Integrations to make life easier: HaloPSA + Strety

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Plateaus are invisible enemies. 

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Plateaus are invisible enemies. 

\n\n

Hitting a plateau feels like writer’s block, or hitting the wall midway through a tough workout, or like endless monotony with no clear path forward. If we’re not constantly achieving, we feel like we’re failing – even when we might be able to progress with the right coaching. Since that failure feels embarrassing, we don’t talk about plateaus with our managers or teammates. 

\n

As a leader, your job is to identify when someone on your team is starting to plateau so that you can coach appropriately. Implementing an EOS®-inspired mechanism like the Quarterly Conversation from How to be a Great Boss can help ensure that individuals aren’t slipping through the cracks.

\n

But sometimes you can’t wait for a quarterly conversation to fix an issue. So how do you know if someone’s plateaued if they won’t bring it up?

\n

 

\n\n

Signs of a Plateau

\n

People on your team could be feeling the beginnings of a plateau at any time, hidden in plain sight. While performance may not yet be visibly slipping, teams and individuals that plateau tend to exhibit signs of complacency:

\n

\n
• Lower engagement with their teammates
\n
• Poorer standards of quality on their outputs
\n
• Rushed projects
\n
• Lack of focus
\n
• Lack of energy
\n

\n

Complacency quickly turns into a lost sense of purpose, and with it, a lack of motivation and engagement. Once you reach this point, performance issues are likely to surface. And If there is no attempt to adjust and correct once the wall has been hit, blame may be - fairly or unfairly - put on their environment, leading them to leave your organization. 

\n

Your goal: tackle the plateau before performance issues become problematic. And definitely before it leads to attrition.

\n

 

\n\n

Why Plateaus Happen

\n

Growth isn’t linear. From the outside, growth might look like a straight line up and to the right, but from the inside, it’s a jumbled tangle of ups and downs that (hopefully) eventually lead to growth. 

\n

Temporary plateaus can be part of a normal growth process. Short plateaus are nothing to fear -- in fact, they’re productive because they serve as a brief interlude to recharge for more growth. The leader’s role in a healthy plateau is to keep that interlude from turning into inertia. Give your employee space to take a breath, then help them run when they’re recharged.

\n

Not all plateaus are productive, however. Sometimes an employee plateaus for less-than-helpful reasons, like:

\n

\n
• Lack of variance, interest, or challenge in their day-to-day
\n
• Unresolved frustrations or resentment on the team
\n
• Lack of opportunities to grow within their role or within the company
\n
• Insufficient coaching
\n
• Uncertainty over the value of their work
\n
• Misalignment between the employee’s sense of purpose and the company’s vision
\n

\n

It could even be a conscious decision -- sometimes, advancing in career just isn’t someone’s top priority in life. An employee might decide they’re okay with how good they are at something, turn on autopilot, collect their paycheck, and stop improving. This is referred to as hitting the “OK plateau”, and it’s super common. In some fields, that’s not a huge problem. In others, a lack of progression is effectively regression and must be mitigated.

\n

Regardless of why your team is plateauing, it’s in your best interest as a leader to try to empower your employee to push through in the right way at the right time.

\n

 

\n\n

How to Coach Someone Through a Plateau

\n

Managers and leaders can have a huge impact in shortening plateaus. With the right coaching, a plateau can be more productive and less frustrating for all involved. 

\n

While sustained plateauing is a cause for concern, more often than not it’ll serve as a wake-up call telling you to shake things up or try something new. 

\n

Here’s how to foster newfound motivation during a plateau:

\n

\n
1. Communicate!
\n
2. Change their responsibilities
\n
3. Rethink recognition
\n
4. Improve cross-department collaboration
\n
5. Create new opportunities for development
\n

\n

 

\n

Communicate!

\n

Sometimes, people plateau because they don’t know where they stand or how they’re doing. Everyone wants to know how their work contributes to team success, and once-annual performance feedback is not enough. Continuous feedback is key.

\n

In order to provide continuous feedback, you need a system in place to collect valuable, actionable responses. Our team provides weekly updates to our goals and self-determine if we’re on-track. We provide context to those updates so that any team member can quickly see what’s going on with a project or initiative. 

\n

Along with a robust cadence of 1:1s to check progress, blockers and solutions, we have a more formal Quarterly Review feature, where once a quarter (or however often you want), you have a more robust check-in for alignment on KPIs and values for employees and their direct managers. It works perfectly for teams that are implementing EOS®. It gives our leadership an opportunity to acknowledge great performance and realign the team member whenever necessary. With continuous feedback, plateaus are spotted early and mitigated quickly. 

\n

Pull from performance recaps, daily or weekly check ins, goal updates, and 1:1 meetings to find opportunities for recognition. A simple acknowledgement that you read and appreciated an update or check in goes a long way.

\n

Change Their Responsibilities

\n

If your team isn’t feeling challenged, they’ll lack a connection to the work they’re doing. A lack of challenge happens when a job role becomes one-note, making it too easy to run on autopilot.

\n

Changing an employee’s responsibilities gives them more (and different) opportunities to develop, avoiding a plateau. As a manager, one of the most effective ways you can overcome that is by dishing out the right responsibilities to the right people.

\n

To do that, align someone’s areas of ownership with their zone of genius. In a 1:1, ask your employee which tasks give them energy and which tasks feel exhausting. Sometimes, a 5-hour task can be more invigorating than something that takes 10 minutes but saps your motivation. It’s not always about the amount of work, it’s about how that work feels to the employee. 

\n

To change responsibilities, you might have to involve multiple teammates. It’s best to address shifts in job roles in the setting of a performance review so that everyone has a chance to talk about what they love about their jobs and what they wish they could hand over to someone else. Chances are, one teammate might be dying to stop owning a project that another is excited to take over. This doesn’t have to be a major job shift – it might be a simple project shuffle that makes all the difference.

\n

When you’re shuffling responsibilities, make sure to give ownership of work-related goals to the right people. Ownership of goals shouldn’t live with the manager, it should live with the person responsible for the work. If someone has zero input to the work they’re doing, it’s unlikely they’re going to care about that work -- and they’ll eventually plateau. Employees perform best when they feel a strong connection to purpose, and ownership of goals helps foster that purpose.

\n

You can also transfer responsibility by being less visible as a leader.

\n

Refrain from unnecessary micromanagement, like dictating tasks step-by-step or asking to be cc’d on every email. Instead, open up non-invasive lines of communication. Ask for high-level check-ins like a weekly performance recap or a daily “What are you working on” and only course-correct when necessary. In giving your team members more autonomy, you create more autonomy for yourself.

\n

Strety helps you keep big goals and small tasks visible to leadership and stakeholders while avoiding the need for daily (or hourly) updates. When everyone’s on the same page, it’s much easier to align on a bird’s eye view of your projects, and who should be tackling them.

\n

Rethink Recognition

\n

Recognition doesn’t have to be complicated. People thrive when they feel like they’re being heard, and sometimes, that’s all it takes. Elevating a plateaued employee’s voice can reignite motivation by reminding your team member that their work – and voice – have value. 

\n

To elevate more voices, encourage everyone on the team to contribute to meetings by opening your meeting agendas. Ask your team to suggest agenda topics. Let your employee drive their 1:1. Using shared, collaborative meeting agendas will get more varied ideas on the table while proving your commitment to making sure everyone has an opportunity to contribute to the discussion. 

\n

If you want to take it a step further, positive feedback can be incredibly powerful when shared publicly. Systems like Teams and Slack make it easy to publicly recognize a team member for their accomplishments. Sharing successes with the entire organization leaves no doubt that someone’s work is valued.

\n

Improve Cross-Department Collaboration

\n

Cross-departmental collaboration adds newness and variety, which are crucial to finding a new sense of motivation. But the real impact of collaboration comes from pushing people outside of their comfort zone.

\n

Once someone gains exposure to the real work of other teams, they may identify new skills to develop or an interest in new responsibilities. An engineer might find themselves excited to help customers solve their problems, which could lead them to consider product management. Or a support agent might discover they enjoy leveraging their product knowledge to help sell the product’s benefit to future customers, leading to an interest in sales or marketing.

\n

Working alongside other teams gives exposure to different ways of thinking and new approaches to problem solving. This is not a new concept. 

\n

Here’s a personal anecdote: I’m a Customer Success Manager. I once traveled to a conference with a front-end developer and got a lot of exposure to how he worked. His approach to solving a customer problem was vastly different than mine, and seeing that gave us each a newfound understanding and respect for each other’s role. It also showed us how wildly ineffective and inefficient communication can be across departmental lines. That exposure and improvement in communication was directly responsible for quicker time to resolution for our customer’s problems.

