erin.hardwick@ifs.com, Author at Future of Field Service

Episode 297

In the second half of this episode of the Unscripted Podcast, host Sarah Nicastro reflects on the top Unscripted podcast episodes of 2024, celebrating the inspiring guests, diverse topics, and invaluable insights shared throughout the year. Sarah delves into conversations on neurodiversity, authenticity in leadership, mental health awareness, and more with Tristan Lavender, Roy Dockery, Tim Spencer, Marco Hugo Guiterrez, and Rob Stephenson.

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Episode Highlights:

[00:55] - Episode 292: Are You Overlooking the Importance and Impact of Neurodiversity at Work?: In this episode, Tristan Lavender dives into why neurodivergent individuals are vital to innovation and how companies can create environments where they thrive.
[03:36] - Episode 252: The Art of Leading: This episode is packed with insights on authentic leadership from Roy Dockery. Roy's perspective on authenticity stood out as he believes it's more than being genuine; it's about embracing your unique qualities, sharing your passions and vulnerabilities, and creating a ripple effect of respect and empowerment in your team.
[05:07] - Episode 282: Reflecting on a 35+ Year Career in Field Service: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t, and Where Are We Headed Next?: Drawing from his experience, Tim Spencer shares a powerful guiding principle: always look for the next problem to solve, not for innovation's sake, but to truly make things better.
[07:07] - Episode 265: Smashing Stigma Around Mental Health & Prioritizing Well-Being at Work: Inspired by his own journey, Rob Stephenson shared powerful insights on fostering psychological safety, reducing stigma, and truly listening to employees to understand their needs.

[09:37] - Episode 247: Tetra Pak’s Proven Ways of Supporting Field Force: Marco Hugo Guiterrez shared proven strategies for supporting field force well-being, highlighting the importance of flexibility in work modalities, such as offering remote support roles or back-office rotations to accommodate personal needs.

As 2024 comes to a close, I (like many) want to take a moment to reflect back on a year full of ups and downs, ebbs and flows, laughs and tears, and so much more. I’ve shared before that I am working on my ability to slow down and reflect – I am one to move quickly, propelling myself on to the next thing, next year without reaping the benefit that comes from this practice of reflection. As a work in progress, this exercise in and of itself is a bit of self-prescribed homework and I appreciate you coming along for the ride.

As I share below my five favorite professional moments and my five favorite personal moments, it’s impossible not to acknowledge how interconnected the two lists are. This is because, for me, I have found that the idea of work/life balance is very hard to achieve – creating a flexible work/life blend is more realistic. Here’s a couple examples to help you visualize what I mean: On my anniversary trip to Iceland, I was working hard on and off on the upcoming Stand Out 50 announcement. While at IFS Unleashed, I was up extra late putting the finishing touches on plans for my son’s 8^th birthday the following week.

This blend is also reflected in the wonderful friendships developed with people I’ve met in my professional life – the moments shared with those individuals are most definitely a highlight of the year and the reason I gladly pour so much of myself into my work. So, here goes – my favorite moments of 2024!

5 Professional Highlights

Connecting with the Future of Field Service community IRL. There’s something special about the community that’s been created with Future of Field Service, and one of my very favorite things is spending time with that community in person. This year that happened at our Stockholm and Cologne events, at IFS Unleashed, and at a variety of other industry events. At an event this fall, someone who had attended one of our Paris events last year said, “I’m not sure you remember me…” Of course I do! The individuals who engage with Future of Field Service are who make it what it is – and I’m so thankful for each of you. The moments of human connection, the thoughtful dialogue, the knowledge sharing that pushes us as individuals but also our

respective industries forward – it’s the best part of what I do.

Spending time with Joern Lindstaedt, SVP Global Customer Service at Rolls-Royce Power Systems, who spoke at our Future of Field Service Live event in Cologne in June.

Speaking at/engaging in industry events. Beyond our own community, I appreciate all that comes from taking part in other industry events. This year that included giving keynote presentations at Lely’s annual leadership conference, Field Service Palm Springs, and Field Service East, speaking to a class at The American University in Cairo about service transformation and innovation, being a guest on Aquant’s podcast, taking part in the Advanced Service Group’s Service Innovation workshop at Tetra Pak, presenting alongside IFS customer Alfa Laval at Field Service Europe, and taking part in the Service Council’s Sustainability Service Journey Day at Tetra Pak. Phew!

Rehearsal for my keynote presentation at Lely’s Care Conference in Texas in February.

The first-ever Future of Field Service Stand Out 50 Leadership awards. I spoke at length about why we decided to create the Stand Out 50 and why it was such an important initiative – not only to recognize 50 leaders creating significant impact, but to continue to emphasize the value these leaders – and the service function itself – bring to their respective businesses. What will stand out in my mind (no pun intended ?) from launching the awards this year is the heartfelt thank you’s I’ve received from the recipients. To see their organizations acknowledge the award with press releases and their own social campaigns, and then to hear from many of them 1-1 what that meant to them and their teams made the hard work of bringing this to life more than worth it.

Promotion of the Stand Out 50 in Times Square, NYC.

IFS Unleashed. Not only did the official Stand Out 50 announcement take place at IFS Unleashed in October, but so did much more! From witnessing sessions from the likes of Usain Bolt and Gary Player that quite literally brought me to tears, to all the energy created as IFS shared its vision for the future, it was a week for the books. More than anything else, though, what meant the most to me was the ability to spend time in person with our amazing customers. I shared on LinkedIn after, “For me, it's never first about the business or the deals or the next big thing; it's always first about the people, the relationships, the community (and I do genuinely believe that's what drives the best outcomes). There's simply no substitute for having the opportunity to see customers in person and give them a hug, or ride a crazy rollercoaster, or sit and talk about what this journey all means. Those face-to-face moments - that human connection - is what makes all the innovation happen, and it's also what makes this work matter.”

The incredible Usain Bolt at IFS Unleashed in Orlando in October.

The UNSCRIPTED podcast. This year we changed the name of the Future of Field Service podcast to UNSCRIPTED, to ensure it’s clear we are talking about more than just “field service.” We’re at 296 episodes to end the year and it remains one of my favorite aspects of my work – the conversations are a great way to share among service leaders what’s top of mind, to feature voices championing important issues beyond service, and to have discussions that not only inform but inspire. You can find the first half of the Top 10 Podcasts of 2024 here and stay tuned for Part Two on January 1^st.

Recording a live podcast with Steven Van Eyck, Center for Excellence Lead, Field Service at Proximus.

5 Personal Highlights

My sons’ first trip out of the country. I didn’t step foot on an airplane until I was a junior in college and, coincidentally, my first destination flying was also my sons’ first destination out of the country: Cancun, Mexico. It may not be the most adventurous, and spending five days at an all-inclusive resort most certainly isn’t the best way to immerse them in culture, but it’s still a highlight. It was exciting to get their passports, this first adventure needed to be one I could handle solo as my husband had to stay home to work, and the experiment went swimmingly which means further adventures await.

Ellis, 7 and Evan, 8 making good use of their brand-new passports in April in Cancun.

Celebrating our 11^th anniversary in Iceland. My husband supports all my work travels from home base in Erie, PA, and while we do try to take one trip together a year, it’s usually nothing too far since we have a son with significant medical needs. But this September, we visited Iceland for the first time and had a wonderful time exploring the beautiful country, remembering what it’s like to be “just us,” and laughing until our bellies hurt on more than one occasion.

My husband and I at the Jokulsarlon lagoon in Vatnajokull National Park in Iceland in September.

My first-ever personal retreat. Taking the time and spending the money to attend a retreat by myself in Italy in August was a huge decision and a major indulgence and privilege. It was also a life-changing experience for me that I am so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to take. I didn’t realize just how close to burnout I had become and how much I needed to slow down, and I learned so much about myself in just four short days. It’s no coincidence that three of my five personal moments involve travel, because it’s very important to me – I feel the way you learn about the world, about people, and about yourself while traveling is so special.

Beautiful Lago di Orta in northern Italy in August.

Reading 25+ books. When I was young, I loved reading – I kept a light and a book under my mattress and would stay up late reading each night (my older son does the same thing and I absolutely love it). Between graduate school and later motherhood, I’d largely fallen out of the habit – I’d read from time to time, but it hasn’t been a daily practice for me in a long time. In 2024, I aimed to change that and as I’m writing this, I believe I’ve finished 27 books. I prefer to read hard copy books (I’ve tried audiobooks but have never been able to get into them) and have made time for reading this year by eliminating TV and really minimizing time on social media.

