6 Reasons House Cleaning Team Leaders Fail
When it's time to hire a Team Leader for their cleaning business, most owners look to promote from within. There is usually at least one person who stands out from the rest; they do a great job cleaning, they're dependable, and they go the extra mile for the company. After all, promoting from within contributes to employee retention and moral. What better motivator then knowing they have the opportunity to advance by “going the extra mile”.
However, some people who are put into a supervisory position end up failing even though they were a stellar cleaner. So what happens between being a stellar employee and failure as a Team Leader? Why are they unable to get the Team together and achieve more?
Contributing Factors to Team Leader Failure
Although many factors can contribute to the failure of a newly promoted employee, it usually boils down to the inability of the new Team Leader to inspire and lead their former peers. Now they must delegate and enforce management policies, which can sometimes rub employees the wrong way if not handled correctly.
Let's step back to a time before their promotion. As a cleaning technician, the employee was rewarded on a performance basis. Meaning, they were required to show up on time, receive good performance reviews, and complete all necessary cleaning tasks under the quality standards set by the cleaning company. Now, the new Team Leaders job has changed significantly.
The focus moves away from their own personal performance to a position of responsibility that involves encouragement, training, delegation and discipline. This is where many new Team Leaders fail. They have yet to develop the skills and techniques necessary to lead the team.
There are a variety of reasons failure can happen; here are the top 6:
1. Uncomfortable Leading Co-workers
Sometimes when a team member is promoted and suddenly has to supervise their former peers, they become uncomfortable delegating or disciplining. Being a good Team Leader means becoming comfortable in uncomfortable situations with the team members.
2. Unable to Deal with Conflict
Every person in a supervisory position must deal with conflict at some point. It may be a conflict between the employees they supervise, or it may be a conflict with a customer. If your Team Leader doesn't know how to handle tough situations, they'll likely fail.
3. Poor Judgment
You need to rely on your Team Leader to make good decisions. If you have a Team Leader who has poor judgment when it comes to dealing with day-to-day issues, you need to work with them on the decisions they SHOULD be making and the reasons why.
4. Laziness
Some people's work habits change when they are given a promotion. Watch for the Team Leader who likes to delegate all of the work because they are now in a power position and feel as if they no longer need to work as hard.
5. Poor Communication and Organizational Skills
Your team leader may have been outstanding as a team member, but if their communication and organizational skills are lacking, they will likely fail. A good Team Leader must be able to communicate well with management, the team, and the customers. They also need be able to set schedules, establish deadlines, and perform quality checks and performance reviews, to name just a few.
6. Promotion Leads to Stress
Along with promotion comes responsibility. Sometimes that additional responsibility and added pressure rears its ugly head in the shape of stress. Many people don't handle new found stress very well, which can have a trickle down effect on the entire team. Your job should be finding quality candidates and arming them with the skills and methods necessary to succeed in their new role as Team Leader.
There are many qualities that make a quality Team Leader. Providing supervisory training from day one is always a good idea. And continued coaching and training to improve upon areas that they are lacking is also important.
There are many more reasons Team Leaders fail, but the key to helping them succeed is to start working with them BEFORE you put them in a supervisory position. There is a lot you can do to help them succeed, but you need to put the time into training them on your expectations and the skills they need to become a strong leader.
PDF Download - The program has 85 pages that are broken down into sections that you can use to train your team leaders over time.
Team Leader Training Program for Residential Cleaners
Are you tired of promoting employees into team leader positions only to be disappointed by their poor performance? Do you wonder why your best cleaners don't make good supervisors? Wouldn't it be great to have a comprehensive training program that you can use to groom your best employees for supervisory positions as well as provide ongoing training for your current team leaders?
We have the answer you have been looking for in The Team Leader Training Program which provides practical training for developing supervisory skills.
To learn more about this system and purchase, visit our store.
