4 Must’s of Effective Leadership

by amandascale | Sep 25, 2020 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

4 Must’s of Effective Leadership

isIn that last couple of decades, neuroscientists have shown that one of the most important aspects of effective leadership is emotional intelligence. A well-known leader in this research is author Daniel Goleman. Goleman states that one of the most important roles of a leader is helping employees engage in their work, ultimately leading to a satisfying work life balance. A key to unlocking that engagement is emotional intelligence.

Although leadership typically focuses on external pieces; such as employees or the direction of the organization, we first need to focus on ourselves, the leaders. In his book “Primal Leadership”, Goleman discusses the importance of leading your followers with emotional intelligence. Whether we like it or not, there is a direct correlation between the leader’s mood, employee’s moods, and performance. Below are 4 key pieces to effective leadership utilizing emotional intelligence:

1)Know Yourself

As a good leader, your employees will mirror your moods, work ethic, and even decision making. This means that the most important piece of being a good leader is being aware of yourself and your mood. If you, the leader, are upset and communicating poorly, what impact will that have on your employees?

Goleman mentions three things we can do to make sure our mood isn’t negatively impacting our followers.

1.Self-Awareness: What mood are we in? Why are we in this mood?
2.Pausing/Reflecting: What impact does this have on others? Is it beneficial or harmful?
3.Adjust: What mood do we need to be in to lead effectively? How do we adjust?

Though these sound simple and straight forward, building self-awareness into your everyday life will help with more than just building strong work environment.

2)Know Your Employees

Once you’ve got a hold of your own emotions, we can start looking out towards our employees. Think of morale, motivation, and optimism as three good measures for productive employees. Outside of work, how do you make people close to you feel like you understand them? An MIT article mentions 3 ways to help people feel understood:

1.Questions: Asking employees how they feel or what their thoughts are on certain topics is the best place to start.
2.Active Listening: Active listening is the idea of repeating what others say to you without inputting your own ideas to make them feel heard. Disregard your personal opinions at first to make sure you’re really understanding how they feel.
3.Perspective: It is important to understand where your employees are coming from in their perspective, not yours as the foreman, manager, or even owner. This will help you work towards a solution much more efficiently.

3)Know Your Organization

Organizations are constantly shifting, often times based on the needs and preferences of their employees. An effective leader should be able to adapt to the culture of the organization as it grows. One important distinction is understanding that there may be different cultures in different departments, each requiring a different style of leadership. I’d challenge you to assess your company culture as a whole, at a department level, and potentially at the level of each crew. This should help identify who your core leaders are, and what type of leadership they need to utilize in each role. Below are some questions to help you get started:

1.What is the organization most known for?
2.What is the organization best at?
3.Where is the organization headed?
4.Who is in charge of getting it there?

If you need help addressing culture concerns, take ArboRisk’s culture assessment! This assessment can give you a baseline for where your culture is at and you will receive a FREE one page summary of your results!

4)Create a Vision

Effective leadership, and effective organizations for that matter, all require leaders and their employees to work towards a common vision. A clear vision. It is the leader’s responsibility to ensure everyone has a positive outlook on the organization’s vision, creating a positive work environment. The leader should be able to understand bottlenecks arising out of working towards the vision, listen to the employee concerns, and come up with creative ways to work around those issues ultimately keeping the organization on track. This is usually done with the following:

1.Delegating: This is where creativity can come in. Who is best at specific tasks? Who enjoys specific tasks to ensure they’ll be done proficiently?
2.Goal Setting: Visions are long term, goals are short term items that help work towards completing the vision. How can you utilize goals to help motivate your crews?
3.Coaching: “Success is in the journey, not the destination.” Utilize working towards the vision as a way to help your crews grow and learn.

The organization has its goal, but so does each employee. Most people want growth, some want money, others want education. Learn what drives your employees and build that into your overarching goal.

How important are leaders within your organization as it stands? I’d argue leaders are the engines that drive an organization towards its future goals.
A strong company recognizes the need for effective leadership within their organization and utilizes leadership to motivate employees to work harder, smarter, and more efficiently. I’d encourage you to check out some of Daniel Goleman’s work, but there are plenty of resources discussing effective leadership on YouTube as well. This process will hopefully help not only with achieving your company vision, but building a strong company culture along the way. Feel free to reach out with any questions!

Sources:
https://hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/leading/articles/basics#forms
Primal Leadership, Written by Daniel Goleman

Written by: Malcolm Jeffris, CTSP

Supervisor, Manager, Director?

by | Aug 17, 2020 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Supervisor, Manager, Director? Leadership your tree care company

As your business expands from one to four, to fifty employees there is a need to establish some layers of responsibility amongst your leadership team. Its best to clarify these layers with job descriptions. The terms supervisor, manager and director are common titles, but what are the differences between the three?