One of my favorite books I read in 2024.

Pushing myself on personal growth. This is a result of a collection of things, including trauma therapy, incorporation of meditation, deciding to give yoga “another” try, prioritizing movement knowing how much it helps my mental health, being very intentional about social media and its influence, being honest with myself about where I need to push outside of my comfort zone, and more. While this is a journey that will be forever ongoing, I’m proud of the work I’ve done in 2024.

The beaches of Lake Erie on Presque Isle in Erie, PA – about 15 minutes from my home and where I like to spend time thinking and relaxing.

I hope you, too, take the time to look back on 2024 and reflect on all that you’ve achieved, what you’ve learned from the moments that have pushed you, and be proud of yourself for what you’ve done and what you’ve weathered. If this list reads like a lot of sunshine and rainbows, I promise you there were also thunderstorms and plenty of snow! But it does us all good to focus on what we have to be grateful for. Wishing you a restful, peaceful end to 2024 and a wonderful 2025 to come.

Episode 296

In this episode of the Unscripted Podcast, host Sarah Nicastro reflects on the top Unscripted podcast episodes of 2024, celebrating the inspiring guests, diverse topics, and invaluable insights shared throughout the year. From the challenges of servitization and the power of diversity in field service to leveraging AR and AI for modernization, Sarah highlights key lessons and favorite quotes from thought leaders like Dr. Kawal Kapoor, Daniel Trabel, Stuart Thompson, Dot Mynahan, and Teresa Carneiro.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Episode Highlights:

Sarah: I just wanna start by saying a huge thank you to each and every one of the guests that we have had join us for an episode of the podcast in 2024. We've had a wide range of topics, different parts of the world represented, a lot of different perspectives, and we're really proud of that. So we will work hard to continue to provide that, but it isn't possible without the willingness of our guests to come and share not only their time, but their opinions and their journeys and their lessons learned and so forth. So big thank you to everyone that has joined for an episode this year, not only the 10 that I'm going to go through. We are quickly coming up on our 100th episode of this podcast, which blows my mind.

Welcome to the Unscripted podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Nicastro. We have somehow found ourselves yet again at the end of another year and it is time for the top 10 podcasts of 2024. I'm gonna do this in 2 parts because I wanna talk a little bit about each of these episodes and share some other things as we go along. So part 1 is what you're hearing today. Part 2 will run on January 1st. So I just want to start by saying a huge thank you to each and every one of the guests that we have had join us for an episode of the podcast in 2024. We've had a wide range of topics, different parts of the world represented, a lot of different perspectives, and we're really proud of that. So we will work hard to continue to provide that, but it isn't possible without the willingness of our guests to come and share not only their time, but their opinions and their journeys and their lessons learned and so forth. So big thank you to everyone that has joined for an episode this year, not only the 10 that I'm going to go through. We are quickly coming up on our 3 100th episode of this podcast, which blows my mind, but is very exciting, and have some fun plans for that. That'll happen in January. Stay tuned for that. And thank you for being here and taking part in this journey.

As you can imagine, coming up on 300 episodes in a lot of aspects, the podcast is a well-oiled machine at this point. I always appreciate when I do interviews, guests often say, this was really easy. This was really enjoyable. This was a lot of fun. So I work hard to minimize the ask of their time and to make it an enjoyable process. But that being said, even though we've been doing this for a while, we are always open to feedback from our community. So if you have feedback on what we could be doing better, what you would like to see, please reach out anytime. And along that line, if you have a story or views, opinions that you would like to share, please reach out as well, and we can see if we can make that happen.

So with that said, I'm gonna go ahead and dive into the first half of our top ten of 2024. I also wanna point out that I randomized the order of these. So we're not necessarily doing a countdown. These are just the top 10, not in any particular order. But the first one I'm going to speak about is episode 266, which is innovating advanced services and delivering on servitization. This episode was with doctor Kawall Kapoor, who is the research manager at the Advanced Services Group out of Aston Business School. Also, the coauthor of a book released this year and a a playbook that came alongside with it titled Servatization Strategy, Delivering Customer Centric Outcomes Through Business Model Innovation. So, Kawal, being part of the Advanced Services Group, some of you who are longtime listeners are probably familiar with that organization. We've had a number of their team on the podcast to talk about different themes and trends related to servertization, professor Tim Baines and plenty of others. And I really appreciate the work that they do around advanced services because Powell's piece of that is managing the research that they do. But they also have a very hands on component of what they do with businesses who are incubating and working through their advanced services ideas and journeys. So they have a good balance of understanding the trends via research, but also understanding the real-world implications of trying to advance services in today's landscape. I'm gonna share for each of these episodes my favorite quote, why that was my favorite quote, and then if there's any other things that come to mind. So my favorite quote from this episode, Kawall says, "what tends to happen is you'll see a disconnect between how a firm is describing its servitized offerings and how it would truly resonate with a customer. The key is customers are more interested in why a service matters, not just how it works. So if you hear firms saying, we offer condition monitoring or we offer digital services, it's technical to a customer. That's not to say they don't understand. They obviously do understand their function, their business, but it's not really clear what it is from that conditioning monitoring or from those digital service that will provide them benefit. And we've always said that that servitization is about putting customers first. So if you think of it this way, you wouldn't buy a product unless it made your life easier." So Kawall point here is that one of the barriers to success when we think about advanced services, outcomes-based services, servitization is companies struggling to articulate the value proposition in a way that resonates with the customers. So for companies to really recognize the value of the full potential of advanced services, we have to not only be able to take that customer-centric view, but to adopt a more customer-centric language. And this is something that talking it through, it sounds very simple, but in reality, it's a sticking point that a lot of companies struggle with. So this was a good conversation about that and other things. You can check out that episode. Again, it is episode 266. And, uh, if you wanna check out the work that Kawall and the rest of the Advanced Services Group team do on Advanced Services, their website is advanced services group dotco.uk.

Alright. Next episode on today's list is episode 257. The title of that is Equity is Everyone's Responsibility. This episode is with Daniel Trebel, who is the director of field service EMEA at Thermo Fisher Scientific. So in this episode, Daniel shares the success that Thermo has had in bringing specifically more women into field service roles and why he feels that organizations ignoring the need to improve diversity overall of field teams are set up to fail. So my favorite quote from Daniel from this episode is, I think it's important to really take a step back from the problem and start asking how the solution should look and how to get to that point. It's important that you really map the situation and try things out. Maybe you're disruptive and you take a risk, but when you don't change it, you will fail from the very beginning. Companies who don't do this will fail because they can't unleash the power of people and they can't unleash the power of diversity, which is necessary to be successful. We are dealing in a situation where when we talk about STEM, there's only a handful of people who can cover open positions and everyone is keen to get someone from somewhere. But if there is no someone, then there is no somewhere. We need to open up the talent pool. And if you don't do that and you're not thinking of changing your plans and your strategy in the long run, I think those companies will fail. That's my clear statement here. So Daniel has a very good point, which is, historically, many field service organizations have hired based on, uh, previous experience. And there's a couple of layers to what we discuss in this episode. The first is that experience is becoming extinct, ultimately. We can't keep relying on previous experience to find the talent that we need in our businesses. That challenge is actually what prompted Thermo to do what they did that Daniel shares in this episode. However, they also realized that not only is there an opportunity to expand the talent pool if you start opening up yourself to more diverse candidates, but there's also value itself in having diverse teams, diversity of thought. So in this episode, Daniel talks about not just the premise of why this is important. It's a premise that I think just about every service organization today understands. Everyone will talk about the challenges to find higher and routine good talent. What is less common is a example with as much detail as Daniel shares of exactly how a company has overcome this challenge. So he talks through many specifics of how Thermo really got more creative than ever before in reflecting on job descriptions, changing hiring criteria, creating new roles, managing change around doing all of this, and also ensuring that diversity was represented at all levels of the business, not just these entry-level field service roles. So there's a lot of great specifics in this episode if you find yourself within an organization that recognizes this problem, but isn't necessarily getting creative about finding solutions. So again, that one is episode 257.

