Sprague Pest Solutions GM Ross Treleven is a fourth-generation PMP.
You are not Steve Jobs. Or Sheryl Sandberg or Warren Buffett. Your leadership is not something you can copy from headlines, legendary stories or a biography. Your leadership is a series of daily habits and behaviors.
In my role as general manager of Sprague Pest Solutions I am charged with being a leader of a diverse and growing workforce. We are a family-owned commercial pest control company and my leadership style does not copy that of others or even the great predecessor stewards at Sprague.
Today, leadership needs are different. My
experience is that of generational pride and at times, strife. My insights are hard won, as I have gleaned them from the education one can only find through family ownership: business know-how and family know-how. That different kind of leadership the world needs only gets more vibrant and complex as a family-owned business. Right now, I have three topics on my mind regarding what makes an effective leader thrive in my situation: (1) authenticity; (2) the unique role of family business; and (3) being a multiplier.
AUTHENTICITY. Somewhere in my career, being me at work became risky. I used to subscribe to the idea that leaders are invincible, sure of themselves and fearless. All of these... are wrong. Instead we make the best decisions we can based on having only some of the data. We have to build great teams whom we must trust to give us solid advice and information.
Leaders are not always sure they are making the right decision, but decisiveness is vital for achieving progress and sustaining growth. Leadership is not being blindly sure, but instead being open to input from key advisors and making the best decisions you can with the information you have in front of you.
The forums Vistage and Young Presidents Organization (YPO) for CEOs, COOs, GMs and key executives provide an environment where they can evaluate decisions with which they are struggling to craft better solutions that help their organization and employees’ interests, all inside a non-biased group of strategic thinkers. I have found the work done with these groups to be vital.
Leaders are not fearless. Real leadership values vulnerability. It is the ability to admit mistakes, be up front about what the future looks like and be pragmatic with our teams.
FAMILY BUSINESS. Family businesses have been the backbone of the pest management industry for years and the formula for a successful multi-generational family business may look easy from the outside.
Step 1: Start company.
Step 2: Have kids.
Step 3: Hold my calls, send my checks.
If you want to have it all and leave it for your kids, you better be ready to take your medicine along the way. When I screw up at work (which I’ve done on multiple occasions) it can embarrass and stress the complex family dynamic. Work cannot simply be left at work.
Family members fall into a category of easy-to-hire and hard-to-fire. We know our family intimately. So much so, it’s not just hard, but odd to work for the guy who helped you light summer fireworks as a kid. We’ve grown with them and we see the best in them. Family members can be seen as assets or opportunities that benefit the business, something that is simultaneously flattering and troubling. Through that lens we must measure their impact on the company, the inevitable power structure change and how the personal relationship will evolve from working together every day.
Sprague Pest Solutions, Tacoma, Wash., is a fourth-generation, family-owned firm.
Adding family to the company is taxing. Across the board. Immediate assumptions abound concerning their eventual promotion to the top role. This negatively affects your ambitious, talented and deserving teammates. By adding family members, you alter the power structure and, conversely, alter the supporting and peer roles. You may find yourself asking questions like: Do I need to run this by both brothers? Should I get the cousins’ buy-in first? Is this going to affect the larger family?
The time this type of consideration takes is astounding. And it seems like an unnecessary burden, but one everyone takes on. You’ve added a complex element to every person’s job description simply by including family.
Last of these is working together every day. Siblings squabble, spouses fight and cousins have conflict. These things are inevitable. How are you going to manage this at work without it affecting your personal relationships? Skipped a family event because of a work fight? How long does that work? Do not be afraid of adding family, be deliberate. The most rewarding addition — bringing on a family member — also carries the most risk.
If you are family, you must earn your way every day. Taking your namesake for granted is professional recklessness. Those who coast on their names alone fail to engender the loyalty and leadership skills required to be successful. This principle applies to relationships beyond work. Take your spouse for granted? Good luck with that. Your friends? What friends?
Being part of the ownership family means your information will be highly filtered. It is your job to create real relationships where people aren’t afraid to speak truth to family. In my experience, even those above me do not want to tell me bad news. When team members filter data the real picture isn’t being presented and bad decisions are likely to ensue.