\n

Lastly, cross-departmental collaboration eliminates unnecessary siloes. In any organization, finding the time to assess whether there’s a better approach to a process can be very difficult. Getting fresh eyes on old processes could lead to asking, “is there a better way we can do that?” Giving individuals the opportunity to ask those questions and make changes that improve your processes decreases the risk of plateauing for employees and organizations alike.

\n

How you implement cross-departmental collaboration will vary depending on your business. One way to encourage collaboration is to give your entire company a perspective on their colleagues’ roles and responsibilities. When people are able to see how their role fits into the bigger picture, they may come up with their own creative ideas for awesomely effective projects that span departments.

\n

However you promote cross-collaboration, it has enormous potential to help individual team members and the organization at-large avoid plateauing.

\n

Create New Opportunities for Development

\n

Stagnation will lead to a plateau. It’s your responsibility to help your people see the ways which they can develop to avoid stagnation in the first place. 

\n

As a leader, your role is to encourage employees to talk about their future. Start by discussing their career goals in your weekly 1:1s. If you aren't having weekly 1:1s, start there! Once you know what an employee hopes to accomplish, you can coach them to achieve their goals.

\n

To create new opportunities, expand their professional network by introducing them to professionals already doing what they’re interested in trying. Share resources that have helped you. Help them find quality training courses and create a budget to pay for it. 

\n

Once you’ve found opportunities together, hold them accountable; make sure they’re taking advantage of you as a resource. Collaborating on an employee’s development will build trust and, once again, prove to them that you are invested in their growth.

\n

Strety Users: Set-up ‘Career Development Opportunities’ as a 1:1 Recurring Agenda Item so you can continually discuss any ongoing or upcoming opportunities with your direct report.

\n\n

Move Past Plateaus Fast with Strety

\n

Plateaus are inevitable, but they don’t have to be a problem. It’s up to you and your leadership team to find new ways to inspire and engage employees. The most important thing in helping your team through a plateau is communication and collaboration.

\n

Your role is to help an employee feel secure in their challenges while suggesting solutions. And if you can do that, you’ll be accomplishing much more than just solving your team’s plateau problem. You’ll become a stronger leader in your own right!

\n

Make collaboration, recognition, and employee opportunities an integrated part of your process, instead of the kind of overlooked task that you have to pause day-to-day work to accomplish. Strety helps you by operationalizing feedback and visibility to the point where it seamlessly fits into your everyday workflow.

\n

Book a demo to learn how we can help, or click below to start a free trial today.

\n

","publish_immediately":false,"use_featured_image":true,"published_by_id":64389572,"published_at":1712116811901,"rss_body":"

Plateaus are invisible enemies. 

\n\n

Hitting a plateau feels like writer’s block, or hitting the wall midway through a tough workout, or like endless monotony with no clear path forward. If we’re not constantly achieving, we feel like we’re failing – even when we might be able to progress with the right coaching. Since that failure feels embarrassing, we don’t talk about plateaus with our managers or teammates. 

\n

As a leader, your job is to identify when someone on your team is starting to plateau so that you can coach appropriately. Implementing an EOS®-inspired mechanism like the Quarterly Conversation from How to be a Great Boss can help ensure that individuals aren’t slipping through the cracks.

\n

But sometimes you can’t wait for a quarterly conversation to fix an issue. So how do you know if someone’s plateaued if they won’t bring it up?

\n

 

\n\n

Signs of a Plateau

\n

People on your team could be feeling the beginnings of a plateau at any time, hidden in plain sight. While performance may not yet be visibly slipping, teams and individuals that plateau tend to exhibit signs of complacency:

\n

\n
• Lower engagement with their teammates
\n
• Poorer standards of quality on their outputs
\n
• Rushed projects
\n
• Lack of focus
\n
• Lack of energy
\n

\n

Complacency quickly turns into a lost sense of purpose, and with it, a lack of motivation and engagement. Once you reach this point, performance issues are likely to surface. And If there is no attempt to adjust and correct once the wall has been hit, blame may be - fairly or unfairly - put on their environment, leading them to leave your organization. 

\n

Your goal: tackle the plateau before performance issues become problematic. And definitely before it leads to attrition.

\n

 

\n\n

Why Plateaus Happen

\n

Growth isn’t linear. From the outside, growth might look like a straight line up and to the right, but from the inside, it’s a jumbled tangle of ups and downs that (hopefully) eventually lead to growth. 

\n

Temporary plateaus can be part of a normal growth process. Short plateaus are nothing to fear -- in fact, they’re productive because they serve as a brief interlude to recharge for more growth. The leader’s role in a healthy plateau is to keep that interlude from turning into inertia. Give your employee space to take a breath, then help them run when they’re recharged.

\n

Not all plateaus are productive, however. Sometimes an employee plateaus for less-than-helpful reasons, like:

\n

\n
• Lack of variance, interest, or challenge in their day-to-day
\n
• Unresolved frustrations or resentment on the team
\n
• Lack of opportunities to grow within their role or within the company
\n
• Insufficient coaching
\n
• Uncertainty over the value of their work
\n
• Misalignment between the employee’s sense of purpose and the company’s vision
\n

\n

It could even be a conscious decision -- sometimes, advancing in career just isn’t someone’s top priority in life. An employee might decide they’re okay with how good they are at something, turn on autopilot, collect their paycheck, and stop improving. This is referred to as hitting the “OK plateau”, and it’s super common. In some fields, that’s not a huge problem. In others, a lack of progression is effectively regression and must be mitigated.

\n

Regardless of why your team is plateauing, it’s in your best interest as a leader to try to empower your employee to push through in the right way at the right time.

\n

 

\n\n

How to Coach Someone Through a Plateau

\n

Managers and leaders can have a huge impact in shortening plateaus. With the right coaching, a plateau can be more productive and less frustrating for all involved. 

\n

While sustained plateauing is a cause for concern, more often than not it’ll serve as a wake-up call telling you to shake things up or try something new. 

\n

Here’s how to foster newfound motivation during a plateau:

\n

\n
1. Communicate!
\n
2. Change their responsibilities
\n
3. Rethink recognition
\n
4. Improve cross-department collaboration
\n
5. Create new opportunities for development
\n

\n

 

\n

Communicate!

\n

Sometimes, people plateau because they don’t know where they stand or how they’re doing. Everyone wants to know how their work contributes to team success, and once-annual performance feedback is not enough. Continuous feedback is key.

\n

In order to provide continuous feedback, you need a system in place to collect valuable, actionable responses. Our team provides weekly updates to our goals and self-determine if we’re on-track. We provide context to those updates so that any team member can quickly see what’s going on with a project or initiative. 

\n

Along with a robust cadence of 1:1s to check progress, blockers and solutions, we have a more formal Quarterly Review feature, where once a quarter (or however often you want), you have a more robust check-in for alignment on KPIs and values for employees and their direct managers. It works perfectly for teams that are implementing EOS®. It gives our leadership an opportunity to acknowledge great performance and realign the team member whenever necessary. With continuous feedback, plateaus are spotted early and mitigated quickly. 

\n

Pull from performance recaps, daily or weekly check ins, goal updates, and 1:1 meetings to find opportunities for recognition. A simple acknowledgement that you read and appreciated an update or check in goes a long way.

\n

Change Their Responsibilities

\n

If your team isn’t feeling challenged, they’ll lack a connection to the work they’re doing. A lack of challenge happens when a job role becomes one-note, making it too easy to run on autopilot.

\n

Changing an employee’s responsibilities gives them more (and different) opportunities to develop, avoiding a plateau. As a manager, one of the most effective ways you can overcome that is by dishing out the right responsibilities to the right people.

\n

To do that, align someone’s areas of ownership with their zone of genius. In a 1:1, ask your employee which tasks give them energy and which tasks feel exhausting. Sometimes, a 5-hour task can be more invigorating than something that takes 10 minutes but saps your motivation. It’s not always about the amount of work, it’s about how that work feels to the employee. 

\n

To change responsibilities, you might have to involve multiple teammates. It’s best to address shifts in job roles in the setting of a performance review so that everyone has a chance to talk about what they love about their jobs and what they wish they could hand over to someone else. Chances are, one teammate might be dying to stop owning a project that another is excited to take over. This doesn’t have to be a major job shift – it might be a simple project shuffle that makes all the difference.

