Ep. 38 - Accountability Culture: Creating a Team That Takes Ownership

In this episode, the Lewis Brothers discuss the emotional attachment business owners have to their companies and the importance of checking those emotions at the door when dealing with customer complaints. They emphasize the need for an accountability culture within teams, defining clear expectations, and leading by example. The conversation also covers the significance of building a culture of ownership among employees and the role of feedback in continuous improvement. This conversation delves into the intricacies of customer service, employee accountability, and fostering a positive workplace culture. The speakers emphasize the importance of allowing customers to express their emotions, setting clear expectations through metrics, and creating a feedback culture that encourages open communication. They discuss the significance of psychological safety in the workplace, the distinction between accountability and blame, and the necessity of effective documentation. The conversation concludes with insights on maximizing productivity and daily goals.

Feel the dynamic energy of the Lewis Brothers as they deliver real stories and lessons that keep local businesses on their toes, and share how experiences in the community inspire them to keep on driving.

Check out all our great episodes at CrossroadConversationsPodcast.com!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Business owners have emotions involved and they're
very attached to your business.
It's your baby.
You've laid everything on theline for it you need to be or it
won't work.
You need to be.
However, you must check youremotions at the door.
If you have a customercomplaint, even if you know deep
inside of you that there's noway that's accurate, you must

(00:22):
allow the customer to dumpwhatever emotions they have
going on and then you can moveforward.
Hey everyone.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis
Brothers, where we aim to sharereal stories about running a
successful family business whileworking through adversity and
pouring back into our communitythat keeps our doors open every
single day.
We're your hosts, shelby, mattand Taylor, and we'll be
bringing you real, relevant,local business advice, maybe
some automotive insights thatare sure to change the way you

(00:53):
look at running a business orbuying a car, and maybe even
throw in a plug for you to dobusiness with us here locally.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
All right, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with
the Lewis Brothers.
We're excited to be with youtoday for episode 38.
Today is going to be a greatone.
We know it's always a great onewhen we come together and we
start talking about business andhow we've walked through things
, how we've stumbled and we'vehad success, or maybe even times
we hadn't had success but thenwe've worked through solutions

(01:21):
on that.
Today is about accountability,culture, where we create a team
that takes ownership, and todayyou're going to hear about where
we've had success and thenwhere we've had failures and had
to back up and recalibrate tobe able to have more success in
culture and really in the teamthat takes ownership.

(01:43):
So that'll be exciting to talkabout.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Hey, recapping last week it was huge, but numbers
don't lie.
We love this because really,non-emotionally at all, you can
pull the data out of somethingand really see what's going on
in every single department andon the flip side, it really
helps you throw the ether, thegas, to supercharge your
business.
So Matt went off to handle it.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
He loves numbers.
We're coming back for a secondepisode.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
He wanted to do a take two.
We said, hey, wait, we're goingto move on.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Let's put that one on ice, he's so excited.
No doubt, though, data givesyou facts without the drama.
If I could just give you thefacts without the drama, and
then real how to move and allthe good things.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
Absolutely, it was all in there.
You've got to go back and checkit out, but, as always, check
us out.
All the freshest inventory atlewissuperstorecom.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
All right.
So what did we drive and what'spopular and what's trending
today?
I'm going to pick the SuperDuty.
Oh son, that's a 250, 350, 450,550.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
What's?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
the big one, Taylor.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Oh, 550 going all the way up.
You mean model-wise or what Igot on the hook.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
No, no, no.
What size tires does he put onF700.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
So you can go F600, then you go 650, 750.
Dang, I could build an RV outof one of those.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
We've got one of those with like a 24-foot bed
around here somewhere.
I want to talk super duty.
We have a select amount of 24model super duties that are all
ten thousand dollars off whichthere's not rebates on those
things I need you know.
So that means really good dealfor us automotive in stock.
No hokey pokey, but super dutieswe kind of have across every.

(03:20):
We finally got our depth backin those things.
So from regular cabs, supercabs, four doors, short beds,
long beds, utility beds, workracks, flat beds, and I think
that's just the edge of thesurface trimmers.
Just this morning, uh, platinumf-250, we had a king ram lariat

(03:42):
ultimate all new colors ofavalanche and glacier, and that
they look good.
They drive amazing.
They had a way.
So super duty, real quick.
Has a live front axle means youget true feel for the road.
It's super duty, right.
Yeah, they found a way to dosome electronic power assisted
steering.
They couldn't disconnect itlike the f-150.

(04:03):
So they drive really, really,really good they do.
Over 1100 foot pounds of torquemeans you can tow anything you
want and then your buddy's stuffbehind that and up to ten
thousand dollars off.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
So no matter what, it is super duty, you got to come
by and drive on you know, theother thing I love about not
only the super duty but ourheavy duties, is the connection
we have with up fits.
So if a customer is looking fora utility bed a dump bed I'm
looking at on and on whatever itmay be we can get you upfitted
for your municipalities, yourfarm work or just cruising

(04:37):
around the hall trash orwhatever else.
We have connections and we havepreferred vendors that we've
already gone through to makesure their quality is there and
that the product's good as well.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
That's a really good point because you know a lot of
these cities and municipalitiesgo out to state bidding right.
And they say it needs to be XXX,and so everyone who wants to be
in that game which is not manysay okay, I'll do that.
Then it comes to the outfit ofthe quality, the lead time how
long will this last?
What's the warranty, and thenthe overall finished product.

