Successful dealers have a different view, a different attitude, a different swagger about them and a different way of managing accountability.

It’s always a good feeling when we are kicking off a new year. This time of the year sort of reminds me of spring training for major league baseball. Optimism is running high, as it should be, but in a few months reality will start to set in.

The stronger teams will have started to pull away and the weaker teams will be asking themselves, “What happened, where did we go wrong?”

A number of my articles recently have been prodding you to get ready for the New Year. Here are a few thoughts to get you moving a little faster toward your goals and some suggestions of changes you might need to make.

Observe-Spend a Saturday just sitting in the tower observing. Say nothing. Take notes. Of course you’re not going to see the true picture, but you will see enough to give you an idea of where the loopholes are.

Ask Questions-On Monday meet with your GSM/Sales Manager and ask him/her to review with you what the selling process is. Better yet, prior to meeting, ask them to write out the selling process to bring to your meeting.

Get After Them-Tell them what you observed and how far off track they are compared to the list and the discussion you just had. Of course, first tell them all the things you observed that they are doing well. Do your best to end the meeting on a positive note and create a plan of action to improve.

Re-Commit-Get them re-committed to what they say they are supposed to be doing. Reviewing the processes is the single most effective way to do this.

Re-Deploy-get them on a mission to get back on track through renewed focus, training, disciplines and processes. Get a commitment for the training they intend to do with the sales force over the next 30 days.

Create Accountability-create a daily check list to review what they are doing as compared to what they said they were going to do. Continue to observe and whenever it’s not right go back to step one and start over again.  Your number one job is to “Guard the Processes.”

Raising expectations is in part about raising your level of intensity and creating accountability within the team. Human nature being what it is, people will do what little they have to do to get by.

And we’re off. That’s all I’m gonna say,  Tommy Gibbs

This should be a really good week. It will only be a really good week if you make it a good week. It’s not going to be a good week if you stay in your seat acting like a computer geek.

You can make it a good week by getting up and moving around. You should be like a bumblebee on a pollination mission. You’re here. You’re there. You’re everywhere.

You can’t just flap your little wings in place and think someone’s gonna sell a car. You have to move around.

You have to create the buzz. You have to go from being weak and meek in order to make it a good week.

I don’t like things to be all about you, but this is all about you. This week is all about you. It’s about you making things happen.

It’s about you contributing as much in a week as you sometimes do in a month. It’s not about you giving 100 or 110%. It’s about you giving 200%.

It’s not about asking others to do it. It’s about you doing it. You sometimes think you’re important. Well, you are important. You’re even more important than you think. At least this week you are.

You may have to sting a few people this week. That’s ok. Some of your team could probably use a sting or two. A little stinging pain for a whole lot of car selling gain.

This is not the week for the meek and certainly not a week for a geek. It’s the week of the bumblebees. Let the stinging begin. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Actually I hope you don’t, but thinking that you do isn’t a bad way to approach each day.

Starting each day by thinking you don’t quite have it right yet is the same thing as thinking you have a mess.

When you think you have a mess, you become more alert.

You become more in tune to what’s going on around you.

Your peripheral vision improves.

Your peripheral hearing improves.

You become better because your antennas go up just a little higher. The higher your antennas go up the more you pay attention. The more you pay attention, the less of a mess you have on your hands.

Pay attention. Less mess. Get it? That’s all I’m gonna ask.
Tommy Gibbs

“Showing up” is a term that is sometimes used in sports when a player performs well, has an exceptional game, or makes ESPN’s top ten plays. In reality, it doesn’t actually mean what it says.

Anybody can “show up.” People show up every day. Sometimes you wonder why they even bothered to show up.

Showing up and performing, excelling, kicking butt and taking names is a whole different kettle of fish.

Great players and great leaders “show up” every day for every play. The great ones don’t pick and choose which day or which game that they intend to excel in. It’s ingrained in their DNA to “show up.”

They don’t say to themselves, “Hey, I like this day, I think I’ll show up.” They say, “I’m here, let’s get on with it.”

Of course they have days when they don’t feel like giving 110%, but they dig in, they grind it out, they push through the mess and they make it happen.

If you’ve not been showing up, maybe it’s time you did. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

When you stop doing the little things, they turn into big things. The little things are:

▪ Easy to ignore
▪ Easy to look the other way
▪ Easy to let slide

We all like easy.

Being easy causes you to say yes, when you should say no.

Being easy causes you to take your eye off the big picture. When you take your eye off the big picture, everything around you becomes a little fuzzier.

The fuzzier things get, the more confused you and your staff get.

The more confused you and the staff get, the more little things begin to slide.

Easy now becomes habit.

Habit becomes the norm.

The norm becomes easy.

That’s when rinse and repeat occurs. The problem is that the water you’re rinsing with is murky and dirty.

Expectations begin to drop. Lower expectations become the norm.

The little things can be hard to measure, so they are ignored.

When you focus on the little things, the performance of the team improves. That’s all the measurement you need. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Below are 40 fundamental traits of a good leader. These are traits that everyone should seek to emulate regardless of their position on the totem pole.

There are 3 ways you can use them:

1. Evaluate yourself. How’d you do?

2. Evaluate the person above you. Your supervisor, department head, team leader, dealer, GM, person in charge, etc. (You don’t have to tell them, just tell me.)

3. Have someone you work closely with or someone you supervise evaluate you.

If you do all three you’ll become a better leader.

My Top 40 Leadership Traits:

1. Leaders have pep in their step
2. Leaders are disciplined
3. Leaders arrive early, stay late
4. Leaders have a sense of humor
5. Leaders are consistent
6. Leaders follow the golden rule
7. Leaders don’t put themselves above others
8. Leaders don’t show favoritism by hanging out with subordinates
9. Leaders can be counted on
10. Leaders answer their own phone
11. Leaders return phone and email messages promptly
12. Leaders dress the part
13. Leaders show respect for others regardless of position or social status
14. Leaders say thank you…a lot
15. Leaders cut to the chase and get to the point
16. Leaders listen because they know others have great ideas too
17. Leaders use the word “We” vs. the word “I”
18. Leaders pull others up not put them down
19. Leaders don’t work in fear of their job; they coach people “up” to take their job
20. Leaders do what they say they are going to do when they say they are going to do it
21. Leaders pick up after themselves…and others
22. Leaders know what they know and they know what they don’t know
23. Leaders take the blame when something fails and they give others credit when it works
24. Leaders communicate then communicate some more
25. Leaders help establish vision and direction
26. Leaders remove obstacles to production, not create them
27. Leaders attack a problem now, rather than letting grow it into a cancer
28. Leaders seek ways to simplify not complicate
29. Leaders seek knowledge; they learn, then they coach others
30. Leaders make the tough decisions now, not later
31. Leaders don’t tolerate a fearful workplace
32. Leaders are enthusiastic
33. Leaders set the accountability standard
34. Leaders have controllable passion
35. Leader detest the statement “We’ve always done it that way”
36. Leaders accept mistakes as a part of progress
37. Leaders see a problem as an opportunity to “fix it”
38. Leaders guard the processes but recognize when they are not working
39. Leaders are optimistic realists
40. Leaders lead from the front and they push from the rear

How did you score? That’s all I’m gonna ask, Tommy Gibbs

You may have seen the New York Mets lose game 5 to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series. Even if you didn’t see it, you’ve probably heard what happened. Kansas City won the game in the 12th inning by a score of 7 to 2.

Matt Harvey had pitched a brilliant game for the Mets through the first 8 innings. At the end of 8, the Mets led 2-0. Three more outs and they live to see another day.

When the Mets were at bat in the bottom of the 8th, Terry Collins, the Mets’ manager, had the Mets pitching coach tell Matt Harvey they were going to put their ace reliever, Jeurys Familia in the game to close out the 9th.