Being part of the ownership family means executive lag. The CEO of an organization already wears too many hats; the company, the board, the shareholders. When you add in leadership of the family, time is skinny. Neglect any one of those stakeholders and you’ll pay for it later. It is an exhausting balancing act that requires more reflection and planning than any other position. You can only lead as far as you can see. It is nearly impossible to see the future from the day-to-day grind. Increasingly, I see leaders at all levels struggling to clear head space to think through the future and reveal the path their company and teams need. More than ever, leaders need to find time to reflect and recharge to create a clear future for their organizations.
BE A MULTIPLIER. Your words matter. Your cadence and tone are critically important to how you lead. Not feeling like being sharp today? Take the day off. If you show up to work and become an accidental diminisher, you have unknowingly created negative value.
Here are some examples I’ve heard of “negative value” that should be deleted from everyone’s vocabulary.
“I'm actually impressed with those results.”
Really? You’re actually impressed? So, you expected me to fail? Ditch the expression, give gratitude. “I am impressed,” carries a lot more weight and will give your colleague an enormous feeling of pride.
“I have to deal with George.”
This is one of the most toxic sentences around. It must be such a burden to be in charge. Maybe you shouldn’t be. Maybe they can’t stand the idea of dealing with you. Even with the right intent, the language is diminishing. Nobody can see or hear your intent; they can only see your actions and hear your words. Rephrase this with “I need to take care of an employee.” Caring for anything assumes a kind heart. You’ll approach the situation with an altered mindset and create casual, authentic value.
My own definition of leadership continues to evolve. Immediate access to the world’s knowledge has transformed the leaders of my generation. Gone are the days when knowledge was the primary source of power.
Vulnerability, authenticity and awareness expose the kinds of people skills required to lead. These human attributes are akin to success, for success can itself be human; emotional, insatiable and constantly changing.
My leadership is a series of behaviors that have become habits. Betterment has to be a habit in leadership. Especially now. I still make the mistakes you would expect of someone my age (36) but I know now the mistakes I make are foremost the confirmation that I am learning. About myself, my family and my talented colleagues, all of whom are often one and the same.
Ross Treleven is general manager of Sprague Pest Solutions in Tacoma, Wash., and a fourth-generation pest management professional.
Convention Conversation: Dennis Jenkins
Convention Extra - Convention Q&A
NPMA’s new president, ABC Home & Commercial Services (DFW) President Dennis Jenkins, talks about recent association developments.
When PCT first tried to sit down with Dennis Jenkins this summer for an interview about his tenure as NPMA president, he was a tough man to pin down. The venue was NPMA Academy and Jenkins was busy roaming from committee meeting to committee meeting to absorb as much in-formation as he could and provide his input whenever appropriate.
“Having the privilege of being NPMA president this year is something I don’t take lightly,” Jenkins said. “I look at it as an opportunity to try to make everybody feel great about what we do.”
Jenkins brings to the NPMA president’s role an interesting perspective as his dad, the late Robert Jenkins, served as NPMA president in 1987, and his brothers are also past NPMA presidents — Bobby Jenkins in 2000 and Raleigh Jenkins in 2009.
The Jenkins brothers have all grown up in the in the pest control industry…and within NPMA. They own and operate ABC Services Inc., a multi-faceted corporation that provides pest control, lawn care, handyman, pool construction, maintenance and other services from 11 locations throughout Texas, Oklahoma and Florida. Each brother is responsible for an arm of the business, and their competitive natures have helped spur the separate companies to growth under the ABC Services umbrella.
In 1989, Dennis, a Texas A&M graduate, moved his wife Jennifer and 1-year-old daughter Marsha to Dallas, and set up a pest control business there. Jennifer went back to work at a teaching job to help support the family while Dennis began building the business. Meanwhile, his dad, Robert Jenkins, resigned from Waste Management and invested in Dennis’ new family venture, as he had previously done with sons Bobby in Austin and Raleigh in Houston.
Under Dennis’ leadership ABC has grown into a leading pest control firm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, approaching $20 million in yearly revenues and employing 186.
Dennis has held numerous leadership positions within NPMA and was part of the association’s inaugural Leadership Development Group (LDG) in the mid-90s.
In addition to professional accomplishments, Dennis and Jennifer recently celebrated their 35th anniversary and he is enjoying watching the next generation of Jenkins' — including son Russell (and his wife Mary Margaret) — join ABC ventures full-time.
