0:07: Welcome to the Blue Collar Nation podcast, the podcast dedicated to making the lives of home service professionals better.
0:16: Now join Eric and Larry to talk about all things home service.
0:21: Everybody, Larry from Super Tech University.
0:24: You're gonna get me today, and Eric's not gonna be with us.
0:27: We have really cool lessons on working with your team.
0:30: I got, I got a blackboard, all kinds of information we're gonna go, we're gonna go over, and we got a bunch of people here in the Zoom room.
0:37: And it's a pleasure to see everybody.
0:40: So, check it out.
0:41: When you have a person that's driving you nuts that works for you, and it's not working out, and it's a distraction, you're not sure what to do, I'm gonna go over a process today that I do in my head, and we've done in our heads before, how to wrap our minds around what to do, because it gets.
1:00: Emotional when people are screwing up and messing with our business, and making us look bad to clients, and not doing what they're supposed to be doing.
1:07: It's, it's very difficult.
1:08: So I'm gonna share my screen here real quick.
1:12: And I got a short presentation here.
1:15: And you can see, we're part of Howard Partridge's inner circle, which is kind of cool.
1:20: We're very proud of that.
1:21: Howard's a great guy.
1:22: I know a few folks know him.
1:24: Oops, we're going the wrong way in our presentation.
1:29: But listen, when you have a challenge with a team member, you need a system for the individual you're having trouble with, for the team around him or her, and for you, OK?
1:39: And we're going to get into that real quick.
1:41: A system for the team member.
1:42: What's up, Mike?
1:43: How are you today?
1:44: Nice to see you.
1:46: So you need an assistant for the team member.
1:48: You have to be trained.
1:49: They they, do they know the job expectations?
1:53: Sometimes we hire somebody real quick, we just get them out into the field, cause we need somebody to do the work.
2:00: And it backfires an awful lot.
2:02: Which is not good.
2:04: And have they, are they, have they been held accountable to know there, there's consequences for poor performance, you know, consequences is a big deal.
2:15: And regular reviews makes a big difference, and everybody, if anybody wants a review sheet, I could share it with you, because when you have regular reviews and regular formal conversations with your team.
2:29: You can find out what's going on with them, why they're doing well, why they're not doing well, see what's going on at home.
2:35: Half the time when things are going sideways, there's little things that can be fixed, not by every you once a year, but on a regular basis.
2:44: You keep everybody on the same track.
2:46: Their trajectory keeps going in the same direction, OK?
2:49: That makes a big difference.
2:52: And you want everybody to be looking like this when they go to a home, greeting Mrs.
2:55: Jones, dressed nice, groomed nice, having a smile, she's extending her hand to be shaking.
3:02: That's a big deal.
3:03: And when you train those expectations, it goes a long way, OK?
3:07: Need a system of training and a follow up, but your training is really important.
3:13: How's your training system?
3:15: How are your trainers?
3:17: Are they good?
3:18: Are they qualified?
3:20: And how's the supervision of that team member?
3:22: Because Your supervisors.
3:26: Make the day go great for your team or not.
3:30: And you have to think about that.
3:31: That's super important.
3:32: And how your supervisors lead is a big difference.
3:37: The challenges need to be communicated.
3:39: When you have trouble with somebody and you need to talk to them, you gotta document everything for the protection of the company.
3:47: Show your professionalism and accountability.
3:49: Show them that you're serious to your team member.
3:52: If you're disciplining them, or explaining that things aren't going well.
3:58: And you don't write it down, it's just informal.
4:01: It doesn't land as well.
4:02: You got things written down, they know you're serious, OK?
4:06: And then you can revisit the conversations.
4:10: With future training and communication, because you don't want to sit down and discipline somebody and expect to fire them.
4:16: You want to keep them.
4:17: You hired them.
4:18: That's generally the idea, and we're gonna go over that in just a second here, OK?
4:22: We gotta document, everything.
4:25: I have people in my life, personal relationships with people that.
4:32: that are on the other side of the legal spectrum.
4:36: We are In a very vulnerable position by hiring people.
4:41: It's very important to our business.
4:42: I'm not trying to discourage that, but we have to follow procedures and documentation.
4:49: is one of them and writing down, even just writing down on a sheet of paper, we spoke about this, we talked about this, and are we in agreement, you both signed the bottom of it.
