We’ve all heard the saying “a fish rots at the head,” meaning it stinks at the top first. If you have dealership management that blames and makes excuses, they’re obviously not going to attract or retain solid employees that want to follow in their footsteps. According to Dave Anderson, President of Learn to Lead, to attract the right talent, the culture has to be equipped with these traits.
Click here to purchase Dave’s book, Unstoppable.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION
Joe Gumm:
He was the final speaker for The Best Training Day Ever 2017, and I guarantee you, you missed it, because he brought the house down. You know who this guy is. It’s Dave Anderson, President of Dave Anderson’s Learn To Lead Day. We appreciate you joining us.
When I said you brought the house down, you actually got a standing ovation because of the content you brought to our dealers today.
Dave Anderson:
Well, I had a great time. I love going last. It gives you a chance to finish strong, finish well, and really make a good impression on everybody’s mind. It was a great group. I had a great time.
Joe Gumm:
You’re also the author of 14 books. The latest one, which we talked about on CBT News about a month ago, Unstoppable. I love the fact that you had the unstoppable eight. Let’s talk about some of those unstoppable eight, because when you talk about how people at a dealership become unstoppable, this list is important.
Dave Anderson:
Well, it is. We talked about undertakers, caretakers, play makers, and game changers. The difference between that play maker and game changer is that game changer is more consistently bringing those eight traits. They’re more consistently bringing the effort, energy, enthusiasm, excellence, passion, attitude, focus, and integrity. They’re not perfect. They don’t always have a great day, but it’s never due to not bringing those things in the right measure. The cool thing, everybody can control that. You don’t need anybody’s permission to bring energy, enthusiasm, or the right attitude. You can control it. You can change it, and we talked about how to do that today.
Joe Gumm:
One of the things you brought up, and I know others brought them up throughout the day. You talked about, and I’ll quote, “Marshmallow mindsets”?
Dave Anderson:
Yeah.
Joe Gumm:
“Buttercup feelings”?
Dave Anderson:
Yeah.
Joe Gumm:
“The snowflakes”?
Dave Anderson:
Yeah. Snowflakes.
Joe Gumm:
Yeah. So some would associate that, maybe the younger group, possibly millennials. We don’t know, but we’re not going to put that title on them. But the young people who won the eighth place ribbon and who are okay with working a four-hour day and maybe not on the weekends and building that up in the auto industry. Do you see that coming up? Because in five or 10 years, are we going to say, “Man, we missed that, because we were supposed to train and do well with these people”?
Dave Anderson:
If we miss it, it’s our fault, because first of all, you’ve got snowflakes from every generation. I know 60-year-old people who don’t take responsibility for anything, who get offended easily, who are always getting their feelings hurt, but it’s primarily associated with that younger generation. They’ve been coddled and pampered to a large degree. I don’t blame them. I blame the idiots that raised them. I blame the poor school systems they were in.
So the thing is as leaders, we can help influence a better mindset. We can teach them what it means to earn and deserve it. We can hold them accountable. We can give them honest feedback, and they crave it. And we can help them grow. So it’s all about changing their mindset, but if you’re going to tolerate it, it’s going to continue.
Joe Gumm:
Talking about changing them and training them and directing them in the right path is one thing, but it seemed as if the other theme or topic today was talking about training the leaders, because if we don’t train the leaders, no one is going to train these other people.
Dave Anderson:
No.
Joe Gumm:
All of a sudden, doesn’t it begin with that?
Dave Anderson:
It does. If you’ve got a leader that’s a caretaker, that blames, that makes excuses, it’s always focusing on things they can’t control, they are not going to attract, develop, or retain potential game changers or even play makers. So the leader can’t export what they don’t have. They can’t take people on journeys they haven’t been on. The leader’s got to get their mindset right, and then their behaviors will be better, and the results will be better. But it starts with the leaders. Joe, a fish rots at the head.
Joe Gumm:
Right.
Dave Anderson:
It starts to stink at the top first, so that’s what we’ve got to get right first is the leaders’ mindsets.
Joe Gumm:
Okay. How do you do that, because you made a quote. You said, “You keep people who have a bad attitude, and those are the ones welcoming the new ones.” But what if you have the leaders who are the ones with the bad attitude?
Dave Anderson:
Listen, if you’ve got leaders that are the ones with the bad attitude, you’ve got to get that person better or get a better person. You can’t change their attitude, but you can certainly set expectations, hold them more accountable, and try to influence them. They still have to change it, but you don’t wait forever. It’s on them.
Joe Gumm:
Okay. Let’s say Dave Anderson Motor Group is a brand new dealership down the street.
Dave Anderson:
Right.
Joe Gumm:
What are the five things if I came to work for you that you would implement and want me to know to get started as an employee? Whether it was the parts department, service, sales?
Dave Anderson:
You need to know our core values, because there’s certain behaviors that are non-negotiable. These are the way we do things. We’re not going to lower the bar to accommodate you. You’re going to have to live these values, so you need to know them. You need to agree to live by them and know you’re going to be held accountable for them.
I would set very clear expectations for you, what I expected and by when, because clarity is power. You’ve got to know what is expected. I can’t keep you guessing. I would give you the training and the tools to hit those expectations. I would hold you accountable for using the training and tools to execute those expectations. And I would be very fair. If you were great, I would tell you. If you were failing, I’d tell you. I would give you the honest feedback and rewards you need to either reinforce your great performance or put your poor performance in check. If you work for me, you wouldn’t have to guess where you stood.
So we get the culture right by getting the expectations right, the values right, the feedback, the accountability right. And by the way, I’d hire the right guys to begin with, because people are not your greatest asset. The right people are. You start with the wrong one, you’re doomed from the outset.
Joe Gumm:
Doomed from the outset. That’s why we love having him on CBT News and loved hearing him here at The Best Training Day Ever 2017. He’s Dave Anderson. He is the President of Dave Anderson’s Learn to Lead. He’s all over social media. You have to follow this guy. I promise you. Go to his website as well. Get his books, because he is the real deal.
Dave, we appreciate it. Thank you very much for joining us.
