Can you believe it? Does time fly? The year is half over.

How was your June?

How have your first six months been?

I know it’s been a crazy year, but some of you have had some really great months.

You might even be beating your chest a little bit.

Some of you have been running full speed ahead. Some of you have been dragging through the sand.

If you haven’t performed well, there may be some legitimate excuses, but maybe you just had the wrong plan in place.

Just because you had the wrong plan does not mean it’s too late to fix it. You’ve still got 6 more months to go.

Those of you who have had a good first 6 months need to be cautious of becoming complacent. Even though things have been going well, you would be very smart to review how you can make things better as you tackle the second half.

Everything we do is about choices. You can choose to let things be as they are or you can choose to dial it up a notch or two.

To do so means to review your plan and the strategies you have in place.

And, make the changes that are necessary to get you where you know you need to go.

Your other choice is to do nothing. Go sit in your office and stare at the wall. Enjoy your seat and pretty soon it will be over, Tommy Gibbs

I’m often asked by managers and others what it takes to be successful in business and how to move to the next level.

They will often imply that they do a good job, but feel frustrated by the lack of forward progress.

Doing a good job doesn’t ensure you of anything except you get to keep doing a good job…until someone else comes along who can do it better and then you may be looking for another job that you can do a good job at.

It takes more than doing a good job to get you noticed and to the next level.

20 Tips For Getting Noticed:

1. Come early.

2. Stay late.

3. Come to work to work.

4. Stay busy.

5. Seek information and education.

6. Understand you are owed nothing.

7. Do more than you are asked.

8. Be tenacious.

9. Steal someone’s ball and run with it.

10. Force the passion. You may not be in the perfect job or perfect place. It’s up to you to make it the perfect job at the perfect place.

11. If you do these things, someone will notice.

12. If you get noticed, you have a ladder to the top.

13. If you don’t get noticed or this isn’t the place for you, then you are developing some skills that will eventually get you noticed.

14. Do it at the next place and the next place until you get noticed.

15. Be so good that you can’t be denied.

16. Pull others up. and up you go with them.

17. Set an example for others.

18. Get up, walk around, be nice.

19. Be enthusiastic, even on your worst day.

20. Dress up to the next level. Don’t dress like the rest.



Thanks for noticing. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

A wise man was once said the key to his success was “I’ve made lots of mistakes.”

And therein lies one of the keys to you becoming an even better leader. Allow yourself, and especially those around you, the latitude to make some mistakes.

The key is to learn from the mistakes. As a dealer for over 20 years, I know I made a lot of mistakes and I’m sure I made some of the same ones twice. But I’d like to think I learned something from each mistake.

Far too often when dealing with team members, leaders don’t use mistakes as a teaching moment, but as a criticism moment. It’s imperative that we learn from our mistakes and that we don’t continue to make the same ones over and over again.

As it relates to used car management why would you allow the same buyer to continue to go to the same auction sites, buy cars and 60 days later you take them back and lose money on them?

To be real, it may or may not be 100% the buyer’s fault. It may be that there’s no strategy to deal with vehicles that have a high market day’s supply and a high cost to market. In either case, there’s a consistent mistake being made that you as a leader are allowing to happen. Shame on you.

The key is to give your team enough rope to make some mistakes, but not so much that they choke themselves and your business in the process.

When people are allowed to make some mistakes, your organization becomes more innovative. Without innovation, your organization becomes stymied.

It’s very difficult to be a great mentor when you micro-manage every decision that’s made.

When you micro-manage you end up with micro-growth. Team members like working in an environment where they feel like they are allowed to grow. When they grow, you grow.

You’re making a big mistake if you don’t manage your mistakes. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

If you’re in a leadership position or hope to be so one day and you don’t have a sense of humor then I’d say you are out of luck.

I realize there are people in top leadership positions who don’t have a sense of humor, but I have to believe by and large they are totally miserable people and not nearly as successful as they, and their organizations, could be.

I believe part of a leader’s responsibility is to create a workplace that’s well disciplined, functional, effective and a fun place to work. Just because you display a sense of humor doesn’t mean you’re not serious about your work or have lost your discipline.

It means at any given moment you know how to inject humor to lighten up the joint.

Working in a place of business without a sense of humor is like working in a room with the lights off. Humor turns the lights on and adds an unmeasurable element to the organization.

Back when I was running my dealerships, I personally conducted cultural training to make sure every team player knew the mission and what was expected of them. I was quick to point out to our new hires, as well as existing staff, that if they didn’t have a sense of humor then it was the wrong place for them to be working.

I stated to them, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, then you’re going be miserable here. So, it might be best if you make some plans to meet some new people at your next workplace.”

So go ahead, laugh at yourself. It’s ok, it really is and those around you will be better off for it and so will you. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs