BUILDING THE PERFECT SUPERVISOR PART 4

Last time we listed our top three traits of a perfect supervisor. Now it becomes a bit more difficult to rank the traits but here is our list. 

NUMBER 4---GOOD COMMUNICATOR--With today's wide different age groups in the work place, someone who can communicate effectively to a 20 year old and then be able to do the same with a 60 year old, is priceless. Most all of us have difficulty meeting that challenge. 

Along with being able to communicate with different generations comes the challenge of being able to communicate in different languages, especially Spanish. All I was effectively able to master was si and cervasa which meant I could say yes to a beer and that is not one that should be used in the workplace. 

NUMBER 5---SELF STARTER---This may be one that should be higher on the list but I thought the others important to consider first. That could be open to debate. 

A perfect supervisor should not have to be told when to start or finish his or her day. They should know that if they are doing their job. They come in knowing what has to be done and they don't leave until the business in their area has been accomplished for the day.  

NUMBER 6---GOOD COMPUTER SKILLS---In today's business environment having at least a basic knowledge of computers and how their position uses them is critical. Being able to read and react to budgets for their accounts is critical along with being able to ask and respond to various situations that arise and have to be addressed. 

Okay, there you have my 1 through 6. Agree? Disagree? Please note that not one of these talks about having technical skills such as stripping and recoating tile or shampooing a carpet etc. That should be a given when they get to this level in the organization plus distributors can teach them as needed. Your distributor should play a major role in the success of a perfect supervisor.

At the risk of getting too long winded I am going to stop here and ask you to build your perfect supervisor. Let me know your list of the PERFECT SUPERVISOR.  

Till next time.

 

BUILDING THE PERFECT SUPERVISOR PART 3

Continuing on with our project of naming the traits of a perfect supervisor let me list what I consider to be the top 3 traits of a perfect supervisor,

NUMBER 1---HONESTY---It is my belief that if the supervisor isn't honest, all of the rest of the traits really don't matter. Agree?

A few years ago I was doing this exercise with a group at a conference and we were filling up several pages and hanging them on the wall when an elderly gentleman stood up in the back of the room and said that we had missed the most important trait, that being honesty. He said that if he couldn't trust someone to be honest in all their dealings representing his company, the rest of the traits didn't matter. Pretty profound isn't it? He was absolutely correct and honesty heads my list above all other traits. The rest of the traits are important and critical but none equal honesty. 

NUMBER 2---AGREES WITH AND SUPPORTS THE COMPANY CULTURE---It is important that the whole team is on board with the culture of the company and presents a united front to employees and customers at all times. You know your company culture and if a supervisor cannot endorse that culture, whatever it may be, that supervisor should not be in the company. We are assuming here that every company is an honest, upstanding, corporate citizen that believes in doing the right thing in all business dealings with customers and employees. 

NUMBER 3----TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS----We seem to live in a society where everyone blames someone else when something goes wrong. A good supervisor will admit when they make a mistake  and take corrective action to learn how not to make that mistake again. 

So...as a starter there are my top 3 traits of a perfect supervisor. What are yours? Did you notice that not one of the top traits addresses how to clean a building from a technical standpoint? My philosophy is that we can teach the technical skills of the industry but the 3 traits I mention above, while teachable, need to pretty much be ingrained in the individual before they can be considered for a supervisory position. 

Next time we'll address several more traits of a perfect supervisor which in most cases are hard to put in a definite order but are crucial to being successful as a supervisor. 

I welcome your comments on our top three. Let me know if your top 3 differ and why. 

Till next time.

BUILDING THE PERFECT SUPERVISOR PART 2

As a follow up to our last blog regarding building the perfect supervisor I hope you have taken the time to make your list so as to compare with the list that our workshop participants have developed. 

So, here is the list they developed and at this point in no particular order. Remember we asked you to list your top ten. In this session I will list only the traits and in blogs to follow I will provide some commentary on each of them.

HONESTY

SELF STARTER

TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS

GOOD COMMUNICATOR

SAFETY CONSCIOUS

ABLE TO MAKE QUICK DECISIONS

ABLE TO MEET DEADLINES

EXCELLENT TRAINER

AGREES WITH AND SUPPORTS THE COMPANY CULTURE

KNOW ALL TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE JOB

HAS A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF MATH

HAS THE NECESSARY COMPUTER SKILLS 

How does this list compare with yours? Have you made a list? As I said in an earlier blog the list the group created was between 25 and 30 but in the interest of space and time I have tried to pare it down to avoid some traits listed that may fit into those shown above. 