(05:08):
And so we've done our duediligence for years to make sure
that we have that on point.
I mean, we had one the otherday that was a box that was made
just for gutters.
We have some vet boxes orsomething for the city that are
air conditioned.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
For the animal shelters For animal control and
animal shelters.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
We've had some refrigerated boxes.
We've got some utility bedswith pop-top boxes Wow, all the
way across the board.
So check us out with any ofthose things.
Whether you're at the city orat a municipality, at our fire
station, or just a guy lookingfor a hard-working truck, or a
gal looking for something tohaul your horses, we got it.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Absolutely.
You're heavy duty headquartersfor sure.
All the options, hey, divingstraight into today and getting
into a fun topic here, butdefining clear expectations and
ownership.
So really, in this focusing,just how do we hold people
accountable to what we want todo, what our expectations are?

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Can I first say if you tuned in, thinking we always
had everything right, that'snot the case.
But what we do do is we alwaysswing and if we miss or we're
not the greatest at an area, wecome together and we figure out
and we learn from others.
This is one of those subjectstoday and, taylor, I'm glad you
brought that up, where I'm goingto start off with defining

(06:28):
those clear expectations andownership.
I can tell you, when we were atsmaller scale you go back 10
years ago and we expectedeverybody to understand what was
going on in our head.
I don't know if you guys canrelate to that, but how many
times we talked we werefrustrated Like how did they not
see that that's what weexpected?

(06:48):
You know, how did they not do?
How did?

Speaker 2 (06:51):
they not see me doing that.
Why wouldn't they just do that?
Right?
It made sense to us, Like whywouldn't they lock the door that
was left unlocked?
It's nine o'clock at night.
Why wouldn't they move thattruck?
Why would they leave that there?
Why would they drive off whenall the windows are down on that

(07:12):
car?
They just drove past and you'rejust like why don't they see
that?
And so we kind of had to flipthe script from local mom and
pop.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
we did scalability and the reason I bring that up
is I am sure that some of y'allare in that same situation where
you're like I just can't get myguys to care as much about the
business as I do.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Well, number one you have.
They don't have the skin in thegame, correct, and they
shouldn't have to care as muchas you do right they don't have
it all on the line for risk orfor reward, like hopefully, they
do the best of their ability attheir current job.
But let me be honest with you.
At best, at best, they're goingto do that.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
So how long did that take you before you realized and
accepted that?
And we're going to talk aboutthe level of acceptance.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Just the other day I realized I was 38 years old.
I was out on a run.
I thought I was 37.
Realize I was 38 years old.
I was out on a run, I thought Iwas 37.
And then I realized I was 38.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
So let's say about 36 years, 36 and a half real years
and before then, especially ifyou go like take the past five
or six years before then, thefrustration and the stress level
of expecting that they weregoing to care about it as much
as you do, it just like repeatsitself on this hamster wheel.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Like you, could be 98% there of like everyone
jiving and working together, butthe communication of
expectations or how to takeownership of getting them to say
I apologize, that is my fault.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
You bet.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
It will never happen unless it is so crystal clear.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
So unpacking a little bit and we kind of like punched
you in the face right off thebat.
I hope you're paying attention,but the reason we did that is
just to let you know hey, we'rein the same boat that you
probably are in too.
We're struggling through it.
So once you realize that, likehey, I'm not going to get
everybody, like nobody's goingto care as much about the
business as the three of us inhere, okay, but what can we do

(09:13):
to get them to take ownershipand care more?
Yeah, yet at the same time,understand from ourself, stop
getting frustrated becauseyou're aging yourself and you're
just stressing yourself out.
So how do we put it in place?
And I'll bring up of thesubjects you talked about trash
or the windows down, or the door, the garage door open, like
those simple things.
But I'll tell you somethingelse scheduling.
I can't tell you how many timesI've shown up and we didn't have

(09:36):
enough coverage, whether it bein service or parts or sales or
the central office, and they'relike well, so-and-so is on
vacation.
Don't they deserve theirvacation?
Absolutely, I'm not saying noto that.
But what I'm saying is did youplan accordingly and have clear
expectations to take ownershipof the success of this business?

(09:58):
Because people have choices outthere and we have a great
organization and a great culture, but if their vehicle's broke
or they need to buy a new onebecause they're going on their
summer vacation.
Whenever this Friday and you'renot hearing available, they can
go somewhere else, absolutely.
So we have to have clearexpectations.
We had to then put in goingokay, here's a calendar.

