• DD-Square-Logo_resized
  • ATTEND LAS VEGAS
    • Attendee
      • Registration & Pricing
      • Agenda At-A-Glance
      • Exhibitor List/Floor Plan
      • Sponsor List
      • Hotel & Travel
      • Hosted Dealer Program
      • FAQ
      • Mobile App
    • Exhibitor
      • Exhibit/Sponsor
      • Advertising Opportunities
      • Exhibitor Resources
      • Exhibitor Tips
    • Education
      • Overview
      • Show Schedule
  • ABOUT
    • Conference Overview
    • Best Of Awards
    • Become a Speaker
    • Press Inquiries
    • Partnership Programs
    • Health & Safety
    • Contact Us
    • Get Updates
  • RESOURCES
    • Webinars
    • Downloads
  • NEWS
    • Auto Retail News
    • Digital Editions
    • Press Releases
    • Submit Editorial
    • Subscribe
  • .
  • ATTEND LAS VEGAS
    • Attendee
      • Registration & Pricing
      • Agenda At-A-Glance
      • Exhibitor List/Floor Plan
      • Sponsor List
      • Hotel & Travel
      • Hosted Dealer Program
      • FAQ
      • Mobile App
    • Exhibitor
      • Exhibit/Sponsor
      • Advertising Opportunities
      • Exhibitor Resources
      • Exhibitor Tips
    • Education
      • Overview
      • Show Schedule
  • RESOURCES
    • Webinars
    • Downloads
  • ABOUT
    • Conference Overview
    • Best Of Awards
    • Become a Speaker
    • Press Inquiries
    • Partnership Programs
    • Health & Safety
    • Get Updates
  • NEWS
    • AUTO RETAIL NEWS
    • PRESS RELEASES
    • DIGITAL EDITIIONS
    • SUBMIT EDITORIAL
    • SUBSCRIBE

Las Vegas: Oct 17-19, 2023

REGISTER NOW EXHIBIT / INQUIRE
Q

NEWS:

Dealer/GM News | Leadership | Trending Industry News
September 8, 2016

Four Steps to Start Leading Again

Posts:
Dealer/GM News | Leadership | Trending Industry News
September 8, 2016

Four Steps to Start Leading Again

It’s both a dangerous and ridiculous assumption to believe that because someone has a leadership title—or is in a leadership position—he or she is leading. Often, as prosperity rises urgency falls, and those who are paid to lead start to maintain and become caretakers. Where they once charted the course, impacted people, and built strong cultures, they instead: chart results, administer people, and leave culture up for grabs. We’re all likely to get off track in our leadership responsibilities from time to time; but, if we want to continue to grow, we need to increase our leadership awareness and endeavor to get off track less often, and to stay off track for less time when we do. In the event you’ve gotten off track, or know someone that has, here are four steps to start leading again.

  1. Clarify, or redefine performance expectations. When leaders stop leading, what they expect from others performance-wise often fades, or is conveniently forgotten. As a result, performance stagnates. It’s always useful to ensure that performance expectations in each department—and for each team member—are resolutely clear to increase daily focus and provide a benchmark for accountability.

    To maximize focus, accountability, and performance, expectations should include a blend of monthly outcome requirements, as well as the key daily activities required in each position that are most predictive of these outcomes. Here are some examples of basic clarity you can’t focus on enough:

    • Clear monthly outcome expectations.
    • The essential daily, weekly, and monthly actions that are most predictive of creating the desired monthly outcome.
    • Core values: are they clear enough; are people living them and being held accountable for them?
    • Are all of the above in writing, talked about often, and signed off on by each team member to affirm their understanding of what performance success looks like in your department?

    If you’re not sure whether your performance expectations in these regards are clear enough, they are not; and, if you are concerned you may talk about them too much or make too big a deal out of their importance, rest assured that you can’t. They are THAT important to leading effectively.

  2. Go to work each day with the goal of impacting people. If you’re not leaving people better than you find them, you may be maintaining them, but you can’t claim to be leading them. Through coaching, feedback, training, mentoring, and holding them accountable, a leader’s role is to take the human capital he or she is entrusted with and make it more valuable.

    “But the fact is that everyone leads by example; the question is whether the example is good or bad.”

    When leaders get so busy with the daily fray—the “stuff”—that they start skipping training meetings and one-on-one coaching sessions—and aren’t in the trenches enough to offer meaningful feedback on performance—morale, momentum, and results all take a hit. Three questions to ask as you begin the day are:

    • Who can I positively impact today with knowledge, encouragement, or feedback?
    • How can I act as a catalyst and get things started early today?
    • What can I do to focus the team and bring them together today?
  3. Stop making excuses for non-performance. Taking personal responsibility and focusing on what you can control each day is contagious; unfortunately, so are: blaming, making excuses, and wasting energy on external conditions you can’t affect. 

