Digital Dealer - July 2018 - 9

WHAT GOT YOU HERE WILL NOT KEEP YOU HERE
UNLESS YOU PURSUE NEW 'USABLE' KNOWLEDGE
AND THE COURAGE TO IMPLEMENT WITH PASSION."
your people stink and your
managers stink that means
you stink." They are, after
all, a direct product of you
and your position. Whether
it is inadequacies in your
hiring practices, developing,
training, encouraging, etc.
or inadequacies in your lack
of concern for growing your
people. It is just like your
kids are a direct reflection
of your parenting skills.
If you are hiring people
who are not challenging
and a bit pesky you might
need to re-evaluate your
hiring practices. There is
comfort in some stores I
know, whereby the managers are reluctant to hire
very qualified people for
fear they might challenge
them and/or their position.
When I worked for Harris
Corporation, I always hired
equal or greater talented
people than myself. My
attrition rate was one of the
lowest in the company, and
my people were promoted more often than other
regions to take on larger
positions elsewhere. We
controlled expenses and
maintained super morale,
and in turn, we were very
profitable. However, all this
was attributed to the fact
that I hired the very best
I could, then consistently
developed, encouraged,
and trained them.
Leadership management
ability does not automatically come with the title of

manager, owner's son or
daughter, supervisor, or
team leader. It must be an
ongoing learning process.
Ask questions, observe
carefully, and reassess the
use of your resources regularly. Use your strengths,
talents, and common sense,
as you trust your instincts.
If you are described

continue their quest for daily, weekly, yearly conquests
for improvement else, the
edge will be lost. What got
you here will not keep you
here unless you pursue
new "usable" knowledge
and the courage to implement with passion. Gather
all the meaningful, useful,
and attainable knowledge

THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN TWO EQUALLY
TALENTED TEAMS IS
LEADERSHIP."
as a natural-born leader,
accept the compliment. It
means you've developed
a charismatic personality
and special talents that
inspire people to follow your
lead. You understand the
vision, confidence, people
skills, motivation skills,
responsibility, and integrity
involved in being a leader.
John Maxwell was walking
the cobblestone streets of
a small European village
years ago when he saw an
interesting-looking elderly
gentleman sitting in front
of a storefront smoking a
pipe. John sauntered over
and asked the man this
question, "were there any
great men born here in
this village?" The old man
answered, "Nope, only
babies." You see, contrary
to the popular slogan great
leaders are developed not
born. Moreover, they must

then exhibit a disciplined,
passionate effort toward
implementation for the improvements. Do not confuse
passion with locker-room
raw-raw nonsense.
REAL LEADERS CAN
WHISPER AND GET
THEIR POINT ACROSS.

Before the customer ever
gets to the dealership, there
is another relationship construction site which needs
to be developed, stabilized
and rendered with consistency; the management
team's skill sets. We all
know that most managers
would rather manage paper
than people. Paper does
not challenge them, talk
back to them, ignore them
or in most cases, demand
immediate attention. One
of the problems in this business for way too long has
been expecting monumental 'employee developmenD I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

tal leadership' skills from
our managers without any
'new marketplace/people
place' leadership program
training.
We have all heard the
slogan 'top-down management' but how many really
subscribe to it? Essentially
it means that everyone in
management has to be
committed to the business
plan strategy (don't have
one? Email me), design
elements, planning, implementation, managing,
accountability, responsibility, and leadership of
growing the store and its
people. This commitment
especially includes the dealer/principal. How do you
attain this type of commitment? You have to start
with the critically important
'inter-relationship process'
between each member of
the management team.
They have to work side-byside together by looking in
the same direction toward
dealership goal attainment
instead of looking at each
other or worse the people
who report to them. Discuss
with your management
team the importance of this
relationship process and
make certain each member
clearly knows that they are
playing a key developmental role in this project. You
will find that when you hand
out a few praises to your
management team you are

Continued on pg. 10

J U LY 2 0 1 8

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - July 2018
