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Where Should We Begin? #MondayBlogs

I often say that life is simple, and people make it complicated.

The same is true of our processes and procedures – they can be simple, unless we make it complicated.

Let’s first review one thing I know to be true: everyone wants to do a good job.  No one wakes up in the morning, excited to go to work and do a terrible job.  Everyone wants to succeed and do a good job.

But one key to doing a good job, is KNOWING what we need to do.  This crucial piece applies across ALL industries, it applies to our professional lives and, frankly, it applies to our personal lives as well.  In order to succeed, we need to know what has to be done.

When it comes to repairs for our customers, our Work Order Process has a series of simple steps for us to use to determine what must take place in order to meet the needs of our customer base.

I hope you enjoy this small video tutorial on the beginning of the Work Order Process.

The time is now.

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Principles of Leadership #MondayBlogs

There’s often a miscommunication when it comes to management and leadership.  In our classes, I teach that we manage processes and lead people.

You do not “manage” people.

But leadership is not a linear process.  It is, like sales, a series of relationships.  Leadership has to be flexible enough to match the people following that leader.  In order to become effective leaders, we must ask ourselves a series of questions:

  • Am I providing balanced supervision? (Not too much, not too little.)
  • Am I engaging in two-way communication?
  • Do I support my people?
  • Do I facilitate self-reliance and independence in my employees?
  • Do I create an environment in which employees can develop?

These questions provide only a part of the picture of leadership, of course.  But they are a starting point.

When you lead people, you have to spend time on self-reflection.  You have to study your methods and your relationships.

How do you lead?

The time is now.

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Let’s Get Serious About Our Employees #MarketingMonday

Some thoughts for your consideration:

You have seen over the past two to three weeks a change in the approach to the blog. We have been exposing Vimeo based film clips. You have seen our promotional trailer, the animation of Socrates, an introduction to the company and a video clip on market segmentation. I want today to present a situation and then pose some questions in the Socratic Manner. Socratic teaching forces people to come to their own conclusions.

Employees transition through three or four stages in their career:

  • Enthusiastic Beginner
  • Disillusioned Learner
  • Capable but Cautious Performer
  • Self-Reliant Achiever

 

Unfortunately, it is their immediate supervisor that has a direct impact on this transition. Too often we get stuck at the Disillusioned Learner as a result of the style of the boss or the lack of any interest from the boss in the employee.

 

As individuals as we move from school to work we have to overcome a series of things that I will call “personal obstacles.” These things come from our families, our friends and peers and our schools. I have often said we are taught to be obedient in our developmental years and when we get to the workforce we are asked to think on our own.

 

These obstacles normally are

 

  • We are told everything we want to do is impossible
  • We are afraid of hurting those we love by pursuing our own dreams
  • We are afraid we will fail in pursuit of our dreams.
  • We are afraid to succeed.

 

One of the important questions we need to ask of ourselves is “what would I do if I wasn’t afraid?”

 

In our training approach, we are developing an employee development program that will take each employee in the parts and service groups from the enthusiastic beginner to a self-reliant achiever. My question is “how do you achieve that today?

 

The time is now.

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Why Backorders Happen #MondayBlogs

Sometimes, a part won’t be available within your store, or your chain of stores, or from your supplier, OEM.  When a backorder takes place, you can never forget to conduct an analysis of WHY this has happened.

If our customers tell us what they want, shouldn’t we give it to them?

This means providing them with parts and service beyond compare.  To do that, you have to know what is going on in your inventory management.

The time is now.

 

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Differentiate Your Market #MondayBlogs

There’s always some crossover between our industry, and the automotive industry, the aviation industry, trucks, trailers, and so on.

When we think about marketing, we automatically think of the end result of all of our marketing endeavors: a sale.

But in order to make a sale, we have to know our market.  This means more than having a script or having general knowledge.  Who are your customers?  What, exactly, is it that they need from you?  What relationship do you share with them currently?

Remember, people sell.  It is a relationship.

The time is now.