If you are not sure, don’t be embarrassed. There are a lot of similarities but each has a clear definition and knowing the difference is vital if you’re planning on hiring someone to oversee a crew or department.

Supervisor
The title of “supervisor” is often one of the first managerial positions within a company hierarchy. Often supervisors are promoted from within, rather than hired from outside. He or she is typically a high-performer who has been with the company long enough to be intimately familiar with both the company policies and the quality of work expected from the rest of the team.

Supervisors generally oversee a group of people in similar jobs, who are doing similar work. Their role is assigning work and keeping employees on track. Supervisors usually plan work daily to meet project objects and deadlines provided to them by a manager. Supervisors are often hands on and assist with training new employees.

Manager
Managers manage resources — whether financial, material, or personnel. Managers have decision-making capabilities regarding those resources. They determine what equipment and materials to purchase, establish project deadlines and who and when to hire and fire employees.

Because the responsibilities are greater, managers need to have more insight into the broader operations. They make sure work is performed within the policies and procedures of the company. A manager allocates resources to meet company goals. Depending on the size of the company, a manager may oversee employees directly, or oversee a team of supervisors.

Management positions require additional experience and often education and training. In most organizations, a manager is tasked with day-to-day concerns. For example, a manager may be more involved in overseeing employees and supervising the implementation of team or company-wide initiatives. The manager is the one with a hand on the wheel, keeping everyone on the right course. Managers are expected to encourage, mentor, discipline and evaluate employees on a frequent basis.

The planning horizon for managers is typically one week to a year.

Director
A director is a manager of managers. A director is focused on implementation of company-wide initiatives. This position is tasked with formulating what will be next on the company or division’s agenda. Rather than having a hand on the wheel, the director is charting the course to come, before delivering instructions for managers to carry out. Directors formulate a vision of what success will look like.

A director is responsible for examining and evaluating the organization’s process. Where are the shortfalls? Where are the bottlenecks? Where is the system working and where is it failing? The director is tasked with solving these challenges. Directors are responsible for long term planning. The horizon is typically one to three years out.

For the small tree care company owner, you may be all three, however, the key for you is to understand you are responsible for both day to day and long-term planning. Make sure you take time to look to the future. Planning to hire the right people to take over the role of supervisor and manager will ultimately free up your time to do director level work, which is the key to successfully growing your company and profits.

If you want your company’s leaders (managers, crew leads, etc.) to grow professional and truly become extraordinary, check out ArboRisk’s Thrive Leadership Development Package! Our experts will work with your leaders one-on-one to build their leadership skills, thereby increasing team loyalty, efficiency, and profitability.

Written by: Jim Skiera

Effective Sales Training for Tree Care Companies

by | Jun 29, 2020 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Effective Sales Training for Tree Care Companies

A strong, knowledgeable sales team is one of the most important tools to help tree care companies stay ahead of the game. Improving your sales team and selling more effectively is a significant key to your company’s growth.

While you may say that estimating and sales are the same job, they are not. Estimating is looking at the job and computing how much the tree removal, pruning, PHC, and etc. should be. Sales is finalizing the sale, getting the customer to say yes to the treatment, pruning or removal plan because the ultimate goal is enticing the customer to say yes!

A well-trained salesperson can easily influence a potential customer. With the right negotiation tactics along with arboricultural knowledge, pricing and presentation, the salesperson is ready to go and this can make all the difference. Hence, sales training is a critical factor in the world of sales. Here are five reasons why you should invest in a good sales training program:

Customer loyalty: Sales training improves the person-to-person connection which is required to gain loyal customers. According to a recent study, 71% of people base their buying decisions on trust and credibility. It is crucial that salespeople thoroughly understand their customers’ wants and needs and at the same time efficiently communicate the benefits of the services your company offers. Therefore, focus on sales training that will enable your staff to have better interaction with customers.

Improved Communication: Salespeople must make sure that customers understand the services offered. This is mainly possible through effective communication skills. Excellent communicators with fantastic people skills are an asset to any organization.

Brand Image: Salespeople are the face of every company. Being the face of your company, what the salesperson says, and how they say and do certain things create an impression in the mind of the customer. Good sales training will teach sales professionals about behavioral and attitudinal changes to leave a long-lasting impression on the minds of the customer and build a better brand for your company. Make sure your salespeople understand and reflect your company’s core values.

Overcoming objections: We must not forget that sales involve objections. Sales training can teach salespeople how to anticipate objections as well as techniques for overcoming them.
Up-selling: Good sales training can teach the salesperson when to recognize and recommend additional services for the customer.

In your company, you may have an excellent estimator. That person may be spot on – including everything in your estimate that you must get paid for, but that person cannot sell a pair of shoes to a barefoot person. On the other hand, you may have a salesperson that is fabulous – they can sell four pairs of shoes to a person with a hundred pairs of shoes, but they cannot estimate properly – forgetting to add in clean up or stump grinding, etc. Reinvent the wheel! Make those two people a team. It takes talent for both selling and estimating, and the goal is to GET THE JOB! Never forget that sales is an integral part of your team. Without a good sales person, you do not have a team.

