And, generally speaking, a "team player" will do a GOOD job as he/she understands that success for the team reciprocates back into personal success as well.

It is my experience that those with a bigger-picture view deliver better results than those who are simply "trading labor for dollars."

That's why I also have contractors in my list. They're the ones who get paid when they do a GOOD job, not just an adequate job.

But Jay... these people you're consulting were hired because they're team players, not because they know what they're doing. When you're called on for a decision, isn't it too late to consult?

If I don't know the answers? I go to those who do. Seasoned maintenance technicians, maintenance supervisors, or even our corporate maintenance director. If they are not available or don't know, I ask my contractors; the folks who have come out and worked for me and our company solving problems that we can't handle at site level.

Just because they're sales people doesn't mean they can't learn. If they're not willing to try to learn, that's a different story.

I'm also the guy that crosstrains my leasing and maintenance new hires. I have the leasing team shadow our maintenance team for a day or two so they understand what happens in the field. That way, they know what kinds of questions to ask on service calls, and they understand that the techs aren't just loafing around doing nothing. Likewise, I have the maintenance techs shadow the office team for a day or two so they see we're not just having a party and making their lives miserable with unrealistic promises, but trying to fill a need our customers have.

Teamwork!

Thanks Jay, but their pretty much all the same. They're sales people. In my home state at least, they are legally required to be sales people. So, the only people allowed to do the job, can't do the job. Owners are paying more than they should, tenants are getting less than they should, and a group of well dressed folks talk about sales techniques but they're not selling anything except a maintenance plan. If (and I'm not asking you to admit it to anyone but yourself) if you didn't know the answers to the questions I posed earlier, who would you ask? The guy YOU hired? The internet? When the ceiling falls in, it's too late to ask.

Perry wrote:

Would you let your maintenance guy drop you out of the loop? Let me reason with you as you seem like a reasonable fellow. If you didn't know what size(s) sheetrock your buildings were hung with, if you didn't know what the distribution pipe is made of, and you didn't know what would happen if you reversed the black and white wires, should you really be dealing with that stuff? Should you be hiring a person who does deal with these things? Should you be managing procedures to administer these things? IF, I'm only saying IF.

If I don't know these things, I make it a point to ask, to learn. I want to know these things so that I can make the best decisions possible in line with my owner's goals. If something comes up that I don't know, I ask: why is it that way? Can it be done another way? What are our options?

Most importantly, I ask: What do you think we should do?

Why? Because I don't know everything. I know enough to know that I don't, that I won't, and I'm confident enough in my ability at what I do know to admit that.

If you (or your managers) work for a company that doesn't understand that not everyone can know everything about everything, then I might suggest looking for new employers.