Show information
Episode Number: 23
Date: February 26, 2024
Duration: 25:06
Host: Justin Deese
Website: JustinDeese.com
Contact Info: Justin@JustinDeese.com
Summary
This episode explores the concept of servant leadership and its impact on the home service industry. The host shares personal experiences and highlights the importance of fostering a culture of empowerment, enhancing team morale, and improving customer satisfaction. The episode emphasizes the role of servant leadership in building a strong company reputation and driving employee retention. The host concludes by encouraging listeners to reflect on their own leadership styles and consider implementing servant leadership principles.
Takeaways
- Servant leadership prioritizes the needs of others and focuses on supporting and empowering team members.
- Fostering a culture of empowerment allows team members to make decisions and learn from their mistakes.
- Enhancing team morale and fostering belonging and respect contribute to improved employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction.
- Servant leadership builds a strong company reputation and drives long-term success through employee retention.
- Leaders should reflect on their own leadership styles and consider implementing servant leadership principles.
Chapters
[00:00] – Introduction to Servant Leadership
[03:05] – Understanding Servant Leadership
[06:14] – The Speaker’s Personal Journey in Leadership
[10:10] – Fostering a Culture of Empowerment
[12:50] – Enhancing Team Morale
[14:24] – Fostering Belonging and Respect
[15:22] – Improving Customer Satisfaction
[16:50] – Building a Strong Company Reputation
[18:45] – Driving Employee Retention
[20:12] – Long-Term Success through Servant Leadership
[22:27] – Recap and Conclusion
Transcript
Justin Deese (00:00.11)
Think about the best leader you've ever had. What made them stand out? Was it their authority and command or was it something else? Today, we're going to dive into a revolutionary perspective on leadership that really flips traditional ideas and some might say flips the script on the notion of leadership. It's not about wielding power, but about wielding care, empathy, and responsibility for those we lead.
In the competitive and challenging world of the home service industry, this approach could be the difference between running a team and truly leading one towards excellence. If you've ever wondered how to inspire loyalty and drive high performance in your team, this episode's for you. Stay tuned as we explore how transforming your leadership style can revolutionize your business and the lives for those you lead.
Justin Deese (00:56.238)
Running a home service business is hard. So how is it that some people make it look so easy? Well, we'll tell you. This is the Freedom Blueprint Podcast. It's always good to hear the wins that successful contractors have. But have you ever thought that the best advice would be to hear about the speed bumps they encountered, the mistakes they've made along the way? We're going to talk about the good, the bad.
and the ugly. We want you to be successful and avoid the mistakes others have made. Let's get this party started. Welcome to the Freedom Blueprint Podcast. Now your host, Justin Deese.
Justin Deese (01:40.302)
Hey, what is happening? Freedom blueprint community. Um, we got kind of a cool topic today and, uh, it's about leadership as a lot of the episodes that I do, uh, are about leadership. And before we dig into that, I want to say this. Uh, I want to say, I want to say, thank you. I want to say thank you for tuning in. I want to say thank you for hanging out with me. And I want to say thank you for taking.
the time for yourself, for you to learn and grow. And I'm not talking about just this podcast. There's, uh, if you're the type of person that listens to this podcast, then you probably listen to other podcasts and you probably listen and read books and you probably are on a journey to, uh, I'll call it self -improvement, right? So, you know, we're always going through different seasons where we want to improve ourselves, improve our skills.
Uh, and I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for letting me be a part of that journey. Um, I know for me, that's always been a big part of my, you know, since I've been an adult has been this journey of learning and, uh, learning new strategies and how to be better. And I just, I just want to say thank you. That was on my heart this morning. So, uh, there you go. So enough about that. Let's kick into, to what we're going to talk about today, which is, uh, which is leadership, right? And what I just said a minute ago, think about.
As I think about that, when I say it, to me, it all kind of wraps into servant leadership. And I know for some people, when they hear servant leadership, it kind of pulls a couple of different emotions, right? For some they're like, yes, I'm a servant leader. And for others, they're like, my team is there to serve me. You know, it kind of, it kind of stirs up a couple of different emotions.