Next on the list is episode 264. This one is ABB's use of augmented reality and artificial intelligence to modernize field service and transform the customer experience. This is with Stuart Thompson, who is the president of the electrification service division at ABB. So what we're really looking at here is how does an organization with nearly 3,000 field engineers across 50 countries respond to customers that are demanding more in an industry with less and less workforce capability to go and serve. So when we think about the premise of the last podcast, Daniel's podcast, we're talking about the need to evolve our talent strategies. In this episode with Stuart from ABB, we're talking about the role technology also plays in minimizing that need and helping the workforce that you do have work smarter. So my favorite quote from Stewart says, if you think about your field engineering work, it's hard work. There's a lot of travel. There's a lot of heavy equipment that you're lifting out in the field. Some of the best field engineers we have are nearing retirement, and so travel becomes more difficult. But the knowledge is there, and for them to be able to impart and share that knowledge with 20 people in a day instead of 1 when they're traveling to a site is far more attractive. As the tools have become more intuitive, you can talk instead of type. If I look at a 64 year old field engineer, being able to just have a conversation and talk like we do, and the computer or device in the background takes care of everything else, it becomes a lot more natural for them. From a customer's viewpoint as well, we can offer different levels of service support. I can have a level 4 technician expert from the factory online with you in minutes, or you can wait a week, I can have them at your site so that customers are taking on that decision. Depending on their sense of urgency, yes, they would love to have a person at the site, but if they're losing $1,000,000 an hour with oil barrels not rolling off the production line, they're very happy to have someone online guiding them as well. Stewart's really talking about 2 different aspects of these types of tools here. One is the way that these tools can help change how your teams work in really significant ways. And he speaks specifically in this example of how that can help organizations take some of their very experienced, very knowledgeable talent that may not want to be out in the field on a day-to-day basis any longer and make really good use of that talent in a way that is comfortable for them. He also, on the other hand, is talking about how to create acceptance from a customer perspective in making changes to your service delivery model. So he talks about really putting the decision in their hands in the sense of stating what the options are and allowing them to choose, and doing so in a way that allows them to determine what the level of urgency is and, therefore, what the appropriate service is. Within this quote, he's talking about these 2 different things. Across this entire episode, he's sharing a very pragmatic approach to adopting modern technologies that I see a lot of companies struggling with. There, we talk through not only what's worked, but some of the challenges that ABB has overcome in bringing these technologies more prominently to its workforce and to its customer base. So the other point that Stuart makes that I think is really important is he talks about how with the introduction of AI supporting field engineers to help them with reporting and admin work, ABB has saved between 2 to 3 hours a week of reporting and admin time. So I believe that's yeah. It's 2 to 3 hours a week per technician, which he says in the episode equates to $30,000,000 a year. But he also points out that they took the opportunity to look at this from the perspective of work, life balance as well as company benefit and to take a balanced approach of monetizing those savings, but also giving some of that time back to the engineer to have an extra hour off, to have an hour for training, etcetera. And I think that mindset is so important in this overall conversation. This episode, in my opinion, is a must listen for anyone who is working through how to incorporate, better incorporate, further incorporate AR, AI, or any other sophisticated tools and automation processes because Stewart shares a lot of tactics for how they've overcome some of the challenges to get to the point they have that I think could be really helpful for others to hear. Again, that one is episode 264.

Next up, episode 256, a look back at 32 years as a woman in service. This episode is with Dot Minahan. When we recorded this, she had recently retired from Otis Elevator after more than 32 years and is now the senior director of safety and workforce development for the National Elevator Industry Incorporated. So Dot talks about how more than 33 years ago, she answered a newspaper ad to be a temporary service clerk at Otis Elevator and ultimately worked her way to being the executive director of field operations for the Americas. So she talks through some of what that journey looked like for her and a lot of the lessons she learned along the way. I think there's so much power in storytelling and and hearing about people's experiences, and there's different aspects to this. There's spending more than 32 years with 1 company and and kind of working through the ranks. And Dot also talks in this episode about some of the value of thinking of career progression as not only a ladder, but a lattice. So she talks about how sometimes making more of a lateral move can bring a lot of value. Obviously, being a woman in a very male-dominated space from 33 years ago to today is really interesting. And quite frankly, she accomplished a lot of really cool things in her time with the company. My favorite quote from Dot in this episode was when I asked her what accomplishment she was proudest of in her time with Otis. And she says, the biggest achievement I have was starting forward, which was the employee resource group for women in field operations. We started that in North America with a group of 12 women. It expanded to over 500 women internationally and really has made a difference in the careers and career ladders, not only for women in field operations and the offices, but even in the field. Because we talked a lot about career ladders and there are career ladders even within the field organization, I'm proud to see a lot of women getting the opportunities that they deserve. It's been an incredible organizational structure to have that employee resource group that Otis supported as well as they did. That's probably my number one achievement. I like this because it underpins a couple of important points. One is the impact that 1 person with a strong passion for something can ignite. So Dot had this idea to start forward, and it started with 12 people in North America and has grown to over 500 people globally. And as she points out, it's impacted the careers of many of those hundreds of women, and that's amazing. It also underpins the power of women supporting women. And don't get me wrong, men need to support women as well as allies, but when you take the time, as Dot did, within her own career to pour back into some of the younger talent around you, to do mentoring, to create something like she did with Forward, it is a really powerful thing. Also underpins, as I mentioned, the importance of storytelling and also community and the tangible effect that groups like this have within and beyond their companies. Really great accomplishment and really cool conversation with Dot to hear about some of her experiences over her career at Otis. Dot also, later in the year, took part as a judge in our standout 50 leadership awards and is featured discussing that a bit in episode 293, which is also worth a listen. Again, Dott's episode on her journey is episode 256.

Last, but certainly not least for today, is episode 274, inside the mind of the new talent you're seeking. This is with Teresa Carneiro, who is a field service engineer at Stem Cell Technologies. Teresa is based in Germany, and I had the great fortune to meet her this June, I believe it was, at our Future of Field Service live event in Cologne. So coincidentally, Daniel Trebel from Thermo Fisher, who we talked about earlier in our conversation, was speaking at this event about some of the work that Thermo has done to attract more women into its field service operations. And so, coincidentally, Teresa was in the audience, which was just wonderful because she was able to bring, uh, first hand perspective to the topic, and it was interesting to see the reaction to her. So once she spoke up and said who she was and what her role was, every break we had, the service leaders in the room were trying to pick her brain, I think probably also giving her job offers and all sorts of things. So it was really serendipitous that she joined us, and I asked her to come on the podcast and share some of her insights about what drew her to field service, what does she enjoy about the field service engineer role, how does she feel about being a woman in field service, how does she envision her career evolving, all sorts of different things like that. And so in sharing some of her journey, she really gives invaluable insight for the service organizations that are looking to improve and evolve their hiring practices. So there's actually 2 quotes from Teresa that I want to share. I could not pick between the 2, so I'm gonna read them both. The first is, I think it's very curious because ever since I joined the industry, I have heard all sorts of companies saying how hard it is to get young talent on their teams. I must say that having very recently searched for a job, I felt exactly the opposite. I felt that I was always behind because I didn't have any previous experience in the industry. And even when you come across some entry-level jobs, they often ask for years of experience. It can be a bit discouraging to find that most job ads require some years of experience, and especially for this type of role because I feel that this type of job, you need a lot of training regardless of your previous experience because of how specific it is. I truly believe that recently graduated students can bring a lot to the table. We are used to learning so many different things in such a short time frame. So she's really giving that firsthand perspective of, at least in the region that she was job seeking, which is in Germany, that most organizations are still requiring experience even for entry level positions, which, again, is really going to limit the talent pool that you can address. The other quote I wanted to share says, I would just like to quickly point out that these questions and the question was around, how does she see her career evolving and changing over time, particularly with the amount of travel and and things of that nature. So she says, I would just like to quickly point out that these questions about balancing this type of job with parenthood are often framed as exclusively a woman's problem, such as how do you see yourself managing this lifestyle when you become a mom. And, of course, you did not frame it that way nor did you assume that I do want to have children, which is also not an assumption that should be made for every woman. But this balance is not just a woman's problem. This might be a concern for anyone who wants to start a family and knows how much time we spend away from home in this type of job. So companies should tackle this problem and get creative having everyone in mind and not just women. I really respect this point, and I think it's refreshing to hear her perspective. And she also shared with me a bit her partner's perspective on this, and to think about how we're framing things, what some of our unconscious bias may be, what the value of flexibility and getting creative about these roles can mean for everyone. And for families, regardless of which parent is benefiting from looking at things differently. So I think that some of the points Teresa makes in this episode really make me wonder how many organizations are still missing the boat on great talent because they're not willing to do things differently. They are acknowledging the problem, but they're not changing. They're not getting creative about the solutions. And I think that seeing the potential in someone like Teresa and knowing that so many organizations are missing out on that because they're trying to just do what they've always done even though it's not working any longer, it really makes you think. And I think her perspective on what that journey was like, what young talent wants, what their viewpoints are on some of the things that, uh, us who are generations older are making assumptions on, etcetera, is just so, so helpful to listen to and understand. So I would say for anyone listening who really wants a peek inside the mind of an intelligent, young, driven field technician that, in my opinion, any organization would want to hire, definitely go back and listen to what Teresa had to say. And again, that is episode 274.

