Your Culture?

Accountability: “The quality or state of being accountable; an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.”

Accountability starts with you, vibrates to those around you and ends up back in your lap.

If you believe a leader sets the culture of an organization then you must believe you cannot create an organization of accountability if you’re lacking in your daily disciplines.

If you’re not willing to hold yourself accountable then for sure you can’t hold others accountable.

Why should those around you do what has been deemed important, if you as their leader aren’t willing to do the same? There are a million ways to describe this, but since I’m a common sense guy, how about “monkey see, monkey do?”

A good leader makes sure those around them know what’s important. And a good leader makes things important by checking to make sure those around them are doing what’s important.

Building an organization of accountability isn’t a one-time thing. It’s an everyday thing led by you.

Accountability plays no favorites. If you let one person off the hook, eventually the entire organization falls off the hook.

Besides your personal accountability, there are three parts to holding people accountable.

1. Your personal street savvy. For many, this is based on time and experience and there are a few that are born with it.

2. Getting your head out of the sand. Get out of your office. Pay attention by using your peripheral vision and hearing.

3. Data. Look at the data and look at it some more. Data can be overwhelming. Figure out what’s important and what’s not by applying common sense to everything you’re looking at.

Sometimes data is misleading. Sometimes it smacks you upside your head.

Are you building an organization of accountability?

That’s all I’m gonna ask, Tommy Gibbs

Dumb Statements

You have a 75-day-old car, and you justify keeping it by saying, “I don’t want to dump this unit because I can’t replace it.”

What?

What did you just say?

Are you serious?

You don’t want to get rid of it because you can’t replace it?

What part of your brain are you not using?

I heard what you said, but here’s what you really said: “I want some more cars just like that one that are going to sit around for 75 days.” Are you stupid?

If you’ve had it for 75 days, there’s obviously a reason why you still have it.

For grins and giggles let’s suppose a miracle happens and you sell that 75-day old car today and you make $500. (ROI sucks but work with me here.)

Here’s my question for you; if you can sell it at day 75 and make $500, couldn’t you have sold it for that same price at day 45 and made $500 on it?

There’s no way of knowing the answer to that, but if you can sell it at day 75 and make $500 the odds are pretty good you could have sold it at day 45 and made that same $500.

The only reason you didn’t sell it at day 45 was because you weren’t willing to price it at a price point that someone wanted to come in and take it off your hands.

Don’t make dumb statements. That’s all I’m gonna say.

The Peter Principle Is Alive and WEll…

The Peter Principle Is Alive &Well

The Peter Principle is a management theory that states the selection of a candidate for a position is based on the candidate’s performance in their current role, rather than on abilities relevant to the intended role.
Thus, employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively, and “managers rise to the level of their incompetence.”
Promoting people to their level of incompetence is one of the biggest issues facing businesses and is extremely prevalent in the automobile business.
Dealerships spend thousands of dollars in time and money developing staff members’ “managing skills.” We’ve all observed such people. They are wizards at managing things, processes, and resources.
Someone may have been an awesome new car inventory manager. They were great with details, data and were as organized as a flight director at NASA. They can organize a herd of cats but have zero leadership skills.
One day the big opening occurs, and they are promoted. Bam!
Hello “Peter Principle.”
All is not lost. People can learn leadership skills. Of course, the best way to learn is to have great mentors.
Far too often the person that got promoted is more than likely replacing someone with similar managing skills and little or no leadership mentoring has taken place.
If CEOs and owners would spend as much time, money and energy on developing people’s leadership skills as they do on developing management skills, we’d have a lot less Peters to deal with.
That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is a term you hear a lot of people tossing around these days. Most of us think we know what it means and maybe you do or maybe you sorta do.

In this article I’m going to break the term down and you can judge for yourself how much you understand it and use in your daily life.

First let’s review the definition: 

“The ability to manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions of people around you.” Seems simple enough. Keep reading.

One of the most important ingredients of EI is peripheral awareness. It’s almost like having a fifth sense. It’s imperative that if you’re going to execute the four components of EI that you must develop your peripheral awareness. Peripheral awareness is simply paying attention to what’s going on around you. Some people work and live in a fog. Get your head out of the fog.

Far too often there’s more importance put on a person’s IQ, education, and training than EI.

EI revolves around understanding and managing emotions – both our own and those of others. In today’s world, where relationships and teamwork are integral to success, emotional intelligence plays a pivotal role.

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence can be broken down into four key components:

Self-awareness: Recognizing and understanding our own emotions, as well as their impact on our thoughts and behavior. Being able to control what’s in your head and what comes out of your month goes a long way toward improving your self-awareness.

Self-regulation: The ability to manage and control one’s emotions, preventing impulsive actions or reactions. Just as above. Control what comes out of your mouth.

Social awareness: Being attuned to the emotions of others, sensing their feelings, and understanding their perspectives. This ties into the point I made about peripheral awareness. It’s almost like you need to have little energy antennas sticking out of your head alerting you how others are feeling around you. Some people put off good energy. Others not so good.