In our next writing I will attempt to put them in some sort of order of importance but we will discuss, without question, THE NUMBER ONE TRAIT OF A PERFECT SUPERVISOR. 

So join us next time and see if your agree. Also, let me know some of additional traits you think should be on this list. 

BUILDING THE PERFECT SUPERVISOR

BUILDING THE PERFECT SUPERVISOR

If you are a BSC owner you have probably, at one time or another, wished you could find the perfect person to supervise the important people we have performing the valuable service we provide our customers and if you are a supervisor you may wonder why can't the company find more dedicated people like me.

Let me ask you, have you really defined what you would consider is the perfect supervisor? If you could build one, what traits would that supervisor have that would relieve you of the headaches you now have every day?

Whenever I have done a supervisor's workshop or seminar one of the first exercises we have all the participants do is define what they consider to be the traits of a perfect supervisor. We ask them to build a perfect supervisor, if you will. It turns out to be a great exercise because it gets everyone thinking and involved. Let me suggest this as a topic for the next supervisor get together in your company. It's fun and most often really generates some great discussion. 

In our workshops we will usually generate about 25 or 30 different traits that our attendees consider to be the most important. We tape them up on the wall so everyone can see them and discuss why they feel they are important or offer their opinion as to why it doesn't need to be on the list. 

Then, after we have developed a quality list, we pare it down to the top 10 traits needed and eventually we try to come up with the number one trait. 

Let me strongly encourage you to do this exercise in your company, list all the traits as you see them, then get your top 10 and finally the one most important one. Then do an honest appraisal to see if these are the traits your supervisors have, or if you are a current supervisor, how many of the traits you have. Need to work hard to develop any of them?

So there is your assignment. In our next blog posting I will outline the most popular ones that have been developed by the various groups we have had involved in our workshops. We'll even give you the one that most often is rated the NUMBER 1 TRAIT OF A QUALITY SUPERVISOR.

Till next time and enjoy the exercise.

 

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS SHOULD NOT STAY IN VEGAS

All of us have heard the commercial that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Well, in a few weeks we'll be able to dispel that myth and take home ideas from what happens in Vegas. Ideas that absolutely should not stay in Vegas.

During the week of September 11-15, the ISSA/INTERCLEAN convention AND BSCAI CONTRACTING SUCCESS CONFERENCE will be held in Vegas and with it comes the opportunity to learn an enormous amount that we can take home and implement in our businesses. 

The ISSA/INTERCLEAN show brings together about 16,000 industry professionals to see what's new (and old) in the cleaning and related services industry while visiting with professionals at approximately 700 booths from the United States and many foreign countries. The trade show is held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, September 12-14. Along with the show there are planned many learning sessions to gain even more knowledge in the industry that we have chosen as our profession.

Later in the week BSCAI hosts their Contracting Success Conference on the 13th through the 15th at both the Convention center and the Bellagio hotel. Again, gaining education is the focus of these 3 days. You will note also that it has been renamed the Contracting Success Conference in an effort to more clearly identify the purpose of the event and the association.

In addition to the educational sessions being held, on Thursday and Friday, the 14th and 15th, BSCAI will also have about 35 vendors hosting table top displays inviting a more personal one on one opportunity to discuss your needs and how the vendors can help you with those needs. 

We are happy to report that Consultants In Cleaning, LLC will be one of those vendors at the Bellagio. We are really excited to have the opportunity to demonstrate our COMPLETELY NEW 6 DVD BOX SET, BSC sales training sessions hosted by Dick Ollek, CBSE, RGC, a former BSC with nearly 55 years in the industry. These BSC industry specific DVD's are each about an hour long and cover the topics of determining who your prospects should be to getting in the door to preparing the proposal and service agreement to making the presentation and closing the sale. Dick will also teach you what to say when the prospect says no. 

In addition, our NEW 12 SESSION, 6 DVD BOX SET, industry specific training sessions entitled "The BSC's Guide to Effective Supervision" will be on display for your review. Providing your supervisors this training will give you the confidence that you can handle the new business your sales people will bring on after completing their training.

You can get a glance at the topics of both these new offerings by going to our web site at www.consultantsincleaning.com.