So those are the first 5 of the top 10 podcasts of 2024. As I mentioned, we will be sharing, uh, part 2 on January 1st, so please come back and have a listen to that. In the meantime, you can find more content by visiting the home of unscripted at future of field service .com. As always, the podcast is published in partnership with IFS. You can learn more at ifs.com. Thank you for listening.

Last week, I welcomed Ryan Snellings to the UNSCRIPTED podcast. After more than 25 years in service and operations leadership roles at companies like Fresenius Kabi, Luminex Corporation, and Agena, Ryan recently founded The Jobless Leader to provide career development and executive coaching.

I first met Ryan more than ten years ago during his tenure at Fresenius Kabi and even back then his honesty and quick wit stood out, which you see reflected today in his thought-provoking LinkedIn posts. During our podcast discussion, we talked about three areas of leadership Ryan believes are crucial for service leaders: self-awareness and personal development; building effective leadership processes; and learning how to navigate corporate complexity.

As we talked through these three areas, Ryan shared not only his reflections on why each are important, but also provided some examples of what he’s learned – sometimes the hard way – works best. If you’re an aspiring leader, early in your leadership tenure, or a long-time leader who is always looking for fresh perspective, be sure to check out the full conversation. But here are seven specifics Ryan shared that I feel any leader would benefit from adding to their repertoire:

Spend 10 minutes daily on self-reflection. As Ryan and I discussed the importance of self-reflection as a leader, I asked him exactly how service leaders who are stretched thin should make time for this. “Best way to do it is 10 minutes at the end of every single day,” he says. “That's when you are going to remember the emotion you were feeling at the time, the specific incidents, what came up in 1-1s, what goals you met (or didn’t) and why, etc. Writing it down, too – that helps. It’s relatively simple, but it can be eye opening.”
Take responsibility for managing your career. Ryan touted the importance of managing your own career, which to him means understanding that hard work doesn’t always speak for itself – you will get further if you learn to articulate your accomplishments in language your boss cares most about (i.e. their goals). “No one is going to manage your career for you, not because they don’t care about how things turn out for you, but because they’re busy,” explains Ryan. “How are you highlighting what you’re doing? If you can talk about or demonstrate the things that you are doing well, and how they align to what your manager's objectives are, it isn’t bragging it’s clarifying your value. Don’t wait until your annual review to bring in a list of what you’ve done, talk about it in every 1-1.”
Ignore the “rule” that you can’t be friends with people you work with. “You hear all the time that you ‘can't be friends with people you work with,’ and to me, that's some of the biggest BS there is out there,” says Ryan. “We spend half our lives at work. If you don't like the people you work with, then what are you doing? That sounds miserable. Now it doesn't mean you're going to spend the holidays with them, but you can have a real relationship where you truly care about them and what they have going on in their lives.” We also talked about how a genuine care leads to a natural curiosity about how people are doing, making empathy more sincere. Not that you have to be friends with your team to practice empathy, but the point being that employees can sense when you are “practicing empathy” versus living it intentionally. Ryan highlights this example: “How many times has someone asked you how you're doing, only to look down at their phone and check email or something? To me, they're showing you that they don't really care what you have to say.”
Prioritize regular, real-time, personal recognition. “There are a lot of wins throughout the week we just kind of blow by. Seek out a specific thing to recognize – it’s superficial when it’s just ‘good job this year,’ says Ryan. “When someone does something good, you need to acknowledge it right then and there; it's more genuine. I’ve always gotten great feedback when I pay for top performers to take their family out to dinner. It's not about the fact that you're paying for the dinner; it's their family seeing the company recognizing them as a top performer. It makes them proud. As leaders, we get very lazy when it when comes to recognition – not because we’re bad or forgetful, but because we’re busy. We can’t forget to make time for the impact that just a simple handwritten note has.”
Ask your employees for advice. As Ryan and I were talking about the value of even something as simple as saying ‘thank you’ more, he brought up the multidimensional power of asking your employees for advice. “Saying thank you is great, but if you want to blow an employee away – ask them for advice,” says Ryan. “Ask them to weigh in on something, not even necessarily related to their role, but something you’re working on. To be honest, their advice is almost always better than what I was thinking.” As Ryan points out, the payback here is two-fold – the employee feels valued because you are interested in their thoughts and opinion, and you often come away with great ideas you wouldn’t have arrived at otherwise.
Recognize how clearly employees see through the BS. Ryan is disheartened by the volume of examples you see in the media today of senior leaders of companies acting in ways that are nothing less than questionable. He gives a few examples – a CEO on a Zoom call demanding all employees return to full-time work in the office, with a row of leadership books on the shelf behind them. A company announcing record-breaking profits, then two weeks later do layoffs because they want that much more (only to announce hiring again soon thereafter). “Or organizations announcing a ‘flat structure’ or lack of hierarchy, which is really just a way to imply employees are supposed to take on more responsibility without the pay,” Ryan adds. “There’s a lack of transparency, and people see through that – all the jargon and corporate slang to make things that aren’t sound ‘nice.’ People see right through it.” Ryan fully acknowledges the hard decisions that leaders sometimes have to make, and the hard conversations those decisions result in – he isn’t suggesting they can be avoided, but rather emphasizing the importance of being honest with employees to build rather than erode trust
Don’t tolerate toxic people (no matter how high performing they are). You know the story: someone at work is horrible to be around and you can’t for the life of you understand why they’re still there. Oh yes, they hit the big numbers – so anything is tolerated (insert eyeroll). In Ryan’s view, a good leader will eliminate the toxic behavior, no matter what the (short-term) cost. “Toxicity in any form erodes culture. Sometimes these people don’t realize they have destructive habits, and that’s an issue that falls on their manager’s shoulders. If they’ve been given the feedback and refuse to improve, they need to be removed,” he says. “Refusing to tolerate toxicity is the only way to build a strong culture. With the job market being tough currently, you see people staying still – but it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the companies that are refusing to address toxicity when things get better.”

Episode 295

In this episode of the Unscripted podcast, host Sarah Nicastro welcomes Ryan Snellings, Founder and Coach at The Jobless Leader, who formerly held a variety of service and operations leadership roles at companies like Fresenius Kabi, Luminex Corporation, and Agena, to discuss three areas of focus for leaders who want to excel in service today.

Ryan brings over 25 years of experience in service and operations leadership within the medical device industry. Having held significant roles at companies such as Fresenius Kabi, Luminex Corporation, and Agena, he has cultivated a deep understanding of the intricacies of service leadership. Ryan's recent transition to coaching reflects his commitment to empowering others to lead without formal titles, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, personal development, and empathy in leadership.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Episode Highlights:

[03:51] - Growth, Ownership, and Empathy: Self-awareness, career ownership, and empathy form the trifecta of effective leadership. Start with daily self-reflection, just 10 minutes at the end of each day, to evaluate your conversations, decisions, and productivity. Manage your career proactively, as no one else will advocate for your growth like you can. Lastly, lead with empathy. Consistent one-on-ones and open feedback build trust and understanding, reminding us that despite all the goals and technology, success is ultimately about people.
[16:00] - Turning Wins Into Opportunities: Feeling uncomfortable about showcasing your achievements is natural, but managing up is crucial for career growth. Regularly share wins during one-on-ones, connecting them to team and organizational success. This not only builds trust but also ensures your efforts don't get overlooked. Remember, celebrating wins as they happen creates a culture of recognition and momentum.
[24:41] - Lead Smarter: To lead effectively, focus on three key practices: First, ensure alignment by clearly communicating your priorities and the team's goals across all levels, so everyone knows their role in achieving them. Second, prioritize genuine and timely recognition. Acknowledge individual contributions when they happen, and go beyond generic gestures by creating meaningful moments, like celebrating top performers in ways that involve their families. Finally, time-block everything, from strategic tasks to personal self-reflection, to make sure what matters most gets done and becomes a habit.
[39:59] - Building Trust Through Authentic Leadership: Corporate leaders face an uphill battle in building trust when actions contradict words, like proclaiming "we're a family" while executing mass layoffs or demanding more from employees without fair compensation. Authenticity and transparency are the real game-changers. Employees can handle tough decisions if they're communicated honestly and without corporate jargon. Cut the fluff and be real. That's how you keep people on your side.

