Success can breed complacency

Winning, or achieving the success of results you desire can feel fantastic. All the effort and execution were successful. As the leader of the team, you feel a sense of pride. Once the high-fives are done and the celebration is over, the real key is what happens next.

Do you as a leader review your success with as much vigor as you do when results are not achieved? For many, the answer is no.

Let’s describe a typical meeting when the team was successful. Phrases like:

“You all worked hard this month.”

“You killed it.”

“Let’s do it again.”

Or some variation of support, encouragement, motivation yet all in a general sense.

Now let’s look at a meeting where results were not met. Phrases like:

“You did not make enough calls.”

“Your closing percentage is low. What happened to the customer you were working with?”

“I will be looking into what you have been doing and having conversations with each of you one-on-one.”

The difference is the leader is focusing on the actions the team was supposed to do to generate results and what occurred. Actions cause results. If the results are not happening, focusing on the actions allows the leader to train in a more targeted manner.

The reason to point this out is the success was accomplished through a series of actions. The question is, do the team members know specifically what they did to win? Can they repeat the efforts? Or is assuming they know a slippery slope to complacency which leads to declining performance.

Great leaders spend time reinforcing actions that lead to success. They don’t take it for granted. Their belief in repetition to anchor in behavior is a key to their success.

Pushback from certain leaders could be in the form of feeling their team is comprised of adults. That repetition is in some way condescending or offensive. Yet professional athletes run their plays over and over with the eyes of their coaches on them daily.

Think of any championship team that consistently is in the playoffs or winning championships. There is a consistency of practice, inspection, and coaching to deliver consistent results. Just because times are good or winning is happening does not mean it will remain.

Currently, in the automotive industry, dealers are seeing record profits due to inventory shortages. Multiple customers for each car. “The fish are jumping in the boat” as someone in the industry recently said.

If this is the case, could processes become sloppy because winning is easier right now? Could salespeople be lacking full effort with every customer because if this customer does not want it, the next one will? Is leadership lacking in their inspection of processes because the numbers look good?

The results generated by complacency are not often seen right away. Slight losses can be blamed on external factors other than the internal efforts of the team.

Leadership hopes for a bounce-back until a few months later the decline is picking up speed.

Just as a team could put together a magical season once, only to fall back into mediocrity, so can businesses. This is a magical time right now for dealerships, but no one knows how long the season of success will last. The question needs to be addressed regarding processes and effort.

Are you anchoring in the right effort or anchoring in sloppy behavior? Behavior cannot be flipped on like a light switch. It takes time and effort to change and to retain the right actions for success.

Don’t be blinded by the quick wins, the bright lights, and the pats on the back. Dynasties are built through the consistency of the right actions. Repetition is not looked at as a negative. It is looked at as the key to delivering excellence in experience for customers. That leads to repetitive buying and loyalty because they know what to expect each time they interact with your business.

Actions cause results. Repetition is the anchor. Inspect winning with the same passion as losing.

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