We’ve all been there as business owners. You get to the end of the day, your head’s in your hands and you’re thinking, ‘I can’t take another day like this!’
And this is not through stress caused by your clients, or technology going wrong. The stress has come from your staff.
When your team aren't doing the things you want them to do, or in the way you want them done, it’s frustrating and quite frankly a nightmare.
But here's the thing. The root cause of all this is actually… you.
Please don’t shoot the messenger, but the fact is that we get the business we deserve based on the behaviour we tolerate.
Now, don’t despair, because this is fixable. But before we get into how, see if you can answer the following question.
What's the consequence for your staff of not doing things the way you want them done?
I've asked this question of so many MSP owners who are at their wit’s end with their staff, but the answer is usually, ‘None.’ Isn’t it weird how we tolerate this?
Most of us started our own business for control over the way things are done. But as we start to take on staff, perhaps we get too busy to lay out procedures and systems for them to follow. And then before you know it, you've got 3, 4, 5, 6 members of staff, and they seem to be doing things their way rather than your way.
Now, I said before this is frustrating. But there’s actually no real point to getting frustrated, because that's not going to solve the problem.
What will solve the problem is to systemise everything.
I can recommend a couple of books to give you a kick-start on this; The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, and Built to Sell by John Warrillow. Both are great guides to systemising all the operations within your business.
And, even, within the MSP space, you know there are so many great tools to not only help systemise what you're doing for the clients, but to systemise your own operations.
This isn't taking away your staff's ability to be imaginative and come up with new ideas, by the way (just incase they play that card). If anything, it allows them to be more creative, because you’re setting some basic boundaries of how you want them to act within your business.
What this all boils down to is - tell your staff exactly what you want them to do, and exactly how you want it to be done. And make sure there’s a consequence if they don't follow the system.
If this is you right now, you're not alone - there are plenty of other MSP owners feeling the same pain in my MSP Marketing Facebook group . Join anytime for a virtual hug.