Quotes:

“Self-reflection was a big part of me and I wish I would have learned it at the very beginning of my career.”
“You really have to lean on the side of empathy because when you have that many people, someone's gonna have something going on in their personal life or professional life, and you need to be able to identify those things.”
“To me, there's just nothing better than to lead people and help them get where they want to go.”

Vehicles are a big-ticket capital expense for most field service organizations and come with a lot of additional costs for maintenance, insurance, fuel, and in some cases anxiety. Company trucks and vans are a big rolling advertisement for your business, but if they are involved in an accident or your technicians are not driving courteously or safely, it can be a hit to your company’s reputation.

Many service vehicles have been equipped for some time with telematics equipment to monitor vehicle behavior and location. This gives owners more of a bird’s eye view of where the trucks are at (for routing, scheduling and safety purposes), as well as a clue as to whether technicians are speeding, driving erratically, or needlessly idling and wasting fuel.

But other innovations are on the way that could give fleet owners more peace of mind and increase technician surveillance. ABI Research released a report, The Future of Fleet Management: Expanding Use Cases and Connectivity Requirements, that outlines some of these emerging technologies and what changes they may mean for fleet management.

While traditional fleet management solutions have focused on asset tracking, location, and compliance reporting, new use cases are on the rise that include vehicle theft prevention solutions, driver safety systems, yard management, and video surveillance.

Increased Focus on Driver Safety and Vehicle Theft

Vehicle theft and driver safety are an outgrowth of location tracking. New systems can generate automatic alerts if a vehicle is broken into or on the move when it shouldn’t be, and fleet management systems can use sensors and telematics to monitor driver behavior and create scorecards. The report notes that advanced use cases, including video monitoring for driver safety, are becoming more common in the industry, and will soon be integrated with electric vehicle technology and autonomous vehicle systems.

According to the ABI Research report: “These future use cases will drive even greater demand for advanced Internet of Things (IoT) devices, data management platforms, and, perhaps most importantly, an unprecedented level of localized global connectivity … Given these developments, fleet managers in the future will require a completely different type of network and connectivity service provider, one that can offer a range of highly available networks and a connectivity management platform designed for advanced IoT applications.” That will likely include a mix of traditional cellular networks, Wi-Fi, 4G and 5G.

Many service fleets operate in a limited geographic space, so some of the long-range connectivity issues in the report aren’t all that applicable. But issues around driver surveillance and the potential for technology to reduce maintenance costs are interesting for service organizations. Newer fleet management solutions can make better use of sensor data from tires, engines, and fuel monitoring systems on the vehicle, and apply predictive analytics to reduce or anticipate maintenance.

The video monitoring piece would involve using dash cams to monitor loading and unloading of a vehicle, as well as driver behavior. For example, you could tell if a driver is starting to nod off behind the wheel. The ABI Research report cites data from ASIS International that showed “businesses with connected telematics solutions like in-cab dash cams can reduce insurance claims by at least 25% and crashes by around 50%.”

Those types of savings are probably more relevant for long-haul trucking, but there may be service organizations that could see some benefit from dash cams for remote technicians that could help monitor clock-in times, unauthorized vehicle use, or providing an extra safety check for technicians that work in remote areas or in hazardous conditions. They could also provide evidence in case of an accident.

Technicians have generally gotten used to GPS/location tracking solutions after objections about monitoring early on. When it comes to the incorporation of more video monitoring, it poses the question of whether dash cams would be a bridge too far, or be seen as just an extension of existing systems?

That depends on whether or not organizations can afford to install them, of course. I’ve written before about adoption of EV service vehicles and autonomous driving technology, which has been slowed by availability of reliable, purpose-built trucks and the high cost of adoption. (ABI also has a blog about commercial EV adoption that looks at some of these trends.)

The ABI report cites cost as the top barrier to adoption of new fleet management technology (by 45% of respondents). Companies also cited the lack of internal infrastructure for managing telematics data, and vendor confusion related to implementing these systems. Fleet operators will also need access to robust and reliable wireless networks to make sure the data is delivered in a timely fashion.

If you’ve investigated some of these new fleet management technologies like dash cams and/or advanced telematics, I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Episode 294

In this episode of Unscripted, Sarah Nicastro, the creator of Future of Field Service and VP of Customer Engagement at IFS, reflects on the Stand Out Service Trends Report, sharing actionable insights from some of the most innovative leaders in the service industry. Drawing on her extensive expertise and years of observing the evolution of field service, Sarah explores best practices in hiring, employee engagement, change management, and technology prioritization.

Sarah's career began unexpectedly in the world of field service after earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology and an MBA, with plans to enter the nonprofit sector. Her fascination with the innovation and complexity of field service sparked a passion that has driven her work ever since. Based in Erie, PA, Sarah balances her professional life with time spent at Lake Erie hunting for beach glass, Peloton workouts, and indulging in her love of hip-hop and ice cream.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Episode Highlights:

[06:20] - Hiring for Success: Nearly 50% of standout leaders have updated job descriptions in the last six months, signaling a shift in how they approach talent acquisition. Thirty-three percent now prioritize hiring for skills and capacity to learn rather than requiring prior experience, while 19% have implemented apprenticeship programs to nurture new talent. These modern practices reflect a commitment to building diverse, future-ready teams that adapt to evolving industry needs.
[08:44] - Enhancing Employee Engagement: Leaders know that engaged employees drive retention and customer satisfaction. Sixty-seven percent conduct frequent one-on-one reviews and 61% have formal recognition programs to reward excellence. Continuous training programs (59%) and flexible work arrangements (29%) further boost morale. These efforts foster a culture where employees feel valued and empowered, fueling overall performance.
[14:05] - Embracing Change Management: 42% of leaders surveyed have embedded change management into their company culture, focusing on continuous improvement. They engage employees in developing solutions and see change as a competitive strength. Open communication, leadership buy-in, and a relentless focus on execution help these organizations thrive in a constantly shifting landscape.
[16:33] - Technology with Purpose: Technology adoption is a priority, with 47% planning AI investments in areas like predictive maintenance and troubleshooting by 2025. Leaders emphasize matching tech to business challenges while addressing concerns like accuracy, data security, and readiness. By balancing opportunity with caution, they ensure technology enhances, not disrupts, operations and customer experiences.

Quotes:

“We know that if we continue to look for talent based on previous experience, it just simply doesn't exist. We need to modernize the approach, which often means that the organizations hiring have more work to do to get people ready to go out into the field on their own and be comfortable and successful performing those duties.” - Sarah Nicastro
“Performance reviews, recognition programs, and professional development are key areas that drive employee engagement and retention.” - Sarah Nicastro
“The goal isn’t just introducing new technology; it’s understanding what your business challenges are and how technology can address them.” - Sarah Nicastro

If there’s one thing that can illustrate the divide between what a company says is most important and what actually is, it’s how they measure success. When conducting research for our recent Stand Out Service Trends report, it was interesting to reflect on where businesses are still working to reconcile what service has become (a key differentiator and engine for growth: 37% stated that service is a significant source of revenue/profit for their businesses and 19% described service as their company’s primary growth engine) with the changes needed operationally to truly embrace its potential.

For instance, wanting peace of mind or guaranteed uptime/performance was second on the list of reported customer expectations, but only 26% of respondents are currently offering outcomes-based services (and 26% are offering reactive/transactional break-fix service only). Further, it seems that some organizations have yet to align KPIs to what service can mean to the business (a differentiator and growth engine).

We asked, “What are the core KPIs upon which your field technicians are measured?” Here are the anecdotal responses shared:

First-time completes, 5-star service, and cycle times
NPS, response time, same-day fix, PM completion, parts usage, inventory accuracy, customer retention
First-time fix, response time, NPS, customer feedback
No formal KPIs
Utilization and first-time fix
Utilization, return trip avoidance, and parts management
First-time fix, response time, average order value, productivity
Utilization/productivity
Time to resolution, uptime, NPS, revenue/profit
NPS, completion rate, productivity/efficiency, quality/FTC, and revenue creation
CSAT, first-time fix, parts management
NPS
Productivity (return rate)
Accessories attachment rate
Utilization, return visits, technical accuracy
Remote tool usage, CSAT
Safety, NPS, timely completion of assigned workorders
NPS, safety, quality
Transactional customer surveys, periodic maintenance completion, site avoidance service completion
Time to recover/install
EPI, MTTS, MTBF, spare part consumption, MTTINT, on-time PM completion
Customer NPS, contract performance, learning and development
Maintenance completion rates, revenue per truck, and safety
CSAT
First-time-right, respect of appointment, value creation, efficiency
Response time, resolution time, first-time fix rate, remote service rate, contractual fulfillment rate, spare parts availability

Now some of these responses indicate a well-balanced approach, assessing both operational and customer-centric KPIs. I can also understand those who opt to go all-in on NPS or CSAT metrics, with the thinking that as long as they are delivering there that’s what’s most important (which obviously has to be agreed from the top-down). But it’s those who are solely relying on metrics like productivity and utilization that I question, because for organizations looking to seize the full potential of service, these metrics won’t accurately reflect success (or failure).