Keep in mind that salespeople are a direct reflection of your company. Good sales training is vital to the success of your sales team. Your salespersons must be skilled in both industry knowledge and people skills. It is important for them to be authentic in establishing credibility. This will help them gain relevant information about the buyer’s objectives, provide a useful proposal, and, hopefully, create customer loyalty.

There are general sales training opportunities out there such as Dale Carnegie, but ArboRisk has a light training opportunity with the ArboRisk Thrive Program which is geared more for the arborist. In the future, Streamside Green/Victorian Gardens will be offering in-depth sales and estimating webinars geared for the Arborist. The training will be separate webinars, one on sales and a separate webinar on estimating. Click here to receive email updates on upcoming Streamside Green/Victorian Gardens webinars for arborists.

Written by: Margaret Hebert

Written by: Dawn Thierbach

Tips to Maximize Online Learning

by | May 11, 2020 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Tips to MAximize Online Learning

In this time of Social Distancing, you may be contemplating how to obtain your CEUs. There are many organizations offering Webinar training. Your ISA Chapters, green industry associations, and other training companies are offering classes online.
Webinars are a great way to educate yourself and earn CEUs.

They are usually done with a power point and a chatroom for you to ask questions. There is an instructor that you listen to but do not see. Usually the attendees are muted so as not to interrupt the speaker and disrupt the flow of the webinar. These classes usually are finished in one to two hours.

Meetings, as compared to Webinars, are much more interactive. The instructor has a Power Point presentation and you can see the instructor also. These presentations usually last three to five hours. The attendees are muted, but at certain points in the presentation, the attendees can either ask questions through typing them in the chat room, or unmute their microphone to verbally ask questions. This type of learning is more interactive and social – you are attending with your industry peers and can see all the attendees.

There are benefits to online training: you are in your own home or office setting, you can get a drink when needed, you can stretch your legs by walking around and, the best, you can even attend the workshop in your PJs if you want to. Other benefits include being able to select from a wide range of topics, not having to travel, getting to interact with arborists around the country, and reduced cost since the presenters aren’t having to travel, either!
Here are some rules for being courteous when attending an online meeting:

1)Show up on time. You may not disrupt the presentation by logging in late, but you may miss important information.

2)Keep your microphone muted unless asking a question. In most formats, the person running the meeting has the control to mute all mics and will do so since even the slightest background noise causes significant distraction.

3)Turn off your webcam during the presentation. Nothing is more likely to illicit giggles than to have the presenter turn off their PowerPoint presentation and the software defaults to someone watching (or worse – not watching), unaware that his or her webcam running.

4)Wait your turn. In a live setting, you can see who has a question or when a presenter is ready for an interruption. In webinar, especially when not everyone is on webcam, you may need to rely on cues such as hand-raising icons or questions posted in chats. Some presenters will let you know that there will be breaks for questions.

5)Ask questions concisely. Webinars are focused; be sure your questions are, too. Avoid wasting time in lengthy introductions, and don’t self-promote or spend a lot of time sharing your opinion before asking a question. If you have comments, ask yourself if they will help others before commenting.

6)Don’t use the chat room as your personal water cooler. Just like you would not stand in the back of the room gossiping with someone while a presenter was lecturing, refrain from using the chat room just to socialize.

Even after social distancing restrictions are lifted, online webinars and meetings will continue to be an excellent and affordable way for arborists to learn and to earn CEUs. Check out StreamsideGreen.com for upcoming online training opportunities through a partnership with Victorian Gardens, ArboRisk, and Bandit.

Written by: Margaret Hebert

Written by: Dawn Thierbach

Cash Flow Tips for your Work Comp Policy

by | May 4, 2020 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Cash Flow Tips for Your Work Comp Policy

Even though the majority of states have recognized arboriculture as an essential service, an obvious concern as to what the future of our economy will look like is growing. According to some of the roundtable discussions mentioned in the TCIA monthly magazine, along with numerous conversations with our clients, we have heard that many tree services are starting to catch up on their work backlogs and have started to experience a decrease in new business calls.

With a decrease in workload, particularly for tree services focused on residential work, managing your cash flow can be a make or break proposition during tough times. Every dollar in and every dollar out should be analyzed. One way to improve cash flow is by really focusing on your worker’s compensation policy.

As most of you know, worker’s compensation companies ask for an estimate of how much payroll you think your company will have throughout the policy period and multiply that estimate by the rate. At the end of the policy year the insurance company will have you complete an audit to verify what the figure actually was. It is difficult to estimate that number exactly, which is why most tree services will either end up owing more premium or being refunded some.

