Your crew shows up, does the work, and goes home, but if they’re not collaborating as a team, Sneaky Leaky is quietly draining your profits through wasted time, redone work, and turnover you can’t afford. I know this firsthand, because early in my business, I walked straight to my desk every morning, and my team took that as permission to work as lone wolves. Systems stopped getting followed, work kept getting redone, and profits were low for longer than I like to admit. It took me a while to realize that the teamwork problem started with me.
Recently, I sat down with Barry Moline, author of Connect: How to Quickly Collaborate for Success in Your Business and Life, who brings 29 years of CEO experience to the conversation. Barry breaks down the real financial case for having good teamwork, shares simple tools any home service owner can use right away, and reveals a hidden profit leak that no other guest has brought to this show. If your team keeps falling back into going it alone, no matter what you try, this episode is going to give you a clear, practical place to start.
What You’ll Learn…
- Why collaborating as a team directly increases your bottom-line profits
- The one simple icebreaker habit that turns solo workers into a real team
- What most owners miss about employee appreciation and why it costs them
- How curiosity can make your technicians better at winning customer trust
- Why collaborating as a team during slow seasons keeps you ready for anything
- The hidden profit leak tied to keeping your team in the financial dark
- How a ten-second thank you keeps your best people from walking out the door
Key Moments…
[1:10] Why Collaborating As A Team Is A Financial Decision, Not Just A Feel-Good One
[5:45] How Solo Workers And Lone Wolves Create Profit Leaks In Home Service Businesses
[10:20] Simple Icebreakers That Get Your People Collaborating As A Team
[16:00] Why Curiosity Makes Your Crew Better With Customers And Each Other
[22:30] The Ten Second Thank You That Cuts Turnover And Saves Real Money
[28:15] How To Share Financial Info With Your Team Without Oversharing
[34:00] One Hidden Profit Leak Most Owners Have Never Considered
Why Collaborating As A Team Is A Financial Decision, Not Just A Feel-Good One
A lot of home service owners think teamwork is just about being nice, but collaborating as a team is one of the most direct paths to protecting your profits. When your crew works well together, jobs get done efficiently, scheduling makes sense, and nobody’s wasting time redoing work that should have been right the first time. When they don’t work well together, you get inefficiency, miscommunication, and employees who are already mentally halfway out the door. Barry makes a clear point that championship teams in any sport all say the same thing when they win, and it has nothing to do with individual skill. It comes down to how well they worked together, and that same truth applies to your plumbing truck, your HVAC shop, and your office crew.
How Solo Workers And Lone Wolves Create Profit Leaks In Home Service Businesses
Sneaky Leaky loves it when your office and your field crews aren’t talking to each other. Poor scheduling means trucks crisscrossing town, burning fuel and time, while customers sit waiting longer than they should. I learned this the hard way in my own business, when I was coming in every morning and heading straight to my desk without connecting with my team. A few of my staff were doing the same thing, working as islands and not following our systems. This resulted in work having to be redone, which greatly reduced our profits. Collaborating as a team isn’t a luxury for businesses with lots of staff. It’s something every home service owner needs to lead intentionally, no matter the size of the crew.
Simple Icebreakers That Get Your People Collaborating As A Team
Barry spent the first half of his 29-year CEO career skipping icebreakers entirely, convinced they were a waste of time. When he finally tried them, the results were hard to argue with. His team members went from going it alone to chatting in hallways, smiling at each other, and actually offering to help when a colleague hit a problem. The icebreakers don’t need to be long or awkward. Something as simple as asking your crew what their most unusual job was before this one, or what they would name a yacht, takes about ten seconds per person and gives people something to follow up on later. You can even download a free list of 30 workplace-appropriate icebreakers at barrymoline.com/resources, and start using them at your next morning meeting.
Why Curiosity Makes Your Crew Better With Customers And Each Other
Curiosity sounds like a soft skill, but Barry explains that it’s actually one of the most important elements of leadership, and it pays off in real dollars. An HVAC tech who asks a follow-up question when a customer mentions their thermostat setting is the same tech who discovers an opportunity to save that customer 8% on their energy bill, and builds the kind of trust that leads to a maintenance contract. Collaborating as a team inside your company works the same way. When someone asks a follow-up question instead of shutting down a conversation, you get better information, fewer miscommunications, and a crew that actually wants to help each other solve problems.
The Ten-Second Thank-You That Cuts Turnover And Saves Real Money
Replacing a key employee can cost one to three times their annual salary by the time you factor in recruiting, training, lost productivity, and the hit to team morale. That’s a leak with Sneaky Leaky’s name all over it. Barry’s point is simple: you don’t need balloons and confetti to keep good people. You just need to remind them that what they do matters. Telling a tech who fixed an AC unit in 95 degree heat that those homeowners can now sleep comfortably because of their work takes ten seconds, and it does more for retention than most bonus programs. Collaborating as a team starts with the owner modeling appreciation, consistently and personally, not just in group meetings but one-on-one in the hallway.
How To Share Financial Info With Your Team Without Oversharing
Most owners keep the financial picture entirely to themselves, but Barry makes a case for sharing more than most people are comfortable with. You don’t have to reveal your salary or your exact profit margin. What employees want is a simple thumbs up, thumbs sideways, or thumbs down so they understand the health of the business and how their work connects to it. When Barry went through COVID with his team, he shared the situation openly, asked people for cost-cutting ideas, and got creative suggestions he never would have thought of alone. Collaborating as a team around financial awareness makes employees feel trusted, gives them a reason to care about outcomes, and creates a group that helps protect the business rather than being surprised when things go wrong.
One Hidden Profit Leak Most Owners Have Never Considered
The profit leak Barry brought to this show is one we have never discussed before: withholding your financial situation from your team. When employees have no idea whether the business is growing, shrinking, or just holding on, they can’t make decisions that help. A field tech who knows the company is doing well and actively trying to grow is far more likely to mention the annual maintenance plan to a customer, because they understand how their action connects to a real business goal. Collaborating as a team around a shared purpose, whether that’s restoring power after a hurricane or keeping a family’s plumbing running through the winter, gives your people a reason to go beyond the job description and actually invest in the outcome.
About Barry
Barry Moline is a former CEO with 29 years of leadership experience focused on teamwork, collaboration, and effective communication. He is the award-winning author of CONNECT! How to Quickly Collaborate for Success in Business and Life is known for helping organizations break down silos, strengthen culture, and improve results through better collaboration. Drawing on experience from business, government, nonprofits, and his time in the U.S. Peace Corps, Barry shares practical tools that help leaders build stronger teams and solve complex problems together.
Connect With Barry:
Visit Barry’s Website
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Access Barry’s resources HERE so you can start seeing results in your business right away.
Diane’s Resources:
15 Profit Leaks Report
📖 Spot the common places where money slips out of a service business and learn the fixes that keep more cash with you. https://profitcoach4you.com/profitleaks
Profit Impact Call
☎️ Get a live review of your numbers so you can see where profit is leaking and walk away with a plan to save thousands. https://taxcoach4you.com/profitimpactcall/
Schedule a free Profit Impact Call with me where we’ll go over 12 main areas of your business together and save you $45k!