This is of course just a short list, and we don’t have the context to know how each of these responses ties back to the broader company objectives (or not), but reading through this made me think long and hard about the discrepancy that may exist in organizations between how they’re measuring success and what they’re saying is important. Or what they may learn by expanding their metrics to take in another view.

How does your organization measure service success? Do you feel the KPIs are well-aligned to what it is the business is aiming to achieve? I’d love to hear from you.

Episode 293

In this episode of the Unscripted podcast, host Sarah Nicastro welcomes Dot Mynahan, who currently serves as the Senior Director of Safety and Workforce for the National Elevator Industry and formerly spent more than 30 years with Otis Elevator, and John Carroll, CEO of the Service Council. This session was recorded live at IFS Unleashed after announcing the Future of Field Service Stand Out 50 Leadership Awards, for which Dot and John served as judges. Dot, John, and Sarah discuss why recognizing strong service leaders is so important.

Dot began her journey at Otis Elevator as a temporary service clerk. Over time, she progressed through various roles, including field management trainee, maintenance supervisor, branch manager, general manager, regional field operations manager, senior regional field operations manager, and Director of Field Operations for Latin America. Dot's passion lies in coaching and guiding fellow employees, enabling them to excel at Otis. She co-founded and co-led FORWARD, an innovative global Employee Resource Group aimed at recruiting, retaining, and mentoring women within Otis field operations.

John is a seasoned CEO with vast experience in the research industry, who specializes in services, customer experience, sales, business development, and customer satisfaction. As an entrepreneurial leader in marketing and business development, John has a proven track record of driving revenue growth, expanding market share, and increasing business value. In 2009, John founded the Service Council with a vision to create a platform for sharing and refining innovative strategies among service-centric businesses.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Episode Highlights:

Dot - 00:00:00:

The cool thing about service revenue is it helps smooth out the cyclical nature of the peaks and valleys, right? So it can really kind of provide a steady income stream through good times and bad, right? Because you still need to keep everything running. So it provides a steady income stream. And then depending on your service contracts and how you structure them, it's also aftermarket opportunity, break-fix opportunity, right? So you can boost your revenue stream that way.

Sarah - 00:00:36:

Hello, welcome to the UNSCRIPTED Podcast, where you'll find discussions on what matters most in service, leadership, and business transformation. I'm your host, Sarah Nicastro. Let's jump in. Welcome to the UNSCRIPTED Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Nicastro. We are here today at IFS Unleashed, the Future of Field Service booth. We just took the time to announce the first ever Future of Field Service Standout 50 leaders. And I am here at the Future of Field Service booth with Dot Mynahan, who currently serves as the Senior Director for Safety and Workforce for the National Elevator Industry. And formerly spent more than 30 years with Otis Elevator, as well as John Carroll, CEO of Community Platform Service Council. We just finished announcing the standout 50, and we're going to talk a bit about the importance of recognizing service leadership. Okay, so Dot and John both served along with myself and Professor Tim Baines of The Advanced Services Group as judges for the standout 50. Tim couldn't be here with us at the event, but Dot and John were able to join me in handing out trophies and acknowledging the leaders on stage. So thank you both for your participation in this initiative and for being here at the event with us. We really appreciate that. If you both want to say hello, I don't know if there's anything you want to share about yourselves that doesn't fit into just your titles. I know you're both much more than your work titles, but say hello.

Dot - 00:02:10:

Hi, everyone. I think your intro was great. I think if anything, I have a passion for workforce development that I'm really excited to pursue in this new chapter of my life where the work that I did with Otis for workforce development was very, I was very passionate about. And now I'm working for the trade industry and hopefully having a bigger impact across the nation. So it's exciting.

Sarah - 00:02:34:

Wonderful. John?

John - 00:02:36:

Hello. As my LinkedIn profile says, I'm a father first. I have four little ones at home. My daughter just got called up to varsity for soccer.

Sarah - 00:02:43:

I was going to say not so little anymore.

John - 00:02:45:

Well, yeah, 60 years old, all the way down to eight. So father first, that's really important to me. But beyond that, I'm just really passionate about finding the next story that can help another service leader. And one of my big passion projects outside of all the corporate profit opportunities that service represents and everything else is this notion that service can be a function of humanity. And doing good for the world and improving the humanity that's in the world. So that's a big passion project for me. So thank you for the invitation to be a judge and for coming here this week. Kudos, IFS. It's been a great event.

Sarah - 00:03:16:

Thanks for being here. So we talked a bit as we announced the standout 50 about why it's so important to do so. This isn't just about, Future of Field Service or the IFS brand or the service counselor or any individual. It's really about acknowledging the hard work these individuals are doing, the teams that are behind them, but also what service represents. So we did speak about that a bit on stage, and then we've had some impromptu and more formal roundtable discussions since where we've, you know, expanded on some of those points that I want to sort of come back to in this podcast discussion, starting with just getting both of your thoughts to sort of set the stage on why it's so important to recognize service leaders. So let's start there.

John - 00:04:02:

All right. So I think service has long been considered a necessary evil in many organizations, right? You go back several decades, especially in manufacturing-centric industries, it's been an afterthought. And I think we've saw this community kind of evolve its mindset from this cost center orientation to the profit center orientation, and the whole opportunity to derive profits from field service and service, more broadly speaking, has been a common theme in fred. And I think that the impact that service is having on an organization's overall health is well document that, right? You look at some of the major brands that we care and know and love, BMW on new car ships, 10 to 12% profit margin. On aftermarket parts, somewhere in the 60 to 65%. You look at companies like Kawasaki, right? They sometimes operate at a razor-thin product margin, but their health and wellness of their company is derived from the aftermarket full sales support. And so I think the criticality of service to the corporate agenda should be common and ubiquitous, but there's some cultural barriers in terms of achieving that. So I think it's great to be able to recognize some of those standout leaders that have achieved that corporate shift in culture. And for that, it's special to me to do that type of thing.

Dot - 00:05:16:

Yeah. I think the cool thing about service revenue is it helps smooth out the cyclical nature of the peaks and valleys, right? So it can really kind of provide a steady income stream through good times and bad, right? Because you still need to keep everything running, so it provides a study income stream and then depending on your service contracts and how you structure them, it's also aftermarket opportunity, break-fix opportunity, right? So you can boost your revenue stream that way. So I just feel like that Wall Street kind of tends to look at top-line growth. And sometimes on the service side of the business, we might be too focused on that regular revenue stream. And what we have to be looking at is how do we leverage service to grow that top-line growth, right? And I'll never forget it. We had an intern working for us, an MBA student, who said that sales was the sexy side of the business. And I was like... Well, I kind of feel that way about service. Like this is like we have the relationships with the customers. We can leverage those relationships. They trust us. We build trust. And a lot of sales can be driven from trust if you're delivering on the service that you need to deliver to the customer.

Sarah - 00:06:31:

Right.

John - 00:06:32:

Well, in one of our State of 50 recipients is Ged Cranny from- It's the most appropriate time for me to drop this direct. Well, in one of our State of 50 recipients is Ged Cranny from Konica Minolta who said, "Sales is from the wallet or the pocket and service is from the art". And I thought that was really a really great comment. Great one.

Sarah - 00:06:51:

Absolutely. I said this on stage, but service excellence. Is often when service is done seamlessly, invisibly, even... Predictively, right? So not even getting to the point where you have a failure that you need to go and fix, right? And I think that contributes to it being sometimes intangible, invisible to organizations. Just to kind of build upon what you both said, part of the purpose of this initiative is not only to recognize the leadership of these individuals and the team work of those behind them are doing, but also to elevate the prominence of service with leadership across the business and to help them understand that it is not only critically important, but it can be a powerful engine for innovation and growth. Right? So that being said, if we think about the leaders themselves, what are your thoughts on in today's landscape? What characteristics make a service leader stand out?