Relationship management: Utilizing self-awareness, self-regulation, and social awareness to build and maintain healthy relationships. You build a healthy relationship by taking a sincere interest in the other person. Until you have a clear understanding of how to do this, you will struggle with whatever you are selling and connecting to people.

Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important?

Enhanced Communication: High EI enables better communication. By understanding both verbal and non-verbal cues, individuals with strong EI can express themselves effectively and, more importantly, listen attentively. This builds trust, cooperation, and healthy relationships.

Conflict Resolution: Emotionally intelligent individuals are skilled at resolving conflicts amicably. They can de-escalate tense situations, find common ground, and seek mutually beneficial solutions. Some people are geniuses at this. Others only make the problem worse.

Leadership: Great leaders possess high levels of emotional intelligence. They inspire and motivate their teams by understanding the individual needs, strengths, and weaknesses of their members. This build a positive and productive work environment.

Adaptability: Life is full of challenges, and those with a strong EI are more adaptable to change. They can bounce back from setbacks, learn from failures, and embrace new opportunities. They understand taking the blame when things don’t go as planned and give others credit when they do.

Stress Management: Emotionally intelligent people are better equipped to manage stress. They can recognize when they are becoming overwhelmed, take steps to reduce stress, and maintain their overall well-being. Go outside. Walk around the building. Take a deep breath.

Cultivating Emotional Intelligence

You’re not born with EI. It can be developed and enhanced over time. Here are some strategies to boost your EI:

Self-reflection: Regularly take time to reflect on your emotions, their triggers, and how you respond to them. Don’t lie to the person in the mirror.

Active listening: Pay close attention to what others are saying, both verbally and non-verbally, and seek to understand their feelings and perspectives. Most of us spend time thinking about what our response will be rather than really listening to what the other person is saying.

Practice empathy: Put yourself in others’ shoes and try to grasp their emotions and motivations. I often ask people, “How would you feel if you were on the other side?”

Mindfulness and meditation: These practices can help improve self-awareness and self-regulation.

Seek feedback: Ask for honest feedback from trusted individuals to identify areas for improvement. This is a tough one. Most people don’t want to hear the truth.

Emotional intelligence is an essential skill in our personal and professional lives. It has a profound impact on our relationships, teamwork, and overall success.

By improving our emotional intelligence, we can build better connections, handle challenges more effectively, and lead more fulfilling lives. Emotional Intelligence. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Is Forecasting a Waste of Time?

I’m betting you’ve either got a lot of numbers already laid out on a spreadsheet for 2024 or you’re scrambling to get it done in the next few days.

I’m a big proponent of forecasting. It lays out a map as to where we are going. Although there are detours along the way it gives us a chance to get to our final destination.

I’m an even bigger proponent of department head meetings. I believe your job as a leader should be to teach, educate, coach and encourage your team to seek ways to improve your operations.

I tend to take a common-sense approach to most things in life and I approach forecasting and monthly management meetings no differently.

Dealers, or any business for that matter, tend to forecast based on what they would like to do in the upcoming year.

Often it’s based on statements such as “we need to increase our sales by 10%” and/or “we need to reduce expenses by 15%.”

Saying you want to increase your business by 10% sounds good, but if you don’t have a plan to get there what good is it?

I’ve always been baffled by annual forecasting.

One of two things usually happens:

1. Someone is overly optimistic and/or they are blowing smoke up someone’s butt.

2. Someone serves up a low ball because they don’t want the pressure of hitting an unrealistic number.

Although dealers want to see an improvement in the next year’s numbers, what they really want is a number they can take to the bank.

In order to do a realistic forecast, you have to take into account staffing, inventory, and market conditions. How can anyone do a forecast and predict what those three pieces of the equation are going to look like 3, 6 or 12 months down the road?

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do an annual forecast, but doesn’t it make more sense to adjust that forecast monthly or quarterly based on those three fundamental elements?

Because most leaders don’t make those adjustments it frustrates the management team and defeats whatever good intentions there might have been. Everyone eventually loses respect and confidence in any type of forecasting and concludes “Why bother?”

While it makes good sense to do a monthly or quarterly review of the actual numbers, managers become disillusioned with these reviews in that they become a “beat up” session rather than trying to figure out what went wrong and how “we” can fix it.

People know when they didn’t perform. What they want from upper management is leadership that gives well-defined ideas and direction on how to “fix it” or make it better.

Using more common sense with your forecasting and monthly management meetings will help you grow a solid organization that generates consistent profits and sustained growth.



That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

Are You Dead or Alive?

Great leaders have their thumb on the pulse of the organization.

Without a pulse the organization dies. If you are to improve your leadership skills you must know the pulse of your organization.

You can only know the pulse of the organization by absorbing yourself within the daily activities and action of the business. To feel the pulse you must feel the passion.

If you’re not feeling the passion, then your pulse may very well be dead. Maybe your pulse is dead because you’re burned out.