In July 2017, Bobby, Raleigh and Dennis Jenkins completed a 3,500 cross-country bike trip to raise funds for two causes close to their hearts. Raleigh road in support of “A Child’s Hope,” a foundation he founded that helps orphans in Haiti. While Raleigh was NPMA president he was a part of an NPMA team that traveled to Haiti in the wake of the catastrophic 2010 earthquake that hit the island. That life-changing experience for Raleigh is what led him to create the “A Child’s Hope” foundation. Bobby Jenkins cycled in honor of his late grandson, Moss Pieratt, who died of Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC). One year after his death, the Pieratt and Jenkins families founded the Moss Pieratt Foundation, which raises SUDC awareness. Dennis rode in support of both of charities.
In the following Q&A, Dennis Jenkins talks about recent developments at ABC and discusses some of his objectives as NPMA president.
PCT magazine: This is the one-year anniversary of your cross-country bike ride. What stands out for you from that experience?
Dennis Jenkins: It was the impact of the ride, the people that we met along the way, and the money that we raised. One of the charities we were riding for was “A Child’s Hope.” Although we didn’t meet any children from Haiti along the way, we remembered them all the time because we talked about them during media interviews.
We actually met with lots of SUDC parents while we were on the ride. A parent who had his child die of SUDC has both the horror of losing their child and the unbelievable aspect of not knowing why the child died. One of the things we learned is how hard it is for SUDC parents to explain it to family and friends. It almost becomes like a suicide situation in which friends and family — especially friends — don’t necessarily know how to be around them. They find that their friends just start to kind of back off a little bit because people just don’t know what to say.
There were several events that we did and then there was one family — Ronny and Stephaney Zarecky — that I will never forget because they drove four and half hours just to have dinner with us and share the story of the daughter they lost in January of that year, Scarlet. Talking with people like that really reminded us why we were doing what we were doing.
We had people open up their wallets and offer to give us cash while we were driving down the road. We went all across the country and we didn’t have anybody that wasn’t nice to us.
PCT: How tough was it physically?
DJ: Well, I outweigh my brothers by probably about 60 pounds. Going uphill I was clearly the one coming up the hill last! That’s okay, we made it. We got all the way across; we made it all the way there. In the end we raised $560,000. It was amazing.
PCT: How else do those two groups raise funds?
DJ: ABC holds the KiteFest every year (featuring various artists, vendors and associated child-friendly activities). As part of that event the Pieratt and Jenkins families decided to stage a concert in Moss’s honor. This past year they held the 3rd annual MossFest.
A Child’s Hope is educating [orphaned]Haitian children in a Christian environment and developing them as leaders for Haiti. The goal is to take them from birth to 18 and educate them so that they will have a positive effect on Haiti through leadership and development. The foundation is fortunate to be receiving ongoing funding — some on a monthly basis — to cover costs. I know Raleigh will have another fundraiser as they get ready to build the next building.
PCT: Could you share with our readers some recent developments at ABC of DFW, either in terms of advertising, best practices, marketing or other areas?
DJ: One of the biggest things we’ve done kind of follows in my brothers’ footsteps in that we are continuing to add different lines of service. For me personally, for a number of years, I was more interested in just sticking to pest control. I remember years ago Bobby started talking about the next line of business he was going to launch. I sat there and I said, “You guys remember when all we did was kill bugs? I loved those days.” I kind of hung on to that kind of concept for a long time.
Dennis, Bobby and Raleigh Jenkins make a 3,500 display signifying the end of their cross-country bike ride of 3,500 miles.
Then we dabbled in a couple of other things and we got scared. It was, “If I’m going to do your lawn fertilization and if you have weeds, and if we burn out your lawn, are you going to fire me for pest control too?” That had been my fear. Now, I look back and I see what Bobby’s done. Bobby now has 17 different lines of services. My average customer uses us for 1.2 services and that includes pest and termite, lawn maintenance and lawn mowing. Bobby’s average customer uses him for an average of four services. What he has found is customers are more “sticky” the more services they use with you. They are likely to forgive you for being late or for a weed being in the yard, or the pest being back. Because they say to themselves, “I don’t want to call and find another electrician, another plumber, another HVAC person, another pest control person, another lawn person.” They just don’t want to go through that hassle. It kind of better ties them into your business.
