I never thought I would work with my family in the pest control business. From a young age, I considered myself an artist and despised the thought of working a 9–5 job. After graduating from college in 2001, I tried my hand at jobs in various industries, including social work, family counseling, event planning and graphic design. Then, I got the pest control bug and began to see how I can help to continue to improve and grow our family business. When I just started out, I wanted everything done yesterday. The more I demanded of myself and others, the more stagnant our results. It was a vicious cycle that I knew I needed to escape because giving up was not an option for me.
Thankfully, I began to realize I desired more out of life and work than this. I wanted to create a culture that made a positive impact on our team members and their families. As I began to prioritize team experience, I began to find more meaning and purpose in my leadership role. My change in mindset affected every aspect of our company, and since then growth has become easy and fun.
Life ebbs and flows. The pace of work and progress also has a natural ebb and flow. After almost 20 years of working in my family business, I have realized the important of setting intentional boundaries and an intentional pace for my work and the work of my team to manage burn out. Every 90 days, we get to reevaluate and reset the pace. We have learned fast is not always better. Some of the best quarters have been based around slowing down, simplifying, eliminating work, and rethinking what really matters.
For 2022, our annual theme is In The Groove.
For this year, all our initiatives revolve around the cliché “working smarter, not harder.”
This year we are continually asking ourselves “what really matters to our customers?” and “what really matters to our team?”
I shared the following advice in a Medium article from December 2020. You can read the full article here.
1. Create a positive work culture: I have found that team experience is the driving factor in creating your business’ best team. I have realized that when I mention “team experience” or “positive culture” that most people think of parties, big incentive plans and happy hours. What I have learned is that the first and most important aspect of team experience is creating an environment where team members can contribute their best ideas, do great and meaningful work and are inspired to develop true teamwork. Events and incentives are fun, but if the foundation of true teamwork and servant leadership doesn’t exist, other culture-building efforts are a waste of time and resources.
2. Share plans for a bigger future: When I look back over the last 17 years that I have spent at All-American Pest Control, it is fascinating to see how myself and other team members have grown and changed as leaders. In a small business, everyone pitches in to get the job done. While we prioritize and aim for work-life balance, there are phases of growth that require everyone to be all in, work longer hours and wear too many hats. To manage burn out during these periods of growth, we do our best to acknowledge the effort and loyalty of our team. We listen for when people need a breather. We continue to encourage vacations and time off to recharge. And, finally, we are always communicating a bigger future through a future-focused organization chart illustrating when we will be adding new positions (delegating) and where we will be streamlining and/or eliminating unnecessary work.
Mindset and focus are the key differentiators between good and great companies. Good companies are “me-focused” while great companies are team-focused. Good leaders manage, and great leaders provide direction and clarity; inspiration and vision; strength and courage.
Many companies get caught up in the day-to-day workload, and when things get busy work-life balance is usually the first thing to go. I wouldn’t underestimate the power of bringing balance to your people. Taking time off, unplugging, even encouraging a mini-sabbaticals for our teams brings forth new ideas, clarity and simplicity. If you find your team always with a sense of urgency, juggling too many projects, and working long hours, it’s likely time for a reset and refocus. Set some boundaries, change the pace for 90 days, and reevaluate what you are trying to accomplish and why. Your team and your family will say thank you, and I will bet your growth and profits will soar.
