Leadership Fundamentals, Part Four

Editor’s note: Alan Feuer, technical director, Preventive Pest Control, Albuquerque, N.M., is also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. Feuer is writing a series of leadership articles for PCT based on his years of his military and pest control experience. In part one, Feuer shares two goals of leadership to keep in mind as you continue developing yourself as a leader. Feuer, along with Pete Schopen, Schopen Pest Solutions, McHenry, Ill., and Maria Sorrentino, president of Pest Pros of Michigan, Portage, Mich., will be presenting on how to grow as a leader in a series of in-person events: the “Lead People, Manage Stuff” series.  The first session, “Fundamentals of Leadership and Company Culture,” takes place May 20-21 in Chicago, and June 17-18 in Dallas. For more information contact Sorrentino at 269/503-9860 or maria@pestprosmi.com.

In my last article, we covered four LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES that are based on self-leadership.

Today, we will focus on THREE which apply to TEAM LEADERSHIP. Be on the lookout for the references to the four INDICATORS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP which we covered in article two.

TRAIN YOUR PERSONNEL AS A TEAM

Admittedly, this one is tough in the pest control world as often our field personnel work singly.  Due to this fact, we must find ways to conduct team training routinely and we should always be on the lookout for team development opportunities.  We must recognize that our people might simply become disconnected or feel alienated when they do not have opportunities to be part of a team or family. 

Establishing a company culture of weekly development sessions cannot be overstated. Such sessions do not have to be long, ours are half hour sessions, but they must be interactive and include everyone on the team that is related to the topic. 

While this classroom time is important, we are a “DO THINGS” industry and therefore our training should also include practical application, hands-on training.

Cross training, including ride-along sessions for personnel who may not be part of a certain team, are a great way to help develop understanding of what a day in the life of another team member looks like.  This also allows the Subject Matter Expert (SME) a chance to show off their skills and abilities which is a MORALE builder. 

By the way, a ride-along does not have to always be in a service vehicle.  You may choose to have a field tech sit next to a Customer Service Representative (CSR) and see how that person handles phone calls, sales, and data entry.  You could have a team member spend some time with a manager “fixing” things, etc.

Another way to develop not only the ESPRIT DE CORPS of your team but also a way to build PROFICIENCY is to have up-and-coming team members run development sessions.  This must be done very deliberately, and guidance and encouragement must be provided for these less experienced people. 

While building and presenting education and training comes naturally for me, it might be terrifying to another who has never done this before.  There is no better way to become an SME that to research a topic, develop a class or demonstration and then present or facilitate the topic.

I usually spend four hours developing one hour of teachable content.  I would expect that you and this team member might spend this or even more time in the development of this class.  Remember, the value in this exercise is not just the lesson that comes out as the product of effort but is also the development of the person who made the presentation.

Training and development is a key foundation of leadership and is my passion.  I will be devoting several articles on this subject later.  If you have some specific questions on this topic, feel free to email me at alan@ppcabq.com.

KNOW YOUR TEAM AND LOOK OUT FOR THEIR WELFARE

Steven Covey, author of the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” gives us one important habit we can use to help us here.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” If we keep this habit in mind, we will do well in this realm.

The best way to know your team/team members is to spend time with them.  When you train together or develop training together you will indeed build relationship and an understanding of how they want to be treated. 

As you seek to understand your team, you will come to realize their strengths as well as their shortcomings.  If you do know them, you can unleash their PROFICIENCY and create massive ESPRIT de CORPS within your operation.

By knowing their strengths and weaknesses you can deploy each person to the correct role in a team.  You can distribute the load and the complexity of tasks appropriately.  Your job is to help them win.  When they win, their MORALE improves.  When they fall short, you can help them see the sticking point and help them along the way.

As we look out for their welfare, probably the biggest challenge we face is keeping our promises to our people.  Nothing will disqualify you as a leader faster than failing to provide promised “things” to your people.  This could be pay, benefits, time off, tools, training or even your time and attention.  Maybe you never made such promises, but you team perceived that you did.  To avoid such failure, make sure your team clearly understands how you want them to communicate with you and how you will clearly indicate a promise. 

I know this may sound stodgy, but for any big item (a raise, development efforts, reassignment, time off) I require those who I lead to email or text me any big requests.  This creates a date/time stamp of the request.  I then reply to them my commitment to the request.  This might even mean NO, or no for now.  See the next principle as it applies to this concept.

KEEP YOUR TEAM INFORMED

Tell your team what is going on in short, simple communications. Give them the who, what, when and where. 

If you have time, and it doesn’t muck everything up, briefly explain the WHY. 

The WHY can create confusion, be careful here. 

If we explore the WHY, we can often dilute the hard facts of the other key information.  There is a time and place for the why, or the why not.

If you have appropriately trained your team and they have great PROFICIENCY and DISCIPLINE, short communications are all that are needed. 

CALL TO ACTION AND NEXT ARTICLE

As before, please consider these principles as you go through your life.  How can you use these principles to create a better team condition?

Next time we will cover FOUR principles of MISSION LEADERSHIP.

1. Employ Your Team Within its Capabilities.
2. Ensure the Mission is Understood, Supervised and Completed.
3. Make Sound and Timely Decisions
4. Develop a Sense of Responsibility Among your Subordinates.