Looking at that and knowing that Bobby’s customer base is not all that different from mine, we decided to give it a shot. Just this year, we’ve added plumbing, pool and handyman services to our offerings. I expect by the end of the year to seek out and find an HVAC business that we can acquire and fold in as well.
PCT: How do you cross-market to these customers?
DJ: It isn’t taking much to generate business. One thing we’ve done is drop off a plunger in areas we do plumbing services to tell our customers we now offer this service. We found these plungers that we bought for 99 cents a piece — and they are real plungers. We put sticky notes to them that have the ABC logo on it. We attach a $25 off coupon to them using a Cable Zip Tie and our technicians deliver them to the customer. For the pool service we made a cozy that has the pool service info and a coupon on it. We sent mailings out to existing customers informing them that we now offer these services.
People are like, “Yeah, I’m glad you did that too.” Again, we build on the trust they have in us. We are so relational in this business. Those customers who have been with you for a long time, they are willing to give us an opportunity to try something else. It simplifies their life.
Other than that, the changes we've undergone at ABC are with our management structure. I’ve got an incredible senior management team that really enables me to do what I’m trying to do today with NPMA.
PCT: I know the NPMA staff has undergone some changes recently. Can you give us a staff update?
DJ: I love the direction we are going. I think the new leadership folks are really hitting their strides. I think (NPMA CEO) Dominique Stumpf is doing a very good job. I really enjoy working with her. I think her staff has come together in different ways than it had in the past and they are very supportive of each other.
We just lost Andrew Bray (former vice president of public policy), which was a bummer. He was solicited by another industry that recognized his talents, and when somebody makes you a game-changing financial offer, it is hard not to consider that. We are still trying to fill Andrew’s position, but I think NPMA is able to withstand some turnover with Public Policy. You have Jake Plevelich and we’ve seen with the SPAR program how he just takes on a project like that and runs with it. And then you have Jim Fredericks, who has shown that even though his background is that of an “insect guy” he is a smart, funny, personable guy with a good business sense. And he has always done well when representing NPMA on the Hill.
PCT: How is NPMA’s relationship with EPA?
DJ: I think we have a really good working relationship with them. I think we have an openness from the standpoint we don’t feel like they are black or white on every issue that comes up. I think that the years of NPMA Legislative Days have built a strong network of folks across the country that are able to have discussions.
Even with the previous administration, I think we had a good working relationship with EPA and we were able to find some middle ground. When bed bugs came back and when mosquitoes started bringing new diseases, people started being really worried. The focus became more on human health and less on what pesticide is being used or “Let’s ban pesticide X.” I think when people have nothing to fear then they begin to fear things like pesticides. When other things happen that cause them to say, “Wait a minute we can’t have that in our world,” then that becomes a driver of the emotions.
PCT: That goes to my next question. What type of opportunities are there for the pest control industry to shine on the national stage?
DJ: It’s been amazing to see CDC want to partner with NPMA when it comes to public health, and it just speaks to the strides NPMA has made in presenting the industry as partners — and not the opposition. That comes from years and years of not saying “We have to win on every issue,” but instead “Let’s find a middle ground.”
We have built ourselves as a reasonable industry with a job to do and that needs to have the tools to do it. I think the Hill has come to know us as a reasonable industry, so that when issues like Zika arise, we are seen as trusted people to do the work. I think another development that has increased our trust within EPA are concerns about the DIY market. I think they realize that misuse and overuse of pesticides is coming from the homeowner market — professionals are not the ones misusing pesticide.
PCT: How have you witnessed NPMA Academy evolve throughout the years?
DJ: The idea for Academy came from (the late) Linden Griffin when he was NPMA President (1993-1994). It was his idea to develop future leaders for the association. My brother Bobby was head of LDG at the time and I was a part of that inaugural LDG class. Over the years it became a little bit more about developing you and your ability to run a business. I know that a lot of the successes we have had in our business are the result of things we learned at Academy and tried in our business. I think the focus has swung back to somewhere in the middle of those two [objectives]. We are definitely trying to develop folks as leaders for the association. When I leave Academy, I am more energized than after any other meeting. You go back to your business and you’re kind of on fire.
[Editor’s note: In March, NPMA’s Board of Directors voted to accept a large-scale sustainable platform for the future of the association. The former dues structure had been in place for 20 years and a task force determined that restructuring was necessary in order to make the system fair for all members and sustain NPMA into the future. These changes included a new dues classification largely to account for significant growth experienced by very large firms, and to address problems with previously agreed upon large state agreements.]
PCT: The new dues schedule will take effect Jan. 1, 2019, for calendar year renewals and July 1, 2019, for fiscal renewal. Can you tell us how the dues restructuring is being received?
DJ: There is a three-year roll out, which is going to help folks quite a bit. One of the areas it was most broken was dues classification of the largest companies. The original dues structure could only conceive of a $100 million company; now you’ve got companies that are like $1.6 billion. And these companies have been generous — I’m not trying to throw a stone their way because as they acquire companies they’ve agreed to continue to pay those dues. But the most they we’re paying was 2 times what a $100 million company would pay. That was the highest level of anybody. It couldn’t continue to work that way.
The other big area of concern was large state dues. You had three classifications: standard, joint-state and large state. There are four large states (Texas, Illinois, Florida and California). Each one of those states had a different deal. It all came from a time when the goal was to build membership numbers. The feeling at that time was that if we were going to go to Capitol Hill, and we were going to say we represent this industry, that we will get questions back like, “How many people exactly do you represent?” There was a really strong push to see the number of member companies grow. We made deals and some of those deals were flat out not good deals for NPMA. They weren’t good deals back when they were struck and they just got worse and worse over time. I’m in one of those states (Texas). The deals were slightly different from state to state, but they were all basically this: Listen Texas, you pay NPMA a bill of X amount and you get to keep the rest. The amount that they were paying was around the same amount as the top four companies in the state might have paid if they were paying dues directly to NPMA. It was a stupid, sweet deal.
Outgoing NPMA President Bryan Cooksey (left) passes the gavel to new president Dennis Jenkins.
We’ve had discussions with multiple large states, and I believe at this moment most of these large states are at least open to revisiting this and saying, “How do we continue to make this work?”
PCT: Do you have one overarching goal that you want to accomplish during your presidency?
DJ: A long time ago, every NPMA president kind of had a theme, and then at some point it became less of the president’s role to set a theme and it became more about continuing the same progress from the year before — sticking to the course. I wanted to bring back a theme this year. My theme for this year is “impacting lives.” I truly believe that is the crux of what we do. I think we impact lives every single day. Whether you are talking about the number of people we employ and the families that they have (their children and their spouses) — or you talk about the vendors that we work with and how we impact them by how we do business and how we pay bills — we have an impact.
When I think about the food that we eat just about all the stuff — except for what people grow in their gardens — our industry has a hand in protecting at some point. I made up a saying that I shared with our people: “We protect food from grain to train to store to table.”
We protect health. We are fighting mosquitoes. We are fighting bed bugs. We are fighting vectors. We truly do impact life whether it is directly or indirectly, whether the average American recognizes it or not. I think if we, as an industry, truly embrace that I think it brings depth to what we do.
And customers on the residential side will share their lives with us. We go repetitively into their homes and over time, we have a real relationship with those folks. For example, we had a customer who was unmarried when he started with us. His same technician has been with him the entire time, and [the technician] has seen him get married and have two kids. Those are really, really cool stories.
We go into places in the house that nobody goes to. We go into their attic every time we are there. We see things that they need to know about. We find gas leaks, we see plumbing leaks and we see other issues that we bring to their attention.
In our organization, we have faith at ABC. I don’t care how somebody believes but I just look up and believe there is a God and I hope that everybody who works with us kind of feels the same. We don’t force our beliefs on anybody, but I don’t hide them. We’ve had people who have shared about the death of a spouse or a loved one. And we stop and spend time and pray together. Those stories hit you in the heart like nothing else does. It’s an amazing kind of gift that we are giving.
PCT: Your dad was NPMA president and then Bobby and then Raleigh. What is the significance of this position to you?
DJ: For me it is a hell a lot of pressure [says laughing]. No seriously, when I look at this industry and when I think about my life that I have lived in this industry, it has been incredible. It has been an incredible gift and it still is. When I look at being NPMA president, I really want to do it. It’s not that I want to check off a box [of a list of career accomplishments]. It is about having that opportunity to give back to the industry that I love so much. To be able to stand up in front of folks and try to win their hearts over to get them to recognize how much more this industry is than just a job.