4:58: And then the steps that are gonna happen next, could be on there.
5:02: Anything that he's talked about, put it on there, it makes a huge difference, and I'm gonna get into that in just a minute.
5:09: But when you're talking to them and then they're having trouble with the job.
5:14: There's many things that are going on here.
5:16: They could be on the wrong seat on the bus, right?
5:18: Their supervisor and them could have a personal challenge.
5:22: And it might not be the person, it could be the supervisor that's having a challenge, right?
5:26: They could be on the wrong team in your company.
5:28: Yeah, they could have been trained poorly, they could be a bad fit and they just need to be fired.
5:33: Maybe they don't know how to win at their job.
5:35: What if they're a family member, that makes it really tough, right?
5:39: Or they could have personal issues at home.
5:42: Say they're just having personal issues at home, not just, but Then you could understand what's going on.
5:47: You could work with them and help them.
5:50: Get past that, be productive.
5:53: And just make things smoother for everybody, or they might need more training or base under basic understanding of what needs to be done.
6:03: I'm gonna get to that in just a second.
6:06: OK, and then, what do you do?
6:08: OK, if somebody is not performing, you train them and you teach them.
6:12: Again, how many times you do that?
6:13: You gotta decide that, right?
6:16: And maybe it's a leadership or a supervisor like I was saying, the leadership there that needs to be trained.
6:21: That's an easy fix because you want to help somebody.
6:25: Where your supervisors lead better, not an easy fix, but it's a good fix for the future of your company, if you can retrain a supervisor and getting them engaged with a team member better.
6:37: Maybe they need new equipment, they're frustrated about something.
6:40: Maybe they need to change the position.
6:42: They're more qualified for being a CSR, the business development rep.
6:46: Maybe they're better at management, who knows?
6:49: Maybe you just need to be patient, maybe they need to, they need time to grow, or maybe you just need to fire them.
6:56: It's always on the table, and don't second guess yourself completely, but you have to think about these other paths.
7:04: And I'm gonna show you this right here.
7:05: So, so check it out.
7:08: The problem with a team member, right?
7:10: OK.
7:10: Are you having regular reviews with them, so that you know what's going on?
7:15: That makes a difference.
7:17: But the first thing you do.
7:20: If you talk to them, right?
7:21: OK, this is what's going on.
7:23: We have a problem, this is what we need to figure out.
7:26: Do you need to retrain them?
7:28: And how many times do we train them?
7:29: 123.
7:31: But they need to know the consequences and the expectations.
7:37: Or Do you write them up, or is that the 2nd visit, you write them up, but you follow this process, you talk to them.
7:44: No change, you write them up, and when he talks to them, he documents it as well.
7:49: And when you're training them, you document the training as well.
7:54: Write it up, of course, you're gonna communicate that.
7:57: But also, on this side, you have to remain calm.
8:01: You can't get emotionally mad.
8:02: They're not doing this specifically to your business, right?
8:06: And that's what makes a big difference.
8:09: OK, when you remain calm, you're able to be objective and deal with it.
8:14: If you're not calm and you're all, you're all offended, it's gonna go south, right?
8:19: Remain detached, you talk to them about what's going on, like I was saying over here.
8:25: You listen to them and you document it, like I was saying.
8:29: Talk to him, retrain them, write them up.
8:32: I don't know what to do after that.
8:34: He talks to the supervisor.
8:37: What's going on?
8:38: Have a conversation there.
8:40: Maybe they need to move their seat on the bus.
8:44: Really good worker.
8:47: Really good attitude.
8:49: They can't seem to do the job.
8:51: Maybe they need another seat in the bus.
8:52: We've done that so many times.
8:54: Maybe they're better on the phones.
8:55: Maybe have somebody on the phones will be better in the fields.
9:00: Think about all these things, makes a difference, right?
9:03: Whatever you spoke about, when you wrote them up and you talked to him when you're retraining them, you gotta follow up to make sure it's working well.
9:10: You can't just do it.
9:12: You know, discipline somebody or Deal with them in a fashion and not follow up, very important.
9:20: Also with the documentation.
9:22: Documentation, when you write the documentation, when you're gonna follow up with them.
9:26: Hold yourself accountable.
9:28: Now, I got this accountable rule here.
