The Polished Perspective: Keep Calm and Chive On!
Tom McNall
Floor Restoration Consultant
The hustle and bustle of everyday construction life can get pretty hectic most days. Restoration of stone is a tricky business and Getting The Job Done often means you are working in the homes and businesses of some very rich people.
They always have many beautiful, luxurious and highly expensive “things” scattered around – things in which one slip-up could cost you or your insurance company more than what the job is worth! It is therefore important to remember the acronym KCCO – Keep Calm and Chive On! It is like a modern day way of saying “Hang Ten” or “No Worries” but I like this better because it stresses being calm. Now, why is that important to me? Let me count the ways….
First of all, there is no such thing as a stone emergency. No one is going to die and no one’s child is going to go hungry if you don’t restore someone’s stone today or this weekend. And in my experience, contractors who are in a hurry for you to fix their mistake are never quick to want to pay you. I can’t explain why exactly, but it always works out that way. So if you like getting paid, KCCO, my friend, slow it down. Get all your paperwork signed and commitments and terms agreed to before you take care of the stone. Otherwise, you will get stressed out.
Another reason staff should keep calm relates to sales. While pricing a job, getting nervous while talking to a customer can come across as weakness and a lack of experience. If they think they can beat you up on price they will try. And if they think you do not know what you are talking about, they will dismiss your bid altogether.
You should never talk to a customer while stressed out or overly excited either. They could also think you are lying to them. Either way, it doesn’t reflect well on your company or your future bank account balance.
A nervous worker can be dangerous on a stone restoration jobsite for numerous reasons. Number one, if you are always rushing your staff and telling them to hurry up, sooner or later, one will trip with a mop bucket or knock a $40,000 Fabergé egg off of a shelf by accident. Whether you have insurance or not, breaking or tarnishing an expensive item doesn’t help your cause – because you need the money from the job, not a broken fancy thing!
Another reason for stone workers to KCCO is when it comes to grinding. Hand grinders are small, they spin fast which can create damage quicker than you can notice and they are hard to keep level while working them because of the speed and small tool size. And getting stressed while using a grinder is much like getting frustrated by your golf game while on the links. The harder you try, the more mistakes you will make causing further problems. And you only get so many Mulligans when you are creating craters in someone’s countertop.
Your technicians need to know when to KCCO or step back and analyze just what is working and what is not with the situation, and plan the positive action based on their knowledge and tools on hand. Pushing them when frustrated is a “counter” productive method.
There’s a saying “A watched pot never boils, but a worker under a microscope will screw up quickly.” Well, it’s a saying now. This is because, when an employee is trying to impress you, or is afraid to screw up, he usually will because that is what he’s thinking about. That’s why people taking driving tests make foolish mistakes, because they’re under a spotlight and are afraid of doing one thing and then miss another.
The secret to letting them KCCO is to give them verbal instruction up front, have them watch an experienced technician do what you need them to do for a few minutes and then let them try. Curb them quickly if they are too wild, and once they are ready, push them out of the nest to fly on their own. Ensure you offer lots of praise when they do it right. Tell them what to beware of and then let them do it. As long as they are calm, they shouldn’t screw up.
Now of course, the ultimate way to teach them is at a shop on a test floor, but many times on a job, you need to increase a technician’s experience level immediately to meet a deadline.
So until next month, keep your stick on the ice and reduce stress by KCCO-ing!
Tom McNall is founder and owner of Great Northern Stone, an Ontario-based stone cleaning and restoration company servicing Ontario and Chicago, IL. Tom also offers corporate and private consultations as well as speaking at conventions. He can be reached at tom@greatnorthernstone.com.