The older I get, the more I see parallels between sports and business. Business, without a doubt, is the most competitive sport.

The most successful businesses and successful business people are always trying to score. There are some businesses and some individuals that have more money than they will ever spend, but they still try to score.

Be it good or bad, besides developing people, money is one of the main ways of keeping score. Why bother to play if you’re not trying to score?

And since you’re going to play the game, you may as well run up the score.

In all sports, you have coaches. You have a head coach, you have assistant coaches, you have position coaches, and specialty coaches.

Even Tiger Woods has a coach. The best of the best have coaches.

Here are some questions for you:

1. Who’s coaching your sales staff?
2. Who’s coaching your management staff?
3. Who’s coaching the general manager?
4. Who’s coaching the dealer/operator?
5. Who’s coaching the Owner/CEO/President?

Coaching for you and your team may come from a number of sources:

1. You go to 20 group meetings
2. You go the NADA Convention
3. You go to your State Convention
4. You go to seminars and workshops
5. You hire consultants

When you have good coaching you can run up the score.

When you run up the score you develop a winning culture.

Winning develops good coaches.

Good coaches develop good players.

The process repeats itself. That’s all I’m gonna say,Tommy Gibbs

Absolutes are a powerful tool toward creating a disciplined organization.

The down side of absolutes is it chokes off the potential to have an acceptable exception.

Exceptions break the rule of discipline. Exceptions soon become the norm.

When exceptions become the norm chaos breaks out. The type of chaos I’m referencing isn’t actually like a bomb going off. This chaos is slow and gradual, often not recognized, and then – whamo – there it is, its ugly face screaming at you, “What the heck happened?”

Now here’s the real deal for those of you looking to become better leaders. You can have absolutes and exceptions in the same house. They can actually hang out with each other once in a blue moon.

True leaders can use them both and chaos will never show its ugly face. Granting an exception and going back to absolutes is very doable. The problem with leadership is that very few leaders have the skill to make effective use of them both.

Most people in leadership positions are stuck with one or the other.

At any given moment one is just as bad as the other. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

I love the word every. Even though I love it I find it to be one of the most abused words in the English language.

There’s only one definition for the word “every.” It means without exception. No exceptions!

A few of the abuses:

We will do a trade walk every day
We will re-price our used cars every day
We will attack our 10 most expensive used cars every day
We will press our cost down every day
We will do a lot walk every Friday
We will make sure every customer is properly greeted and logged
We will present the menu to every customer in service write up
We will TO every customer to the F&I department
We will answer every phone call in the parts department by the 3rd ring
We will do a save-a-deal meeting every day
We will counsel sales people every day

I’m sure you can think of a lot more. I send you things like this “every” week to make you think.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

One of the unique characteristics of a true leader is they are always going somewhere. Their eyes are not just looking over the end of the front bumper, but miles down the road.

They know where they are going, but at the same time they are keeping an eye out for those quick detours.

That’s a small piece of the story for a real leader. A real leader is able to convince others to follow him/her. They don’t do it by yelling and screaming “come follow me,” but rather by the examples they set that cause people to want to jump on the train.

One thing is for sure. If you don’t know where you’re going it’s a safe bet that no one is following you. That’s all I’m gonna say. Tommy Gibbs

I’m often asked what it takes to be successful in the automobile business. The formula for success in the automobile business is no different than it is for sports, the arts or any other business.

Three key words: Study, Practice and Experience.

Of course there are other personal traits a person needs to have in order to maximize success, but without these three you will always have limitations.

Are you a student of this game? How much time and energy are you dedicating to knowing all you can about the industry, your market, the competition and what the best of the best are doing to get better?

Do you practice? Silly question huh? How many reps are you getting? How many times in a given day are you practicing your craft? Your craft might be working deals. Your craft might be in F&I. Your craft might be managing the inventory. Your craft might be dealing with customers and employee challenges.

Are you getting experience? How about the right experience. Are you working with people who are lifting you up rather than pushing you down?

Even if you’re getting some bad experience you can make that work for you. Sometimes it’s as important to see the wrong way of doing things as much as seeing the right way. The key is to mold your experiences into being a better you.

You can’t become a better you unless you have sense enough to know the difference between the good and bad experiences you are having.

You become a better you when you lead the team with Study, Practice and Experience. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

“Marshall and His Generals” is a biography of General George C. Marshall and how he shaped the U.S. Army generals during World War II.

To quote from the book: Marshall could be pitiless in relieving generals, especially those who were too old or too slow to adapt to the war’s brutal pace. His ruthlessness spawned enemies at the Officers’ Club, in Congress and in the hierarchy conscious world of military wives, but Marshall prided himself on remaining objective. As he told a gathering of governors in 1943: “The man has to have it or he doesn’t stay. And we listen to no excuses of any kind.”

There comes a point in your life or business career when you need to show some real spine. Show some real toughness. You need to jump up on your desk, rear up on your hind legs and be counted.

You’re running a business. You’re not running a democracy. It’s time to take a stand. If you’re allowing yourself to be pushed around, manipulated or if you’re just being weak and not making the decisions you know you need to make….then stop it.

Get tough. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Even if you’ve never been an athlete or worked out, I’m sure you can relate to the idea of stretching before and after exercising.

When you stretch your muscles you have the potential to grow.

The great thing about stretching one’s mind is it opens up the thought process for future stretching. You cannot and will not get better at anything unless you are willing to stretch.

There are people who go to the gym week after week and make little or no progress because they do the same 3 sets of 8 reps of the same exercise. They only thing they are stretching is their time, which is wasted.

Until you decide to stretch your mind, you’re going to remain right where you are. Remaining where you are might actually be where you want to be.

A mind once stretched never regains its past form. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

How many times have you interviewed someone and you ask them to name something they are really good at and they say, “I have great people skills.”

People’s perception of their people skills is often a gross exaggeration of who they think they are and what they are all about.

Leaders understand that having great people skills requires them to grow those skills daily by building relationships of trust, respect and productive interactions.

Steven Covey stated it best when he said, “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”

Having people skills means building relationships.

You may think you are a great people person, but if you can’t be trusted then you’re a long way from having people skills.

Having great people skills involves the ability to communicate effectively with people in a friendly, positive and uplifting way. When you do those things people begin to trust you.

When people trust you, you almost automatically have better people skills.

That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

That’s an extremely important question to ask yourself as we move into the New Year.

One of the things that I know that you and I have in common is winning. That’s why you check in with me from time to time and read my material. You’re looking for ideas to help you to keep winning.

You and I may have different ideas about what winning means to us. Fundamentally it’s about keeping score regardless of what the “score factor” might be.

The “score factor” might be number of units sold, it might be gross profit, it might be income, it might be net profit, or it might be how many people we have helped make a better life for themselves. It’s all about keeping some sort of score.

It’s important to surround yourself with people who have things in common with you. If they are not interested in keeping score then they are not interested in winning. If they are not interested in winning then you don’t have much in common with them.

If you don’t have much in common with them then you need to be a real winner and rid yourself of their presence. It’s not just about winning, it’s about running up the score. Yep, that’s what you and I have in common, we wanna run up the score. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs