Digital Dealer - December 2017 - 8

By Dan Schneider
Partner/Director,
The Rawls Group

// Ownership

Could Your
Culture Use
a Little MAGIC?
A couple of generations ago, a group
called The Lovin' Spoonful
had a hit record called "Do
you believe in magic?" If
you are a fan of the
"oldies,' you may have
heard it.
Magic is fascinating and
I see quite a connection
between magic and business. If you treat MAGIC
as an acronym, you'll see
the connection too. MAGIC actually means "Must
Always Get in Close." And
that, to me, is the secret
characteristic of successful dealer/leaders and the
organizations they lead
- they must always get in
close with their team, their
vendors, their customers,
and their communities.
So how do you make
that happen? Consider
the eight-step process
below, which will consistently deliver all the magic
you'll need to be successful. Use it, and you'll be a
business wizard!

STEP 1: CREATE A
STRONG FOCUS ON
YOUR MISSION, VISION
AND VALUES

Share these early
and often, even daily if
8

DECEMBER 2017

you have the chance.
Integrate your mission/
purpose, guiding principles, and values into
preliminary interviews,
selection interviews, and
the on-boarding process.
 Integrate questions
within your interview process to ensure those you
are considering contribute
to your culture.
 Make sure that

cautions intended to keep
you out of legal problems.
As for the "often," that's
where the "daily" comes
into play. Take every
advantage to repeat the
purpose of the job.
 Integrating your
guiding principles into
daily and weekly management meetings, training
session, as part of your
performance feedback

...LOOK AT YOUR
PROCESSES AND
PROCEDURES FROM
THIS VANTAGE POINT:
DO WE MAKE IT EASY
FOR PEOPLE TO BE
SUCCESSFUL?"
position descriptions are
written in a way that draws
attention to how the job
contributes to accomplishing the mission/purpose
- here's why we hired you
in the first place - and not
just on how many times
the person hired might
have to bend, stoop, or lift
heavy objects.
 Focus on performance expectations more
than on risk management

D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

process and into the
language your sales and
service people speak to
your customers.
 Use quarterly "state
of the company" meetings
to talk about how the company is doing with respect
to the guiding principles.
Remember that engagement of your people
is based on marketing,
so the time-honored
approach of repetition,

relevance, intensity, and duration is critical to keeping
people in close.
STEP 2: ENGAGE IN
STRATEGIC PLANNING

When done properly,
strategic planning confirms
culture and acts like a road
map for the future. Critical
to the process is:
 Review and confirm
the mission, vision and
value of the organization
 Identify the internal
and external factors that
move you toward or keep
you from achieving your
mission/purpose
 Prioritize your
business strategies which
include: customer needs,
market needs, method of
sale, method of distribution,
human resources, profit/
return, size/growth, natural
resources, and technology.
 Create a directional
shift if necessary
 Set long-term objectives and lay out the action
steps necessary to accomplish those objectives
To ensure your plan
doesn't collect dust, keep
the plan in front of your
management team and
review it at least quarterly.
Also, find ways to integrate
the strategic action plans
into performance expectations to keep everyone
rowing in the same and
right direction.
STEP 3: RECRUIT
VERSUS HIRE

Some time ago, I realized
that there's a difference between hiring and recruiting.
Hiring basically is sifting
through applications and,
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - December 2017