\n

When you’re shuffling responsibilities, make sure to give ownership of work-related goals to the right people. Ownership of goals shouldn’t live with the manager, it should live with the person responsible for the work. If someone has zero input to the work they’re doing, it’s unlikely they’re going to care about that work -- and they’ll eventually plateau. Employees perform best when they feel a strong connection to purpose, and ownership of goals helps foster that purpose.

\n

You can also transfer responsibility by being less visible as a leader.

\n

Refrain from unnecessary micromanagement, like dictating tasks step-by-step or asking to be cc’d on every email. Instead, open up non-invasive lines of communication. Ask for high-level check-ins like a weekly performance recap or a daily “What are you working on” and only course-correct when necessary. In giving your team members more autonomy, you create more autonomy for yourself.

\n

Strety helps you keep big goals and small tasks visible to leadership and stakeholders while avoiding the need for daily (or hourly) updates. When everyone’s on the same page, it’s much easier to align on a bird’s eye view of your projects, and who should be tackling them.

\n

Rethink Recognition

\n

Recognition doesn’t have to be complicated. People thrive when they feel like they’re being heard, and sometimes, that’s all it takes. Elevating a plateaued employee’s voice can reignite motivation by reminding your team member that their work – and voice – have value. 

\n

To elevate more voices, encourage everyone on the team to contribute to meetings by opening your meeting agendas. Ask your team to suggest agenda topics. Let your employee drive their 1:1. Using shared, collaborative meeting agendas will get more varied ideas on the table while proving your commitment to making sure everyone has an opportunity to contribute to the discussion. 

\n

If you want to take it a step further, positive feedback can be incredibly powerful when shared publicly. Systems like Teams and Slack make it easy to publicly recognize a team member for their accomplishments. Sharing successes with the entire organization leaves no doubt that someone’s work is valued.

\n

Improve Cross-Department Collaboration

\n

Cross-departmental collaboration adds newness and variety, which are crucial to finding a new sense of motivation. But the real impact of collaboration comes from pushing people outside of their comfort zone.

\n

Once someone gains exposure to the real work of other teams, they may identify new skills to develop or an interest in new responsibilities. An engineer might find themselves excited to help customers solve their problems, which could lead them to consider product management. Or a support agent might discover they enjoy leveraging their product knowledge to help sell the product’s benefit to future customers, leading to an interest in sales or marketing.

\n

Working alongside other teams gives exposure to different ways of thinking and new approaches to problem solving. This is not a new concept. 

\n

Here’s a personal anecdote: I’m a Customer Success Manager. I once traveled to a conference with a front-end developer and got a lot of exposure to how he worked. His approach to solving a customer problem was vastly different than mine, and seeing that gave us each a newfound understanding and respect for each other’s role. It also showed us how wildly ineffective and inefficient communication can be across departmental lines. That exposure and improvement in communication was directly responsible for quicker time to resolution for our customer’s problems.

\n

Lastly, cross-departmental collaboration eliminates unnecessary siloes. In any organization, finding the time to assess whether there’s a better approach to a process can be very difficult. Getting fresh eyes on old processes could lead to asking, “is there a better way we can do that?” Giving individuals the opportunity to ask those questions and make changes that improve your processes decreases the risk of plateauing for employees and organizations alike.

\n

How you implement cross-departmental collaboration will vary depending on your business. One way to encourage collaboration is to give your entire company a perspective on their colleagues’ roles and responsibilities. When people are able to see how their role fits into the bigger picture, they may come up with their own creative ideas for awesomely effective projects that span departments.

\n

However you promote cross-collaboration, it has enormous potential to help individual team members and the organization at-large avoid plateauing.

\n

Create New Opportunities for Development

\n

Stagnation will lead to a plateau. It’s your responsibility to help your people see the ways which they can develop to avoid stagnation in the first place. 

\n

As a leader, your role is to encourage employees to talk about their future. Start by discussing their career goals in your weekly 1:1s. If you aren't having weekly 1:1s, start there! Once you know what an employee hopes to accomplish, you can coach them to achieve their goals.

\n

To create new opportunities, expand their professional network by introducing them to professionals already doing what they’re interested in trying. Share resources that have helped you. Help them find quality training courses and create a budget to pay for it. 

\n

Once you’ve found opportunities together, hold them accountable; make sure they’re taking advantage of you as a resource. Collaborating on an employee’s development will build trust and, once again, prove to them that you are invested in their growth.

\n

Strety Users: Set-up ‘Career Development Opportunities’ as a 1:1 Recurring Agenda Item so you can continually discuss any ongoing or upcoming opportunities with your direct report.

\n\n

Move Past Plateaus Fast with Strety

\n

Plateaus are inevitable, but they don’t have to be a problem. It’s up to you and your leadership team to find new ways to inspire and engage employees. The most important thing in helping your team through a plateau is communication and collaboration.

\n

Your role is to help an employee feel secure in their challenges while suggesting solutions. And if you can do that, you’ll be accomplishing much more than just solving your team’s plateau problem. You’ll become a stronger leader in your own right!

\n

Make collaboration, recognition, and employee opportunities an integrated part of your process, instead of the kind of overlooked task that you have to pause day-to-day work to accomplish. Strety helps you by operationalizing feedback and visibility to the point where it seamlessly fits into your everyday workflow.

\n

Book a demo to learn how we can help, or click below to start a free trial today.

\n

","rss_summary":"

Plateaus are invisible enemies. 

\n","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":"DONE","blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE","layout_sections":{},"head_html":null,"public_access_rules":[],"public_access_rules_enabled":false,"scheduled_update_date":0,"featured_image_height":2063,"featured_image_width":3000}

{"attached_stylesheets":[],"post_summary":"

Disclaimer: Strety is not officially licensed to use EOS® terms. We are not certified or official partners of EOS® Worldwide — we’re just big fans of EOS® and Traction by Gino Wickman.

\n

It’s great to meet you! We are a company developing software to enable teams to easily implement EOS® or any other business operating system through tools for great communication, excellent meetings, and transparency that keeps all of your people rowing in the same direction.

\n","has_user_changes":true,"last_edit_session_id":null,"last_edit_update_id":null,"html_title":null,"tag_ids":[22874361619],"topic_ids":[22874361619],"campaign_name":"Product Updates","campaign_utm":"Product%20Updates","enable_google_amp_output_override":false,"featured_image":"https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/5256430/images/blog/strety-performance-management.png","featured_image_alt_text":"","link_rel_canonical_url":null,"meta_description":"Implement EOS® (or any business operating system) with our compatible software — quickly, easily, and with total team buy-in.","post_body":"

Disclaimer: Strety is not officially licensed to use EOS® terms. We are not certified or official partners of EOS® Worldwide — we’re just big fans of EOS® and Traction by Gino Wickman.

\n

It’s great to meet you! We are a company developing software to enable teams to easily implement EOS® or any other business operating system through tools for great communication, excellent meetings, and transparency that keeps all of your people rowing in the same direction.

\n \n

Why are we so passionate about helping SMBs streamline their operating systems? 

\n

Because implementing EOS® has been game-changing for us.

\n

The Strety founders have built and sold 3 companies — with consistent, phenomenal, and most importantly — calm growth made possible through EOS® implementation (BrightGauge, Compuquip Managed IT Services, and Blue Wave Communications). Once might have been a fluke, but at this point in our lives, we know that being intentional about our business operating system is the game-changer.

\n

We developed Strety out of our own need for a responsive, common-sensical, and fun-to-use software that made EOS® implementation easy. When we first got into EOS®, the options for organizing and keeping up on our implementations were spreadsheets or software that didn’t feel quite right for our teams. The development of Strety started as (and continues to be) a labor of love to help ourselves get the most out of self-implementing EOS®. Once our friends and peers caught wind of this EOS® compatible system we called Strety, they wanted to use it as well.  And soon after we  realized that any SMB (small and medium-sized business) could benefit from what we’d made, so thus began the birth of the commercialization of Strety: an EOS compatible system that is well priced, interoperable, and a joy to use.

\n\n

What we think great software is

\n

Now that you know a little more about our why, allow us to give you some quick insight into how we approach software. Obviously, not all software is created equal, and we think the difference boils down to a few crucial points of difference that can make a decent software feel magical.