The author is Internet/managing editor of PCT.
Developing Your Team Through One-on-One Coaching
Convention Extra - Management Principles
Well-executed individualized training can be a catalyst for attracting and retaining the best people.
Effective one-on-one coaching ability is one of the most important skills a great leader must possess. Well-executed coaching inspires in others an internal drive to act ethically, without direction, to achieve goals. Effective coaching drives performance, builds competence and confidence, and ultimately enhances relationships. The best coaches help their team members find ways to make things happen instead of creating excuses for why they can’t happen.
Effective coaching also requires you to believe in yourself. You need to believe that you can have an impact in the workplace, and that you can inspire others to reach their goals they otherwise might not achieve. The real question is not if you will make a difference, but what difference you will make.
Respectful, transparent, and regular face-to-face communication between leaders and their team breaks down barriers and builds trust. What you can see in a person’s eyes or other body language can be very revealing. While technology can be effective at times, it will never replace human contact for discovery and inspiration.
The most impactful leaders are adept listeners, and don’t allow their egos to become roadblocks. When egos are alive and well, listening ceases, effective coaching environments disappear and organizations suffer.
Here are three recommendations that can help you raise the bar with your ability to coach others.
1. Create a positive and open environment for communication.
People listen to and follow leaders they trust. They engage in meaningful dialog with people they trust. They are not afraid to disagree with people they trust. Trust provides the foundation for a positive and open communication environment where connections between people can thrive.
When people connect, they learn about each other. They enable understanding of cultures, individual strengths and challenges. Knowing your teams’ unique capabilities and desires helps you focus on how to help them be successful.
Knowing your people also reduces the probability of promoting someone into a management position who does not want it or is not otherwise qualified. Not all service technicians want to be managers. Not all sales representatives want to be sales managers. Not all customer service representatives want to be call center supervisors. The costs can be exorbitant to an organization that wrongly promotes someone into a management position.
There are four questions that can help establish this open line of communication: What is on your mind? What can I do for you? What do you think? How am I making your life more difficult? When asked with genuine interest, people respond with more honesty.
Meeting with your people regularly helps break down barriers — not just in your office or in the field, but in the break room and in the cafeteria. Talk to folks outside the work area like the jogging track, grocery store or your kids’ soccer games. The informal sessions can be wonderful enablers of opening the lines of communication.
2. Establish agreed upon goals and strategies to achieve.
Most people want to know what success looks like. They want to be clear in their goals as an individual and, if appropriate, the leader of a team. Well-defined, measurable, relevant goals on paper help your team gain clarity on what it will take for them to succeed. Assigning responsibility with authority helps inspire an individual’s commitment to be successful. Success also includes instructing people on how to reach their goals. Strategies are developed and agreed upon by the manager and team member so that both understand each other’s roles. The probability of success increases dramatically when strategies and accountabilities are well defined.
3. Enforce accountability by assessing performance.
There are many and significant consequences when people are not held accountable for achieving goals or otherwise performing up to standard. Integrity disappears. Discipline erodes. Morale evaporates. Leaders are not taken seriously. Problem employees become a cancer in the organization. The best people leave. Results are not achieved.
Effective coaching demands assessment of performance. Without this assessment, no system of accountability will be achieved. If the senior leader does not hold his or her executive team accountable, subordinate leaders are likely to think “Why should I?”
Consistent, regularly scheduled coaching sessions with your people are the key to ensuring effective follow-up assessments to not only celebrate successes but to review failures and identify ways to improve.
STRATEGIZING TIPS. Coaching session agendas will vary based on a variety of conditions. A good place to start is outlined below.
First, review the individual’s goals and those of the organization. Ensure alignment of both these goals in order to clarify where the individual is contributing to the mission of the organization.
Second, discuss what is going well. Where do both the coach and the individual agree on successes? Provide positive recognition for achievements where important.
Third, discuss the challenges or areas for improvement. Underwrite honest mistakes in the pursuit of excellence so people can learn. Determine how you as the manager can help. Gain a clear understanding of the shortfall in the individual’s ability and desire to achieve the goal and what resources or assistance the individual needs to be successful. When unsatisfactory performance occurs, managers must address it. Leaders who never take action to remove an underperformer are doing a great disservice to their institution. All too often, good people serving in leadership positions fear the task of confrontation. They hope, magically, that something will happen that will turn the underperformer around and all will be well in the end.
