Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 262. Transitioning from Technician to Management

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Episode 262. Transitioning from Technician to Management · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker: I've talked to quite a few technicians here, now they're getting into more leadership roles, so they're becoming either service managers or they're becoming service leads and that transition is difficult at first because you're used to out in the field doing work.
• 0:01
  So you're taking care of you. If you have any problems, you leave that problem back to the service manager. You leave that problem, bring that problem back to that leader that you're working with. And when you become a service manager, now you're working besides someone. So you got 10, 10 people on your team, and now you're leading those 10 people.
• 0:02
  You have to take a different approach. You, you're not the technician anymore. Because a lot of times I've seen it on, I've heard of it, and I've done a few podcasts with different directors and service managers about it, is that you gotta, you gotta think differently because now you're, people management over technical management, now you're going to help those technicians with some of the problems.
• 0:03
  A lot of the problems that people bring to the service managers, not even work related. It's outside of work, the frustrations and they bring it out. In there and they sometimes blame it on the customer or blame it on putting fires out. But to move into those roles. You got to think differently.
• 0:04
  You got to kind of act differently and you got to do different things. So you can't be that technician and all the time where you want to go out and try to fix everything because you have 10 technicians and you got to help them be able to do this stuff on their own. And it's a transition, but you can learn that stuff.
• 0:05
  You can take courses on that stuff to get better, to get into those positions. But trying to, if you always feel like you're putting fires out, that's being reactive. And so you got to think about why are we all being reactive? How can we work more as a team? How can we even, and I don't mean only the technician is like, maybe it's dispatch, maybe it's other parts of the company, like in the sales or project management, how can we have a better culture so that we don't always feel like we're putting out fires and sometimes this is a customer specific.
• 0:06
  Maybe they don't ever want to do maintenance and their equipment's old and it's always breaking down because it is old then maybe it's, you got to fire a customer. Maybe that's it to not feel like you're always putting fires out.
• 0:07
  There's always more customers out there. If you bring enough value, you're going to get more customers. I did a, the last couple of days, I've been doing talks on how to increase your income. As a technician the thing is, is that if you always feel like putting flyers out you're not getting ahead, it's going to be frustrating. It's going to feel overwhelming and it's going to feel difficult. So you got to figure out ways on how to become more proactive than, than this reactive. And I think it comes back to team and culture and understanding and working together.
• 0:08
  Cause a lot of the times it's, maybe it's going back and it's because it's callbacks or warranty calls. And that's why it continues to feel like you're putting fires out because maybe you don't have the right help. Maybe there's the people that are doing these calls that are not. They're not doing it right, but maybe they want to do it right, and they just don't know how, and they're scared to ask.
• 0:09
  So maybe you have to take the approach to ask them, and see how you can help them. And then some people are, it's going to seem like they don't want to help, but maybe you're not talking to them right, you're not You're not saying it in ways that affect them. Because I see it all the time, and I hear it more and more, is that all the younger people, they don't want to learn, they don't want to work, they don't want to this, and maybe that's true.
• 0:10
  But what are you doing differently than you did before? That's the question. Are you still doing the same thing you did for the last 10 or 20 years? And you're talking the same way to the people you did 10 or 20 years ago versus the people today? Or are you changing the way you, your approach? And then you look at your approach as well.
• 0:11
  Have I changed or am I just doing the same thing? Because maybe it's you that has to change the ways you do it. And it's not the way it was, it's been done before. The world has changed. The way people work has changed. The way people think has changed. So now, maybe it's the way you, you go, you approach it on, Training them or feeling like to, to make yourself and the team more proactive than reactive.
• 0:12
  And, and this is something that you got to think of. Maybe you have to pull someone in or hire, hire someone to come in and talk to the team to inspire them to want to do a little bit different. Maybe it's a different toolbox talk. Maybe it's having lunch with them once every two weeks, you know, or having breakfast with them, having them all in and you buy breakfast for them.
• 0:13
  And you have these conversations at that time where they're feeling comfortable, they're feeling confident, do something different. That is the thing, because I see a lot of people complaining about stuff and then I ask them, what have you done to change? And then they look at me and think, well, why do I have to change?
• 0:14
  I see this in their face. They don't say it. Why do I have to change? That's the question. When you start saying, why do I have to change? Where's the problem? Because, yes, I totally agree, maybe it's harder to get the newer people in the industry, and I, people keep saying the younger people, but it's not only the younger people, even older people, they're doing the same thing, lots, lots of people don't want to work, they want to drop their tools or drop what they're doing and just go home at a certain time, they want to do their 9 to 5 and that's it, so it's not only younger people, it's, I think it's the world in general, we've, it has changed, and have we changed?
• 0:15
  Right? And that, and that's the big thing. Gotta take a look at, take a look at what you're doing when you, when you see this, when you say that stuff. And if you say it over and over again, what do you have to do to change to Effect change in them. I talked to everybody in a different way. So when I'm having a conversation when I kind of try to understand where they are coming from. what they're thinking, what their thoughts are. And then, then I try to understand their point of view and then go from there.
• 0:16
  And then some people you'll be able to affect change over time. And then you'll see that, is it you changing or is it them changing? Because there was a good, really good podcast that I listened to, Zig Ziglar, he's passed away, he's a public speaker, but He, he told a story about one time he was doing an event, and this girl, this woman came up to him, and she, she was like Man, I do not like my work, nobody, they're all mean, and I don't like anything that's going on there, like I, I hate them, I hate them, I hate them, you know, And then he starts asking some questions, well, I hate my job.
• 0:17
  I hate my role and so he says like so tell me a little bit about your job. Do they pay you? Yes. Do you get holidays? They're like, yeah, I get holidays Do you get a pension? Yeah, I get a pension. Do you have an office? Oh, yeah, I got my own office and He goes on and asks these questions and there's like 20 some different things that, then he asked, do you like that you have an office?
• 0:18
  Oh, yeah, yeah. He's like, how long do you live from work? Like a 10 minute drive. And there was like 20 some things that she likes. So what do you don't like about it? And there was like, maybe. Four or five things, but she was focused on those four or five things and she hated her job and nobody liked her and they're always mean to her and it's and all this stuff.
• 0:19
  And then so he says go home and do some affirmation. And really what's that is, is going to mirror and say, I love my job. I love my job. I love that. I get paid. I love that. I got my own office. I love that. And it goes on that. I only live 10 minutes away. I love that they send me on trips and all this stuff. Three or six months later, she came back to another, another conference of his and she was like she goes to him and you'll never guess I love where I work, work and they all changed, you know what I mean? But no, they, they didn't change. It was really that she, she has changed.
• 0:20
  She thought about stuff differently. And and that, that really stuck with me because I'm thinking, yeah, you can change it. It's up to you if you want to make that, that change. And this is the same thing when you're working with new people is how do we, we change to affect the changes that maybe we need in our business and in our personal life.
• 0:21
  So that's what I'm going to finish with. Let's get a conversation going, everyone. See ya.