So...think about it, 3 days of trade show excitement with 700 booths AND a wealth of educational sessions at the convention center and 3 days of BSC specific contracting success sessions presented by BSCAI. What happens the week of September 11-15 should NOT stay in Vegas. You can learn more about both of these events by going to the following web sites,

www.issa.com

www.bscai.org

Look forward to seeing you there.

 

 

BUSINESS IS GOOD, NO BAD, WHICH IS IT?

If I asked you how business has been so far this year, what would your answer be? Good, bad, lousy, terrific?

Over the past 30 days I have kept track of the answers I received when asking that question. Right now the good is 52% and the bad is 44% and so so comes in at 4%. 

I started this little survey because of a story I heard Zig Ziglar tell about when he addressed the Michigan realtors association in Detroit several years ago. During the first break he asked a gentleman standing next to him how his business was. The response was "terrible, just terrible, you know General Motors is on strike an no one is buying a house while their company is on strike. Zig goes on to say he wished he had never asked the question because the gentleman just wouldn't stop talking about how bad things were. Zig said he was never going to ask that question again. 

Well, another break comes and he forgets himself and asks a little lady standing next to him, who he later learned had spent a lifetime in the real estate business, how business was.  Her answer was "Well, you know that General Motors is on strike", and Zig is thinking here we go again. 

The lady then says that with GM on strike, people have plenty of time to look for the exact home they want. They can spend all day looking. She proceeded to tell him that we all know that GM employees will return to work at some point and then they can sign their contract for a new home. 

Zig says the lady then asked him if he had any connections to make the strike go longer because she would like to take advantage of the time people have for looking at homes just a bit longer.

What a contrast. Two people in the same market with totally different perspectives on how business is. One sees a temporary obstacle as a negative, the other sees it as a positive.

So, what about you? Which one of these business people are you? Remember that old phrase, "If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right". 

Two thirds of the year is still left for us to accomplish our 2017 goals. Let's make sure we are approaching the remaining time with a positive, can do attitude. It's your future, you know. Remember we have a lot of resources to assist you in reaching those goals. Just click on www.consultantsincleaning.com. 

 Till next time. 

ANY PLANS FOR THE SUMMER?

As summer approaches, and the children out of school, many people are planning their summer vacations and other events. It's the thing we do, right?

 

Well, how about planning an employee event for them and their families. It can be so much fun and it gives you the chance to interact with the employees and their families and visa versa. Here are some the things we did that gave me the opportunity to see many of the people we impacted doing the course of their employment with us, 

 

Hired a face painter for the children as they arrived.

Hired a magician to put on 2 or 3 shows during the day.

Hired a clown to be with us most of the day to make animal balloons etc . for the kids. 

Rented a ball pit similar to the ones at McDonald's playland locations. 

 

You probably noticed that each of the items above say hired or rented. That doesn't mean we did them all each year. Usually one each year. We had several branches and the managers were each given a budget and then could arrange the function as they wanted to. 

 

We found in every city where we operated there were amateurs that were very capable and willing to do the clown, face painting, and magician parts for a very small fee. I found many times that for the magician acts the adults were seated in the front row being children all over again.

 

We did them on a Saturday so more people could attend and always away from the office, usually in a park where we could rent a picnic area etc. 

 

Our policy was to provide all food such as hamburgers or hot dogs or ethnic food where we had a majority of different ethnic staff. I learned to eat and like foods from other countries, especially when prepared by the people from those countries. After the first year, in almost every location, our employees started preparing their favorite dish that was not American and wow, what great cooks we had. Each year we seemed to get more dishes. In fact they started asking if it was okay if they prepared their favorite dish. I loved it (and the food).

 

In addition, we always had some sort of small giveaway to the children and employees that marked the event. For example on our 25th anniversary all employees received mugs highlighting the anniversary. 

 

We also found it effective to present anniversary awards to our employees with 1, 5, 10 years of service etc. It really helps to create a more positive feeling toward the company when their family sees them getting an award for years of service. 

 

I could go on and on with details but the purpose of this blog is to encourage you to consider an employee day event. It really helped to create better attitudes toward our company but maybe just as importantly it helped me to get a better understanding of the great people we had working hard to satisfy our customers. 

 

Try it you'll like it. If you have any questions just go to our web site at www.consultantsincleaning.com and send us a message and we'll get right back to you and discuss in greater detail this employee bonding event.

 

Till next time.