\n

Interoperable 

\n

We built Strety as an EOS® compatible software system for Microsoft Teams for one simple reason: we use Microsoft Teams, and we knew that our business operating software needed to live where we live. But we’re not stopping there: we believe great software plays nicely with the best (and the rest) of your tech stack. That’s why we’ve already implemented integrations with these systems to link with Strety To Dos (and two way sync):

\n

\n
• Connectwise
\n
• Microsoft Planner + To Do
\n
• Autotask
\n
• Kaseya BMS
\n
• HaloPSA (coming soon)
\n

\n

… and many, many more integrations on the roadmap, both in the short and long-term. We built over 100 integrations at BrightGauge, and hope to beat our personal record with Strety!

\n

Delightful to adopt 

\n

‘Delight’ has become a software buzzword for a good reason. Software, at its core, is digital magic – it’s a weighless, invisible thing at its core, but it can make a giant impact on our lives. We truly believe in delighting our customers (and ourselves) with a software experience that is fun and easy to use, plays nicely with other tools in your stack, and runs in the background, instead of demanding a lot of consternation and attention. 

\n

Responsive 

\n

Another magical thing about software: its adaptability. We believe that great software reflects an ongoing conversation between its users and its makers. It’s always been a part of our business to develop close relationships with our customers, gather feedback to help guide the roadmap, and push code every day to move our software in the directions our customers lead us.

\n

Affordable

\n

The best things in life are free, but the second-best thing (hint: for us, it’s software) unfortunately can’t be. While we can’t afford to give away Strety for free, we can commit ourselves to making it affordable. The whole point of an EOS® software is to keep your whole team  aligned, not just your leaders. We’ve targeted an affordable price point to make EOS®-compatible software for every SMB that wants it. We know that running a business can be like balancing on a razor’s edge, and we never want Strety to be the thing that tips you over.

\n\n

Strety and your Business Operating System

\n

There are three main areas where Strety can help support your operating system (again, whether EOS® or not):

\n

Meetings that don’t feel like a waste of time

\n

Meetings are a critical part of implementing EOS® (or any other business operating system that we can think of). While they’ve gotten a bad rap – and for good reason – good meetings can be energizing and motivating. Strety helps you have meetings that stay on track, solve issues, and encourage productive takeaways.

\n

Rocks, goals, KPIs– whatever you call them, we help you track them

\n

“What’s measured can be improved.” This is true for anything, but especially for the overall health and efficiency of your business. When you and your team are juggling tons of plates, it can feel hard to have a single-pane view of everything that’s happening. Strety helps you keep your team’s goals on track – from yearly rocks to daily tasks – and make sure everyone has the visibility they need.

\n

Culture: getting your team aligned on values

\n

It’s easy to get obsessed with making progress and finding new ways to grow — it can be harder to take the time to think about the values that are foundational to the way your business operates. Teams that aren’t aligned on a company’s core values are prone to bad morale and confusion on priorities, how to operate, and who is responsible. 

\n

Strety helps you create transparency on the core principles of your company by making your roles and responsibility chart, values, mission, and long term goals visible for everyone on the company to get on the same page and stay there.

\n

Software to support your mission

\n

Our goal is to make it easy for you to run your business to its greatest potential. Regardless of whether you’re looking to build to sell, or just to keep growing sustainably, implementing an operating system will help your team row in the same direction, and get farther, together. 

\n

As a fellow SMB, we’re here to make implementation as streamlined as possible, so let us know how we can help – whether it’s moving data from a different EOS® software or just running you through how you can use Strety in a quick demo.

\n

Whether you’re an old hand at EOS® or excited to implement a business operating system for the first time, check out how Strety can support your business with a free 30 day trial.

\n

 

","publish_immediately":true,"use_featured_image":true,"published_by_id":64389572,"published_at":1710380288570,"rss_body":"

Disclaimer: Strety is not officially licensed to use EOS® terms. We are not certified or official partners of EOS® Worldwide — we’re just big fans of EOS® and Traction by Gino Wickman.

\n

It’s great to meet you! We are a company developing software to enable teams to easily implement EOS® or any other business operating system through tools for great communication, excellent meetings, and transparency that keeps all of your people rowing in the same direction.

\n \n

Why are we so passionate about helping SMBs streamline their operating systems? 

\n

Because implementing EOS® has been game-changing for us.

\n

The Strety founders have built and sold 3 companies — with consistent, phenomenal, and most importantly — calm growth made possible through EOS® implementation (BrightGauge, Compuquip Managed IT Services, and Blue Wave Communications). Once might have been a fluke, but at this point in our lives, we know that being intentional about our business operating system is the game-changer.

\n

We developed Strety out of our own need for a responsive, common-sensical, and fun-to-use software that made EOS® implementation easy. When we first got into EOS®, the options for organizing and keeping up on our implementations were spreadsheets or software that didn’t feel quite right for our teams. The development of Strety started as (and continues to be) a labor of love to help ourselves get the most out of self-implementing EOS®. Once our friends and peers caught wind of this EOS® compatible system we called Strety, they wanted to use it as well.  And soon after we  realized that any SMB (small and medium-sized business) could benefit from what we’d made, so thus began the birth of the commercialization of Strety: an EOS compatible system that is well priced, interoperable, and a joy to use.

\n\n

What we think great software is

\n

Now that you know a little more about our why, allow us to give you some quick insight into how we approach software. Obviously, not all software is created equal, and we think the difference boils down to a few crucial points of difference that can make a decent software feel magical.

\n

Interoperable 

\n

We built Strety as an EOS® compatible software system for Microsoft Teams for one simple reason: we use Microsoft Teams, and we knew that our business operating software needed to live where we live. But we’re not stopping there: we believe great software plays nicely with the best (and the rest) of your tech stack. That’s why we’ve already implemented integrations with these systems to link with Strety To Dos (and two way sync):

\n

\n
• Connectwise
\n
• Microsoft Planner + To Do
\n
• Autotask
\n
• Kaseya BMS
\n
• HaloPSA (coming soon)
\n

\n

… and many, many more integrations on the roadmap, both in the short and long-term. We built over 100 integrations at BrightGauge, and hope to beat our personal record with Strety!

\n

Delightful to adopt 

\n

‘Delight’ has become a software buzzword for a good reason. Software, at its core, is digital magic – it’s a weighless, invisible thing at its core, but it can make a giant impact on our lives. We truly believe in delighting our customers (and ourselves) with a software experience that is fun and easy to use, plays nicely with other tools in your stack, and runs in the background, instead of demanding a lot of consternation and attention. 

\n

Responsive 

\n

Another magical thing about software: its adaptability. We believe that great software reflects an ongoing conversation between its users and its makers. It’s always been a part of our business to develop close relationships with our customers, gather feedback to help guide the roadmap, and push code every day to move our software in the directions our customers lead us.

\n

Affordable

\n

The best things in life are free, but the second-best thing (hint: for us, it’s software) unfortunately can’t be. While we can’t afford to give away Strety for free, we can commit ourselves to making it affordable. The whole point of an EOS® software is to keep your whole team  aligned, not just your leaders. We’ve targeted an affordable price point to make EOS®-compatible software for every SMB that wants it. We know that running a business can be like balancing on a razor’s edge, and we never want Strety to be the thing that tips you over.

\n\n

Strety and your Business Operating System

\n

There are three main areas where Strety can help support your operating system (again, whether EOS® or not):

\n

Meetings that don’t feel like a waste of time

\n

Meetings are a critical part of implementing EOS® (or any other business operating system that we can think of). While they’ve gotten a bad rap – and for good reason – good meetings can be energizing and motivating. Strety helps you have meetings that stay on track, solve issues, and encourage productive takeaways.

\n

Rocks, goals, KPIs– whatever you call them, we help you track them

\n

“What’s measured can be improved.” This is true for anything, but especially for the overall health and efficiency of your business. When you and your team are juggling tons of plates, it can feel hard to have a single-pane view of everything that’s happening. Strety helps you keep your team’s goals on track – from yearly rocks to daily tasks – and make sure everyone has the visibility they need.

\n

Culture: getting your team aligned on values

\n

It’s easy to get obsessed with making progress and finding new ways to grow — it can be harder to take the time to think about the values that are foundational to the way your business operates. Teams that aren’t aligned on a company’s core values are prone to bad morale and confusion on priorities, how to operate, and who is responsible. 

\n

Strety helps you create transparency on the core principles of your company by making your roles and responsibility chart, values, mission, and long term goals visible for everyone on the company to get on the same page and stay there.

\n

Software to support your mission

\n

Our goal is to make it easy for you to run your business to its greatest potential. Regardless of whether you’re looking to build to sell, or just to keep growing sustainably, implementing an operating system will help your team row in the same direction, and get farther, together. 

\n

As a fellow SMB, we’re here to make implementation as streamlined as possible, so let us know how we can help – whether it’s moving data from a different EOS® software or just running you through how you can use Strety in a quick demo.

\n

Whether you’re an old hand at EOS® or excited to implement a business operating system for the first time, check out how Strety can support your business with a free 30 day trial.

\n

 

","rss_summary":"

Disclaimer: Strety is not officially licensed to use EOS® terms. We are not certified or official partners of EOS® Worldwide — we’re just big fans of EOS® and Traction by Gino Wickman.

\n

It’s great to meet you! We are a company developing software to enable teams to easily implement EOS® or any other business operating system through tools for great communication, excellent meetings, and transparency that keeps all of your people rowing in the same direction.

\n","blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE_NOT_SENT","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":"DONE","layout_sections":{},"head_html":null,"public_access_rules":[],"public_access_rules_enabled":false,"scheduled_update_date":0}

{"tag_ids":[23182286584],"rss_body":"

The Importance of Quarterly Meetings for MSP and SMB Leadership Teams

\n

MSPs and SMBs face a lot of challenges. They have to compete with larger companies, attract and retain top talent(this one is hard), and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in their industry. One way that they can overcome these challenges is by holding regular quarterly meetings for their leadership team.

\n

Quarterly meetings provide a forum for the leadership team to come together and discuss the company's overall goals, progress, and challenges. They also allow the team to make plans for the coming quarter and to address any issues that may be preventing the company from achieving its goals.

\n

Here are some of the specific benefits of quarterly meetings for SMB leadership teams:

\n

\n
• Improved communication and alignment: Quarterly meetings can help to improve communication and alignment within the leadership team. By regularly discussing the company's goals and progress, the team can stay on the same page and make sure that everyone is working towards the same objectives.
\n
• Increased decision-making speed: Quarterly meetings can help to increase the speed of decision-making. By bringing together the key decision-makers in one place, the team can quickly and efficiently make decisions that are in the best interests of the company.
\n
• Enhanced problem-solving: Quarterly meetings can help to enhance problem-solving. By discussing challenges and brainstorming solutions, the team can come up with creative and effective ways to overcome obstacles.
\n
• Fostered teamwork and collaboration: Quarterly meetings can help to foster teamwork and collaboration within the leadership team. By working together to achieve common goals, the team can build stronger relationships and create a more cohesive work environment.
\n
• Increased accountability: Quarterly meetings can help to increase accountability. By setting clear goals and expectations, the team can hold each other accountable for their performance.
\n

\n

If you are a leader of an MSP, I encourage you to consider holding quarterly meetings for your leadership team. They were integral to our success at BrightGauge and Compuquip.

\n

Here are some tips for running effective quarterly meetings:

\n

\n
• Set clear goals and objectives: Before the meeting, take some time to think about what you want to achieve. What are the most important topics that need to be discussed? What decisions need to be made?
\n
• Create an agenda: Once you know your goals, create an agenda for the meeting. This will help to keep the discussion on track and ensure that all of the important topics are covered.
\n
• Distribute the agenda in advance: Distribute the agenda to the participants in advance so that they can come prepared to discuss the topics.
\n
• Start and end on time: It is important to start and end the meeting on time. The only thing worse than not holding a quarterly meeting is hosting one that runs longer than it should
\n
• Encourage participation: Encourage everyone to participate in the discussion. This will help to ensure that everyone's ideas are heard and considered. Ask everyone to have at least one issue
\n
• Take action items: At the end of the meeting, make sure to take action items. This will help to ensure that the decisions that were made are implemented. This is the life pulse of a business.
\n

\n

By following these tips, you can run effective quarterly meetings that will help your leadership team to achieve its goals.

","head_html":null,"post_body":"

The Importance of Quarterly Meetings for MSP and SMB Leadership Teams

\n

MSPs and SMBs face a lot of challenges. They have to compete with larger companies, attract and retain top talent(this one is hard), and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in their industry. One way that they can overcome these challenges is by holding regular quarterly meetings for their leadership team.

\n

Quarterly meetings provide a forum for the leadership team to come together and discuss the company's overall goals, progress, and challenges. They also allow the team to make plans for the coming quarter and to address any issues that may be preventing the company from achieving its goals.

\n

Here are some of the specific benefits of quarterly meetings for SMB leadership teams:

\n

\n
• Improved communication and alignment: Quarterly meetings can help to improve communication and alignment within the leadership team. By regularly discussing the company's goals and progress, the team can stay on the same page and make sure that everyone is working towards the same objectives.
\n
• Increased decision-making speed: Quarterly meetings can help to increase the speed of decision-making. By bringing together the key decision-makers in one place, the team can quickly and efficiently make decisions that are in the best interests of the company.
\n
• Enhanced problem-solving: Quarterly meetings can help to enhance problem-solving. By discussing challenges and brainstorming solutions, the team can come up with creative and effective ways to overcome obstacles.
\n
• Fostered teamwork and collaboration: Quarterly meetings can help to foster teamwork and collaboration within the leadership team. By working together to achieve common goals, the team can build stronger relationships and create a more cohesive work environment.
\n
• Increased accountability: Quarterly meetings can help to increase accountability. By setting clear goals and expectations, the team can hold each other accountable for their performance.
\n

\n

If you are a leader of an MSP, I encourage you to consider holding quarterly meetings for your leadership team. They were integral to our success at BrightGauge and Compuquip.

\n

Here are some tips for running effective quarterly meetings:

\n

\n
• Set clear goals and objectives: Before the meeting, take some time to think about what you want to achieve. What are the most important topics that need to be discussed? What decisions need to be made?
\n
• Create an agenda: Once you know your goals, create an agenda for the meeting. This will help to keep the discussion on track and ensure that all of the important topics are covered.
\n
• Distribute the agenda in advance: Distribute the agenda to the participants in advance so that they can come prepared to discuss the topics.
\n
• Start and end on time: It is important to start and end the meeting on time. The only thing worse than not holding a quarterly meeting is hosting one that runs longer than it should
\n
• Encourage participation: Encourage everyone to participate in the discussion. This will help to ensure that everyone's ideas are heard and considered. Ask everyone to have at least one issue
\n
• Take action items: At the end of the meeting, make sure to take action items. This will help to ensure that the decisions that were made are implemented. This is the life pulse of a business.
\n

\n

By following these tips, you can run effective quarterly meetings that will help your leadership team to achieve its goals.

","topic_ids":[23182286584],"html_title":null,"rss_summary":"

The Importance of Quarterly Meetings for MSP and SMB Leadership Teams

\n","campaign_utm":null,"post_summary":"

The Importance of Quarterly Meetings for MSP and SMB Leadership Teams

\n","published_at":1693584787824,"campaign_name":null,"featured_image":"https://5256430.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/5256430/Temp%20Images/Logos/feature-image-3.png","layout_sections":{},"published_by_id":10609172,"has_user_changes":true,"meta_description":"Quarterly Meetings","use_featured_image":true,"last_edit_update_id":null,"public_access_rules":[],"publish_immediately":null,"attached_stylesheets":[],"featured_image_width":1164,"last_edit_session_id":null,"featured_image_height":1094,"scheduled_update_date":0,"link_rel_canonical_url":null,"featured_image_alt_text":"Meeting ","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"public_access_rules_enabled":false,"blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE_NOT_SENT","enable_google_amp_output_override":false,"blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":"DONE"}

{"attached_stylesheets":[],"featured_image_height":762,"featured_image_width":1015,"post_summary":"

As a manager, it's important to remember that you are not just a leader of a team, but a leader of individuals. Each person on your team has their own unique personality, strengths, and weaknesses, and it's your job as a manager to not only recognize but also utilize these qualities to drive the success of your business.

\n","public_access_rules_enabled":false,"public_access_rules":[],"has_user_changes":true,"last_edit_session_id":null,"last_edit_update_id":null,"html_title":null,"tag_ids":[23667170488],"topic_ids":[23667170488],"campaign_name":null,"campaign_utm":null,"enable_google_amp_output_override":false,"featured_image":"https://5256430.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/5256430/Temp%20Images/looking-through-telescope-2.png","featured_image_alt_text":"","head_html":null,"link_rel_canonical_url":null,"meta_description":"Authentic Leadership: Fostering a Positive Work Culture and Driving Business Success","post_body":"

As a manager, it's important to remember that you are not just a leader of a team, but a leader of individuals. Each person on your team has their own unique personality, strengths, and weaknesses, and it's your job as a manager to not only recognize but also utilize these qualities to drive the success of your business.