John - 00:08:02:

Well, I think we kind of talked about this in the opening commentary, why we're recognizing standout 50, which is their ability to culturally ship the organization in the direction of service to recognize. I think that's one big part of it, right? The recognition and then the cascading of that culture across the organization, that's a big critical part. The other is this notion that we're in this world of automation and technology and digital transformations dominated the agenda from the last five plus years now, right? And so you're seeing this battle between a human led approach versus a digital first approach. And I think those service leaders that are doing a really, really fantastic job are finding the parallels between those. That it's not one or the other, it's both, right? That you can find the intersection point and have those two things work in harmony rather than against each other. So that was one, that was another criteria. And then the other is that they just embrace a bottom up approach, that they listen. They involve their frontline in the innovation and the transformation, all the goodness that's happening at the organization. They're doing ride-alongs, they're doing listening posts and councils and things to gather feedback from the frontline to the leadership so that they can make changes that can impact the organization moving forward. That's some of the things that stand out to me.

Dot - 00:09:13:

And I think that the value of that technician and the relationship with the customer, the trust value with the customer and that engagement, that respect and how you treat them is just so critical because, and I think also if you're a leader who values your technicians and they know you're listening and they know you're acting upon their recommendations and weeding them into how you're attacking to upper management and how you're guiding the organization down paths, that just pays dividends, right? And so now when you have to try something, you want to try a new product or you want to pilot an idea. You can say like, hey, I'm looking for like five people to try this new process or this new technology or this new app that I found. Who's willing to try it for me? You're going to have hands raised if you're that kind of standout leader. People are going to want to help you figure things out. And the fact that you're coming to them and saying who wants to help is huge.

Sarah - 00:10:20:

Yeah.

Dot - 00:10:20:

Right. And so it just and that just success builds upon success. Right. Once you have that vibe going and the energy going in the right direction, there's just no stopping you as a team.

Sarah - 00:10:31:

Yeah. I would just add, I think these leaders have to be masters in prioritization. Between putting time, effort, energy into their teams because those teams are serving the customers, knowing what matters to the customers and what that means to the business. But also, as we talked about, evangelizing the role of service within the business, figuring out when and where to innovate, how to meet the demands of today's business, while also thinking ahead. There's all of these different things. And then continuous learning. I think these leaders are very willing to self-reflect and not become not only complacent, but just beholden to anyone's style or approach, right? They're constantly willing to listen and learn and evolve. And, you know, that benefits them, but it also benefits their teams and their companies and their customers. So you both come at this from a bit of a different angle. So Dot... You spent 30 plus years leading service yourself. And I'm just wondering if you can share a time that you felt. Well-recognized or acknowledged for your leadership and that impact it had on you.

Dot - 00:11:51:

When I first became a branch manager, so I'm going way back. So I had been a supervisor and I've gone to school at night, got my MBA, became a manager. And I can remember going to my first regional review with the regional manager and him saying, thank you for your leadership. The results are outstanding. And I'm like, the results are the team's results. Right. And he was like, no. The results are your results. And I was like, no, the results are the team's results. But it takes a leader who's willing to enable and empower the team to get those results. So I still don't feel like I wanted that recognition. And I don't know that I ever will. I just wanted it to be known that team that was part of my group. Had that capability all along.

Sarah - 00:12:44:

Yeah.

Dot - 00:12:44:

Right? And then what happens is they get a ton of confidence. And where something used to be a roadblock, they're like, oh, no, we can work around that. We can come over it, under it. I'm like, it's just a roadblock. There's other ways to do this. Let's figure it out. And it was just amazing to see the confidence grow. And I think more than life changing for me, it was life changing for them because they all realized how much more they were capable of doing.

Sarah - 00:13:17:

Now, you mentioned that you feel, you know, when that person said sales is the sexy side of the business and you said, no, services. A lot of times, though, there is this conversation about the fact that the salespeople are constantly acknowledged and rewarded and amplified throughout the organization. And that's not always true in service. So. That's one of the reasons we did this initiative. And while I'm absolutely honored to acknowledge these 50 leaders right now, I'm also wondering, God, if you can think about from your perspective through levels of the service organization. What could companies consider about how to ensure that their... Paying attention to who's standing out in their organization. Acknowledging that hard work?

Dot - 00:14:06:

So I think there's, depending on the size of the organization, there's leadership development programs, right, where you get tapped on the shoulder, you're given opportunities. Maybe you have roundtable discussions and you invite service leaders, like people who are doing a nice job with their teams, have the CO have a roundtable, invite those people to that opportunity. But the other thing is just to even get that acknowledgement of a job well done. One thing that always like stood out to me is in the height of COVID, right at the very beginning, we had some people who just went above and beyond, like amazingly above and beyond. And we didn't know how to acknowledge that. And I talked to the president of the company and said, could you write a thank you now? Could you write a thank you letter just to thank them for what they've done? And he's like, well, I'll write it if you co-sign it with me, right? Because we did it together. And, so we did. So we wrote a thank you letter to those key people who had just gone above and beyond where normally we would have given a gift card or an extra high award or some other award. It was a letter, that had the most impact. And you know what they did with that? They put it on the refrigerator for their kids to sing. And they said, look at what I got today.

Sarah - 00:15:19:

Yeah.

Dot - 00:15:20:

It was huge. It was so meaningful. And it didn't cost us anything.

Sarah - 00:15:24:

Yes. And it's such a good reminder of the impact. Those things have. It doesn't have to be costly. It doesn't have to be some extravagant thing. That reminded me, I was just having a conversation a week or two ago with a leader. A senior leader in an organization. And he gave the example of because of his level, he gets a lot of like company swag, or he'll get tickets to a game or this or that. And he said, I'm going to point like... I have plenty of t-shirts and hats and this and that. So what I do every time is pick someone on my team that I want to acknowledge something they've done. I write them a note. I send them the tickets or the whatever it is and let them know like, I wanted to share this with you because I appreciate X, Y, and Z. And I thought like, that's a really nice thing to do rather than just letting it pile up somewhere, like share it with someone who isn't getting those things. And again, it's not costing anything. It's just taking five minutes to do it and has a big impact.

John - 00:16:25:

I love these examples. One of the things that I hear commonly from service leaders is the element of surprise that they witness when they just out of the blue call one of their service team members. Right. So just calling them up and saying, hi, and how's your day? And plugging in and having a willingness to listen and get involved. So there's just an element of being open and accessible that I think can be really a part of recognition. And then we've seen some other cool things with recognition programs like CurLED programs, Schneider Electric being a great example. They have this service superhero award where every month they do a $3,000 spot bonus nominated by a peer. I think there's the compensation reward and then there's just the element of openness and being considerate of listening and being involved.

Sarah - 00:17:09:

I was thinking, too, I mean, not to name names because I know plenty of amazing leaders, but I was thinking about Gyner Ozgul, who at the time was with Smart Care and he was the president. And we had some really open, honest discussions during the pandemic about how hard it was. For them as a business, for their technicians, for him as a leader. And one of the things he was doing during that time is he would pick a different technician. I don't know if it was every night or whatever, and FaceTime them and just spend five or 10 minutes saying, how are you? Are you okay? How's your family? Because his thinking was, if I can do nothing else right now, I can let them know I care. And I mean, those personal things are really what matters the most. So, John, in the work you do at the Service Council. You interact as well with a lot of amazing service leaders. You've seen a lot of shifts in the industry and all of that. What have you noticed over the last few years in terms of characteristics, approach? What stands out to you?

John - 00:18:11:

According to our research, service leaders' mindset has shifted year over year in a pathway that might make a lot of sense as you think about the things that we were encountering in markets, right? So around the pandemic timeframe, it was very business continuity oriented, very cost oriented. That was the theme of 2020, 2019, 2020. And then as we emerged from that, the immediate turn was sports revenue, right? So they started to think, okay, how can we monetize predictive and proactive capabilities? How can we move down this outcome-based methodology and become servitized and servitization? So there was this whole focus on monetization of services and revenue generation. And that makes a lot of sense. But behind that, we saw them retreat a little bit and get this customer preservation mindset. So they wanted to preserve the customer relationship that was legacy, that wasn't monetized. So predictive and proactive, easily attainable from an operational execution standpoint. In terms of monetization, a little bit trickier. So they retreated to their legacy customers and had this preservation mindset. And that was last year. And this year, we've seen them turn to both a customer mindset, but also an innovation mindset. So there's a combination of growth around innovating with the customer. And so things like hyper-personalization, things like monetization. So it's just interesting to see as we see the mindset shift year over year. You see what happens next year.

Sarah - 00:19:36:

Yeah.

John - 00:19:36:

About to launch the service.

