MSP Talent Solutions | Support Resources for MSPs

Manage Up or Manage Out: Making the Tough Call Quickly but Gently

Hiring the right team players is always a popular topic. But what do you do when that hire isn’t working out well? Sometimes the blame lies with management, and you need to step up to challenge, support, and build up the team member who may not be performing as well as expected. Other times the fit is just wrong, and it is time to help that team member move on to a better opportunity. In this session, we’ll talk about how to tackle both of those options in a positive, enabling way.

  • Set expectations clearly, and then communicate them
  • Accountability on both sides—managers and employees
  • Steps to a positive exit strategy for team members
  • Pause to look back: What could have been done better from the start? Revisit hiring, role definition, personality fit and development paths

About Sunny Kaila

As the founder, visionary and driving force behind ITBD, CEO Sunny Kaila pairs an unquenchable entrepreneurial spirit with an inspiring point of view and innovative, inquisitive mind. From his roots as an IT manager in an NYC company, Sunny has built a thriving MSP business alongside his wife and business partner Kam. He generously shares the lessons he has learned during 20 years as a business owner, building a thriving MSP in one of the most demanding environments—New York City—and then scaling up that business to transform into a master MSP serving a global customer base.

From day one, ITBD was grounded in honesty, hard work, customer service, and genuine partnership. Sunny leads the company with a mindset that sees opportunity where others see hurdles and he isn’t afraid to embrace thoughtful risk when the time comes to make a leap of faith. He challenges his entire team to think beyond what is happening right now to seek the next innovation for every aspect of the business—from marketing to customer experience to operations. Those efforts have turned Sunny’s 2003 step into the world of entrepreneurship into a global company with nearly 500 employees servicing small and mid-sized companies across a variety of industries, including technology, healthcare, finance, nonprofit, public relations, hospitality, and marketing.

Through a sincere and transparent approach to partnership, and his mantras of constant value creation for the customer and sharing is caring, Sunny has created a community vs. a company, treating every team member and customer as a part of the family. As part of that, he is adamant about living the company values of humility, accountability, positivity, passion, and community, and his passion for building a positive environment not only attracts top talent but retains them. He blogs as well as hosting webinars and a podcast series about business leadership, culture, and innovation and self-reflection as a business owner and peer, all included in Sunny’s Silver Linings resource center.

Additionally, Sunny is an advocate for SMB owners both across the MSP community and in his backyard. As a result, he launched the Sikh American Chamber of Commerce (SACC) in 2012. This nonprofit organization is now proliferating into regional groups around the country, carrying forward its mission of promoting education and entrepreneurship within the community. The organization also promotes job opportunities with its annual job fair, providing the opportunity for more than 50 businesses and nearly 800 potential employees to connect. The fair also includes mentoring sessions, providing open access to more than 30 mentors representing several vertical markets, reinforcing Sunny’s belief that everyone should have a mentor.

Set an appointment with Sunny by contacting Gennifer Biggs, IT By Design, genn.biggs@itbd.net  (814) 449-2676

For more content like this, be sure to follow IT By Design on LinkedIn and YouTube, check out our on-demand learning platform, Build IT University, and be sure to register for Build IT LIVE, our 3-day education focused conference, September 9-11, 2024 in Orlando, FL!