\n\n

 

\n

Authentic leadership is a management style that emphasizes being true to one's self and leading in a way that reflects their individual values and beliefs. This type of leadership is not just about being yourself, but also about creating an environment where your team feels comfortable being themselves and bringing their own unique qualities to the table.

\n

One of the biggest benefits of having an authentic leadership style is that it fosters a positive work culture. When team members feel like they can be their true selves, they are more likely to be engaged and invested in their work. This leads to higher levels of creativity and productivity, as well as a more cohesive team dynamic.

\n

Authentic leadership also helps to build trust between you and your team. When you lead by example and show your team that you are willing to be transparent and open about your own beliefs and values, they are more likely to trust you and feel comfortable sharing their own thoughts and opinions. This, in turn, can lead to more effective collaboration and problem-solving.

\n

Another benefit of having an authentic leadership style is that it can help you to better understand your team and their needs. When you get to know your team members on a personal level and understand what drives them, you are better equipped to make decisions that will support their growth and development. This, in turn, can help to retain top talent and ensure that your team continues to perform at a high level.

\n

In conclusion, letting your personality shine through your management style is not just about being yourself, but about creating a work environment where everyone feels comfortable being themselves. By embracing an authentic leadership style, you can foster a positive work culture, build trust with your team, better understand your team's needs, and develop a strong personal brand. So go ahead, let your personality shine and lead with authenticity!

","publish_immediately":null,"use_featured_image":true,"layout_sections":{},"published_by_id":10609172,"published_at":1690978406284,"rss_body":"

As a manager, it's important to remember that you are not just a leader of a team, but a leader of individuals. Each person on your team has their own unique personality, strengths, and weaknesses, and it's your job as a manager to not only recognize but also utilize these qualities to drive the success of your business.

\n\n

 

\n

Authentic leadership is a management style that emphasizes being true to one's self and leading in a way that reflects their individual values and beliefs. This type of leadership is not just about being yourself, but also about creating an environment where your team feels comfortable being themselves and bringing their own unique qualities to the table.

\n

One of the biggest benefits of having an authentic leadership style is that it fosters a positive work culture. When team members feel like they can be their true selves, they are more likely to be engaged and invested in their work. This leads to higher levels of creativity and productivity, as well as a more cohesive team dynamic.

\n

Authentic leadership also helps to build trust between you and your team. When you lead by example and show your team that you are willing to be transparent and open about your own beliefs and values, they are more likely to trust you and feel comfortable sharing their own thoughts and opinions. This, in turn, can lead to more effective collaboration and problem-solving.

\n

Another benefit of having an authentic leadership style is that it can help you to better understand your team and their needs. When you get to know your team members on a personal level and understand what drives them, you are better equipped to make decisions that will support their growth and development. This, in turn, can help to retain top talent and ensure that your team continues to perform at a high level.

\n

In conclusion, letting your personality shine through your management style is not just about being yourself, but about creating a work environment where everyone feels comfortable being themselves. By embracing an authentic leadership style, you can foster a positive work culture, build trust with your team, better understand your team's needs, and develop a strong personal brand. So go ahead, let your personality shine and lead with authenticity!

","rss_summary":"

As a manager, it's important to remember that you are not just a leader of a team, but a leader of individuals. Each person on your team has their own unique personality, strengths, and weaknesses, and it's your job as a manager to not only recognize but also utilize these qualities to drive the success of your business.

\n","scheduled_update_date":0,"blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE_NOT_SENT","blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":"DONE","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null}

{"attached_stylesheets":[],"post_summary":"

In this new age of information overload, passive job searching has been made so easy that it’s only a matter of time before it reaches parity with today’s dating apps. \"Job looks decent enough, sure, swipe right. Oh, I matched! Gotta go text my boss and let them know today is my last day.”  

\n","has_user_changes":true,"last_edit_session_id":null,"last_edit_update_id":null,"html_title":null,"tag_ids":[],"topic_ids":[],"campaign_name":null,"campaign_utm":null,"enable_google_amp_output_override":false,"featured_image":"https://f.hubspotusercontent30.net/hubfs/5256430/Blog%20Images/16b.png","featured_image_alt_text":"","head_html":null,"link_rel_canonical_url":null,"meta_description":"Step by step directions to help you run a career discussion","post_body":"

In this new age of information overload, passive job searching has been made so easy that it’s only a matter of time before it reaches parity with today’s dating apps. \"Job looks decent enough, sure, swipe right. Oh, I matched! Gotta go text my boss and let them know today is my last day.”  

\n\n

 

\n

To put that into context versus the past, job searching involved high effort exercises like actually preparing for and attending job fairs or searching through help wanted ads in newspapers. This provided so much friction, it made job searching a herculean effort. That’s all changed. I don’t know where to start getting milk delivered from the dairy directly nowadays. So face the facts. Most of your employees have visited a job search website in the past 24 hours. Probably from the company internet. Probably nothing serious, but it’s so easy, why wouldn’t they? 

\n

This brings me to the point of this post. You need to be transparent about job searching. You should be acting as a steward of your employee’s career and not just a passive participant. Embrace it. Encourage it.

\n

 

\n

This leads me to one of the favorite types of 1:1 meetings I would have when I was managing the sales team at BrightGauge. I’d ask the participants to bring me the job that they wanted to work towards from outside the company. I essentially asked them to job search.  We would review what they brought back and have an honest discussion of how likely they would qualify for the job, try to find the compensation numbers, see if there were any cons... basically job search as a team for them.  From there we would map out the skills they needed, what they had to work on, and where they truly stood now based on how they were compensated currently. This provided a great forum for open and honest communication about everything from job roles to compensation,  without keeping either party guessing about . 

\n

 

\n

I can honestly say that everyone who participated in this process has said it’s one of the best meetings the company would run. Think it through. Try it out with someone you’ve been meaning to get more clarity from. You might surprise them, and yourself.

","publish_immediately":true,"use_featured_image":true,"published_by_id":10609172,"published_at":1607965622929,"rss_body":"

In this new age of information overload, passive job searching has been made so easy that it’s only a matter of time before it reaches parity with today’s dating apps. \"Job looks decent enough, sure, swipe right. Oh, I matched! Gotta go text my boss and let them know today is my last day.”  

\n\n

 

\n

To put that into context versus the past, job searching involved high effort exercises like actually preparing for and attending job fairs or searching through help wanted ads in newspapers. This provided so much friction, it made job searching a herculean effort. That’s all changed. I don’t know where to start getting milk delivered from the dairy directly nowadays. So face the facts. Most of your employees have visited a job search website in the past 24 hours. Probably from the company internet. Probably nothing serious, but it’s so easy, why wouldn’t they? 

\n

This brings me to the point of this post. You need to be transparent about job searching. You should be acting as a steward of your employee’s career and not just a passive participant. Embrace it. Encourage it.

\n

 

\n

This leads me to one of the favorite types of 1:1 meetings I would have when I was managing the sales team at BrightGauge. I’d ask the participants to bring me the job that they wanted to work towards from outside the company. I essentially asked them to job search.  We would review what they brought back and have an honest discussion of how likely they would qualify for the job, try to find the compensation numbers, see if there were any cons... basically job search as a team for them.  From there we would map out the skills they needed, what they had to work on, and where they truly stood now based on how they were compensated currently. This provided a great forum for open and honest communication about everything from job roles to compensation,  without keeping either party guessing about . 

\n

 

\n

I can honestly say that everyone who participated in this process has said it’s one of the best meetings the company would run. Think it through. Try it out with someone you’ve been meaning to get more clarity from. You might surprise them, and yourself.

","rss_summary":"

In this new age of information overload, passive job searching has been made so easy that it’s only a matter of time before it reaches parity with today’s dating apps. \"Job looks decent enough, sure, swipe right. Oh, I matched! Gotta go text my boss and let them know today is my last day.”  

\n","blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":"5256430-38700227669-1607979715684","blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null}

{"tag_ids":[23667170488],"rss_body":"

This may sound obvious but not everyone really gets it…. 

\n\n

Developing and maintaining client relationships is essential to growing and retaining your customer base.

\n

Yes, you’re in the Managed Services/IT business and keeping their technology humming is priority #1... but you’re also very much in the business of customer service, and the foundation of any successful customer service effort is an honest understanding and genuine interest in the customer’s business and their success.

\n

Are you genuinely interested in your customer’s success???

