Freedom From: Apathy that Hinders MSP Growth

Sep 13

“If you don’t obsess about something, you’ll NEVER be great at anything.”- Craig Groeschel

I don’t watch much TV these days, but back in the day, shows like Love Boat, Chips, Seinfeld, and Law and Order had A, B, and even C stories. The primary (A) story might involve chasing down the bad guy, while the smaller B story might be the heroes helping a lonely kid find friends or something that helped drive character development.

So, what do old TV shows have to do with our weekly conversations?

A lot, actually. I’ve talked plenty about the steps needed to grow the MSP, improve Service Delivery, and eliminate the Chaos. If that’s the A side of the MSP story, then the B story is this: you need to actually do the A stuff – you need to be motivated.

But is being motivated enough? Heck no. You need to be obsessed. The question I’ve been asking MSP Ownership lately is, “Are you obsessed about your MSP?” I know you’re all busy, but, as Craig Groeschel recently said in his talk at the Global Leadership Summit, “Busy Leaders don’t change the world. Focused Leaders do.”

So, MSP Leaders, did you come up with an answer?

Did you decide you’re tired of excuses, ready to focus, obsess, and commit? Are you ready to take things to the next level?

The idea of being obsessed isn’t mine, by the way. I’m borrowing this idea from Groeschel’s talk, and I give him full credit for the next few paragraphs. Quotations are his unless noted otherwise.

Groeschel says you need to strategically obsess by Focusing, Caring, and Committing. This doesn’t mean you are always busy, working 300 hours a day, eating a liquid lunch, and only seeing your kids on Sundays between 2 pm and 3:17 pm. Quite the opposite, in fact. He says that the “Focus Relentlessly” means you say NO a lot more than you say YES. He says, “The greatest barrier to productive leadership isn’t a lack of commitment, but overcommitment.”

Think about it: you’re doing great work strategically building an MSP, “in your groove,” when you’re asked to interrupt your productivity to work a ticket, watch a webinar, go to an event, or deal with one of the 500 other requests for your time. Your time is the most valuable thing you have. I’m a big fan of Darren Hardy and a member of his Insane Productivity program. Darren also says you need to say NO a lot more than YES, schedule your day out so you stay extremely focused, and cut out anything that does not help you with your big goals (you have defined your 3 big goals, right?).

What does that look like?

It’s different for everyone. Maybe, for you, it’s checking email twice a day and turning off your phone so Facebook and Twitter don’t distract you. If you have a team, your Clients should be directed to actually put in a Ticket for your Techs to work instead of texting, calling, or emailing you about every little problem.

Only you can determine your goals and what’s a time sink, but regardless, Groeschel and Hardy both say that if you schedule your day, say NO to every request that doesn’t advance your goals, and avoid distractions, you’ll be super productive during the workday. Then, you can actually enjoy your home and personal time (and you can then STOP WORKING during that personal time so you’re not tired and stressed out all the time).

That brings us to Caring.

Groeschel says you have to Care Deeply. Now, I often tell you that you shouldn’t care more about your Client’s business than they do. But you should care deeply about the business you lead - and the people. “You can’t lead people if you don’t love people.” If you don’t love people and don’t like dealing with them, it’s time to find a NOC job. Obviously, Owner’s should care more about the MSP, but Leaders, remember: you spend much of your lives working, so why not strive for a happy, smoothly running, Chaos-free environment?

Does your team feel appreciated? There are most certainly technical steps to building that smoothly running, Zen environment, and I can help with that. But I can’t lead your team for you. Only you, Mr./Ms. Owner/OPS Manager/Service Manager/Helpdesk Lead/NOC Analyst/Janitor, can do that. You need to treat them right. Groeschel says you should appreciate the heck out of your people-and then DOUBLE it. Let your team know they’re important to you, and that you’re doing your best. Then, prove it.

Let’s talk about apathy

We’ve talked about focusing on the work and Caring about the team. Now, let’s talk a bit about apathy. According to Alexa, apathy is the “absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.”

Have you been doing this so long you just don’t have the passion? Or maybe you’re comfortable where you are? Feeling “good enough”? Feeling doomed? Or perhaps you’ve experienced so much growth that you think you can just coast?

Why settle? Go sign up for the free Darren Daily and start getting daily help from him. Read The Compound Effect. You can’t impact your business, your Team, or your Clients if you’re not fully committed. The greater the commitment, the deeper the impact. I’ve been talking about obsession for weeks because it matters. Groeschel says, “Apathy makes excuses. Obsession finds a way. Good requires motivation. Great requires obsession.”

Wrap-Up

This week, we mostly skipped the A story of improving and growing your business through more steps from Drive to Thrive. Instead, we focused on our B story: needing to obsess. Are you prepared to stop overcommitting, focus on growing the business, commit, and lead your team?

Ask yourself:

On a scale of 1 to 10, how committed am I?

If my commitment isn’t a 10, what am I going to do about it?

What do I need to put on my “to don’t do” list?

What is my to-do list?

So go to bed by 10, get up by 6, schedule your entire day out, and get ‘er done!

And if you need help getting it done, I humbly recommend my team of MSP growth experts, who will optimize your Autotask software and train your team on how to LEAD and grow your service delivery and business operations.

You have my permission to obsess. It’s go time.

Talk to me: info@agmspcoaching.com 

Stephen & Co

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