And so what I want to talk about today is I want to kind of get a little bit clear on a few, a few things that you can do to really lead in support. And, and as I was thinking about doing this episode, there was a, there's a quote that I found that I wanted to share. And, you know, if you listen to this show, you know, I always like to share different types of quotes. And this particular one is from Simon Sinek. Uh, I'm, if you don't know who Simon Sinek is, you can give him a.
Justin Deese (04:01.646)
Google you can give him a YouTube. He's done tons of keynote speaking. He's got lots of YouTube things. He's got a ton of really good books. But the quote is this, leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge. Now think about that for a minute.
It really is about taking care of those in your charge. And here's the deal. If you don't take care of them, they're going to leave. They're going to go, they're going to go follow a leader that is going to support them. They're going to follow a leader that is going to take care of them. They're going to follow a leader that makes sure that, you know, that they feel good about what it is they're doing. And, you know, again, it's really about the difference between being a leader and being a boss.
A boss is a position. Boss is a title. You can, you can be a boss. You can swing a hammer. You can do all those things, but truly if you, as, as a leader, you end up having people and that's what you want, right? You want people to follow you. So, so servant leadership is in a nutshell, it's really prioritizing the needs of others.
Right? So prioritizing the needs of our other, especially team members. And when you're serving people, you're thinking about them over you. So servant leadership is a little bit of what we're going to dig into today. And, uh, and I hope this is helpful. I hope, you know, I hope all the episodes are helpful, but, uh, this one is really kind of near and dear to me because I have gone through several cycles and early.
Justin Deese (06:14.222)
So, so my, my journey as a business owner, I started out really young, uh, honestly, probably too young. Um, when I started my first business, like actual business, I was 21, 22 years old. Um, and there was still a lot of life that I had to learn and needed to learn, but I was stubborn and you couldn't tell me anything. And now, as I say that, uh, my son is my son for a reason anyways. So.
When, when I first started my journey in leadership, I, I learned leadership skills that I had at the time from playing sports, right? I played sports, uh, all through high school. I played a little bit in college. And so leadership that I learned from coaches was what I, what I thought that you used in the real world. Uh, there's not, and your HR department will have some very bad things to say about you. If you lead them, like you lead a baseball or football team.
Right. So, so from, from those types of cultures, you know, um, to get a high performance team yelling, screaming, sometimes cussing, uh, pushups running till you throw up, like those are things you can do in that culture. You can't do that in, in, in the business world. And so for me, when I first started my journey in leadership, I duplicated, I did what I knew. Right. So you, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And, and I thought the way to get people to do what it is that I wanted them to do.
was through the same skills that I learned as a ball player. And that's, um, that's not, it's not how to do it. And, um, because of that, I lost really good team members. I lost really good people. Um, you know, I went through this cycle where, you know, I thought, you know, the problem's not me, the problem's everybody else. And eventually I had to stop what I was doing and go, dude, there's a common denominator. Guess what? It's you.
So, so at this point, I had to kind of shift a little bit on what I thought leadership was, which was being a boss to what I now understand leadership is leadership is a responsibility, not a role. Boss is a role leadership or responsibility. And, and the truth is you can be a leader regardless, regardless of your title. And I think that's the big shift that most people need to have.
Justin Deese (08:42.414)
When they're thinking about leadership as it doesn't have squat to do with your title. And I know that I don't, I know that on this show, there's not a lot of technicians that listen to it, or at least not that engage with me or whatever, but, um, think about it from your technician standpoint, you have texts that are leaders that don't have the title. Let me tell you something too, by the way, if you have, uh, someone in a role that is being a leader.
that has no, that doesn't have the title, doesn't have the responsibility, doesn't have the pay, right? So they don't have the perks of, of being in a leadership position. You, you better take note of that because man, you got to, you got somebody who's got the jumpstart of being a tremendous leader. And the, and the truth is they probably have had no education. It's just kind of a natural, some people have this natural ability to do certain things.
