How to Hire the Right Manager for Your Cleaning Business
Business is booming and its time to hire a manager. Good for you! Here’s a question that I hear frequently on this topic. “I need to hire an office manager. I have an employee that’s been with me for 5 years that I am thinking about promoting. Is that a good idea?” My answer… “maybe”. It depends on the person.
Becoming a manager requires a whole new set of skills. In fact, an effective manager’s job has very little to do with knowledge of cleaning, and more to do with his/her organizational and leadership skills. If it is a good match, promoting a cleaning staff member can be very positive because you have the potential for his/her long term loyalty, since he/she “grew up” in the company. Also, it’s a great motivational factor for the rest of the staff to see that you promoted from within, and that it could happen to them too some day. Everybody wins. On the flip side, if it’s not a match, then you may want to look for your manager outside the company since you could spend a lot of time and money trying to train in areas that are very seldom learned through training. Instead, find someone with demonstrated management skills and then teach them about cleaning.
Look for People That Can Make Connections
Good managers are hard to find, but you can do it. When looking for a manager to lead your organization there are a few things that are important no matter whether he/she comes from within your organization or not, and they mainly have to do with “connections”. No, not the “connections”, like “I can get you lunch with Brad Pitt” sort of thing, but “connections” meaning they possess the quality of being able to build dynamic relationships with people quickly. I’ve identified 6 qualities that are generally present in managers that are able to build the people connections that they need to be successful.
6 Characteristics to Look for in a Good Manager
Relationship Builder
Staff, clients, vendors, colleagues… you’re manager will be representing your business, and his/her ability to make others feel good and connected will have a lot to do with how people view and interact with your company.
Top Achiever
Striving to be the best at anything and everything, and actually achieving it, will not only benefit your company from the work he/she gets done, but can also inspire the crew to want to do the same. Managing all of the details and challenges that a manager of a cleaning business faces is a tough job, and someone who accomplishes it with ease, will be rewarded with your employees’ and clients’ respect.
Mentor/Coach
House cleaning businesses and employee issues… these two sometimes go hand in hand. A person who has the ability to approach staffing problems with a coach or mentor perspective will be able to hold your staff accountable, while maintaining a supportive teaching style that employees respect and respond to.
Responsible
Taking on the responsibility of the whole job from start to finish is a characteristic that your ideal person for the management position will have. Clock watchers, finger pointers, and tattle tales will not be effective in this role.
Focused
With 30 calls a day requiring management of sales, details and crisis you need someone who knows how to stay focused! Someone who can see the forest through the trees, follow up on details, stick to a schedule and still be able to complete that employee motivation project that you have them working on.
Captain Charting His Course
And finally, you need a captain charting his course. Someone who can look at the big picture of where you are going, and plot out all of the critical steps along the way. Organization and prioritization will be key skills here, or else your manager may plot your course right into the Bermuda Triangle.
That’s a tall order to fill for a manager. Nobody is perfect, so this is your ideal that you are looking for in your new leader. And if you are like me, you are always striving to improve these qualities within yourself as a manager. Find people who possess these characteristics and then they can hone their day to day skills. Molding the raw talent into actual management skills can be accomplished by sending your new manager to a management skills training course, like the kind offered by SkillPath.com. Job shadowing them for a while is another way that you can demonstrate and teach your management style. Or, you can hire a consultant or coach to be your new manager’s mentor, and guide them through those initial bumpy roads, avoiding common rookie mistakes.
No matter how you do it, or where you find them, hire your manager based on character and their obvious ability to connect with people and you can’t go wrong.