In a recent BILL webinar, we dove into the topic of Training High-Service Teams in a Remote World. This important topic is part of the Driving Digital Transformation that BILL is leading this year.
The response from the hundreds of attendees on the webinar was highly engaging as team issues are a hot topic in the profession right now! This article will highlight some key aspects we touched on.
Some initial thoughts on team training
Firm owners can get some initial key issues wrong when it comes to team leadership and training. So let’s clarify a few thoughts we’ve learned from the two decades of leading our own teams.
- ‘Experience’ is a technical skill, not a work habit that is related to the team member’s ability to manage their own work efficiently. Firm owners think they can just hire an experienced professional and then assume their work habits are as equally impressive as their resume. This is not true. All professionals need training no matter how experienced they are. Firm owners may say, “I’m just going to bite the bullet, spend the money, and get the talent I need so I won’t be so overwhelmed by my work load!” This doesn’t mean you won’t have to train the team members to do their best work in your firm the way you want them to work.
- ‘Micromanaging’ is becoming overused and often labeled incorrectly in our profession. It is NOT micromanaging when you come closer and closer to a professional who continues to struggle to manage their own work and fails to get their work done efficiently. In fact, it’s your job as the owner/leader to come closer to the team when they struggle (and if the team members feel ‘micromanaged,’ then you may have to talk to them about the incorrect use of the label).
- Every single team member requires training because they don’t know how to work the way your firm works. Training can never be assumed as professionals move from another firm to your firm. You’ll always have to train, tweak, teach, and do it more if you are changing and maturing as a firm. So make this a permanent part of yours or one of your leaders’ roles.
3 steps to onboard team well
Here are 3 key steps we use in our firm to bring our team into a strong foundation that allows them to grow in the way we work and serve. Onboarding is the acclimation of a new team to their new surroundings. Do this slowly so they can absorb it all.
3 steps to lead team well
Now that the team is onboarded well, you can move into leading them well on an ongoing basis. “Great leaders come close to their teams” is a phrase we tell firms we coach and lead in our programs. Some leaders will abdicate leadership, disappear for many reasons, and fail to be consistently seen by their team. But great leaders will come close and will show up when there are bumps to iron out among the team. This is what sets firms apart.
Defining high service for team
Defining high service with your team has a lot to do with managing scope (and teaching team to manage scope). The type of delivery of service must be defined for teams:
- Under service
- Good enough
- Over service
It is often hard for the team to know when they are over-servicing, which is not an efficient way to produce revenue in a firm. High-service teams always seek to stay within scope as the definition of their high service. It’s easy to see how ‘under service’ is not a mark of a high-service team, but sometimes our work is good enough to fulfill scope and move on to other work and projects. High-service teams know when to do this. But it’s a skill that must be taught—many professionals lead towards ‘over service’ in our profession, so they must be taught the art and nuance of working within scope.
Team accountability principles
We ended our webinar with 4 key principles regarding training high service teams in a remote firm:
- Principle #1 - Be clear about the work expected from teams and the scope to be delivered to the client. Require that the team read the contracts so that they can stay within scope, or ask when they are wondering if they’ve crossed the line.
- Principle #2 - Regularly meet with your team just to ask how they are doing, how they feel about their work, and how you can support them. This opens up lines of communication where anecdotal stories, struggles, and emotions come out that allow you to lead your team even better.
- Principle #3 - Help the team when they get stuck, and guide them when they over serve (jump into meetings when you see it happen). When a team works outside of scope, great leaders jump on calls or work to resolve the over service as soon as possible. Teams develop habits of service and will migrate towards doing what feels most comfortable. So great leaders stay close and remind them of their work as it relates to their role.
- Principle #4 - Come closer to those team members that struggle until they get back on track. It’s
We hope these thoughts help you see more clearly what it takes to lead a high-service team in the remote world we all operate within! Let us know if you have any further questions by emailing us at info@thrivea.com.
Want to learn even more? Bookmark our Driving Digital Transformation series to hear from today’s industry thought leaders who have been there, done that, and are sharing what they've learned along the way.