Inspiring and Supporting Your Management Team

CHRIS KOCH
BDR Head Coach & Trainer

Managers have a tough role. They must be leaders as they carry the company’s vision to their teams. They must also be tactical and process-driven and know what to measure and track. All while using critical thinking skills to make decisions that can impact a department as well as the entire company. Owners play an integral role in the success of the manager. Providing ongoing inspiration and open/transparent communication will demonstrate your support and belief in them.

It can be difficult to balance the team’s needs with initiatives from owners/senior leaders. Providing clear expectations, such as sales, accessory, and maintenance goals, will inspire your management team and fuel their motivation to pursue these specific targets. This motivation has a rippling effect on their team members, who also want to achieve success. 

Managers (and their team members) must know you, as an owner, support them.

This means:

• Trusting them to make decisions
  • Knowing they put thought into the decision and will be accountable for the outcome.
  • If you do not agree with the decision, have a one-on-one discussion to reflect on the result and establish criteria for making decisions based on how it fits best within the organization. Do not become upset publicly or in front of team members.
  • Praise publicly and coach privately.
• As their experience level and your trust level increase, allow them to make bigger decisions without seeking your input and approval
  • In the beginning, you may want them to “bounce ideas” off you before deciding.
  • Some decisions, such as terminating an employee or adding headcount, may always require your input or discussion before being made.
• Give them guidelines to work within as part of their job description
  • People function better and are less afraid to make decisions when they know their boundaries.
    • Examples of boundaries include budgetary (e.g., tool or training budgets) and number of hours spent (e.g., downtime, training time).
• Supporting your management team also means holding them accountable and expecting them to do the same with their team
  • Set clear, specific initiatives for team members.
  • Goals are set, and attempts to achieve them are expected.
    • Encourage team members to ask questions or for help when needed.
  • Accountability may be uncomfortable for some because many organizations don’t practice it regularly. This is not intended to be threatening but as a tool to ensure the team stays on task.

Managers will be inspired to follow you and rally behind your mission if you show you care about them.

• Be a cheerleader and encourage your managers to do the same for their team.
• Earn their trust.
  • If someone shares something with you in confidence – keep it that way.
  • Be an active listener and deliver on promises you make.
  • Sometimes, this means admitting your own flaws and concerns.
• During Profit Launch, bring your management team along and set goals that stretch their skills to help them grow in their roles and as people.
• Celebrate the wins along the way!

Support and inspiration come down to building up our teams, giving them respect and tools, and holding them accountable for achieving company goals. To quote Henry Ford: “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

To learn more about how you can set your managers up for success, check out BDR’s workshop, Creating the Next Generation of Company Managers.

About the Author

Chris Koch brings 25 years of HVAC industry experience to BDR’s business coaching clientele. While Chris has focused primarily on the commercial service arena, he has a significant amount of residential HVAC and plumbing experience, including “mixed-use buildings” that blend commercial and residential markets. He has gained experience across a spectrum of operational-level service, installation, and sales roles, which were the springboard for his success across a spectrum of management roles. He has executed a start-up as a business owner and gained invaluable work experience at five different companies, completed two acquisitions, assimilated cultures, executed financial turnarounds, and developed divisions into significant profit centers.