Hope is not a strategy; the magic seldom happens. Your goal as a leader and coach is to inspire a willingness to succeed. When coaching, it is often easier to criticize and find fault. Think before you speak — find ways to praise.
Fourth, as the manager, seek suggestions for how you can be a more effective leader for them. This question can change the dynamic of the coaching session and can provide powerful feedback for the manager in his or her quest to be the best they can be. Doing so will enhance their trust in you and help build confidence in their own capabilities.
Remember, effective one-on-one coaching can be the catalyst for attracting and retaining the best people, and that will ultimately help your organization to unprecedented results.
The author is a recognized speaker, executive leadership coach and author of “Rules and Tools for Leaders.” He is a West Point graduate and retired as a Brigadier General having served 32 years in the U.S. Army. Drawing on his unique military experience, Foley uses his singular insight to build better leaders. For more information on Jeff Foley, visit www.loralmountain.com.
Crown Leadership Winners to be Recognized at PestWorld
Convention Extra - Industry Awards
Five pest control industry leaders will be honored by PCT and Syngenta.
PCT and Syngenta will recognize five industry professionals at NPMA PestWorld as 2018 Crown Leadership Award winners. This is the 30-year anniversary of the awards program which was has honored more than 250 industry professionals since its inception. The 2018 winners are:
Karl Kisner, Univar Environmental Sciences, Austin, Texas
Dan Collins, Collins Pest Management, Evansville, Ind.
Dr. Faith Oi, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
“It’s been 30 years since PCT and Syngenta began recognizing individuals who have contributed positively to the growth and development of the structural pest control industry, and I believe this year’s class carries on the tradition of that inaugural class, as well as subsequent classes,” said PCT Publisher Dan Moreland.
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Since 1989, the Crown Leadership Awards have been presented annually to pest management professionals, university educators, industry distributors and association officials who uphold the highest standards of industry ethics, while contributing their time and talent to a broad range of professional and civic organizations.
PCT and Syngenta will honor this year’s winners during a special ceremony to be held during NPMA PestWorld 2018 in Orlando, Fla. Also at the ceremony, PCT and Syngenta will present a “Lifetime Achievement Award” to a past Crown Leadership Award winner, as voted on by previous honorees.
If you know of a member of the pest control industry you would like to nominate for next year’s awards, email Dan Moreland at dmoreland@gie.net.
Massey Services: A Celebrated Past, an Exciting Future
Convention Extra - PCO Profile
The Orlando-based firm, going on 34 years strong, has positioned itself for future growth.
Tony (left) and Harvey Massey (right), leaders of Massey Services.
Editor’s note: With this year’s NPMA PestWorld being held in Orlando, PCT decided to profile an Orlando-based firm that is one of the pest management industry’s true success stories: Massey Services. Founded in 1985 by Harvey L. Massey, Massey Services has grown from four service centers to 154. The company services more than 600,000 residential and commercial Pest Prevention, Termite Protection, Landscape Services and Irrigation Maintenance customers throughout Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and North Carolina while employing more than 2,100 team members. The following is a look at Massey’s celebrated past and a glimpse into how the company has positioned itself for future growth under the leadership of Harvey L. Massey, chairman and CEO, and Tony Massey, president.
While much has changed at Massey Services throughout its 33-year history, the one constant has been the company’s commitment to its customers and team members. Massey is committed to “total customer satisfaction” and provides beneficial services that protect health, food, property and the quality of our environment. This customer service legacy has grown under the leadership of Harvey L. Massey, a former Orkin and Terminix executive who purchased Walker Chemical and Exterminating Company in 1985 for $4.9 million and later renamed it Massey Services.
Massey Services’ bedrock is its mission statement — to be “a leader in providing an environmentally responsible and superior service and to be recognized as the best service company in our industry” — which was developed in 1991 by Harvey Massey. With this goal in mind, the company has remained focused on customer satisfaction and innovation with the services it provides and how they are delivered to customers. Valuing image, truth and integrity are core elements of their guiding philosophy. They conduct business with a corporate perspective while remaining flexible in order to take advantage of new opportunities that present themselves.
A well-known Massey Services phrase is “At Massey Services, Our People Make the Difference!” The focus at Massey Services has always been, and continues to be, centered on ongoing team member training, education and development.
PARADIGM SHIFT. Key to Massey Services’ success has been the company’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction. As a leader in innovation, Massey Services is continually researching and testing better ways to provide effective services to customers, while at the same time protecting the environment. With that in mind, Massey has developed several innovative programs during the last 33 years. Here’s a look at a few:
Money-Back Guarantee. In the early 1990s, Harvey Massey took an unprecedented step and launched one of the industry’s first money-back guarantees. He reasoned, “If you tell someone you’re going to do something, you ought to do it and if you don’t do it to their complete satisfaction, they deserve their money back.” This commitment remains a cornerstone of the company’s guiding philosophy.
Pest Prevention. In 1990, Massey Services changed service and training protocols creating a shift from traditional pest control, which relies on the application of pesticides whether needed or not, to control or eliminate pests, to pest prevention. Pest Prevention is a customized environmental management program that eliminates the conditions, avenues and sources of pest infestation from in and around a structure.
Irrigation Maintenance Program. Massey Services provides environmentally beneficial landscape services that enhance the beauty of nature while improving the quality of the environment. Massey Services understands the importance of proper watering for landscape health while simultaneously protecting our precious water supply. Consequently, in 2006, Massey Services introduced an Irrigation Maintenance Program. Unfortunately, all too often, most of the water used to irrigate landscapes is wasted through inefficient landscape irrigation systems. Massey’s irrigation maintenance program helps customers water correctly which helps conserve water by reducing or eliminating waste. After all, a properly maintained and irrigated landscape is beneficial to our environment.
Bed Bug Heat Remediation. In 2007, Massey Services launched a bed bug heat remediation program. At the time, Massey was searching for a better way to eliminate bed bugs. So, Massey developed its own patented process that involves heating ambient air in a given space at temperatures lethal to arthropod pests, including bed bugs. Maintaining these temperatures for a set amount of time allows the heat energy to penetrate locations where bed bugs reside, many of which are typically inaccessible by traditional treatment methods. The benefits of this program include faster turnaround time and the elimination of bed bugs at all stages of life, from egg to adult.
Growth by M&A. Massey Services has grown not only organically, but via acquisitions as well. In December 2009, Massey Services made the largest acquisition in its history with the purchase of Sunair Services, parent company of Middleton Lawn & Pest Control. Middleton had been a prominent company in the state of Florida since 1952 with headquarters in Orlando, Fla. With this acquisition, Massey Services was propelled to 5th on the PCT Top 100 List, with estimated revenues of $130 million. Massey Services has continued to grow both organically and through acquisitions since that time. Today, Massey Services is the largest family-owned pest management company in the industry.
Harvey Massey also acquired Orlando- based public relations firm Persons & Brinati, in 1997. In 2016 they renamed the agency to Moxe, which is a full-service marketing and advertising company.
Massey Services offers pest prevention, which focuses on eliminating conducive pest conditions.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. Another example of Massey Services’ industry leadership is its commitment to environmental responsibility and stewardship. For example, Massey Services provides a termite treatment that saves millions of gallons of precious water resources annually. Environmentally responsible initiatives such as this have led to Massey Services being named a Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Champion by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
LOOKING AHEAD. Massey Services continues to innovate. In addition to Massey’s lake-friendly landscape approach, they have also proactively changed landscape protocol during summer months to comply with fertilizer ordinances in every market regardless of county regulation.
In February 2018, Massey announced an official partnership between BRIDG, an organization that unites ideas with industry to accelerate the manufacturing development of emerging technologies and spark tomorrow’s innovation. The partnership will provide Massey Services with the ability and opportunity to co-develop products utilizing BRIDG’s state-of-the-art microelectronics facility. It will continue to provide Massey Services the opportunity to leverage cutting-edge sensor technology that will benefit its customers and businesses. The company has been heavily involved with BRIDG since the beginning stages of its inception.
Perhaps the greatest testament to Massey Services’ commitment to customers and team members is the fact the company has experienced 33 consecutive years of profitable growth — and by all accounts — Massey Services shows no signs of slowing down.
The author is senior marketing and PR strategist for Moxe.