In the Air - HRAI Industry News

Back in November, I wrote about how figuring out your company’s hedgehog concept is crucial to finding the focus you need to be successful and finding the right employees. Now that we have zeroed in on that thing that you are passionate about, you can do better than anyone else, and that you can do profitably, we will turn our attention to empowering your people and getting out of your own way.  

During my time in the HVAC industry, I have noticed that most small-to-medium contractor companies are owned and operated by one of three archetypal personalities. 1) someone who was born into the business (one of my ClimateCare members described this as “being born with a flashlight in his hand”); 2) someone who fell into HVAC, started working for someone else and decided that he could go off on his own and do a better job (only to discover that it is harder than it looks); and finally the wife of guy #1 or guy #2 (our spousal co-owners describe this as “my husband lied to me and said it would be fun to work together”). 

The challenge that these folks run into is that when they start out, they are usually doing everything in the business. The stuff they like to do, fixing and installing stuff, gets their attention, and the stuff they don’t like to do, paperwork, administration, and HR, gets done begrudgingly. In time the business grows, and people are hired to do the stuff that the owner likes to do and the stuff he doesn’t like to do. And now we have a problem. The visionary owner of the company gets bored. It doesn’t come across that way to the people who work for him. To them, he seems to be involved in everything, micromanaging them and unhappy. They can’t figure out why he’s hired them if he can do everything better than they can and is always interfering with their jobs. His people develop a habit of seeking his approval before doing anything for fear of being reprimanded, and he can’t understand why they don’t know what they are supposed to do. How does he get out of this morass? 

The first step is to wipe the slate clean and chart out what the roles in the company actually are. Starting with the top and working down, he needs to develop what Gino Wickman in Traction calls an Accountability Chart. Each role in the company needs to be defined according to its function and what responsibilities (or accountabilities) it holds. Once it is mapped out, he needs to figure out if he’s got the right people in each of those seats. Then, with the right people in the right seats, he needs to give them the training they need to own the accountability for the role. And finally, he needs to hold them accountable for the results and get out of their hair. 

It all sounds so simple on paper. Why do so many fail to put it into practice? Because doing what he’s done has gotten him to where he is, and he’s terrified to change anything because the whole thing could collapse in a heap. So really, there is a pre-first step… first, you need to take a hard look at your current reality and decide if you want something better. 

Are you ready to have more fun and make more money? Are you interested in learning more about how ClimateCare members are developing their accountability charts and creating better workplaces for themselves and their people? Please check out our website at https://www.climatecare.com/become-a-member/ and connect with me at vhyman@climatecare.com