\n

When was the last time you talked to your customer about their business and not just their tech? Some MSPs rely on QBRs or renewals to prompt these conversations, but you need to establish a more continuous conversation around this topic. Leverage every interaction with your client as an opportunity to build and strengthen your relationship, from the first touch with sales, to their implementation, and at every onsite visit to ask a simple question: How’s business treating you?

\n

Priorities can change in an instant, and they’re often different from stakeholder to stakeholder, so unless you’re regularly asking what people are focused on, you’ll always be reacting to needs rather than getting out in front of them.

\n

A quick conversation onsite can uncover an upcoming project or a knot of new hires that could have been hurled into the service desk, unannounced, with high priority leaving your team in react/panic-mode.

\n

Once you’ve embraced the importance of the customer service mindset, it’ll set off a chain reaction of positive outcomes for your business. 

\n

A customer service mindset requires you to identify how you can add real value for the customer. Adding real value builds trust with the client. Once a degree of trust has been established, the client is more likely to see you as a strategic partner - not outsourced IT. At that point, clients become advocates, and in an industry where new business is still very much reliant on word-of-mouth, that trust you’ve built from operating with a customer service mindset will have a direct impact on your business’s growth.

\n

Relationship building is more of an art than a science, and it all starts with how you communicate and educate your clients on working with you. There’s no one way to turn clients into advocates, but there are some best practices you can follow to ensure your doing your part:

\n

 

\n

Develop Relationships Early

\n

Immerse yourself! Get to know the client inside and out. Dedicate time to know their culture and what they feel makes them unique. If you’re not sure how to bring the latter out, take time to share things about yourself and your team to open the communication beyond the confines of their tech and your offerings.

\n

You can also stay current by following them and their industry leaders on social media & subscribing to their blogs. Give yourself every opportunity to understand what internal and external forces are influencing their business. Not only will this show the client you care about their success, but it will help you to cater your offerings around their needs.

\n

 

\n

Nail the Sales/Implementation Handoff

\n

Client onboarding is the most critical phase of relationship building. To really nail onboarding, you must have an internal process in place that identifies the following:

\n

\n
• What does the client really want? What is their Job to be Done?
\n
• Who are the decision makers, implementers, and key stakeholders?
\n

\n

Your implementation team needs this information before they begin working with the client so make sure your sales team (over)shares this information with the onboarding specialists.

\n

And if you really want to execute, introduce the implementation team during the sales process. This will make for a smooth & effective transition for all parties. 

\n

 

\n

Set Clear Expectations

\n

Set clear expectations from the onset and not only will you be in a better position to serve your client, you'll also teach them how to work best with you. 

\n

Schedule out when and detail why you’ll be connecting with them during onboarding. Set timelines for how and when they’re going to get started with new products. Detail how to access and use company & product info. Be clear with how & who they should communicate with so when they need something, they’re not being passed around and feeling like your team is disorganized. 

\n

Establishing expectations early will go a long way in reducing any sort of miscommunication that could derail the relationship-building process during this critical period.

\n

 

\n

Establish Multiple Communication Channels

\n

It’s important to keep lines of communication open as well as providing multiple options for the client, as preferred methods of communication may differ from company to company and even person to person.

\n

Make sure your clients know all the ways they can reach you. Combine email, phone, communication software (MS Teams & Slack), support tickets, etc to make it as easy as possible for them while making it effective and efficient for you.

\n

 

\n

Be Proactive, Stay Proactive

\n

Inform clients of occurrences of tech problems. Get out in front, control the message, and assure them that you’re doing everything you can to resolve the issue in a timely manner. Customers will appreciate the transparency, and it will help continue building trust.

\n

Looking at the bigger picture, your customers decide to work with you because of your knowledge and expertise. This goes beyond providing IT/MS support. If there are emerging strategies, technologies, or tactics that would benefit your customers, it’s your responsibility to be aware of them and advise them on how they should be leveraged. If a client starts to bring these types of ideas to you, they will lose faith in your expertise and your relationship will take a hit.

\n

 

\n

Respond Promptly

\n

Replying quickly shows respect. If a client reaches out, acknowledge it as quickly as possible, even if you can’t yet resolve their issue. Let them you’re looking into their inquiry and, if possible, give a timeline. 

\n

 

\n

Use Every Interaction to Deliver Value

\n

It’s your job to help them achieve their desired outcomes with your offerings. Speak to and think of their needs, not yours with every interaction. You want your client to see you as an extension of their team, not a vendor.

\n

Use your tools to see where there’s room to expand then make a clear case why it will help their business. You can do this in lighter ways too, by sharing relevant resources such as blog posts or insights that could help them resolve problems and improve their processes.

\n

To summarize, manage your client relationships like you run your own teams. Have regular conversations through onsites, emails, phone calls, and QBRs. Help educate your clients on how you intend to work together. In return you’ll have clearer, more effective communication and, most importantly, the foundation for a mutually beneficial relationship that will serve you both for years to come.

\n

 

","head_html":null,"post_body":"

This may sound obvious but not everyone really gets it…. 

\n\n

Developing and maintaining client relationships is essential to growing and retaining your customer base.

\n

Yes, you’re in the Managed Services/IT business and keeping their technology humming is priority #1... but you’re also very much in the business of customer service, and the foundation of any successful customer service effort is an honest understanding and genuine interest in the customer’s business and their success.

\n

Are you genuinely interested in your customer’s success???

\n

When was the last time you talked to your customer about their business and not just their tech? Some MSPs rely on QBRs or renewals to prompt these conversations, but you need to establish a more continuous conversation around this topic. Leverage every interaction with your client as an opportunity to build and strengthen your relationship, from the first touch with sales, to their implementation, and at every onsite visit to ask a simple question: How’s business treating you?

\n

Priorities can change in an instant, and they’re often different from stakeholder to stakeholder, so unless you’re regularly asking what people are focused on, you’ll always be reacting to needs rather than getting out in front of them.

\n

A quick conversation onsite can uncover an upcoming project or a knot of new hires that could have been hurled into the service desk, unannounced, with high priority leaving your team in react/panic-mode.

\n

Once you’ve embraced the importance of the customer service mindset, it’ll set off a chain reaction of positive outcomes for your business. 

\n

A customer service mindset requires you to identify how you can add real value for the customer. Adding real value builds trust with the client. Once a degree of trust has been established, the client is more likely to see you as a strategic partner - not outsourced IT. At that point, clients become advocates, and in an industry where new business is still very much reliant on word-of-mouth, that trust you’ve built from operating with a customer service mindset will have a direct impact on your business’s growth.

\n

Relationship building is more of an art than a science, and it all starts with how you communicate and educate your clients on working with you. There’s no one way to turn clients into advocates, but there are some best practices you can follow to ensure your doing your part:

\n

 

\n

Develop Relationships Early

\n

Immerse yourself! Get to know the client inside and out. Dedicate time to know their culture and what they feel makes them unique. If you’re not sure how to bring the latter out, take time to share things about yourself and your team to open the communication beyond the confines of their tech and your offerings.

\n

You can also stay current by following them and their industry leaders on social media & subscribing to their blogs. Give yourself every opportunity to understand what internal and external forces are influencing their business. Not only will this show the client you care about their success, but it will help you to cater your offerings around their needs.

\n

 

\n

Nail the Sales/Implementation Handoff

\n

Client onboarding is the most critical phase of relationship building. To really nail onboarding, you must have an internal process in place that identifies the following:

\n

\n
• What does the client really want? What is their Job to be Done?
\n
• Who are the decision makers, implementers, and key stakeholders?
\n

\n

Your implementation team needs this information before they begin working with the client so make sure your sales team (over)shares this information with the onboarding specialists.

\n

And if you really want to execute, introduce the implementation team during the sales process. This will make for a smooth & effective transition for all parties. 

\n

 

\n

Set Clear Expectations

\n

Set clear expectations from the onset and not only will you be in a better position to serve your client, you'll also teach them how to work best with you. 

\n

Schedule out when and detail why you’ll be connecting with them during onboarding. Set timelines for how and when they’re going to get started with new products. Detail how to access and use company & product info. Be clear with how & who they should communicate with so when they need something, they’re not being passed around and feeling like your team is disorganized. 

\n

Establishing expectations early will go a long way in reducing any sort of miscommunication that could derail the relationship-building process during this critical period.

\n

 

\n

Establish Multiple Communication Channels

\n

It’s important to keep lines of communication open as well as providing multiple options for the client, as preferred methods of communication may differ from company to company and even person to person.