It doesn't mean that leadership can't be trained. Uh, it doesn't mean that, you know, there's all these things that can be trained, but just, just make note, man, if you've got a tech that is just steps into the leadership role without, uh, a lot of coaching, a lot of training without you kind of, uh, spearheading that effort, man, take note of that. So a couple of things. So I want to just talk about a couple of things in order to, uh, really drive this effort.
Right. To drive this effort. So, so the first is from a, from a, from a servant leader, I'm going to call it. So fostering a culture of empowerment is, I think that's something that we, we miss a lot of business owners. They, they miss this and, and the truth is it's not because they want to, I mean, you don't miss anything because you want to miss it typically, but, but the truth is they, a lot of business owners, they get so wrapped up in the day to day.
that they miss kind of the forest through the trees, right? So you want to foster and support like this culture of empowerment. And what I mean by that is make, you want your team to be able to make a decision. You don't want them to have to go to you every time to make a decision. You just don't. That, first of all, that would be exhausting, but a lot of it, the truth is a lot of owners, they...
Justin Deese (11:09.774)
That's what they have. They have people that come to them for every decision. I see this a lot with dispatchers, right? You've got to, you've got to empower them to make a decision. You've got to empower them to, um,
Justin Deese (11:27.342)
You've got to empower them. And here's the deal. They're going to make a mistake. Just the way it goes, right? They're going to make a mistake and you have to be okay with that. Now, obviously if they're going to something that's mission critical and going to harm the business, then yeah, sure. You need to step in, but let's be honest. There's not that many decisions that go through the day in the business that we run that that happens. So just from a, from a leadership fostering empowerment, think about that just.
Let them make a mistake. And then, and then if you see a mistake or you, you see one on the horizon, do not jump in and solve it. That's when you need to put your coaching hat on, which by the way, if you're a leader in your business, coaching is the majority of what you should be doing on a day -to -day basis. So put your coat hat, you put your coach hat on and ask the question.
What happened? How would you do it differently? Right? There's a series of questions you can get to that empower them to make a decision. So, right. So if you have mission and vision too, that's another really good way to give them some kind of guiding principles on, um, how to make decisions. So without going too deep into that. So, so that's the first thing. The next is going to be to enhance, um, you're, you're really going to enhance team morale, right? So if you're, if you harbor this.
servant leadership, uh, responsibility. And that's how you kind of go after this. You're going to enhance this, this team morale, right? You, you want good team around, there's all kinds of good stuff that comes with team morale. Right. There's, you know, when there's a good team morale, here's a big one that ends up happening is team members don't feel isolated in the industries that we're in. Most of our, most of our employees.
are alone in a vehicle on the road in strangers houses on a day -to -day basis. Agreed. So, uh, when you have a solid morale as a, as a company and you're supportive and you're serving, then that's, that's a huge part of it. You can kind of get away from that isolation feeling to where now they feel like they're supported and they, and they have the tools that they need in order to go out and.
Justin Deese (13:49.742)
and do right by the customers.
One of the other things is going to be, it's going to, it's going to foster belonging and respect. Again, people want to be places where they're respected, where they feel like they belong, where they don't feel isolated, where they, where they feel like they're, they're on a team, right? They're, they want to feel these things. So, so again, servant leadership is also going to kind of tie into that. Um, when they have that caring leadership, these are some things that are going to show up. And honestly, it's going to impact their performance.
It just, it naturally is when people feel better, they do better. And, and, and another point to that, that's going to tie into all this is going to be, it's going to improve your customer satisfaction. Why happy employees make for happy customers. There, there is a direct link between that. I mean, think about, think about not even the technicians, but for, you know, there's so much technology out there.
It's easy to listen to inbound calls. You're you're happy, go lucky. Your person that feels plugged into the business, your person that is, um, go team spirit kind of deal. They normally have higher booking rates. Why? Because they, because you can feel that energy through the phone. That's why they tell you to smile when you answer the phone. There's, I mean, there's a lot, there's a lot of interaction there. So.
