Gerbyshak - Service Desk Managers Crash Course

This book would not be possible without the following people who believed in us from the beginning,who worked with us when we had a kernel of an idea, and who saw us through to the end:

A Special thanks to Hornbill Service Management for generously contributing many of the metricsoutlined within, and a big shout-out to Patrick Bolger for his invaluable additions and wisdom now included in Service Desk Managers Crash Course.

Mark Brady The copywriting and branding genius behind the design/graphics of the book as well as afew of the edits. You allowed us to get this done on time and on budget. Find him here: alchemysite.com

Every other Service Desk Manager in the world that weve ever met: If youve heard us speak, or spokento us, youve touched our lives forever. Though we may not remember your name, you matter to us.This book is for you!

And to anyone we might have missed - You rock, and we appreciate you, too!

A Special note: As mentioned above, this book wouldnt be possible without the contributions of many.But it also wouldnt be possible without the existence of a previous collaboration, The Help DeskManagers Crash Course. For that work, and for his ideas, well be forever grateful to Jeffrey Brooks.

Too often we direct the majority of our training and education to deliver on the job competence andcertification but invest very little on preparing our staff, or indeed ourselves, for their future careers.You could argue that the real skill is in preparing staff for their next step so that they can fully realisetheir potential. The result is that frequently when staff is promoted they do not have the knowledge orexperience to perform the tasks required by their new job. When I was promoted to my first managerial role the first task I had to perform was to prepare and give staff appraisals with no training or educationwhatsoever. I'm sure you can imagine what a traumatic experience that was for everyone.

Two things I learned very early in my managerial career were to; one, train people to meet theirpotential and two, dont wait for others - educate yourself. This is where this excellent publicationenters the story because it has two uses; one for managers to give to their staff to start working on thefuture and two for individuals to buy it themselves to start self-education. One of my favouriteexpressions is experience is something you get just after you needed it. The Service Desk ManagersCrash Course to a large degree makes this expression redundant because the amount of knowledge inthe course is vast.

If you looking to become a manager the Service Desk Managers Crash Course will help you to prepareyourself, if you are already a manager you can use the Service Desk Managers Crash Course to help youto refresh and improve your skills, if you are a trainer the Service Desk Managers Crash Course willmake a great course workbook and finally if you will be competing with other staff members for a Service Managers job the chances are that the best prepared will get the job.

Malcolm Fry is a world-renowned IT industry luminary, father of the modern ITIL movement, and authorof many bestselling books on IT Service Management.

Service Desk Manager's Crash Course was developed by someone who loves the Service Desk Industry: Me. After a decade-plus witnessing and participating in the breakneck-speed of changes in the IT andTechnology realms, theres no shortage of lessons-learned. Ive done my best to relate the best of thisexperience managing, leading, and working with inspiring service providers and problem solvers and thisedition attempts to reveal some of that collected exploration and wisdom with you.

For the new manager, use this book to quickly get yourself and your Service Desk up to speed, withsections on hiring, discipline, and metrics shallow enough to not overwhelm you, but deep enough thatyou'll be able to use it for years to come.

For the experienced manager, youll find years of practice and up-to-the-moment trends condensed intobook form, offering a practical take on what's gotten the best results over the years.
I hope you enjoy the finished product, and whether you're a new or experienced manager, that youlearn something from your investment that pays big dividends professionally.

One final note: If your company has policies that are in complete contradiction to what we recommend,do what your company says, at least for a little while. See if you can work in our suggestions over time,but don't feel like everything we say must be implemented at once.

To your success,Phil, and friends.
APPENDIX A: EFFECTIVE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.........90
Phil Gerbyshak The best advice ever given is to hire people smarter than yourself; hire the best available candidateevery time you have an opening.

Long term, this seems so simple; it's the I/O principle at work: good people/ good results; bad people/bad results or, as programmers know, garbage in/garbage out. However, short term needs oftenovercome the long-term results you crave.

Call volume is high;
Hold times are long;
Your team is complaining that they are overworked;
You feel overworked;
You ARE overworked;
How can you hire the best, forget the rest and shorten the hiring cycle?
1. Know what you are looking for to round out your team.

Your team doesn't need another person with skills identical to the current team, but, similarly, youdon't need to hire the entire laundry list, AKA, dream candidate, so understand the hole(s) you need to fill.

Is it a technical leader, a report writer, someone ITIL certified, someone who can do-it-all, a trainer,etc? Be specific, realistic and understand exactly what you need or you'll never find it. This includesrecognizing both the opportunities you can offer and the limitations you have, such as compensation,growth, etc.

2) Understand your company culture, as well as your department's, your team's (yes, your team has itsown culture) and the support culture you project to your clients.

Candidates don't have to be an exact match, but their attitudes need to be synergistic with the teamand support cultures at the least. Remember that you want to add mental diversity in order tochallenge and improve the support culture and help take your team to the next level.

If you're reading this book, chances are you're not satisfied with the status quo and want to create a better team, a stronger team. Improving the team isn't about hiring someone to stir the pot, it's abouthiring someone who fits in yet still challenges folks to improve.

The best support professionals share many of the same qualities. Rate each of these qualities on a scaleof 1-5, with 1 being low and 5 being high. Start things off by rating yourself and your existing team; thiswill help you to understand where the holes are, so you can achieve the most productive hire.

Attitude is a non-negotiable.

This isn't a case of looking for Pollyannas, or folks with blind optimism that can't see when things arewrong, or "people like me" to build your team; what you want are folks who will look for thepossibility in the problem; that see the glass as half-full and look for ways to fix things instead of justcomplaining that they suck.