Digital Dealer - September 2017 - 10

O WN E R S H I P

Continued from pg. 8

clue as to how successfully you have retained this
basic childhood lesson.
4. PAY ATTENTION
TO THE QUESTIONS
YOU ASK YOURSELF. If

your self-talk about your
staff is basically "Can't
you people do anything
right? Do I have to tell you
what to do every minute
of every day?" then the
odds are pretty good that
you are also spending
more time criticizing than
inspiring. In short, you
literally or figuratively nag
your way into becoming a difficult person to
work with and an almost
impossible person to work
for. Either way, everybody
loses. You lose productivity and leave some of your
profitability on the table;
the employee gives in to
MCS - malicious compliance syndrome; and
the customer generally
receives not much more
than a moderate level of
quality service. And in
today's world, moderate
levels of customer service
mean lost market share.
So, if your recruiting,
selection, and retention
practices require an over
reliance on power, at least
learn how to become a
benevolent dictator.
Remember that beating
people up does not make
them better employees
and does not produce a
higher level of accountability throughout the
organization. It just makes
for battered employees
who will take great delight
in malicious compliance
- following a direct order
to the letter, even if doing
so produces a negative
effect. On the other hand,
10

SEPTEMBER 2017

treating people with
dignity and respect does
not create an "entitlement"
culture. Instead, it produces a "dependability"
attitude among employees
who commit to meeting
your expectations and going above and beyond to
avoid disappointing you.
5. PLAN AND COACH
FOR SUCCESS. At any

given point in time, you
probably have one or
more of these conditions
going on simultaneously
within your dealership(s):
a. Rapid pace - after
all, you are a dealership;
b. Sudden growth -
your manufacturers are
the buzz;
c. Sudden crisis - the
"oops" may or may not be
on you, but it's still yours;
d. Blended family -
the due diligence on
the acquisition included
everything but culture;
e. Civil war - turf wars
run amok; and,
f. Smooth sailing - enjoy it while it lasts.
Do something most
dealers don't do: have a
performance management and talent development budget and use
it to help build the skills
of the people whom you
lead, including yourself.
Invest in the hard skills so
that your customers know
you have a technically
competent staff and your
manufacturer knows you
want to work with them.
Invest in soft skills so that
people want to buy from
you and come back time
and again.

6. KEEP EVERYTHING
AS SIMPLE AS IT CAN
BE. Edwards Deming,

no stranger to people

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

who know the history of
Japan's emergence as an
economic powerhouse,
preached and practiced
fourteen principles of
continuous. One of those,
roughly paraphrased,
says that whatever
problem you have is
almost certainly related
to process rather than
people. Don't get caught
up in chasing someone
else's definition of a best
practice. The only true
best practice is the one
that works for you.
7. THE BEST
POLICIES AND
PROCEDURES HAVE
A "YES" ANSWER
TO THESE TWO
QUESTIONS: Is it easy

for people to do business
with us? Is it easy for the
people who work here
to be successful? If you
can't answer yes to these
two questions, find out
why and fix it. Experience
suggests that many
policies and procedures
get put in place by
someone who's more
interested in doing what
they like to do rather than
what they need to do.
That's usually problematic
and leads to a "Why
bother?" attitude.
8. FOCUS ON OUTCOMES AND "WHY."

What you do and how
you do it are business
weeds that generally don't
capture the imagination
or provide a high level of
inspiration and commitment. What really gets
people excited is knowing
the "why" you do it. Your
behavior, motivation, and
perspective as an owner/
dealer/leader make you
an employer of choice and

a dealership of choice.
Make sure your staff and
your customers know
why you're in business.
Spread this message in
your marketing and your
on-boarding and in your
re-boarding. Make it a part
of every customer and
employee interaction.
If you implement these
practices, the odds of being known as an effective
leader who runs a really
good store are going to
increase dramatically. As
that reputation spreads,
you're likely to have
opportunities chasing you
rather than your chasing
them. Those opportunities could be additional
dealerships; they could be
high performing individuals who want to be part of
your organization.
Someday, when someone attends a leadership
workshop and the facilitator asks "Think about
the most effective leader
you've known or read
about. What were some of
that person's characteristics?" one or more of the
participants will say aloud
or silently "That's easy.
That would be (insert your
name here). Wouldn't that
be a great legacy to leave
your next generation of
owners and leaders?
DAN SCHNEIDER is Partner/
Director of The Rawls Group
(www.rawlsgroup.com), a
business succession planning
firm, and a Board member of
the International Succession
Planning Association. Dan
specializes in dealing with the
issues that must be resolved
by multi-unit franchisee
owners to implement
succession strategies geared
towards building business
value. EMAIL: dschneider@
rawlsgroup.com
http://www.rawlsgroup.com http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - September 2017
