REPAIR SHOP MANAGEMENT: HOLDING YOUR TEAM ACCOUNTABLE

by Terry Keller

If you are like I was the first 20 years as a shop owner, you have worked very hard to hire good people, set up efficient operating systems, and train everyone to use them. You have spent countless hours trying to communicate your expectations and teaching your team to reach them – all with sporadic or little success.

WHY? What is missing?

You’ve tried being nice — maybe even resorted to begging them to do their jobs. You’ve tried kicking their butts — at times you’ve lost your temper and really let them have it…but nothing seems to work consistently the way you want.

Are your employees tougher or smarter than you are? Or are they just no good? What is the problem?

After overcoming these kinds of issues in my shop to a high degree, and after training many other shop owners to do the same I can boil it down to one concept – LEADERSHIP!

What do I mean? Let me explain.

Can you identify with either of these traits in your management style?

• No one wants to follow a weak leader. Just like the mutt in a litter of dogs, the weak one is always taken advantage of or maybe even starved to death. Are you too weak or wishy-washy to lead? If so, you have given the leadership of your shop over to someone else. Do they have your shop’s best interest at heart? Probably not if you really look at it.
• You can only force someone to do what you are not willing to do yourself up to a certain point. Command and control only works in military-type organizations because of the threat of jail or worse for disobeying a command. It simply does not work in a civilian setting where good employees will not tolerate being threatened, controlled, or manipulated without destroying morale, inciting subtle or open rebellion, or causing them to eventually quit.

Establishing Accountability

When hiring new employees it’s simple (and imperative) to set clear expectations with them right from the start. Not having a history with you gives them a clean, unburdened starting point.

However, it is a little more difficult to install new expectations with existing employees who have experienced poor leadership in their workplace. As you begin to do so it’s important to meet one-on-one with each person and express your new vision and approach for the shop and him or her.

Getting their attention, helping them realize you truly intend to change things and overcoming the trust issues they have with you are difficult things for most shop owners to tackle and maybe impossible for some. You need to think about the ways you have violated a trust with each individual on your team and be ready to come clean with them. However, don’t even start this process unless you intend to change, be honest and follow through. You must set the example of how you want your team members to act and to be.

Once clear expectations are set (through examples and consistent training) and you have empowered each individual team member (by giving them the systems, tools, measurement and reporting process, incentives, and authority to do their job), a new level of accountability is established.

For owners who have never thought in these terms, this approach may seem complicated or impossible. It really takes an even mixture of assertiveness and firm resolve on the one hand, and delegation, respect, and trust on the other. The best leaders have ample doses of both traits and know when to apply each. You have to stop being their daddy and holding their hands so THEY can do their jobs, while still being willing to give them a licking if necessary.

Knowing when to apply each trait is the key. And never discipline an employee without showing them some love soon after. The best time to teach what you expect is as you show genuine care and concern for their welfare and job proficiency right after a butt-kicking. Good leadership by you and high accountability from your team will be worth your effort to grow these traits and skills.

Consistency

A daily reporting process (of production and performance) from team members to their supervisor is the glue that holds each component of accountability together. Consistent feedback – on both good and bad performance – must be communicated regularly. Good employees want to do well and need a forum to report this. They also must be required to report under-performance and how they plan to fix it. We use the RPM ToolKit™ shop management software for this reporting and feedback function. Less-capable employees may not like to report and will either learn to conform or will find another place of employment to hide.

It has now been 8 years since I worked on-site at my shop. The first few months of delegating, trusting, and completely letting go were very difficult for me, but I can tell you it was worth it! I now feel like my team is pulling me along at a nice safe pace instead of me having to drag them kicking and screaming all the way! The really interesting thing is now that they have full accountability for the smooth management of the shop and total control of its profitability, they are performing better now than they did when I was there every day and at my best — and I don’t have to be there to make them do it!