How can you be burned out when you’ve never been on fire?

You are responsible for your own fire. I’m just trying to give you a match to get you going. Firing up your own passion will ignite your organization.

Real leaders have a pulse.

Real leaders feel the pulse.

Real leaders inspire a pulse.

Hope you’re on fire. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs

You Know Where The Problem Is

“Some people will not change until the pain is so great
that they have to.”

One of the more interesting things I see in my line of work is dealers and managers often know they have a problem, but don’t do what’s necessary to fix it.

These are smart people with years of experience and plenty of data and information to conclude that something isn’t working as well as it should or could.

They know there’s a better way, but stay on a road named “frustration.” When your staff becomes frustrated, the growth of your organization is stymied, and your bottom line impacted.

The two examples I see most often are:

1. The relationship between the parts and service departments and the used car department. Sometimes it’s the cost of parts and repairs and sometimes it’s workflow.

Never forget that you can’t sell them and make the most money if you can’t get them to the front line in a timely manner. Nothing drives sales management crazier than seeing units sitting out back waiting to go through recon.

A large percentage of the dealers don’t know where the bottleneck is or how long it takes to get units through the system and ready for retail. They know they have a problem, they just don’t know how big it is and how much it’s hurting their bottom line.

Each department is a separate business and there’s pressure on each department/business to make a profit. Therefore, it often feels like our business model, by design, is set up for the departments to work against each other. Watch this 3 minute VIDEO on my recon tool.

2. Overaged used cars. Dealers know it’s not profitable to keep used cars past 60 days. Most know the profit starts to take a serious dip on day 30. Profit and ROI are going south, and the dealer looks the other way. How such intelligent people allow this to go on and on is extremely hard to understand.

Ignoring the problem creates a culture that lacks discipline, which over the course of time will vibrate throughout the store. You cannot win on a consistent basis when there’s a breakdown of discipline.

More often than not we know how to fix the problem. And, more often than not we don’t fix it. We don’t address the problem due to fear. Fear can be real or imaginary. We often fear that if we attack the problem that someone will quit because they can’t live with the new approach.

If you fear asking people to change to something that’s going to make you, them, and your organization better, then there may be an even bigger problem that needs fixing.

Maybe you need to fix your thinking.

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

Change Your Title To Coach

The more I’m involved with the automobile business and the more I observe other businesses, the more I realize we in the business world have got it all wrong when it comes to management.

Specifically the word manager.

In business, people are often given the title of “Manager.” Sometimes it’s truly a gift because they were next “up,” and sometimes they worked hard to get it.

Most people who are managers think of themselves as, well, uhh, managers. They’ve been told they are a manager so they go about their business of managing people, systems, and processes.

I looked the word manager up and here’s what I found: “Somebody who is responsible for directing and controlling the work and staff of a business, or of a department within it.”

I can’t argue that is more or less the definition that most people work from. When working with and leading people I believe we would be much better served by replacing the word “manager” with the word “coach.”

Like many of you reading this, my life has been impacted in one way or another by sports. Whether you played sports or if you are simply a sports fan, the odds are you can relate to the field of sports and the influence it has had on you one way or another.

When I first got out of college I was a head football coach at a private military academy, Frederick Military Academy in Portsmouth, VA. The reality is that all throughout my career I’ve always seen myself as a coach not a manager.

If you think about what we do, at least those who do it well, we are always coaching. It’s just like being a head football coach.

As a head coach, your focus is to coach the players and the assistant coaches. It never ends.

If you have a coach’s meeting then you are reviewing the practice, schedule, game plan, etc. When you’re on the field with the players you are coaching technique, disciplines, conditioning, teamwork, attitudes, and the importance of “getting it right.”
Coaching takes place on and off the field just as it does with you in the dealership. Coaching is nothing but “selling.” If you’re a coach of an athletic team you are selling players and assistant coaches on why they need to buy into whatever it is you’re trying to get across.

This is no different than the business you’re in. You’re constantly selling someone on your team as to how and why to do things a certain way.

So, how much better off would we be if we all really took it to heart that we are no longer managers but “coaches” and that every minute that we are in front of our team our number one focus is to coach, coach and coach some more?

Top coaches are always looking for that competitive edge.

Getting a competitive edge means seeking information, testing the waters, trying a new play, attending a coaching workshop, and pushing yourself harder than you’re pushing the team.

Top coaches communicate with other top coaches. (20 Groups, Clubhouse App, Facebook Groups, etc.)

Top coaches hire other coaches who are smarter than they are with specific skills to help the team win. Top coaches know what they don’t know. Top coaches hire me.
It’s really strange that dealers who are unsuccessful don’t hire me and those who hire me are already successful.

They are already making money. Like any good coach they know they can do better. They know there is more to be had.
They know the team needs to hear it from an outside coach once in a while.
Great coaches are givers of information and they seek information to make themselves and their team better.
Hey “Coach,” thanks for reading my material.
That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs