How do you balance kindness and strict standards as a business owner?
My personal values are very important to me as a business owner. Being a person of faith I care deeply about people. For years I have struggled to find this balance between kindness and compassion and strict standards. For those of you that have hearts for people and want to be kind and compassionate...how do you help your team rise to the occasion without having to seem heartless and only care about the bottom line?Do You Train Your Team to Think or Just Work?
Every Monday, we hold a short training session with our team. We train on communication. leadership. & mindset. The reason being most tradespeople aren’t struggling because they can’t do the work. They’re struggling because they were never taught how to: Speak with clarity Handle conflict Lead a crew Represent the business professionally These tend to be the issues I see bottling up, either from our exit interviews or customer feed back or when things are misunderstood. Thats why I'm curious: Do you train soft skills with your crew?We Hired for Skill & We Got Burnt.
When I first started hiring, I focused on work ethic and skills. We all look for the 3-5 year guy in the field. That’s how I saw every other electrician hire. Until we’ve trained side-by-side with leaders from the Ritz Carlton, studied what world-class hiring really looks like, and built our own system to bring it into the trades. But after years in the field, and now in my own electrical contracting company, I’ve learned that’s not enough. The trades have a people problem because we skip the part that matters: Character. Trust. Vision. And it’s how we filter now. What do you all think?Everyone Wants to HIRE the “3–5 Year Guy” — But Why?
Once again, contractors are falling into the same pattern. I keep seeing posts on Instagram that say: “Must have 3–5 years experience.”What do you guys think about this? Here’s my take: It’s because most people want someone they can toss straight into the field. No training. No culture building. Just go-go-go. But that’s how we end up with more bad hires than good ones. Here’s the truth: Hiring talent doesn’t fix broken systems. If you don’t know what problem you’re solving — even the “perfect” hire won’t help. So I made this visual graphic to help. This is how I think through hiring when I know I’m ready to grow. What are your thoughts?
