A Guide For Service Business Teams

Bad attitudes and call-backs:

A guide to fix your team from the cancer of laziness, poor work ethic, and uncommitted, unengaged performance, draining any profit that might be left over!

1. Five ways to engage your team immediately.
2. Five things to stop doing immediately that disengage your team.
3. Six costly misconceptions about leading a team.
4. How to avoid four ways an employee can rip you off.
5. How to get your team to improve performance 100%.
6. The difference between Paul the Pro and Chuck in a Truck.
7. Five ways to engage your team immediately.

Five ways to engage your team immediately.

1. Ask how their day was at the end of the day sincerely. Talk about the client and job for 10 minutes.
2. Ask your team about their family, children, spouse, school, sports, in-laws, etc. Listen and remember!
3. Cook breakfast for the team at the shop. Serve them and thank them.
4. Ask what they are planning for the weekend and follow up on Monday, asking how their plans went, referencing the event.
5. Review their performance with the attached quick review sheet. Repeat every 30 days thereafter.

Five things to stop doing immediately that disengage your team.

1. Stop not listening. Listen to your team when they communicate.
2. Stop thinking bad things about your team in your head. Give them the benefit of the doubt, they might deserve it!
3. Stop blaming them! Own some of what they have done wrong. Did you train them, and give them the right tools for the job? Was your equipment working properly, did the estimate set them up for success? Read Jocko Willink’s book Extreme Ownership.
4. Stop working too much. Do something different to distract yourself. Spend time with the family, engage with them, work out, or read a book.
5. Stop complaining! You got into this entrepreneur lifestyle by choice. You can get out and get a job if you like. Embrace the suck and be proud. Make changes intentionally so the business is easier.

Six costly misconceptions about leading a team.

1. Pay is most important to your people. It is not!
2. They don’t like you. They might like you; they just don’t know you. Open up.
3. You need to be strong to lead. Nope. Most leaders are introverts who are not good with people, but the effort they make to influence each day is respected.
4. You need to take a big, expensive course to learn how to be a good leader. Nope. Read a leadership book. Start with John Maxwell. Get the book from the library. Listen to a podcast on leadership. Work on your skills and improve each day.
5. Leaders have great teams. They don’t start with these teams. They cultivate them.
6. Leadership takes so much time and effort I don’t have. We need to start somewhere. The best leaders have big faults and are still leading. Go at your pace, be aware, and watch your skills improve each day.

How to avoid four ways an employee can rip you off.

1. No accountability. Make them follow the systems and have a system to follow up so they are accountable and will not step out of line. (They will appreciate the accountability.)
2. Systems. There are always systems, you just don’t always make the ones your team is using. Make your systems one at a time with accountability built in. Implement the system, test it, follow up, and complete it. Then, start with the next one. Read The E-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.
3. Pay attention, look at your numbers: daily, weekly, and monthly. Look at the bills, the gasoline bill, invoices, etc., or have a system where someone pays attention and reports to you. Have eyes on what needs to be watched, one thing at a time.
4. Treat your team like people, not objects that work for you. Care for them, and they will care for you.

How to get your team to improve performance 100%.

Have performance-based pay or a tiered bonus structure based on different benchmarks. Did they get 5 reviews this month? Was their closing percentage above 75%? Was their net profit on the job higher than 65%? These thresholds can be any KPIs (known financial position) that you want to happen at any percentage you want to reach.
For Example, the team member can get a $50 bonus if they get more than 5 positive reviews for the month and $100 if they get 10+. Our team never wanted to go on bonus pay but would get an extra $100 if their individual job, net profit, average was greater than 65% (Assuming you track job numbers. Click here to get that form.) This gets your team engaged and motivated to increase their performance.

The difference between Paul the Pro and Chuck in a Truck.