\n

Make sure your clients know all the ways they can reach you. Combine email, phone, communication software (MS Teams & Slack), support tickets, etc to make it as easy as possible for them while making it effective and efficient for you.

\n

 

\n

Be Proactive, Stay Proactive

\n

Inform clients of occurrences of tech problems. Get out in front, control the message, and assure them that you’re doing everything you can to resolve the issue in a timely manner. Customers will appreciate the transparency, and it will help continue building trust.

\n

Looking at the bigger picture, your customers decide to work with you because of your knowledge and expertise. This goes beyond providing IT/MS support. If there are emerging strategies, technologies, or tactics that would benefit your customers, it’s your responsibility to be aware of them and advise them on how they should be leveraged. If a client starts to bring these types of ideas to you, they will lose faith in your expertise and your relationship will take a hit.

\n

 

\n

Respond Promptly

\n

Replying quickly shows respect. If a client reaches out, acknowledge it as quickly as possible, even if you can’t yet resolve their issue. Let them you’re looking into their inquiry and, if possible, give a timeline. 

\n

 

\n

Use Every Interaction to Deliver Value

\n

It’s your job to help them achieve their desired outcomes with your offerings. Speak to and think of their needs, not yours with every interaction. You want your client to see you as an extension of their team, not a vendor.

\n

Use your tools to see where there’s room to expand then make a clear case why it will help their business. You can do this in lighter ways too, by sharing relevant resources such as blog posts or insights that could help them resolve problems and improve their processes.

\n

To summarize, manage your client relationships like you run your own teams. Have regular conversations through onsites, emails, phone calls, and QBRs. Help educate your clients on how you intend to work together. In return you’ll have clearer, more effective communication and, most importantly, the foundation for a mutually beneficial relationship that will serve you both for years to come.

\n

 

","topic_ids":[23667170488],"html_title":null,"rss_summary":"

This may sound obvious but not everyone really gets it…. 

\n","campaign_utm":null,"post_summary":"

This may sound obvious but not everyone really gets it…. 

\n","published_at":1600873341647,"campaign_name":null,"featured_image":"https://f.hubspotusercontent30.net/hubfs/5256430/Blog%20Images/23b.png","layout_sections":{},"published_by_id":9725277,"has_user_changes":true,"meta_description":"Tips and best practices for developing strong client relationships through a customer service mindset built on trust and effective communication","use_featured_image":true,"last_edit_update_id":null,"publish_immediately":true,"attached_stylesheets":[],"last_edit_session_id":null,"link_rel_canonical_url":null,"featured_image_alt_text":"Client Relationship ","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE","enable_google_amp_output_override":false,"blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":"DONE"}

{"attached_stylesheets":[],"post_summary":"

Unless you’re a sales rep for Zoom, it's pretty safe to say that whatever goals you had at the beginning of the year now look like a stretch.  Now that the dust has settled from 2020’s rollercoaster first half, it’s time to climb up the tree to see if you’re still on the right path. It’s time for a midyear gut check. 

\n","has_user_changes":true,"last_edit_session_id":null,"last_edit_update_id":null,"html_title":null,"tag_ids":[23667170488,23182286584],"topic_ids":[23667170488,23182286584],"layout_sections":{},"campaign_name":null,"campaign_utm":null,"enable_google_amp_output_override":false,"featured_image":"https://f.hubspotusercontent30.net/hubfs/5256430/19b.png","featured_image_alt_text":"midyear-performance-goals-meetings","head_html":null,"link_rel_canonical_url":null,"meta_description":"Performance goals must be relevant to remain effective. Make sure your goals still reflect your organizations needs with a midyear gut check!","post_body":"

Unless you’re a sales rep for Zoom, it's pretty safe to say that whatever goals you had at the beginning of the year now look like a stretch.  Now that the dust has settled from 2020’s rollercoaster first half, it’s time to climb up the tree to see if you’re still on the right path. It’s time for a midyear gut check. 

\n\n

This year more than ever, it’s vital to do a mid-year review with your direct report or manager. Reviewing the last 6 months worth of work and assessing what stays and what goes will yield one of the highest ROI's of any meeting on your Q3 calendar. It does not have to be a very long meeting, but it does have to be very intentional. 

\n

For starters it's a good time to check with your counterpart on how they're feeling about their progress this year. You may have done this more casually throughout the year already but it's important to give the discussion some structure, to record the meeting, and to assign and track any actions or to-dos that come out of it.

\n

To kick it off, review what was planned at the beginning of the year: What were the numbers or outcomes that were agreed upon to signal success on your yearly goals? You should both ask yourselves “are these still appropriate goals considering how the year has gone”?. Adjusting goal-targets is a huge key to keeping employee morale and motivation high.

\n

You should also ask yourself “Do we need to scrap any of these goals right here and now?”. Priorities change quickly and what was important or feasible in January may not be any longer. If a goal needs to be scrapped, mutually agree on new 2nd half goals that take the reality of 2020’s 2nd half expectations into consideration. 

\n

 

\n

\n

 

\n

Once you've agreed upon 2nd half numbers and/outcomes, put them in writing and break them down so they're more manageable. Plan out the next major steps (2-3) that will put you on the right track to hit that number or goal for the end of the year. The, most importantly, set a regular recurring time to check in with the goal owner and get updates on their progress towards the goal or KPI.

\n

With less opportunity for in-office face-time, it’s important to get more frequent updates without taking up any additional time. We have personally used Strety's Goals & Check Ins to get more consistent reads on how everyone is doing, feeling, and progressing towards their goals and we haven’t missed a beat; effectively replacing our need for a Daily Stand Up.

\n

Lastly, praise. Everyone has faced their own personal challenges and hardships adjusting their work around WFH and a global pandemic. Remember to use the meeting to also acknowledge and emphasize what’s been accomplished amidst such a tough year. Your team will thank you for it. 

\n

 

","publish_immediately":false,"use_featured_image":true,"published_by_id":10284841,"published_at":1595455310320,"rss_body":"

Unless you’re a sales rep for Zoom, it's pretty safe to say that whatever goals you had at the beginning of the year now look like a stretch.  Now that the dust has settled from 2020’s rollercoaster first half, it’s time to climb up the tree to see if you’re still on the right path. It’s time for a midyear gut check. 

\n\n

This year more than ever, it’s vital to do a mid-year review with your direct report or manager. Reviewing the last 6 months worth of work and assessing what stays and what goes will yield one of the highest ROI's of any meeting on your Q3 calendar. It does not have to be a very long meeting, but it does have to be very intentional. 

\n

For starters it's a good time to check with your counterpart on how they're feeling about their progress this year. You may have done this more casually throughout the year already but it's important to give the discussion some structure, to record the meeting, and to assign and track any actions or to-dos that come out of it.

\n

To kick it off, review what was planned at the beginning of the year: What were the numbers or outcomes that were agreed upon to signal success on your yearly goals? You should both ask yourselves “are these still appropriate goals considering how the year has gone”?. Adjusting goal-targets is a huge key to keeping employee morale and motivation high.

\n

You should also ask yourself “Do we need to scrap any of these goals right here and now?”. Priorities change quickly and what was important or feasible in January may not be any longer. If a goal needs to be scrapped, mutually agree on new 2nd half goals that take the reality of 2020’s 2nd half expectations into consideration. 

\n

 

\n

\n

 

\n

Once you've agreed upon 2nd half numbers and/outcomes, put them in writing and break them down so they're more manageable. Plan out the next major steps (2-3) that will put you on the right track to hit that number or goal for the end of the year. The, most importantly, set a regular recurring time to check in with the goal owner and get updates on their progress towards the goal or KPI.

\n

With less opportunity for in-office face-time, it’s important to get more frequent updates without taking up any additional time. We have personally used Strety's Goals & Check Ins to get more consistent reads on how everyone is doing, feeling, and progressing towards their goals and we haven’t missed a beat; effectively replacing our need for a Daily Stand Up.

\n

Lastly, praise. Everyone has faced their own personal challenges and hardships adjusting their work around WFH and a global pandemic. Remember to use the meeting to also acknowledge and emphasize what’s been accomplished amidst such a tough year. Your team will thank you for it. 

\n

 

","rss_summary":"

Unless you’re a sales rep for Zoom, it's pretty safe to say that whatever goals you had at the beginning of the year now look like a stretch.  Now that the dust has settled from 2020’s rollercoaster first half, it’s time to climb up the tree to see if you’re still on the right path. It’s time for a midyear gut check. 

\n","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":"DONE","blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE"}