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Volume 9
November 2008
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| Greetings!
Welcome to the Clean Team Pro Newsletter! Can you believe it? Just two more weeks until Thanksgiving! This busy fall season of celebrations and entertaining means extra work for housecleaning companies.
Before the frenzy of Christmas cleaning hits, it might be time to give some thought to specializing your workforce. The best place to start? With a team leader. Your team leader will become your eyes and ears in every house. He or she will work to ensure that your exacting standards of cleaning -- and customer care -- are met each and every time.
If you haven't already hired a team leader, or if you're looking to hire another one, this month's feature article will be invaluable. It examines ten of the most important qualities in a team leader.
Are these tough economic times affecting your business? Next month, the Clean Team ProNewsletter will be putting out a special edition, focused on the impact of this economic recession on the housecleaning industry. We'll share our thoughts about how to weather this storm, but we'd love to hear from you, too. Are your clients cutting back? Has business slowed down? What are your plans to keep your business afloat during these stormy times? Email at jeff@thecleanteam.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
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Top 10 Qualities of a Team Leader
If you are just launching your house cleaning business, you know how difficult it is to try to be everywhere at once. You meet with clients, you crunch the numbers, you market your new company, you stock supplies and wash cleaning cloths, and of course, you clean houses.
But as your business grows, you will quickly realize that your profitability depends on your ability to effectively specialize your labor force. Last month, the Clean Team newsletter looked at six ways to expand your business, including hiring new staff. For this tactic -- or any of the other five -- to work, however, your company needs strong fundamentals. And there is nothing more fundamental that a team leader.
For most owners, the logical place to start looking for a team leader is from within your current staff of cleaners. But what qualities and skills should you be looking for in a team leader? How do you know whom to tap for this all-important position? Here's a look at the ten most important qualities for your team leader to possess.
1. Integrity
Perhaps the most important quality in your team leader, integrity refers to a person who handles themselves with honesty, predictability and exacting standards. A team leader with integrity is someone you can trust completely, and someone who will engender that trust amongst the team that he or she leads.
2. Vision
A good team leader has the ability not only to execute instruction but also to visualize the future. You must be able to rely on your team leader not only to follow your instruction, but also to take initiative in charting your company's expansion and growth.
3. Enthusiasm
By leading with enthusiasm, your team leader will be able to inspire others to be similarly positive. Motivation and enthusiasm go hand in hand, and without your team leader's positive example, your team can suffer from low morale and poor attitude.
4. Big Picture Thinker
Your team leader is undoubtedly a skilled cleaner. That's one of the things that set him or her apart in the first place. But beyond an ability to make the wood floors gleam, a great team leader sees how all the pieces of the housecleaning puzzle come together. This ability allows you to rely on your team leader in a pinch, because you know he or she is seeing not only the trees, but the forest, too.
5. Great Communicator
Your team leader intuitively understands the best way to communicate with each of your team members as well as with your clients (in writing and, when necessary, over the phone.) Your team leader knows how to talk so that his or her team members will listen -- and listen so that team members will share information and insights in return.
6. Solution-Oriented
A great team leader can handle any glitch with calm, problem-solving skills. He or she is creative, but compassionate. Your team leader knows how to assess the situation (and the damage) and work quickly to resolve it. Likewise, your team leader is able to inspire the rest of the members of you team to take decisive, well-rationed action.
7. Takes Responsibility
If something goes wrong at a house (and it will, that's the nature of the business), your team leader doesn't look to point fingers and divert blame from him or herself. Instead, your team leader uses his or her great problem-solving skills (#6) to resolve the issue and then communicates the situations to you in a responsible, level-headed manner (#5).
8. Inspirational
Not only is your team leader your go-to-person in the field, he or she also inspires the rest of the team to become equally responsible. The ideal person for the job can actually remove team member's dependence on the leader, which means that everyone is able to perform at the highest level.
9. Generous & Good-Natured
A great team leader runs his or her team with compassion, understanding and generosity of spirit. He or she knows that positive reinforcement, not rebukes and reprimands, is the best strategy for building team morale and enhancing productivity.
10. Adaptable
Every day, every home and every employee brings new challenges and opportunities. Your ideal team leader can go with the flow, adjusting to differing needs and styles, but still setting a clear vision (#2) for the company and the team. During particularly challenging times, your team leader is able to take the pulse of his or her team and make on-the-spot adjustments so that the job gets done with minimal damage to team morale.
While these ten qualities are essential for any team leader, there is one more quality that needs to be addressed: Confidence. In many ways, confidence is the source of the other ten qualities. For example, an insecure leader cannot easily demonstrate flexibility, because he is not confident in his own natural abilities. A confident leader, on the hand, has enough experience and belief in herself to get through even the most unusual circumstances. While egotistical boasting can often be mistaken for confidence, a truly confident leader is able to lead with humility and modesty.
Have you found the ideal team leader? How did you know that he or she was perfect for the job? Which of their qualities made you feel that you could entrust them with this all-important position? Email me your thoughts on these questions at jeff@thecleanteam.com. I look forward to hearing from you. -- Jeff
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Thanks for reading us this month! Come visit us on the web at www.thecleanteampro.com.
Sincerely,
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Jeff Campbell
The Clean Team Catalog |
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