Your Management Style Can Help or Hurt Your Cleaning Business

Cleaning business owners have many roles within the scope of their business. One of the most important is managing people. Depending on the management style, this can either help or hurt the business when it comes to connecting and communicating with employees.

By definition, management means “the act or art of managing:  the conducting or supervising of something (as a business),” according to Merriam-Webster. And managing truly can be an art form when we speak of training, educating, enhancing skill levels, enacting disciplinary actions, addressing workplace conflict, and just keeping employees organized and focused. Appropriate and suitable management of your most important resource, your employees, will be crucial to the longevity and success of your business.

The styles of management you incorporate can help or hurt your cleaning business.

There are three management styles that tend to facilitate employee productivity and build employee self-esteem. As the “manager”, you must be able to understand what types of management styles best fit into your cleaning business, the situation is managed, and more importantly, your employees.

1. The Coach. This management style listens to the employee, encourages, inspires, and counsels them, and sees the best in that person.

2. The Mentor. This style sees the employee as an individual, not just as a number. Like the Coach style, they counsel employees but also incorporate the sharing of experience and their know-how within the organization and industry.

3. The Promoter. This style spends time training and developing employees and enjoys helping people move up in the company. The promoter looks for opportunities for the employee to excel.

As an individual, you will have your own individual style of management. However, as the person who commands and leads, you must also adapt your style(s) to adjust to changes within the organization in order to be truly successful at managing.

Incorporating the characteristics of all three of the above management styles will give both you and your employees a better chance at achieving your objectives and goals.

There are also three more management styles that can do more damage than good in your cleaning company. They are:

4. The Perfectionist. This person is a stickler about every little thing. This obsessive behavior requires everything to be done perfectly every time.  Most employees will have a hard time living up to the high expectations of a perfectionist and will eventually give up and leave.

5. The Authoritarian. This style is often referred to as the “drill sergeant.” This person uses fear and intimidation and has a "my way or the highway" attitude. This type of person is ultra-demanding and does not model positive, productive behavior. Employees find it highly difficult to work under this type of management.

6. The Micro-manager.  This person tends to hover over employees and second-guess their decisions, which creates resentment over time. Employees feel the manager doesn't trust them to do their job so they soon lose productivity as well as motivation to do a good job.

If you see any of the traits from #4, 5, and 6 in yourself, you'll want to take a look at what you can to do change. These types of management styles also set the tone for employee behavior problems.

You are the owner, manager, supervisor, and sometimes the parent to your employees. Wearing all the hats requires you to lead effectively if you want happy employees and employees who will stick around for the long run. Practice your management skills and surround yourself with supportive people who can assist you with quality management.

Ask yourself the hard question -- what do I need to change in my management style to positively affect my business and my employees in a helpful way?