Harvey approaches Collins in the dugout, has a very heated conversation and is adamant that he wants to pitch the 9th. The crowd is chanting “We want Har-vey!” they roared. “We want Har-vey!” The fans are going crazy.

Harvey had already thrown 102 pitches, but rather than go with his smarts, Terry Collins allows Harvey to start the 9th.

Harvey walks the first man he faces. It gets worse. Collins allows him to pitch to a second batter, Eric Hosmer, who rips a run-scoring double to leftfield that silenced Citi Field and cut the Mets’ lead in half. Familia replaces Harvey and Hosmer scores after a bad throw from first baseman Lucas Duda. Game tied in the 9th.

As many of you know, I refereed NCAA college basketball for 17 years. I’ve had calls booed and cheered that I’ve made. They weren’t exactly booing or cheering me, but it certainly can feel that way. (Ok, they were booing me.)

Here’s the point. Booing or cheering, it was my job to get it right based on what I’m seeing, my knowledge of the game and my knowledge of the play in front of me.

It was Terry Collins job to get it right based on his expertise and all the factors he knows about managing the game of baseball. He let the cheering crowd affect his decision making.

There’s a real lesson here. Never let the cheering, good or bad, affect your decision making.

Sometimes dealers let people cheer them into making bad decisions when they know better. They know they shouldn’t keep units past 60 days, but they get cheered into doing so.

I wrote an article this past week about paying on volume VS paying on gross profit. When the dealer tosses out a trial balloon about paying on volume the crowd boos. The dealer doesn’t want to hear the boos, so he says ok, let’s stay with paying on gross. The crowd cheers.

Don’t let the cheering crowd push you into bad decisions. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Frequently in my training sessions I’ll ask the question, “How many of you agree that we do a lousy job of holding people accountable in the automobile business?” Without exception, they will all raise their hands.

Leaders that have figured out how to hold people accountable are the most successful when it comes to developing a culture of leaders and achieving high results.

Holding people accountable doesn’t have to be a negative experience. When people understand the expectations, they will seek to achieve those expectations, goals, objectives, culture or however you might want to frame it.

People tend to do the right thing when they know it’s in their best interest, not when you have to hit them over the head with a baseball bat.

Your job as a leader is to sell the team the idea that the things the organization deems to be in the best interest of the organization is actually in their best interest too. Achieving expectations means they win, we win and we all have more success.

Easy tips:

1. Make sure everyone is reminded of the expectations. Yes, that seems elementary, but the evaporation factor is always in play. Either as a direct message or subliminally leaders must constantly remind the troops of what’s expected and what’s important.

2. Get on it right now. Far too often when there’s a lapse in achievement, leaders let things drag on and on. The more things are allowed to slip, the more those things become habit, and the more the expectations are lowered.

3. You don’t have to be mean to enforce expectations. People like to work in a well-run, well-disciplined organization. This isn’t about screaming and hollering at someone about their failures. It is about letting them know quickly we’re not on track; you and your team are not getting it done, whatever “getting it done” might mean to you.

At some point there must be consequences for those who cannot live up to reasonable expectations. The ultimate consequence is they get to go to work someplace else.

4. Be consistent in your actions and statements. The easiest way for expectations to fall apart is that you are all over the place. You let some things slide for some people and not for others. You cannot be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Selective enforcement with just a few people will destroy the morale and productivity of the team.

5. There are times when you need to figure out the real root of why expectations aren’t being met. What’s the real problem? Leadership sometimes will set the wrong expectations. Setting the wrong expectations is just as bad as not having any.

6. In order to hold others accountable we too have to hold ourselves accountable. We should make it a daily practice of looking in the mirror and being honest with ourselves.

A part of holding yourself accountable is never to forget, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” The closer you become with people the more difficult you make your responsibility of holding them accountable.

I’m holding you accountable. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs