The Difficulty and the Enjoyment of Finding the Next Technician to Hire

The wonderful world of HVAC is where I spend much of my life.  Many of the hours spent are with our people who are or become core members of the tribe, we call them AirTightans.  We search high and low for the right type of person to join our tribe.  No they are not tribe members day one, but if we search out the right kind of folks, they can blend into our tribe and as they learn the AirTight culture, eventually (10,000 hours or so) they morph into AirTightans.

Yes, we do all of the "must do's" to ensure we are vetting out and getting the people to interview who at least have the best chance to stick around long-term.  35% of our small and young company have been with us 5 years or longer.  We are 14 years old and have 35 employees on the pay-roll.  We also have the first ever employee, Denny Baumgart and our first customer, Childress Klein Properties.

As you know if have ever tried to hire anyone, let alone a skilled craftsman, it is a laborious effort.  As you are interviewing, multiple times with multiple different people within your tribe, real life keeps going.  So after three rounds and three different groups of us interviewing, we narrow down or list, as that list gets narrowed, we ouch into the relationship with a ride along session with team leaders, work with our production team, etc...

If all of that goes well, then we get to make an offer and see if we can come to terms on finances and benefits.  We are not a unionized shop, so we actually get to negate the person skills value, versus there positional pay, way better in my mind .... Kind of like our customers do us!

Well, this past Friday we came to an agreement with such a gentleman, we are excited by the prospects of him coming, his opportunities to understand us, our ways and most importantly, how strongly we feel that Excellent Customer Service and Care are the cornerstone of AirTight.

Wish us well in our new relationship, we will be learning each other, coaching, mentoring, guiding and everything humanly possible to allow this to flow as it should.

Next up .... Start looking and being open to the next great soul that comes along and wants to take the ride with us.

Is that you?

Establishing a Leadership Team from Within

Many companies get to a point where you have to have some lieutenants to help forward the mission.  So you corral your top talent, real stars who get it, care about the mission and yet, have been taught little, if any, leadership skills.  Maybe a couple of them served our great country through one of the armed forces, maybe one was the captain of the football team or the majorette in charge of the drill team in college.  But overall, we all grow up, refrain, most of us grow up having to learn leadership from in front of the keyboard, becoming a student teacher, which from what I gather is like the band scene in the movie “Roadhouse” where the crowd was throwing stuff at the band  or peering out of the windshield of a service vehicle.

First step, get your core together and ask them what is it they want from a leadership position?  Most of the front line assassins simply do not know.  It isn’t that they do not want to help, it is simply that many people do not know what leadership looks like, sounds like or moreover, feels like to be sure.  Once you get them circled up, it does get easier, for me, we start simple and depending on your group, ours are mid-thirties with a wife/husband and two kids on average.  The amount of time that they can spend on personal development can be impaired fairly significantly until the kids are of a functional age and that the spouse of said employee or team member realizes that the effort by their partner may well indeed pay off later in life.  Learn how to deal with the DIMK’s (Dual Income Multiple Kid’s) group, they make up our future and current leaders.

As a male, I can attest to the fact that we on average do not mentally mature until we are in our mid thirties or at least 74.5% of us.  That isn’t a bad thing, it just is, deal with it, pace yourself, your expectations and work through it.  As a male doing what I can to serve the female members of our team, they do get it much faster, they also tend to have many more responsibilities than their hairier spouses, it all will come in time.  Just keep the faith, keep the energy flowing and work on your on expectations as to what you can expect from this next generation of EXCELLENT leaders you are shepherding.

Parting thought, Do Not Not Do This, It Is Important, We all need the next generation to be strong, keep the faith even on those days when you feel that ... whatever feeling.  

 

Dig In!

The Success Interviews: Part One

About a year ago I started to spend a great deal of time studying the people that were in or are in my life that I think are successful. Not them thinking so and telling me, but my own view and ideas about their success.

Interviewee number one is a dear friend, about 70 years old, I am 48 just for the record, and is once retired from the wonderful world of Mechanical Service Contracting, an industry that I work in as well.

Jim sold his company to a larger entity as part of a roll-up they were doing in his area, that being Connecticut. He and his wife worked many years to build it into the success that it was, he sold it and walked away.

The irony is he had several children, who although adults at the time of the sale, wanted no part of the family business ... Now, two of the three kids own their on Mechanical Service Contracting firm, Go Figure!

Jim now works part time for one of the kids and keeps himself occupied and stirring the pot.

We have spent a great deal of time together, we usually end up talking about our mutual chosen professions, to that point, he was one of the first people that popped into my head when I started thinking about this series of interviews I wanted to conduct.

This exchange occurred via e-mail, but knowing him as I do, I could literally hear his voice as I was reading his words.

The initial question to Jim, as to all that you will read about in this series was:

What are the three big things that you attribute to the success you have had?

His answers were:

There are several reasons I attribute to the success of my company. You can pick and choose the three but I feel they are all important.

Ø Surround yourself with talented people and then let them do their job.

Ø Be honest with your employees and customers. Integrity is most important.

Ø Your work ethic should lead the way. You must be the leader. Employees will follow.

Ø Treat employees with respect. Care about them and their family.

Ø Build long term relationships with customers.

Ø Constant communication with your existing customers

Ø Being able to recognize trends in the economy. React before it happens.

Ø Success happens with a certain amount of luck. I took advantage when it happened.

Ø found out that when I first started my business I was the most important person. After I hired employees they were the most important. We are nothing without them.

Ø Share the wealth!

Greg I hope this helps in your project. This certainly was the ingredients for my success. There are many more but you’ll have to wait until my book comes out!

As I reads this response, it is verbatim, I couldn't help think that Jim had lived up to the quote on the embedded picture and quote of Albert Einstein above. Jim is a class act and a gentleman for sharing his words with me, I hope you can take something from them and apply to your world as they make sense.

Greg