9:30: You wanna hold your team accountable, but you have to be held accountable as well.
9:34: It's just a flow chart.
9:36: It's kind of going little directions.
9:38: And listen, I'm not saying don't fire anybody.
9:41: You can just go right to Fine in there.
9:46: Fine in there.
9:48: OK, you have to use your judgment, your gut.
9:50: Of course, if things happen, if they steal from you, they're using drugs, they're no show.
9:54: I mean, the list goes on and on, that they're just non-negotiables, you're gonna get rid of them.
9:59: Firing them is always on the table.
10:01: You can't have somebody who's a cancer in your business that's running everybody else down, because if these things aren't happening in a timely fashion, and somebody's doing a bad job.
10:13: All your 8 players are gonna lower their game.
10:16: And nobody's gonna be engaged, and if you're not remaining calm and detached.
10:21: It's gonna ruin Everybody else.
10:25: So you kind of have to have this all down.
10:28: To a science.
10:29: It's not a lot.
10:30: There's only multiple steps here.
10:32: Then you follow up with them, right?
10:34: If you need to write them up again, are they worth it?
10:39: Are they worth keeping?
10:42: That's always something to think about.
10:44: If anybody has some comments or anything here, please throw them in.
10:48: I'm all good with that.
10:50: We got a bunch of other people coming in, which is nice.
10:54: The whole thing is, when you're disciplining somebody and you're dealing with this problem with a team member, you just follow a system.
11:02: And you don't take it personally, and you remain calm, because you've got other team members that you got to pay attention to.
11:09: You've got other parts of the business to take care of.
11:12: And the thing is, we get emotional with people.
11:16: Do we get as emotional directly with marketing, sales, admin operations?
11:21: Yeah, we get a little upset if it doesn't go well.
11:25: But we don't get as emotional cause we take it personally if somebody's screwing up.
11:29: Don't take it personally, deal with it directly, and then it goes smooth, OK?
11:34: I've got a couple other slides here I wanna share, real quick.
11:39: I had a longer presentation.
11:43: And if anybody has any insight, we've got a lot of people here in the Zoom room, please.
11:47: Open up your mic or say anything as well.
11:49: You know, you gotta figure out how are they held accountable, cause I'm talking about them being accountable.
11:55: Up here.
11:55: I didn't put it in the flow chart.
11:57: Is it, are they, is they pay commission of the hourly?
12:01: Is that how they're held accountable?
12:03: Is their performance tracked and reviewed, which I'm talking about it here, they're reviewed.
12:09: Have they broken policies?
12:12: You know, doing crazy things and gregariously, if I can say that word properly.
12:18: Fire him.
12:19: Can't be afraid to fire them.
12:20: It's on the table.
12:22: We had a one on one with John Maxwell years ago with Howard Partridge.
12:27: Someone's explaining this problem with this person, they're going on, he said, stop, stop, stop.
12:32: Why don't you just fire them?
12:34: You know, John Maxwell, this great leadership coach, he's a pastor and everything, he's like, some people just can't be saved, toss them out.
12:43: But is your expectations documented, trained and enforced?
12:48: Cause if you let things slide when you're busy, you don't have time for it.
12:52: They slide, it's a bad slide, and it shows to everybody, that's where it's not good, and that's where you're held accountable.
13:01: This is why I put this in here, because we're all held accountable.
13:04: We are the center of this, or our supervisors that we have to supervise.
13:09: Following this process, it's just following the process.
13:12: We gotta follow the process.
13:14: Always document the next steps.
13:17: Make sure they understand, document, and follow up.
13:20: I can't stress the documentation thing more than enough.
13:24: Then you have to decide how, how valuable are they?
13:28: Are they worth the effort?
13:31: Does the supervisor need leadership?
13:33: Does the team need direction also?
13:36: All these things, you just, they're passing through your mind.
13:39: I'm just bringing them up.
13:40: You got to think about them.
13:42: Maybe they'd be better in another position.
13:44: And the consequences of not doing anything, this is what I was talking about a minute ago, that's leadership failure.
13:50: The rest of your team will have low morale, low standards.
13:55: You'll be holding back production profit.
13:57: Your A players will check out, and it's a downward spiral from there.
14:03: How many times have you heard from somebody yourself, or one of your team members?