“Pay As You Go” – A “Pay As You Go” plan allows you to pay your worker’s compensation premium based off of your actual payroll for the month prior. Because of the economic impact of COVID-19, many tree services may see lower payroll figures than originally anticipated and you may be paying higher monthly payments than what your actual exposure is for the month.

Lower Payroll – If your worker’s compensation company doesn’t offer “Pay As You Go” and you are experiencing lower payroll, have your insurance agent adjust your overall estimate to lower your monthly payments. Just be careful as payroll may spike due to a large storm season and you could end up owing a large chunk at the final audit.

Verify Most Recent Audit – If you do experience a large audit, make sure to verify everything is correct with your agent. Just last week, I experienced an audit where the worker’s compensation company accidentally counted two employees as officers, leading to a significant increase in payroll. They weren’t trying to overcharge at all, but there was a miscommunication on the way the two employee’s payroll was reported. The mistake led to a $7,000 increase in premium. If everything is correct and you experienced much more payroll than anticipated, ask your insurance company if they will let you break out the amount due into multiple payments. Most companies will work with you, especially in times like these.

Policy Deposit Premium – Another thing to watch out for on your worker’s compensation policy, is the deposit required by the insurance company. Some companies will require a 5-15% deposit that doesn’t go towards your final premium. They do this to ensure there aren’t any issues with the audit at the end of the year as insureds will sometimes not return necessary information. Make sure you ask how big of a deposit your worker’s compensation carrier requires, and check to see if it is required every year or if it is just a one-time deposit required when you first start your policy.

Furloughed Employees and New Class Code – I’ve also heard of several tree services having to temporarily lay off or furlough employees due to their state’s work restrictions or from a slowdown in jobs. The National Council of Compensation Insurance (NCCI) has recognized that the downtime in which employees are not working should not be counted towards your premium based on your tree care operations class code(s). To solve this, NCCI has created a new class code 0012-Paid Furloughed Workers During a Governmental Emergency Order Impacting Employment.

According to the Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau, “If an employer continues to pay furloughed employees their normal wages and keeps separate, accurate and verifiable records, the payroll will not be included for the basis of premium.” Be careful with this as an employee cannot be furloughed for part of the day. If any duties are performed in a day, no division of payroll is acceptable. Also, this class code is only applicable while an emergency order is in effect (I.E. until May 26th, 2020 in Wisconsin). Check with your state’s stay at home order and your insurance agent on how to utilize class codes to help with your worker’s compensation cash flow.

Feel free to reach out to Eric or myself if you have any questions moving forward. As always, stay safe and stay healthy!

Written by: Malcolm Jeffris, CTSP

Bringing Employees Back to Work After COVID-19

by | Apr 26, 2020 | Business Strategy | 0 comments

Bringing Employees BAck to Work After Covid-19

Anyone else ready to go back to life the way it was before the Coronavirus pandemic? Me too, but as you’ve heard from so many other people, please be smart about reopening your business.

Here are a few things tree services need to consider when bringing back their employees to full duty.

OSHA General Duty Clause – No, this isn’t new, but it is extremely important when bringing your employees back to work. As a refresher, OSHA’s General Duty Clause states: Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees. Obviously this clause was designed to ensure that all employers do what they can to create a safe workplace for their employees. A safe workplace in the post-COVID-19 world looks a little different than it did before. Each tree care company will need to look at their individual situation and facilities when reopening their business. The CDC’ guidelines and OSHA recommendations will be helpful in making your decisions. We also have created a Tree Care Owners Guide to Bringing Back Employees to Work here.

Infectious Disease Response Plan – This is new. OSHA will be requiring all businesses to have an Infectious Disease Response Plan in place in order to curtail the spread of any illness throughout your company. This plan should address prompt identification of infection source, communication standards to your employees, restriction of activities after infection identification, decontamination and recovery methods.

OSHA Recordable/Reportable – If an employee is showing the symptoms of COVID-19 and you sent that employee home for the day. Make note of it as this will become a recordable incident if they test positive for COVID-19. If the employee is hospitalized overnight, then this should be considered a reportable incident to OSHA.

Families First Coronavirus Recovery Act – FFCRA – All employers under 500 employees must provide 2 weeks of paid sick leave for employees who are sick or caring for a family member that is sick. There are also provisions within the act to provide additional 10 weeks of unpaid leave if their children’s school or daycare is closed. Read the Act here for more specific details.
Even though we are all excited to get back to life as normal, as the leader of your organization, please make sure you are taking the proper steps to prevent an infection hotspot from occurring within your company and that you have a general understanding of the additional responsibilities that you as the employer now have.

Because the landscape of regulation is changing so rapidly, we are hosting a COVID-19 Recovery Webinar on Wednesday, April 29th at 12pm CT. To register for the webinar, click here.

Written by: Eric Petersen