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Want to motivate your team? Start by saying “Thank you.” When was the last time you walked around your business and genuinely thanked the people who work for you?

In business, we hear a lot of quotes about time. What I would ask you to do right now, is focus on your time. As the leader of your team, your company, your family, your community, what do you spend your time doing?

If you have a hard time relating to people in your HVAC company, maybe it’s not what they’re saying, or even how they are saying it, but actually how you are listening. This is especially true with feedback on you or your team.

As an owner or service manager of a residential HVAC service company, your energy is a finite resource and you need to manage it. If your team is always coming to you for solutions, you may be the source of all energy for your company. This is a draining place to reside.

In the world of HVAC residential service, everybody’s doing outbound calling, but not many are doing it well. What do I mean by not everyone is outbound calling well? It’s simple; your people hate making the outbound calls, and your customers can hear it in their voices.

As an HVAC manager, you are responsible for yourself as well as others. It’s common to feel strained by the daily demands of your position. Here are a few strategies to ensure you are busy being productive and not just busy.

Your air conditioning business might be slowing down right now, so what are you doing to prepare for the next rush? I suggest you take some time to work with your team to train and help them improve their skills before heating season hits.

One of the benefits from having real connections between your team is the exchange of constructive feedback. When a teammate is acting out of synch with what is best for the team, a good teammate will be comfortable to call out the behavior — not to turn a blind eye to it.

I speak with many HVAC contractors who are frustrated with the way things run in their businesses. When we get to the topic of employee performance, and I ask, “How do employees know what is expected of them in this specific situation?”, I get an answer that just drives me crazy: “They just know.”

We commonly ask our employees to connect with the customer, from the phone call to the visit at their home. “Get to know them, and ask questions. Connect with them,” is the creed. But before we ask employees to connect with customers, we should ask “How well connected are we with each other?”