Leading Your MSP Business Rather Than Just Bossing People Around
Your MSP business will have greater success in terms of optimization and staff satisfaction if those in management lead, rather than bossing people around. Just to get an idea, think of situations where you’ve been on the “low end of the totem pole”. It gets tiresome, doesn’t it? When people boss you around and treat you like a statistic, are you more or less likely to give it your all? It’s the same with your staff. So, consider these tips:
- Don’t just respond— coach!
- Lead— don’t manage
- Praise generously
- Encourage rather than criticizing
Don’t Just Respond— Coach!
A boss is going to snap off any response he thinks he needs to get some hypothetical underling out of his hair. A coach hears an issue, considers it, and provides that individual with information they can use to improve themselves and solve the issue.
Lead— Don’t Manage
An MSP business leader leads by example. If he wants employees to follow him and have a solid work ethic, then he’s the first to clock in and the last to leave. He follows through and is careful not to ask anything that is unreasonable. A manager treats everybody like they’re a number and tries to shuffle them around under such thinking. If you want to get the most out of employees, you must treat them like human beings, and that means being personally accountable.
Praise and Criticism
Praising staff whenever there’s opportunity makes them more likely to naturally do their best, as they legitimately enjoy being praised. Criticism can be good— if it’s the right kind. Calling someone unintelligent and unskilled is unlikely to engender improvement. Pointing out the good and the bad in order to lessen a necessary critique will do a better job of helping them change.
An MSP business which forges relationships with staff and leads through conscientious management is more likely to engender self-driven output from workers. Bosses are tyrants, leaders are liberators— be the latter.
