The Emotional Intelligence Advantage

Connecting with team members on an emotional level is an important management strategy for nurturing a happy and productive workforce that shows up ready to take on the job each and every day.  

Adapting leadership approaches with emotional intelligence in mind also establishes trust and psychological safety from day one. Implementing this type of management style requires pest management leaders to focus on reading team dynamics, avoiding emotional triggers, and executing effective recognition strategies.  

“What it ultimately comes down to is you have to really get to know your team members, not just on a work level, but by truly being authentic and truly caring about your team,” says Mike Malone, senior vice president of marketing at Arrow Exterminators, which is based in Atlanta. “They’re working for you, and you won’t be successful unless your team is successful. … I appreciate so much what they do for me; the least I can do is step outside that box and get into their personal life and be there for them.”  

Understanding Individual Emotional Triggers 

For Malone, the key to managing people is finding out what makes them happy—both inside and outside of work. This can happen in more formal review processes, but it also requires a more conscious effort to have personal interactions over the course of the workday.  

“When they come into work, we always sit and we get coffee together, and we talk about the personal life,” says Malone. “How’s your family doing? Just having interest in caring, truly caring about your team members that work for you every day, not about just the X’s  
and O’s.”  

Malone points to the lunch hour as another opportunity to get to know your staff. Rather than eating at your desk, using lunchtime to sit together around one table creates camaraderie. This strategy might not work for every team member, though, so leadership must remain adaptable in identifying what makes each person tick. For Malone, that’s part of the fun of managing people.  

“I always like to find what motivates, [that] particular trigger in an individual, what that is,” he says. “It’s finding what drives them outside of work. … Stepping outside of the grind from work and just getting to know them on a personal level is so important, and truly caring and having that conversation.”  

For one of his team members, that passion is sports; for another, it’s TV shows. Because Malone is also a sports guy, it’s simple for him to catch up on last night’s game with that particular team member. With the other, he asks her advice on what new show he should watch.  

Melanie Matthews, president of Modern Exterminating Co., based in Columbia, South Carolina, takes a similar approach, describing her management style as being as involved as possible. 

“One of my favorite things is to find out where their strengths are and let them do that,” she says. “For example, my strength is not in the financial realm of things, but I have someone on staff [who’s] excellent at those little details and oversight that make my job easier because she handles that part of it for me.”  

Matthews relies on periodic one-on-one sit-downs with team members, yearly surveys, and internal communications through a cloud-based platform. The company uses the platform not only to recognize team members for a job well done, but also to have more casual conversations, share silly memes, or wish someone a happy birthday. 

“That has really helped us create some camaraderie and kind of keep momentum going and help us to learn what our people are interested in,” she says. “We have one guy who is really into music, and you can almost always bet if he posts something on there, it’s going to be about music. And so, we kind of learn their personalities through these channels as well.”  

Matthews also recommends finding an event or activity staff can do together. Modern Exterminating Co. recently started taking on volunteer service projects every other month. Everybody in the company is divided into teams to complete a project together.  

“We’re laughing, we’re having a good time, and that’s when I have learned so much about people and their personalities and found out kind of what makes them tick,” says Matthews.  

Adapting Management Style to Different Personalities 

Just like each person’s emotional triggers can vary, how an individual likes to be managed can also be very different. Matthews believes acknowledging differences is especially important in the pest management industry, where several different levels of people are working for you. 

“You’ve got technicians who are out in the field, you have your office staff, you have your leadership team staff, and they’re all working together for one common thing, which is, of course, our clients out there,” she says. “You have to understand their emotional intelligence, where they are with it … because they’re having to work not just with each other, but also with the general public, which is not always an easy task.” 

Beyond skill level, understanding different personality types is critical to bringing out the best in each team member.  

“We’ve typically had very low turnover as a whole … and we feel like that’s because we do try to get to know people,” says Matthews. “And not just me, but their managers really try to connect with them, and we work in teams, and we really try to get those teams to bond together as well.” 

Some team members might be very ambitious, looking for upward mobility in their careers, while others are happy to stay in support roles. How a leader relates to and manages these employees should be very different. 

In addition to spending time during the workday getting to know staff, Malone has found that performing at least one yearly review helps him better understand and connect with his staff. Of his team of 10 people, Malone says some need to see where the growth opportunities are while others prefer to just keep their heads down and grind. Yearly reviews open up the discussion around how work has been performed and what next steps are needed either for promotion or to maintain their current role. Malone tailors those conversations to each person’s preferred communication style. 

“One person might like when you go to their office and sit and talk with them and just catch up; other team members at those year-end meetings really need to see a structure and a growth goal vision with the company, with them personally, with their career,” says Malone. “Some team members really need to make sure that that’s clear, and you deliver and provide that to them so that they can see upper growth.” 

Malone finds this to be particularly true for members of the younger generation who want to move up faster and see continued growth.  

“You have to make sure you set the time with them to show the stability of the company, show them the vision of ‘Here’s where there’s potential growth steps with you in this role and where you could go,’ ” he says.  

Establishing Trust and Safety Through Inclusivity  

Most team members want to feel that they are making a difference, that the job they are doing is important. They also want to feel stability in the company they work for and that their role builds upon that stability. Keeping employees involved with what is going on within the company builds trust and safety, which is critical in maintaining an engaged team.  

“Inclusivity is a big one,” says Malone. “Everyone wants to feel involved in their part and appreciated with what they do.”  

Inclusivity for Malone means sharing company goals and initiatives with every team member. Following his monthly executive meetings, Malone holds a team meeting the next day or soon after to run through the high-level items discussed during those executive sessions.  

Matthews adds that a sense of inclusivity or connection helps team members see their manager as a real person—not just a figurehead telling them what to do—which further builds trust.  

“It’s important for me to connect and for them to realize that I’m there for them, that … we couldn’t have this company without every other person that’s sitting there … and that we’re right there in the trenches working alongside them,” she says.  

Effective Recognition Strategies 

Maintaining good manager-employee relationships also means recognizing people for a job well done. This can be praise when someone completes a task well, but recognition can also mean listening. Team members want to be heard and feel comfortable enough with a manager to voice their concerns or share their ideas.  

“You want them to always feel that they can knock on your door,” says Malone. “The key is listening to your team members’ problems or concerns versus always being distracted. … You have to put everything aside and really listen to your team members and be there for them.”  

Traditional recognition or appreciation in the form of a thank-you is also important, no matter the role.  

“It’s important as a manager for you to recognize good work, recognize achievement,” says Malone. “It’s crazy how far that’ll go when you just take the time to recognize your team members individually and also in group meetings.”