Sarah - 00:19:37:

Okay. We'll stay tuned. So when we were accepting nominations for the standout 50, we asked that the people nominating speak to how the leaders they were nominating stand out in their innovative approaches, their authenticity, and their execution of service strategies. So those were sort of the three categories we were looking for input around. I want to ask you both, and Dot, we're going to start with you this time. In your opinion, which of those three is most important and why?

Dot - 00:20:09:

I think authenticity, because you want to work for an authentic leader. You want to work with somebody who has steady and strong morals, who isn't a different person in front of senior leadership than they are with you, and who treats everybody equally with respect from senior leadership to the service technician. Doesn't matter where you are in the organization, you're equally respected. And somebody who's an authentic leader, who's true to themselves and true to their people, I think is the most valuable leader that you can have. And one thing that I think an authentic leader does is admit when they don't know something and not have any issues with that whatsoever. So there's that humility factor, just like, I'm not afraid to say I don't know that answer. And hopefully you have a strong enough team that you built that somebody on your team knows the answer or you know where to go to get that.

Sarah - 00:21:01:

Or you can figure it out together.

Dot - 00:21:02:

You can figure it out together. But it just, I want to work for an authentic person. I don't want to work for somebody who's not going to be honest with me and tell me exactly where I stand. So I think that it's a huge benefit to have that. And I think all of the nominees, when you read across their nominations, all came across as truly authentic leaders, which was, it was fun to read the nominations just for that.

John - 00:21:27:

Yeah. I wasn't going to say all that just to surprise you. Because it's so important. It was a close second, but I would lean on innovation. And I think one of the things, it speaks to both the mindset shift of the service leader, as I just outlined, but it also speaks to something that I've been looking at, which is with all this automation, institution of guided workflows, how can we script service delivery and automate it and subordinate human-led tasks versus digital-led tasks? Are we taking the fun out of service, right? It's like, because like one of the things we talk about with our voice of the field service engineer survey every year, we get several thousand responses from technicians and we ask them, what do you like about the job? And what do you dislike about the job? They don't like paperwork and admin. They don't like time spent finding information. Time spent finding information, superseded paperwork and admin for the first time this year. But on the things they like, they want to collaborate with their team. They want to solve problems and fix things. That's inherent to their nature. So with all this automation and scripting and guided and digital automation and everything that's happening, are we losing that innovation for it? And so innovation would be my answer.

Sarah - 00:22:32:

Yeah, very good. I would agree with that. If you were asking me my opinion, but only because I think it's, I think authenticity supersedes a leader's ability to execute or a leader's ability to motivate innovation. So I think they're all important. But if I were picking, that's why I would pick that one. I think also you mentioned honesty. And I just think about like the inefficiency in not being open and transparent is just astounding. So. All right. Any closing thoughts from either of you on the initiative, leadership characteristics, any of the side conversations we've had today, like anything else that you would note about?

Dot - 00:23:13:

I think that for the people that we spoke about today, that we've honored today with this award, they're incredibly willing to share not only with their team, but with each other, with other industries. And this event is something that really opened your eyes to what's possible from other industries. And then you can take those ideas and you can then say like, oh, I can, I can steal that idea or borrow that idea from that company. And with a little tweaking, I can make it work for me. And so I just feel like the. Level of openness with the candidates that we awarded the prize to today. Amazing how willing they are to share their successes and then listen to the other person's concerns and maybe start brainstorming possible solutions. So it's just been, it's been fun. I mean, I've loved it. Thank you so much for inviting me to do this.

Sarah - 00:24:09:

I think that's a good point. And it made me think of something you both said, which is. Dot, when you defended that position and said, no, service is sexy. And then, John, you mentioned the people centricity, the human centricity, service being the heart. There is something incredibly special about service and the community that surrounds it. And that willingness to share knowledge and help lift one another up. And it is really special. I mean, it's why I've been doing what I've been doing for, a long time. And John, probably similar for you. And I think that's why you led service for so long and said, no, like this is the best part of the business. So I think part of this going back to like the prominence and the recognition, not of individuals, but of the importance of it comes back to figuring out how do we articulate and how do we illustrate what's so special about it to the rest of the business to make sure that we're not underplaying its importance and its potential. Yeah. So any closing thoughts from you, John?

John - 00:25:19:

I love what you guys have done here this week is amazing. Kudos to the whole IFS team on the overall event, but the standout 50 is just so important, right? To recognize service for all its importance and goodness. I love it. And the reason why I love it is because I think that service actually has an existential threat, to be honest. I actually argued that. And my opening thoughts at another event, our own earlier in September, and that is with all this automation, with all the focus on profit, with the challenges with respect to labor shortages and capacity planning issues that service leaders are facing, are we losing progress in terms of the service leader finding its way to the board? Because what I'm seeing is more prominently chief customer officer, very prominent amongst the corporate agenda, right? And when you look at the Fortune 100 companies, only 7% have a V-level plus service leader, did that research prior to my keynote, that means that there's a lot of progress still needed to be made. And so, I do think we're making progress, I argued all the reason why we should be making progress and we all agree, but I think that, there's a challenge I do and so, it excites me because it allows us to continue to do this work.

Sarah - 00:26:27:

Yeah. And I was going to say, I mean, let's all continue doing the work we're doing because we all love the community. We love what it represents. And so there's the idea of small actions with great love have a major impact. Right. So we each keep doing our part. Respect and appreciate you both so much. I want to give another massive congratulations to each of the standout 50 and their amazing teams behind that. Again, I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to honor those people, but also to collaborate with Dot, John and Tim and to each do our part in elevating the awareness of such an important function. So thank you both for being here.

Dot - 00:27:06:

Thank you, Sarah.

It’s Thanksgiving in the United States this week, so I have gratitude on my mind. While I’ve struggled for years to keep the commitment of daily gratitude journaling, I do try my hardest to make it a practice to keep in focus all I have to be thankful for. I also try my hardest to express my gratitude to others, for the big things but also in small, everyday ways.

We know these “little things,” like saying thank you, aren’t actually little at all; they have a tremendous impact. From a leadership perspective, making time for “little things,” especially when you lead large teams is indeed a challenge. But it’s a challenge I believe more leaders should be taking on.

There’s been increasing recognition of the correlation between employee engagement, performance, and customer satisfaction. And acceptance of changes within the talent landscape that require companies – and leaders – to do things differently if they aim to attract and retain good talent. But in all of this, like in many areas of life, there can be a tendency to overlook, undervalue, or deprioritize the little things that often make the biggest difference.

For leaders, one of the most valuable tools you have in your toolbox is to make sure your employees feel appreciated and valued. When is the last time you said thank you to someone on your team, or reminded them of the impact their hard work has on you, on the company, on your customers? When you stop to think about it, it’s amazing to consider what an investment of just 30 seconds within a conversation can do.

Why Gratitude Matters

Wanting to feel we matter is human nature, but it’s a need that the corporate world thinks little of in days, weeks, and years driven by efficiency, goals, milestones, and wins. Leaders hold the capacity to connect that human need to the business objectives at hand, by simply thanking employees for what it is they do to contribute and letting them know you see the hard work they do, and it matters.

At Field Service Europe, I attended an interesting panel on work-life balance and during the discussion, every leader on the panel spoke about the importance of investing time for 1-1 interactions with your team, ideally face-to-face. They emphasized the importance of getting to know your employees personally. Is this time consuming? It can be, but they all were firm that it is not only a worthwhile but a critical investment.

I’ve heard leaders speak for years, across industries, about how amazing it is to see what relatively small actions can do when it comes to showing employees appreciation and recognition. If it’s something you know you aren’t doing enough of today, what would happen if you made a concerted effort to change that?

As someone who has been on the receiving end of platitudinal gratitude, let me clarify that this needs to be authentic. Making it a point to say robotically “thanks for all you do” to each of your team members over the coming month isn’t going to cut it; they will see right through you. You have to actually mean it, and if that feels challenging then I think you have yourself a bigger problem (a team you aren’t leading well or an ego so big you can’t see other people’s contributions clearly).

Some of you likely are already making a genuine effort to ensure your employees feel appreciated, and that’s wonderful! If you’re up for a challenge as well, what I’d suggest to make even more impact is to consider that different forms of communication may resonate better with different people. Some may connect most through a 1-1 conversation, others would be delighted at receiving a handwritten note. Some may feel most proud with some form of public acknowledgement, others would prefer a private exchange. The more you understand your team, the better you can tailor your gratitude to maximize its impact. But simply saying thank you is a great way to start.

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