By Lisa Kinney, Nexstar Network Leadership & Culture Coach
If your home service business feels stuck—if turnover is high, if employees seem crabby or disengaged, if every year looks exactly like the one before—it’s tempting to blame the world around you. After all, it’s a tough market, right? No one is ever satisfied. The younger generation doesn’t want to work and is too soft. You’ve probably heard these stories from other business owners. I hear them all the time on my coaching calls. You may even hear them in your own head.
But before you accept those narratives as the truth, here’s something worth considering: There are plenty of home service companies where people show up excited, committed, and willing to give the best version of themselves every day. So what’s the difference between those companies and the ones filled with frustration, burnout, and stagnation?
It’s leadership and your culture. AKA the human side of your business—and the side many owners unintentionally avoid.
Being exceptional at operations is great, but it doesn’t guarantee you know how to lead people. And leadership, not technical skill, is the determining factor in whether your business thrives or struggles.
Leadership is not just about knowing the work. Leadership is about how you interact with your team each day. It shows up in how you react when someone makes a mistake, how you communicate expectations, how you hold people accountable, how you handle stress, how you model your core values, and how consistently your performance matches the promises you make to employees and customers.
Whether you realize it or not, your team is watching you. They see when you sigh in frustration. Or when you avoid a difficult conversation. They’re watching when you let a high‑performing jerk slide because he’s the best on the team. Your team sees and knows how you talk to people, how you talk about people, and how you show up when you’re under pressure.
If you tell your team you expect professionalism, for instance, but you show up late and unprepared to morning meetings, your culture learns that professionalism is optional. If you say you want a positive attitude, but the minute a job goes sideways you slam doors, curse, or vent loudly in the hallway, your culture learns that negativity is the real norm. And if you preach teamwork but allow your top-producing tech to ignore processes, talk down to others, or refuse to help when the board is slammed, your culture learns that results matter more than respect, and that the values only apply to some people, some of the time.
Many owners miss the fact that they’re creating their own culture.
When owners say, “I can’t find good people,” what they often mean is: “I haven’t built a culture that attracts good people.” When they say, “People don’t stay,” the truth might be: “They don’t experience leadership that gives them a reason to stay.” And when they say, “No one cares like I do,” the reality may be: “I haven’t yet built a culture where people feel connected and valued enough to care.”
This isn’t a criticism. It’s actually an invitation, because the moment you realize that you influence every part of your culture is the moment you get your power back.
Leadership is an honor and also a burden. It demands emotional maturity, consistency, clarity, and courage. It requires you to look inward and ask the tough questions:
- What role am I playing in the problems I’m seeing?
- What expectations am I not communicating clearly?
- What behaviors am I tolerating that are now the norm?
- What values do I preach but fail to model?
- Where am I inadvertently creating the very frustration I’m experiencing?
These questions aren’t always comfortable, but they are always transformational.
The good news is leadership is a skill or a personality trait. You can learn it and strengthen your capabilities. You can become the leader your business actually needs, even if no one ever taught you how. And when you do, everything changes.
If you’re ready to take a serious, honest look at your leadership and learn the human skills that create a culture people want to be part of, this is exactly what we dive into in Nexstar Network’s Leadership & Culture Workshop.
Every strong company you admire was built by a leader who chose to grow so the business could grow.
You don’t need to be perfect. You do need to lead with intention. Your team is taking their cues from you, and the culture you want won’t appear until you show up differently.
The shift starts with you. And you’re absolutely capable of it. Your future culture—and future results—start with the next step you take.
Guest Author: Lisa Kinney has more than 15 years of experience supporting business leaders with all aspects of talent management, and specializes in helping to create engaging workplace cultures.