So it does, it generates, uh, improved customer satisfaction because happy employees make for happy customers. That's just, that's just the way it goes, which then when you have happy employees and you have happy customers, then there's this whole value standpoint. So when your technicians are selling, they tend to sell value a little bit easier because they feel it. Then that's going to result into positive reviews from a customer. We all know the benefits to that.
Justin Deese (15:52.334)
And if you don't, it, you should do a little bit of research because it's wildly important and it's only going to get more important. It's really, really important for things like the Googles of the world and whatever kind of platform, uh, lead source generation that you use, but it's becoming more and more valuable on the social media platform, which personally, I think a lot of marketing you're going to see start shifting towards, uh, which for some areas it really has driving towards, um,
the social media side of it. Anyways, let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. Let's keep moving. So another thing this is going to do is it's going to build a strong company reputation. And again, it's going to do that through some of the things we just talked about, but, but it's also going to enhance it through your company. Team members want other people to come work with them when they're happy. If they like where they work, they're going to, they're going to invite their friends.
Right? If you're doing something cool, or you're going to go do something cool, you're typically going to invite friends. Hey friends, come on over and hang out with me. Right? The same things happen in business. If you're, if you have a solid company culture and it, and you have a servant leader, people are more likely to invite their friends to come hang out. It's just a fact. Right. And then birds of a feather flock together. Right? So, so if you have solid team members, they're going to invite other.
solid team members over, which then now that's going to grow your reputation. Cause now you have more really good, awesome people. And then when awesome people work around awesome people, guess what else they stay. And listen, retention of skilled workers is becoming one of those things that is really, really difficult to hang onto right now.
Like how many, how many times do you hear, uh, nobody wants to work and which, by the way, I, I debunk all of that. There is really good people out there that want a really good opportunity. And if you are the type of company who doesn't have a really good opportunity, who doesn't have a vision, who is not taking care of your people and you're not in a servant leadership, think about this. Why would anybody want to work with you? It's the truth.
Justin Deese (18:14.734)
Right. We live in a, we live in an age now where opportunity is so much greater than it's ever been. So I could totally go down a rabbit hole with that, but I'm not going to. So, uh, the last thing on my list here is that it, it, it's going to drive your team through employee retention. Right. Again, all of these things kind of build into each other, but people that like the people they work with stay people that like the leaders stay.
And so, so from a, from a, from a cost benefit, think about that. How expensive is it to hire and train a new team member? Think about if you had these amazing team members and they just stayed, which by the way, if, if your team members aren't bringing in new team members, like, Hey, my friend, cause they all hang out, right? They all hang out at the supply house.
They all talk about the business and the companies they work for and if they like it and don't like it and what's good about it and what's not. If your team members aren't driving new employees to the business, take note, take note, ask the question. Why ask them the question? It's fine to ask the question, right? It's fine. But it is, it is really, really expensive to turn over a technician. It is really, really expensive to hire a new technician is really, really expensive.
to train a new technician or employee in general. Technicians are really expensive, but all of them are, um, are, are very expensive. So, so the other advantage is too, that it's going to, it's really going to drive long -term success. Again, you have solid team. Think about if you had, let's say your company, you had 10 employees and let's say you had 10 rock stars on your team. And I'm talking about people that were self -managing self -motivated.
By the way, all of those things are meth, but just keep, keep up with me here for the story. They're self managing, self motivating, and honestly just crushed it every day when they came in. What would your business look like? And if you're listening to this, think about this out of your team members. What percentage of people do you feel like you give the attention that you need to from a leadership standpoint?
Justin Deese (20:42.03)
It's a nice thing about listening to a podcast while you're driving or running on a treadmill or cutting the grass or whatever it is you're doing is you get the chance to do some self reflection without judgment.
