Digital Dealer - February 2020 - 9

people accountable for executing those vital daily actions.
5. When you redefine
performance standards, make
sure they're high enough. The
sweet spot for performance
standards is to ensure they're
neither too high nor too low
because people mentally
check out in either case. The
key is to believe in your heart
that they can be attained but
that they can't be attained with
business-as-usual activities
or efforts. Something must
change. Low expectations
presume incompetence. High
expectations, on the other
hand, create a healthy urgency
to stretch, make better use of
time, and more.
Concerning creating clear
performance standards, keep
in mind that you should never
apologize for being clear, for
expecting a lot, or for establishing consequences for
performance failure. Rather,
you should apologize for the
opposite: being unclear, creating confusion and indifference, and allowing people to
underperform on your watch

February 2020

and miss their potential as
individuals and as teammates.

C
Establish growth objectives for yourself and each
team member for 2020.

Where do you and your people need to improve this year:
time management, accountability, a highly structured
daily routine, more discipline,
better attitudes, improved skill
development, stronger coaching skills, improving hiring
techniques, etc.?
Here's some hard truth
for you: life isn't just going
to come along and magically
improve you or anyone else in
your dealership in key areas
like those mentioned. You
don't improve by showing
up, but by stepping up. You
and they must become more
intentional in your growth development. Intentional means
on purpose; it's about getting
specific and outlining a growth
path for you and them in the
areas most relevant to your
position and needs.

A key leadership tenet is this:
If you want your team to get
better you've got to get better,
and just showing up isn't
enough to pull that off. You've
got to step up and specifically outline growth objectives
for yourself, resource those
growth objectives, and do the
same for each team member.
It'll cost you time and money,
but the cost of not getting
better is staggering.

D
Drop your "go-to"
excuse(s).

This is a mindset issue, and
it's become a devastating habit
for managers and dealers
alike. When things don't go
well these weak-sticks whip
out their black belt in blame
and belch out their "go-to"
excuse for why they missed
the mark: "the time of year,"
"the competition is giving cars
away," "the weather is bad,"
"the inventory isn't right," "another department is screwing
up," "the manufacturer is the
problem," "the advertisers

aren't doing their job," and the
like.
This verbal vomit does a
highly effective job of taking
one's focus off the aspects of
the job he or she can control,
and places it on things they
can often do little or nothing
about; which, in turn, renders
the leader to a contagious
victim-status that infects the
team and should disqualify
one from the privilege of
leadership.
While some or all the
elements listed-external conditions-may impair results to
a degree, it is one's daily decisions more than conditions
that ultimately determine their
success. Excuses are the DNA
of underachievers. They make
you common, unproductive,
and undesirable.
Make 2020 the year you give
them up so you can go up!
After all, a leader's lame, tame,
shameful excuses for why he
or she didn't get the job done
they're being paid to do may
be the most blatant example
of insanity of all. Do better in
2020!

[ d i g i t a l d e a l e r. c o m ]

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