fact that they tell the universe how great they are, should not deter the manager from letting them help other techs. Matter of fact, the manager should coach the other techs on how to mine the gold mine.
The less experienced tech needs to adopt a learning mindset. His goal is to learn. Yes, he will have to here how super tech brought the main chiller on line just in time for the Queen of Sheeba’s visit to the Gradisson Luxury Hotel and stories like it, but it’s a small price to pay for technical knowledge. The key is to ask good questions and make notes or use a small tape recorder. Most super techs love when one asks them good questions.
Super techs loved to be praised. While you think that the praising they are doing to themselves is enough, it isn’t. As a manager, dole out praise when the super tech does something good and of value. Remember to focus on desired outcomes and not on processes and how they get there.
A good manager learns how to modify the door. A great manager learns how to coach coworkers to expand the room, making it a rich, learning environment. And by the way, the world always needs people to rescue the Queen of Sheeba. Take pride in your hero.
Dear God’s Gift to Service Managers
Hardly anyone uses the Simpson 260 anymore. It went away about the time you came inside to be a service manager. Back in the day you were the best. You were a gunslinger. You’d dismount the Ford Econoline, pull out a match stick, strike it off one of your Red Wings and light up a Winston. With the sun beating down on your back and roasting the building’s occupants alive, you’d look on thinking, this building is no match for you. Forty minutes later as you walked away from the now-cooling-off-building and a line of secretaries scrambled after you to get your phone number, you allowed a brief smile to crease your five o’clock shadow and thought, I will dominate the next service meeting with this story. No one else could have brought this chiller back online so fast, no one!
In your mind no one could ever hold a candle to you. Heck you were a legend. Twenty years of stories pushed you into the service manager’s job. But soon, life began to change. It started with the walls. You never had to deal with walls out on the range. And all of the admin assistants and secretaries, where were they? And smokes. What’s up with not being able to light up when you so please? And the facility managers. The ones who used to line up to kiss your boots. And the company owner. He wasn’t drooling over your magnificent mechanical abilities. He was spitting over the botched up service call that Joe just ran. Why was he foaming at the mouth and mad at you. Heck, you didn’t short out that building’s control system. And what’s up with not being able to run a few errands during the middle of the day?
What’s going on with the service techs? Back in the day, your service manager left you alone. Everyone knew why. You represented the company well and brought in barrels of money. This gave you license to use your mouth and ego in whatever way seemed to work for you at that particular moment. No one could touch you. Now you can’t leave your techs alone. They show up late, don’t fix things, don’t talk to the customers, don’t do paperwork correctly, don’t wear the uniform, don’t keep their trucks clean and don’t seem to care about their job. Back in the day you were known as a bad ass and everyone listened to you, or else. Today, they make milking-the-cow gestures behind your back and promise you the world to your face…and then go right back to the cow gestures when you turn around.
Yes, one day you were God’s gift to service technicians. You were the best tech on the planet. But now you are the service manager and God’s gift to you is the opportunity to help others. Use your gift wisely.
Your Salesman (Part II)
Education – Is your salesman involved in pursuing education? While the company owner might require that he take certain courses, you need to know whether or not he is pursuing knowledge on his own. After all, you are, right? During the course of a day, you can tell whether or not someone wants to learn. Is your salesman out there asking questions to you and the other technicians? You can get a feel for this by watching how he interacts with others.
Sense of urgency – This is related to how hungry he is. Does he show a sense of urgency when it comes to customers and his coworkers? Do you get the feeling that he cares and wants to take care of customers?
Follow up – This one is easy. Without even trying you’ll hear about your salesman not getting back to customers. If you open your ears to this topic within your company, you might get more than you wanted to know. Bonus point: if you’re hearing about your salesman not getting back to people, then most likely he is neglecting another kind of follow up that you typically don’t hear about, but is crucial for building a flourishing customer base.
Creating own leads – Take this one with a grain of salt. It might be that your salesman has all the leads he can handle from within the company. It’s always a good sign however, when your salesman is bringing in his own customers.
Working with your salesman - We’ll be visiting more on this topic in the future. For now, start with basics. The right thing to do is to help and support your salesman with the things that you can.
Your Dispatcher (Part 1)
You sprained your ankle the other day and your manager is going to let you work inside the office for a couple of days until it heals. As your dispatcher is out sick with the flu, you’ll actually be helping out – maybe.
The first day on the job you go to the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee. Back in the operations center you sit down in the dispatcher’s chair. All of a sudden your coffee goes flying and you let out the most blood curdling cry since having to work late last Friday evening. You jump from the chair and collapse on the floor. That chair was so hot it singed your pants. Actually this scene didn’t happen, but it will.
You’re really looking forward to going inside for a couple of days. After all, Suzy just talks on the phone and radio and plays on the computer. You’re wrong. You don’t know it yet, but you will.
One half hour into your first day as the substitute dispatcher and you catch your first glimpse of the new world. Bob, the service manager barrels into the ops center. His head is beet red and his eyeballs are protruding from his eye sockets (note to yourself: this happens in real life, not just the movies). He starts to scream something but gags on his own spit. For the next four minutes the only words other than cussing that you can make out are: “who was on call last night?”
You had just taken a phone call and transferred it to Bob. The customer had mentioned something about someone was supposed to be out first thing this morning but wanted to talk directly to the service manager.
You recognized the game at once. The technician blew off an emergency service call last night and told the customer the office would have someone out in the morning. Except the tech never told anyone. Strange, you had done this a few times and even forgot to call the office once, but no one ever said anything.
Emmie, the admin assistant hands you a piece of paper. “Suzy normally gets to this before 8 o’clock.” You look at the paper. It’s a list of the emergency calls from last night…
Part II picks back up on Monday, September 28.
Do You Work Full Time, Year Round?
Businesses that work in the trades have busy seasons and slow seasons. In the slow seasons the company either finds busy work to keep their employees working, or lays employees off until business picks up.
Chances are when a company is providing busy work, it is doing so by making less profitable revenue or no revenue at all. As a technician, pretend that you are in business for yourself. How do you suppose it would feel to work and not be paid? Yeah, yeah, in your mind the company owner might be loaded. You might even think that he owes you. Let’s put all of that thinking aside for a moment. Let’s go back to something your mom taught you. She always used to say, “be fair.”
So what is fair?
To begin with, the company is doing you a favor by keeping you working year round. If you don’t feel like acknowledging that to your manager, acknowledge it to yourself. If you can do that then we have a suggestion for how you can make yourself more valuable to your employer, to keep that year round work coming and maybe to feel good about doing it.
Look for ways throughout the year to help your company acquire new customers.
But Daaaaave! I’m not a salesman!
This isn’t about selling. This is about being fair. It is about doing the right thing. It is about making your future better.
You don’t have to make a big deal out of this. Let’s say that one of your regular customers is real happy about the service that you just provided to her. Ask her if she has any friends who might also benefit from your service. Think about some of your friends and relatives too. Just a few new customers per year from you can make a big difference for your employer and you.
Keep track of new customers who you bring on board. Let your employer know that you are grateful for year round work and as a token of appreciation, you are always out there trying to bring new customers aboard.
