Picture this…you finished last year just shy of your goal and you’ve recognized for far too long that the team that got you here won’t get you there, but you continue to find justification to hang on and not make a move. So…where is “there”? “There” is the vision that you cast a long time ago, perhaps even as long as when you began your entrepreneurial journey, and that proverbial carrot on a stick feels farther out of reach than ever.
It costs shop owners six to nine months of a team member’s salary to replace them. And that’s just the financial ramifications. Not to mention the time, energy, effort, and stress involved with replacing someone. Now that I have your attention, let’s consider a potential paradigm shift when it comes to getting the right people on the bus and getting the wrong people off the bus, an analogy popularized by Jim Collins’ best-selling book "Good To Great."
Your shop is a bus, and your bus needs a driver. As a shop owner, you’re presumably casting a clear vision so that your team can drive the mission towards that vision.
The reality is that you’re at a fork in the road, and you have two options…train and coach your existing team member, or replace them and effectively onboard, properly train, and consistently coach your new hire. Nothing changes if nothing changes.
Knowledge Without Action Is Just Information
If you've exhausted the first option with your existing team member and haven’t gotten the results you desire, you likely know what choice needs to be made. But knowledge without action is just information.
Here we are about to wrap up the second quarter of the year and you’re finally going to take action, on whichever option is most applicable to you and your business, by getting the right person on the bus to lead your team, drive sales, and crush your shop’s goals.
So when you begin to kick off this process—whether you begin to truly invest in your existing team member, or make a move to a new one—you’re making the decision to bring on a CIA team member, but not the kind you might be thinking. No, I’m not suggesting that you abandon everything you’ve ever learned and track down Jason Bourne to be your next service manager. I’m talking about identifying someone who is coachable, intelligent, and has a positive attitude.
Values Over Skillset
It means prioritizing values over skillset, connection over content, people over process. If you're going to effectively onboard, properly train, and consistently coach, the skills, content, and processes can and will develop.
It means shifting a paradigm and completely reengineering what your current interview process might look like, by prioritizing the concept of getting a CIA team member on your bus. Let’s break down what a CIA team member looks like.
Coachable
Coachable people receive feedback as feedback, and not as criticism, condemnation, or judgment. They acknowledge that literally every person they come in contact with has the possibility to teach them something they don’t know.
Coachable people recognize that they have blind spots, and regularly look for ways to grow and develop. If you’re reading this thinking to yourself “I don’t have any blind spots”...that’s a blind spot!
Intelligent
The “I” in CIA is for intelligence, but I’m not referring to “book smarts.” I’m referring to emotional intelligence. With heightened emotional intelligence, we can understand and respond to the emotions of others more effectively, leading to deeper, more genuine connections.
Having a high EQ can be an absolute game changer for a leader. We become more self aware, and we’re able to more acutely recognize our own emotions, allowing us to understand the “why” behind our feelings. It means better empathetic skills. It allows us to put ourselves in another's shoes, promoting understanding and compassion.
Attitude
To round out this CIA persona, it’s important that you hire team members with positive attitudes. The two things we can control each and every day is our attitude and effort. Even in tough times, we can still choose positivity. It’s not easy, but it’s possible. It’s a choice, and the best leaders understand this. As Zig Ziglar would say, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”
The key to identifying this type of person starts in the interview process, and having a baseline understanding on what questions to ask in order to determine whether they’re the right fit for your team and culture.
Calls To Action!
Consider asking yourself these three questions:
- Where are we going? That’s your vision
- How are we getting there? That’s your mission
- Why are we doing it? That’s your purpose
Your answers encompass your why, and when the why is clear, the how is easy. If this isn’t clear for you, imagine how your team feels. According to Gallup, 77% of employees are disengaged at work, up from 70% a year ago. The more clarity and direction you can provide your team, the more engaged they become. And if you want to increase your team’s performance, a focus on engagement creation needs to constantly stay on your radar.
Want to know what questions to ask during your next interview? Download the 5-page hiring guide titled How To Identify Your CIA Team Member to use when you’re interviewing your next CIA team member.
About the Author
Josh Parnell
Josh Parnell is the Founder and CEO of Limitless Leadership LLC. He is an experienced leadership coach, trainer, and speaker in the automotive repair industry and a United States Air Force veteran with over 20 years of leadership experience.
Prior to entrepreneurship, he grew and developed his leadership skills as a corporate trainer and coach for Christian Brothers Automotive, where he led a TEAM for nearly a decade that served thousands of employees within the franchise organization.
Josh is the host of the Limitless Leadership Podcast and enjoys traveling, reading, cooking, and working out. He's married to his wife, J’anvieu, and together they are raising leaders in their four children at home in Houston, Texas.
For more information, please visit limitlessleadership.co.