My Secret Sauce Recipe
For Training Techs!
As I explained in my previous email, I had been training the guys for years from all the popular leadership guru’s and experts. In fairness to them, all of their stuff was great, but the techs just could not relate.
After years of frustration trying to train the team using other people’s lessons, I hatched a plan to use the tenets of the guru’s with the real world that myself and my guys had to deal with everyday. I broke the lessons into 4 categories for what we needed help with the most, and then had a recap and a quiz every Friday. It looked like this:
Monday: Personal Development
Tuesday: In Home Behavior
Wednesday: DISC Personality Profile
Thursday: Add-On Sales
Friday: Lesson Recap and Quiz.
I picked the areas to work on that were giving Larry and I the most grief. In essence, this became “Finishing School” for technicians and office staff. You see, we didn’t have issues with their technical abilities. They all understood their jobs. We lost it when it came to the soft skills of the service business: communication, being prepared properly to come to work, what being a true professional means, how to relate to people more effectively, how to sell needed add-ons without it being scary or seeming creepy, etc.
At first it was a struggle. They did not want to participate. They were worn out on training, but it started to resonate as I used stories from the field to prove my points. Slowly, the leaders of the group started to come around and participate. Then all of the techs started to follow suit. Then we gained momentum and the morning meeting was the best part of the day. They were seeing how to use the lesson I was teaching them and they realized it made their jobs easier and their days better. They bought in!
Nothing changed except for how I created my Secret Sauce to zest up the lessons. You see, I wasn’t using my greatest Super Power… I am a tech, just like them. I talk tech. I have worked in the blue collar world my whole life. I was trying to teach the lessons from the guru’s like they were teaching them, not how I would have taught them. It was inauthentic, and my staff could sense that. Once I decided to give the lessons as a tech would, we were off to the races.
Larry and my life got so much better so quickly. The team was happy and engaged. We were investing in them, so they repaid us with better work. We finally had extra time to grow the business and also have family time. It was so good.
There was only one problem still. I had to spend more time in Utah with my daughter. How would I keep the momentum these lessons were giving us?
Find out tomorrow in my next email.
Eric
or