The Big Idea with Ron Davis
August, 2010
Are You in the Driver’s Seat?
When Mike Duffy told me his great idea, I just looked at him and for a second, the image of a bus flashed through my mind. I then realized what he was really saying.
The companies that we work with are the “buses” in our lives. The quality of the ride and the satisfaction that we get from it is in large part determined by making sure we have the right seat in that bus.
There are so many unhappy people working at jobs they do not enjoy, and it provides little or no satisfaction. Duffy’s idea really gets to the root of those problems. As a manager, do you have the right people in the right job? Do you have room for the people you want on your team? Have you thought about where the bus is going? In other words, have you set goals?
Steering in the Right Direction
If you’re an employee without the ability to establish your own place on the bus, have you made every effort to educate yourself on the job you would like to have? Have you let your superiors know what it is you would like to do in the company?
Getting the right people in the right seats is certainly a key ingredient to success in the alarm industry. Sometimes, in spite of all of the care and thought you give to the process, some people will not make the greatest decision and people will be in the wrong seat. When that happens, recognize it and do something about it.
Make sure your goal and your job are perfectly aligned to get you to where you want to be.
Driving Toward Success
A day after I had done the interview with Duffy, I got an E-mail from him with three more great ideas. Each of them is worthy of a column, but I’d like to pass them on to you now:
- “If you don’t take care of the cow, there won’t be any milk to fight over.”
- “Be nice to people on your way up, because you may need them on your way down.”
- The Golden Rule: “Treat the customers and employees the way you want to be treated and the financial rewards will follow.”
I would like to add the Iron Rule: Always do for yourself first what you would do for others, and in that way, both of you will be rewarded for the efforts you put forth.
As long as I have written about the Golden Rule and the Iron Rule, you might be interested in the Silver Rule: Never do for someone else that which they should do for themselves, for surely that would be the ruination of you both!
You might want to jot those down, put them up on your bulletin board and occasionally glance at them. If you do, you will always have these three elements handy for success in the alarm business.
Ron Davis is Security Sales & Integration‘s “What’s the Big Idea?” columnist and contributing market analyst. He is president of Davis Group, a full-service consulting firm serving the security industry, which also includes GraybeardsRus. He has 35 years of industry experience, including founding Security Associates Int’l in the 1980s.