We’ve all seen it before: We send one of our employees to an offsite training event and they return all fired up with new ideas. The first week performance is up. Then, a few weeks pass and the excitement begins to fade. Old habits begin snuffing out the newly learned behaviors.
One of the things I often hear from managers as they grow their departments is that they don’t have time to do ride-alongs as frequently as needed. An excellent solution exists: Hire a dedicated person to perform ride-alongs and training for your technicians.
A business coach once told me to “always make the system the heavy” when coaching my technicians. What she meant by that was focusing on evaluating how well the tech was adhering to a sales system or process. In doing so, the discussion would remain based on facts and not my subjective opinions.
This month we’re going to continue our discussion of ride-alongs by reviewing two additional expectations that need to be set with yourself and two that should be set with the performer. By taking the time to establish these, you’ll both be in the right frame of mind to begin your ride-alongs.
Ride-alongs can be a great success in coaching your employees to higher performance, or they can be a disaster which forever spoils the abilities of the people under your leadership. The outcome is heavily based on the role you take and your commitment to stick to that role no matter what.
When you think of making an investment, what is the deciding factor on whether or not you will make a good choice? Would you agree that it’s the rate of return you receive? Now shift to the investments you’re making in training for your employees. What type of return are you getting?
