The 3 Qualities that make a ‘Good’ Technician
#TheProblem
One of the most repeated phrases I hear when I ask service managers or workshop owners about their biggest challenges often sounds something like this;
“... and It is so hard to find "Good Technicians."
Which is really no surprise to anyone reading this, is it? Worse though, is that this is STILL an ongoing issue, and has been for a long while. (This was an issue when I started my apprenticeship 30+ years ago!)
Which begs the question why? Surely, with all the knowledge and resources that have been devoted to resolving this issue, surely we ought have a solution by now, right?
But we don't. Still Don't. So why not? What is keeping issue from being resolved?
Well you can be sure that it is not just 'one thing'. It is driven by a range of things, and there are dozens of articles written by stacks of people who discuss all those elements in detail, and I don't want to go over that ground again here.
However, there is a part of the challenge to "finding good technicians" that I have noticed hasn't had sufficient attention.
That part is how we define a "good technician". Just like the cat in the image, it is very hard to find something that you are not really clear on. (Perhaps the view from behind looks slightly familiar...?) I believe that How we define a "good technician" is both incomplete and inaccurate.
Not only that, I believe that our lack of clarity around what makes a "good technician" is actually a driver of the scarcity of "good technicians".
Yes, that is a big claim - my evidence?
My evidence comes from our unique research into what causes the industry technical "guru's" to become "Guru's" and there is a bunch of information about that on our website (and perhaps our research is worth an article on it's own in the future).
But the key support for my claim is the fact that businesses are asking the WRONG question, and have been asking the wrong question for decades!! The question we SHOULD be asking is - not how can I find a good technician - BUT how do I CREATE and KEEP a good technician. If business started asking this - the issue of availability would change in short order.
Please don't think I am ignorant of - or don't fully appreciate - the financial and business imperatives of filling a gap in the workforce in short order. We studied this also.
We know for a fact that the loss of one 'average' technician will set a business back at least $45,000. At least. Per Tech. (you can double this very easily if the role is a foreman or senior tech and the vacancy time extends)
My point here is this.
IF we are always 'looking' and 'finding' but not creating and retaining then we are causing/or contributing to the problem. Further, If we don't have an accurate understanding of what makes a "Good Technician" we won't find what we need.
Not only that, we (unknowingly) reinforce a inaccurate model that will further devalues the actual 'qualities' we need, making it harder to find those 'good techs'. A vicious cycle indeed.
So, what are the qualities really create a “Good” Technician? Let’s take a look.
#1 – Ability
While this is really no surprise, we find that there is some confusion around knowledge, skill and ability. While most thesauruses will suggest that you can use them interchangeably they are not the same.
We see Ability as the sum of the combined knowledge and skills of the Technician – what they know and understand and how effectively they can do it. As a simplified Formula it might look like this: Knowledge + Skill = Ability
But despite the entire automotive training industries focus on training knowledge and skill, (Ability) this alone does not make for a "Good technician". There is no question ability is critically important, but it is only 1/3rd of what is required.
#2 – Attitude
We all acknowledge that Attitude plays a critical role as well. Just because they have great ability doesn’t mean that they actually care about their work, or the customer, or even the business that employs them.
How many Technicians have you worked with (or employed) who know heaps of stuff, are really good at what they do - but only when they feel like it?
As the old hiring adage states; 'hire for attitude and teach them the rest'. If you Drill down in to attitude - you will find that a big part of what drives attitude is Mindset - and Mindset matters massively.
However, despite the enormous impact that mindset has on performance - that we all acknowledge is true - there is total vacuum of training on how to get and maintain a quality mindset* as a technician. This vacuum suggests one of two things:
- We know it matters BUT, we really don't give a dam about mindset for technicians* - we just want them getting the work out ASAP -or -
- We know it matters BUT we don't know HOW to facilitate Mindset for Technician* - so we let the Status-Quo continue to the detriment of everyone.
I wonder if it is not a bit of both?
(*We call this a QTM© - Quality Technician Mindset© - it is Part of our Technician Clarity Engine© which is the method that the Guru's use to get clarity and the amazing results that come from that!)
#3 – Insight
Again, We find that a lot of Service people interpret insight as experience, and it is not. When Service Managers talk about experience, they are usually referring to mastery from of years of learning from hands on experience.
But what often happens is that duration gets substituted for experience. Duration is simply time on the job. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is any good at the job – though you would hope that they are – it just means that they have been doing it for a length of time.
Sure "experiences" – both good and bad – can contribute to insight, but ONLY if the technician actually paid attention to them and learn a lesson from them. If the technician didn't take on a lesson, then their 'experience' is really only duration.
Put Simply, Experience does not equal Mastery. Duration does not equal Experience or Mastery. Mastery is not the same as insight.
So what do we mean by insight?
Insight in this context (what makes a good tech 'good') is the ability to generate new insight at will. Technical Insight is different to experience. Being able to generate Insight It is like having hindsight as foresight. It is being able to ‘reveal’ or discover what is occurring and what to DO about it.
Some people have described Insight as ‘car whispering’ – It is "knowing" but not always being able to put into words exactly how you came to ‘know’.
We know from our NBM research that Insight and more specifically creating insight actually has a structure and process. But usually those who can generate insight can't accurately articulate explicitly how that do it.
Conclusion
So there you have it - the qualities that make a good technician good are the same elements that produce Clarity. Clarity is the difference that makes the difference. Clarity = Success, like nothing else in a workshop. Clarity = Ability x Attitude x Insight.
If your Technicians have just one of these parts they may be to be doing harm. Any two areas will see limited success, but the only way to consistently see results from your workshop – be that successful diagnosis on complex issues or efficient and reliable service outcomes - is to have high clarity Technicians.
So What makes a Technician, a "Good" Technician - it is the amount of Clarity they work with!!
How Much Clarity do YOUR Technicians work with?
Have them Take a Clarity Audit Here - and find out!
