How you manage your team can make a difference in how your dealership progresses amid the pandemic.
During these pandemic times, there is one question I have been asked over and over again. Is this the right time to ____? You can fill in the blanks with your own situation.
Sell, buy, hold, hire, downsize, refinance, expand, contract, retire, plan my estate, redo my will, walk more, take better care of myself, etc. With all the extra time on our hands over the past several months, many of us have taken that time to think about the future and how we would like to participate in it.
For dealers, thinking falls into broad camps: business and personal. As dealers, we lead business organizations where many employees and customers depend on the results of our decisions. How we make those decisions are carefully observed by those we touch in some way, shape, or form — be it directly or indirectly.
Our business lives have always been intertwined with our personal lives. Often taking second place for many of us, however, our personal lives move closer to the forefront, as many of us evaluate the day-to-day happenings from a different perspective.
Our personal vulnerabilities were quickly exposed. Many of us, and many of our loved ones, have health issues — some minor and some not-so-minor — that caused us to double down on our personal values.
In short, the effects of the pandemic, although on the surface seemingly manageable from a business standpoint, caused us to dig deep and change personal behaviour to an extent none of us would have ever imagined. This quite simply is the output produced as a result of increased personal reflection and experience.
These personal changes resulted in behavioural changes for many of us. Our historic patterns somehow now seem too risky, as we find ourselves outside of our comfort zones. The pandemic causes us to evaluate our behaviours in light of those redefined comfort zones.
As dealers, many of us are comfortable and secure. It’s the result of years of hard work, sacrifice, dedication and risk taking. The same however, cannot be said for our employees and many of our customers that walk through our doors physically or virtually every day. Their lives have changed.
Sure, some of the change is temporary and all will return to normal at some time in the future. But it’s important to realize that some of the change is permanent for all of us. This permanence will redefine our businesses, employees, and customer relationships going forward.
Trust is a huge factor that we all strive to produce through our everyday actions and behaviours. Trust is earned not granted. It is the reward we earn through the nature and quality of our experiences and interactions with each other.
Trust is the glue that bonds our dealerships together. Without it, we cannot truly succeed. Without it, we can’t build a team. Without it, customers will not return, and employees will not be retained. In my mind, building and keeping trust is the single most important aspect of our leadership.
With the shifting personal values magnified by the pandemic, it is important to appreciate the nature of these shifts as we continue to build trust.
Let’s look at the example of John, a dealer principal of 15 years that has enjoyed pretty good success in his local market.
Market share is at brand standard. The dealership and its employees are community focused. Ten per cent of the dealership’s employees have worked with John since he became Dealer Principal. John was fast to reopen his sales department and never really closed his service department during the pandemic. He offered his employees an allowance to purchase their own personal protective equipment, but did not set a standard.
John, on the surface, appeared to respect public health requirements, but behind the scenes offered no leadership or direction to ensure the safety of his employees.
When approached by the service department manager to tighten protocols, John appeared to come down on the side of profit rather than employee health and safety. John was anxious to get the dealership back to normal and the message he sent was not clear. This did not sit well with his employees. Their values were shifting, and John failed to recognize that. John is currently living through a negative employee transition.
Now let’s look at another example: I’ll call this person Peter, a dealer principal of 12 years enjoying pretty good success in his local market.
In mid-March, Peter called his management team together and collectively they began to draft their protocols. During this period, Peter closed his entire operations until he and his team had a clearer view of the challenges ahead. That was a very difficult decision, but one that resonated strongly with employees and customers.
Peter did a YouTube video outlining the strategy and sent it to all customers and employees. Peter and his management team developed a way to safely look after customers that needed their vehicle serviced while his dealership was closed to the public.
The dealership purchased ample personal protective equipment and posted detailed protocols for employees and customers, shared them through email, social media, and their website. They were fully ready to reopen.
Peter and his management team identified tasks that could be done by employees from home and quickly identified employees that would fit their requirement, and that they trusted to work independently. Today, Peter’s store has a list of potential employees, all referred to by existing staff.
These two examples show how Peter and John chose different routes. Peter recognized the value of trust and quickly figured out that he needed to use his team to identify vulnerabilities and changing behaviours. John, on the other hand, just wanted to get business back to normal as quickly as possible and did not acknowledge any vulnerabilities.
As dealers, we do not always have to have all the answers. Our businesses are complex, and as dealers we must rely on our team to do the right thing. The tone of what is right is set by our business and personal values and should be exemplified by our leadership. We must be seen as clear, flexible, and understanding.
This does not mean being soft and weak and letting your employees run the show. It means setting the direction and values and allowing employees the opportunity to perform within your dealership in support of those directions and values.
Examining how you lead and what you expect of your employees is a good exercise. It is always the right time to re-evaluate your leadership style and to take the temperature of the trust meter within your business and personal lives. We don’t do this enough.
As the end of 2020 draws near, Canadians have not yet conquered the pandemic. It will still be with us for some time yet. There is a very good chance that, most (if not all) of 2021 will be similar to the year we are currently living through. Emotions will be stretched. There is still a need to act in a way that supports vulnerabilities, and there will still be twists and turns we must successfully address as a team.
It’s by showing that we as dealers are vulnerable too, and that we do not possess all the answers, that we maintain or improve trust. More than ever before, whichever direction our paths take us, we are all in this together as one team.