So take the time if you're driving in a car or you're doing whatever you're doing, listening to the podcast, they truly look at that. Are you driving your team from a servant leadership standpoint? Are you, are you, are you thinking about when you get up in the morning, you think about how can I support my team so that they can go out and, and take care of these customers? I don't know. I'd love to hear from you either way. Uh, cause I do love to hear from.
Uh, people that hang out with me on the podcast and check it out. So, uh, to do a quick review and recap. So here's my five points. And I know I kind of scattered through these a little bit, but, um, again, if you listen to the podcast, you know, I can tend to get on a roll a little bit and get off the exit ramp and back on. So let's review and recap. Here's the five. Here's the five things. What we're talking about. Uh, the first is fostering. The first is fostering a culture of support and empowerment. There's number one, number two.
Enhancing team morale. And really I would probably throw in cohesion, cohesion and morale on that too, but enhancing team morale. Super important. Number three, improving customer satisfaction through employee satisfaction. Big one. Number four, building a strong company reputation. And five, driving long -term success.
their employee retention.
Justin Deese (22:27.406)
All that comes from a servant leadership. Like all of that thing comes from you as a leader, serving the people that you lead. Right? All of that, all of those things. And so again, to, to kind of remind us of this, that all ties into the quote. Leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge.
Man, that's impactful. That's, I don't know. It's impactful.
Justin Deese (23:02.446)
It's impactful. So, so all of these things. So as you think about it, again, they're going to drive your culture. They're going to drive your team. They're going to drive more engagement. They're going to drive more leads. They're going to drive better reviews. They're going to drive more team members. And what does all that lead to? All of that is going to lead to the fuel that runs our business, which is more money, more money on the top line, more money on the bottom line. It, it.
It literally leads all of those things. So there you go. There's my, there's my five, uh, five tips on servant leadership. So.
Whew, that was good. So call to action here. Let's do this. I love to hear from you guys and shoot me an email. My email is super easy. It's justin at justindeese .com. Super easy. Shoot me an email. Let me know if there's any of these things that you really, really focus on any of these things. You're really crushing in your business. And if there's anything that you're not crushing, here's another thing. If you've listened to this podcast, you're like, man, I'm not really sure.
I'm not sure if I am doing these things or not doing these things. Here's, here's something you can do. Check out, uh, check out survey monkey, right? So you survey monkey and go out, create a survey. And we do this on a pretty regular basis. So if you need some help with coming up with some questions, shoot me an email. I'd be happy to share it with you, but ask your team. If you're not sure, by the way, if you're not sure the answers, probably you're there's a lot of areas that you can improve, but.
If you don't know, ask your team. So you can go to like survey monkey. I'm sure there's a hundred other formats that do it. And you can send out a survey to your team and ask them some very specific questions to know if you're doing what it is that they need you to do.
Justin Deese (24:58.286)
Ask the question. They'll give you the answer. So in survey monkey, plus, you know, a survey monkey, it is a, um, what's the word I'm looking for? It's anonymous. So you don't know that Jimmy has bad things to say about you, you know, cause you read them, but you don't know it was from Jimmy. So, um, all right. So that's all I got for today. Um, listen, if you found value in today's episode, make sure to subscribe to the freedom blueprint podcast, leave a review.
That really, really helps me and share it with other leaders that could benefit from mastering the art of supportive and servant leadership until next time, foster a culture of support and empowerment and watch your business and leadership transform. This is Justin Deese signing off from freedom blueprint podcast. Stay motivated, enhance your team morale, and as always keep crushing it.
Justin Deese (26:00.91)
Stay motivated, enhance team morale. Stay motivated, keep...
Stay motivated. Use an -
Justin Deese (26:15.758)
Stay motivated, enhance your servant leadership, and as always, keep crushing it.
You've been listening to the Freedom Blueprint Podcast. Information is useless if not applied. So take what you've learned and go and implement it. We hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to like, rate, and review. We'll be back soon. But in the meantime, find us on social media at Freedom Blueprint for Home Services and hit the website at www.freedomblueprintpodcast.com. See you. next time.