    Over the years I’ve heard leaders say hundreds of times, “I want to lead by example.” Sure. But the fact is that everyone leads by example; the question is whether the example is good or bad. Frankly, if you lie, cheat, and steal you are leading by example—a horrendous one. And making excuses for non-performance follows closely behind in terms of the damage it does to your team, your personal credibility, and results overall. Consider these three points concerning excuses:

    • They are the DNA of underachievers. It’s something all people who miss their potential by a mile have formed the habit of making in order to explain away their outright failure or lack of greater success.
    • If you make excuses a little, your team will make them a lot. This is how leadership works: the great things you do in excess, a team is likely to emulate in moderation; but the wrong things you do in moderation, they are likely to emulate in excess.
    • One of the best days of your life is when you give up excuses, take responsibility for your results and your life, and invest your time and energies into the aspects of your job you can control.
  4. Accelerate accountability throughout your culture. When leaders stop leading, poor performance perpetuates, and the culture is weakened through failed accountability. When people aren’t held accountable for what you’re paying them to do, entitlement rises, performance falls, and culture rots. Accountability keeps people sharp and focused, and is essential to helping them grow. Consider these six points on accelerating accountability throughout your culture:
    • Ambiguity is the enemy of accountability. Thus, until you pay attention to the first point in this piece, accountability isn’t going to be effective or even possible in most cases.
    • Fast feedback on great or poor performance is essential to accountability, and eliminates the gray areas that tend to dominate weaker cultures where people have become accustomed to doing just enough to get by.
    • The goal of accountability is to prevent termination, not increase it. In fact, a key reason people are fired eventually is because they weren’t held accountable for results or behaviors for so long, that they are too far off track to be salvaged.
    • Accountability should include consequences; otherwise, all you have is more hot air, empty threats, and lost respect. The premise is simple: if you want to change a behavior, you have got to change the consequence for that behavior.
    • The sole objective of a consequence is to improve performance; it should never be to humiliate.
    • People should be held accountable as soon after a performance failure as possible, because delayed consequences lose their impact. Do it quickly, professionally, and humanely.
  5. If you care about people you will hold them accountable. In fact, I’ll conclude this piece with a three-point mantra I teach attendees in my workshops, which explains our tough-love role in leading people:

    1. I’m hard on you because I believe in you.
    2. I hold you accountable because I care.
    3. I stretch you so you never have to regret giving less than your best.

    That being said, if it’s time for you to start leading again, you know where to start…so get after it.

Dealer/GM News•Leadership•Trending Industry News

SHARE

Share on Email
Share on Linkedin
Share on Facebook
Share on Pinterest
Share on Twitter
← Previous Article Next Article →
Posts Industry Press Releases

One View Integrates with Autosoft to Enhance Document Digitization for Auto Dealerships

One View becomes certified partner of Autosoft’s Partner Program – providing seamless integration between both systems One View, an auto industry-specific data solution specialist, announced the integration of its document management system with
Posts Marketing & AdvertisingTrending Industry News

How Does Google Analytics 4 Impact Call Monitoring?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is here, and Universal Analytics (UA) is a thing of the past. So, what is the big difference between GA4 and UA, and what does it mean for dealerships and their automotive call monitoring solutions? Universal Analytics (UA) o
Posts Industry Press Releases

One View Integrates with Autosoft to Enhance Document Digitization for Auto Dealerships

One View becomes certified partner of Autosoft’s Partner Program – providing seamless integration between both systems One View, an auto industry-specific data solution specialist, announced the integration of its document management system with
Posts Dealer Ops & LeadershipTrending Industry News

Three Key Areas to Focus on for Fixed Ops Success

A well-managed BDC can significantly impact sales, raise service profits, and increase retention, but achieving success in this field requires three key ingredients: Focus, People, and Consistency. Without these elements working in tandem, even the m
Posts Dealer Ops & LeadershipTrending Industry News

Astroturfing: What it is and Why Your Dealership Should Avoid it

Astroturfing is organized activity that is intended to create a false impression of a widespread, spontaneously arising, grassroots movement in support of…something…that is in reality initiated and controlled by a concealed group…or corpora
Posts Uncategorized

Cracking the Code: Driving Team Action Post 1-on-1s

Ever left a meeting whether it’s with your team or a 1-on-1, on cloud nine, believing your team was all set to conquer the world, only to find their enthusiasm fizzling out days later? The challenge lies in converting intentions into actions amidst
Posts Sales & Variable OpsTrending Industry News

How End-Of-Year-Sales May Impact Auto Finance Digital Transformation Strategies

Following a challenging sales environment in 2022, a noticeable recovery in the automotive sector has stabilized in 2023. This year, even as supply chain problems subsided, new challenges emerged, such as the persistent risk of a potential recession,
Posts Industry Press Releases

Mopar and Petra Automotive Products Partner to Launch New Maintenance Products to Dealers Across North America

Petra Automotive Products, the fastest growing premium automotive products manufacturer in the world, is proud to announce 11 of their best-in-class products will be launched under the Mopar® brand for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep®, Ram and FIAT® dealers

NEWSLETTER

SUBSCRIBE

DEALER MAGAZINE

Dealer Magazine March/April 2023 Issue Featuring an Interview with NADA 2023 Chairman
MAGAZINE
Digital Dealer Logo White
FOLLOW US ON
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
© 2023 Emerald X, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ABOUT    CAREERS    AUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERS   DO NOT SELL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION   TERMS OF USE   PRIVACY POLICY