Congratulations on Joining the Ranks of Service Leadership
A significant step is getting promoted from Regional or National Field Service Manager to Director or Vice President of Field (or Customer) Service. Suppose you are fortunate to have recently made this transition or expect to be promoted shortly. In that case, you should understand that this transition to Service Leadership takes you across a vast chasm. For many people, this is the Chasm of Doom!
Why a Chasm of Doom?
As a Service Manager, you probably arrived home from work feeling like a piñata at a 10-year-old kid’s birthday party. You were constantly dealing with calls and text messages like these:
Customer – “Your engineer was due here 90 minutes ago and I have not heard from her. And my boss is all over me for buying your stuff.”
Service engineer – “It is 4:30PM and I was just dispatched to a customer who is 30 miles away from me on the other side of the city. If I go now I probably will not get home until after 10 and I don’t get overtime pay. What’s the plan?”
Inventory Manager – “I rushed a $5,000 part to Joe in Chicago last Tuesday and have not heard a word from anyone in your organization. Was the part used, when will the defective part arrive, do I need to order a replacement? Why do I always have to chase your region?”
Finance person – “You know your outstanding receivables have set a new company record. Come visit me to explain and work out the problem.”
Your boss – “”It is September and you haven’t used any of your vacation yet. And you have 2 weeks carried over from last year. Let’s discuss your vacation plans for the next three months.”
Each message requires a high level of technical skill with a massive dose of multitasking. You work in a reactive environment where everyone who reaches out to you feels like they are the only fish in your sea. Their problem, if unsolved immediately, will sink the company. You understand that and thrive in this kind of environment.
Then, one day, you find out that your boss, the Vice President of Field Service, has decided to move on to greener pastures. She plans to open a yoga studio in what was her garage and return to a more “satisfying” life. And you have been tapped as the new Service Leader.
One of the reasons that you were selected is that you are always reading books, magazines, and blogs about service management. You are the first to suggest or support new ideas at meetings. You have been talking the talk, and now you have to walk the walk.
Service Leadership Brings several New Roles and Responsibilities.
- We are changing the organization’s culture. This article shows how not to make positive changes!
- Digitizing your old manual, analog processes
- Implementing new FSM software
- Building solid bridges to Sales, Marketing, and Finance
- Reinforcing your relationships with Engineering and Manufacturing
- Figuring out how to grow revenue and shrink expenses
- Getting Sales to sell service contracts at the time of sale
- Commercializing and implementing Remote Monitoring and Augmented Reality
- Plus, working as a key COO or CEO team member to create and implement new company strategies.
To succeed, you have to morph from being a reactive manager to a proactive leader. And at the same time, make sure that the wheels stay on the bus, as the old saying goes.
What Should You do?
There are two possibilities.
- Your boss has been preparing you for this day for a few years. In this case, take her to dinner before she leaves and thank her profusely. You owe her big time. Then ask her for ideas and insights that will help you move forward. Also, get her contact information in case you have an issue where you feel she can point you in the right direction.
- You were so immersed in your reactive mode that you never had time to look around and learn about the big picture. In that case, you should find someone who can serve as your mentor and coach.
What Is A Mentor?
The mentor should be a good listener, understand where you just came from, and be prepared to offer you tough love and not give you the answers you want but ask the right questions so you can discover the right way ahead on your own. If you operate best on a face-to-face basis, then the mentor should be close enough to you that you can meet for a drink, walk, meal, or whatever and discuss your concerns. If face-to-face is unimportant, the only things that matter are availability, experience, and empathy.
Your mentor does not require a service background, but it will help. Someone with a Sales background would no doubt also work well. So would:
- A CEO, COO, CCO, or even a CFO.
- It could be a Vice President of Field Service like you or some other Service Leadership role, but who is a few years ahead of you in the process?
- It can also be a college professor or a consultant.
- Anyone ready, willing, and able to listen to your issues and help you find a good path to follow will serve your purpose.
Whoever you choose must make you comfortable and confident.
In today’s environment, where product sales are declining and companies are looking for the service organization to make up the shortfall, the Service Leadership role is critical to the company’s long-term success. And that is why you must quickly cross the dreaded Chasm of Doom in one step.
Good luck, and make us proud!
About Middlesex Consulting
Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals with the primary goal of helping capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. Middlesex Consulting continues to provide superior solutions to meet the needs of its clients by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing, Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization grow a new service leadership team member, please contact us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here.