Digital Dealer - April 2018 - 7

completely on the demands of the job, rather
than on the requirements of their preceding
job.
A strong exercise is
for the appointee's manager to have a meeting
with that person and
say:
"You've been the sales
manager for six weeks.
What do you have to
do to be successful in
reaching the behavioral
and outcome requirements I've established
in your new job? Think
it through, come back in
a week and show me in
writing."
Be aware that the
things the person did
to get the promotion
are almost certainly
the wrong things to do
now. Based on this, be
prepared to refocus the
employee on what it will
take to be successful in
their position. Undoubtedly you did this prior to
putting them in the new
job, but oftentimes when
a person is actually in
the position, they lose
sight of the big picture
and start to get bogged
down into low-return
activities or spend more
time where they're most
comfortable: doing the
work of his or her former
peers for them, rather
than equipping them to
do better work on their
own. If you don't follow
this step, don't blame
the person for poor performance. Blame your-

self for failing to properly
prepare and guide them
in your duty as a leader.
While your job is not to
micromanage, it is to
keep clarity of expectations at the forefront of
each person's mind and
to help make sure that
they are exercising the
handful of high-leverage
activities necessary to be
successful in that particular job.

STEP 5: WATCH THE
CANDIDATE'S FITNESS
FOR TEMPERAMENT IN
THEIR NEW JOB VERY

under his or her poor
leadership.

STEP 6: BEWARE
OF ABANDONING
OR SKIPPING
THESE STEPS
AND PROMOTING
POLITICIANS.

If "Joe" gets promoted
because he is a politician,
everybody will know it.
They will say to themselves, "Okay, that is
the way to get ahead in
this company. They will
despise their management for forcing them to
become politicians but

...BE PREPARED
TO REFOCUS THE
EMPLOYEE ON WHAT
IT WILL TAKE TO BE
SUCCESSFUL IN THEIR
POSITION."
CAREFULLY.

While it is difficult
to predict whether a
person's temperament
will be suited to a new environment-you normally
only find this out by actual
experience-if the move
from one kind of work to
another does not work
out, the manager who
made the decision has to
redirect, retrain, reassign,
or remove the misfit-and
fast. To keep misfits in a
job they cannot perform
is not kind; it is cruel to
the person floundering
in a job for which they
are ill-suited temperament-wise, as well as the
team members suffering

will either quit or become
politicians themselves in
the end.
Or, if they discern that
those who get promoted
are tenured people management feels they "owe"
a shot, rather than those
most qualified to succeed
in the position, they will
leave for companies that
value performance more
than sentiment. Remember: people in organizations tend to be influenced by how they see
others being rewarded.
And when the rewards go
to non-performance, to
flattery, to tenure, to the
cause of "diversity for the
sake of diversity and be-

reft of merit," or to mere
cleverness, the organization will soon decline
into nonperformance,
flattery, and cleverness.
Making a poor decision when promoting
others sentences your
organization to a term of
misery on the installment plan. Day-in and
day-out morale, momentum, the culture, brand,
customer experience,
production, and your
own credibility suffer incalculable damage. On
the other hand, getting
the job done right from
the outset makes life at,
and away from work,
better for all involved.
Take your time. Keep
your emotions out and
execute these steps
without fail. The rest
of the organization will
love you for it, and you'll
love seeing that monthly
financial statement even
more as well.
DAVE ANDERSON is
President of LearnToLead,
which provides in-person
and virtual training to
many of the world's best
dealerships. Dave speaks
to dealer groups over
125 times each year and
has given seminars in 15
countries. He's written
the leadership column
for Dealer Magazine
for the past 15 years.
Dave's 13th book, "It's Not
Rocket Science: 4 Simple
Strategies for Mastering
the Art of Execution" is
now available worldwide.
For leadership tips
follow Dave on Twitter @
DaveAnderson100. EMAIL:
dave@learntolead.com

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

APRIL 2018

7
http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - April 2018