14:07: Man, I wish you fired that person months ago.
14:11: It's exhausted.
14:12: You gave so much, so much rope, you were hanging everybody else.
14:18: So I'm messaging him in the chat here.
14:21: Document everything always.
14:23: Sadly, we know these things because it end up biting us.
14:27: And it's, you know, you, you, it's hard to fire somebody immediately.
14:31: You gotta have a paper trail, especially in certain states of this country, you don't have a thorough paper trail, you're in trouble.
14:39: If they come back and they sue you, there's attorneys.
14:42: How many billboards do you see with attorneys' billboards on there?
14:45: They're looking for you guys, and that could cost you a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, or it can cost you a whole business.
14:55: OK.
14:56: And how do you process in your head?
14:58: This is the thing that is So important Most of us here don't have gigantic businesses, so we take it personally when people screw up.
15:07: You gotta detach, don't take it personally.
15:10: Don't let it distract you.
15:11: You got a whole business to run.
15:13: You can't be distracted by one guy screwing something up.
15:17: Can't do it, right?
15:19: You have to get out of your head.
15:21: You can't think, why are they doing this to me?
15:22: They're not doing it to you, it's just doing it.
15:25: Why can't they just do what they're supposed to?
15:27: Yeah, that's right.
15:28: That's where our soft plug, Super tank university, will teach them what they're supposed to do and train them.
15:34: I kind of had to throw it in there.
15:35: We gotta keep the lights on, right?
15:37: And how much training do you really need?
15:40: OK, that's what you have to decide, because I know I listed training here 3 times.
15:46: If you don't need to retrain them, you need to get rid of them.
15:49: You need to compartmentalize, you know, you get frustrated.
15:54: Delegate the problems, follow the system.
15:56: If you have a supervisor you can delegate it to, do the best you can and supervise them.
16:02: Treat it like any other issue in business.
16:05: Marketing, sales, accounting, admin, operations.
16:12: You treat it like that, you don't take it personally, it's much easier.
16:14: It's not an attack on your company.
16:16: It's probably just a training issue.
16:18: We've all been there.
16:19: Oh, I probably just should train this.
16:21: It'd be a lot easier.
16:22: I fired my last 5 guys.
16:24: Maybe if I taught them what to do.
16:27: Might be easier on me.
16:29: If it's not working out, again, document it, document it, document, and then fire them.
16:33: And this is one of the big things I want to share.
16:36: Last thing.
16:37: Most of the time the team member you're talking to, you're writing up and following up, they don't even know.
16:44: The problems they're causing half the time, you gotta be direct and let them know, direct with the expectations and the ramifications.
16:53: I didn't use ramifications up here, consequences.
16:57: OK, they don't understand their expectations.
17:01: They need to be told that many, many times.
17:04: That's what we do at Supertech university.
17:06: We have a lot of reputation in our lessons because When You tell somebody something, we all need to be repeatedly told things.
17:16: We go to coaching conferences all the time.
17:20: And we go to these things, and half the time.
17:23: We hear the same thing, and like, oh yeah, that's great.
17:26: Nick says, as business owners, we need to ask ourselves, do we give the employee the right tools to succeed?
17:31: Exactly.
17:33: And that's what I was talking about tools I talked about earlier, or, yeah, equipment.
17:38: But yeah, the tools to succeed, the skills, and that's what we help Supertech university as well.
17:43: Thanks, Nick.
17:46: And they will probably change if they knew the consequences of their actions, not necessarily to them personally, but the consequences to the business.
17:54: You explain to them what you did caused us to lose all this money on this job.
18:00: What you did caused a problem here, cause a problem there, you just explain it to them in a calm way.
18:08: A little bit detached when you're talking to them, and I mean detached like professional.
18:14: You're listening to them, and this guy Trent Parker calls himself the Nacho.
18:23: HVAC nacho guy is very, very funny.
18:26: So if you can see him, he does some YouTube things, very, very funny guy, and he does a comic relief on technicians that do silly things.
18:37: It's just sad, it's all satire.
18:39: It's very funny.
18:40: So, it's wonderful to see everybody.
18:45: Thank you for listening to the Blue Collar Nation podcast.
18:49: For more information about Eric and Larry and Super Tech University, please visit us at supertechu.com.
18:57: That is supertech U, the letter U.com.