(10:20):
Yeah, check your coveragecalendar.
Check your coverage.
I'm okay with people being offas long as we have coverage,
because the customer doesn'tneed to get the other end of a
bad experience just because wedidn't have coverage.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, you know, we've really fought with that a
little bit and probably sincewe've scaled some, we more so
our habits, because we had to beso dialed in and involved of
like habits because we had to beso dialed in and involved of
like you're here, everyone hasto be here, we have to keep
going, because we didn't havethe depth of being able to have
anyone in there.
So that's something we'vedefinitely been able to evolve

(10:57):
and adapt to, of having clearexpectations of different
apartments, with scheduling,that there is a little
flexibility there and we try tobe able to be progressive in
that.
But that's something thatdefinitely didn't happen
yesterday.
Absolutely it didn't happenyesterday.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
So you know when we start talking about well then,
how do you define that?
How do you set the expectations?
And I know you guys willresonate with this, because you
said in a previous podcast butnumber one and the easiest thing
to do, you don't have to writea policy for this, you can just
do it today.
Your employees must see you dosomething that they don't
necessarily think is your jobnow.

(11:35):
That is pick up trash that's onthe lot.
That is help move a car thatneeds to be moved.
That is pull something into theshop, check somebody out, talk
to a customer that's out thereon the water that walks in the
door.
You know, if you beat the otheremployees to go talk to them,
everybody's going to see that If, when a customer comes in, they
ask where parts is or they askwhere the bathroom is, and

(11:57):
you're like, hey, follow me thisway, let me show you, versus
just saying hey, yeah, it's inthe back corner back there,
you're setting that examplethere.
So that's the first tip, that'sthe easiest.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
So I will tell you on that and that is so important.
But for 38 years of my lifeI've been living that.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
We all have been living that.
Lead by example what my phasetwo of that is.
Tell them Nobody gives a rip,they'll let you just keep
picking up the trash.
And that's my aggravation andit's my fault.
I take full responsibility fornever delegating that and say
follow me with the trash youhave to every time you have to,

(12:37):
because I'll be the one justsweating and just out there,
doesn't?
matter and I don't delegate itand I don't say, hey, this is
your responsibility, it can nolonger be.
We had this conversation liketwo weeks ago.
No longer are we mom and pop,or does this world overly care?
As sad as that is to say, ohyeah, that's the owner, he's out

(12:59):
there meeting, greeting people,and then they're like, oh yeah,
he'll get them, he'll get themwhere they need to go, like in
our eyes.
If we saw somebody doing that,if we saw our dad doing that and
we knew it was our job we werelike, oh crap, we better get to
getting, because as soon as hehandles them, we're going to be
in bad trouble.
Today's world doesn't care andit's okay.
I'm not trying to change theworld, but we have to be very

(13:21):
clear.
So do lead by example and thengrab them with you and say, hey,
matt, phone me this way.
Hey look, mrs jones, welcome.
Do you know, matt?
there you go for professionalsand then write your policy and
procedure to say here's how,because we've all been here
before it starts and after itends, and just like, oh my gosh,

(13:42):
and there was never, and thestress level was so high and the
workload was so high.
And you, we talked about whenpeople need to take vacation or
this and be like man, we put ourtime in.
We put our time in like whenit's time for us to be able to,
and there's never been a moreaggravating time that finally,
it's like and sometimes peoplelike you guys are always on

(14:03):
vacation no, we just have tonsof meetings going in all
different directions.
So it's time for a realvacation with your family.
Who might remember you?
yeah and then you look up to goon vacation and half of your
manners will be gone.
You're just like what in theworld do they not see that
you've put so much time in andnow you just want to be able to
go and turn your phone off andthen figure it out.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
They don't care, and so you have to have proper
expectations and communicationsand all of those things I think
that's a great example of whenyou have an idea or a process,
that you don't throw the babyout with a bathwater.
You know because the leading byexample was correct, yet it was
missing a component that Shelbyjust brought up.

(14:47):
It's hey, lead by example, butdon't miss that opportunity to
teach and train somebody else,to bring them alongside and
mentor them, because then that'swhen the value really is.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
And more often than not and I'll tell you this in
just pure vulnerability it waseasier for me just to do it than
have confrontation of whyaren't you doing this Right?
And if I got in the situation,I was happy to walk through it
with a team member.
Hey, here's why we do this.
I just didn't want to deal withthe headache and that's a bad
manager and that's a bad leaderin me, but it was just easier

(15:21):
for me to do it and then I couldcomplain to myself and then get
over it because I was mad atmyself.
But the confrontation, orhaving that conversation of
expectations and properassignments yes, I was just I
was drowning myself.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
No, that's really good.
I'm going to take another stephere, because then it really
talks about well then, how doyou communicate and build that
culture of ownership?
We've talked about our culturebefore, about the excitement and
positive attitude and how wetalk, but now we're really
talking about our culture ofownership of ownership there.
What I can say is it's not awritten policy or a memo that

(15:58):
you email out.
I'm not saying that that's nota supporting document that helps
, but you can't be a keyboardwarrior and sit behind it.
Every once in a while have HRsend out a memo and think, oh, I
got it done, I'm good.
No, no, it takes multiplefacets.
They got to see the example.
You got to train and mentorthem.
You do have to send out thepolicy, the paper, hard copy, so

(16:18):
people can refer back to it.
But then also, you'reconstantly talking about it.
You know so any of our employeeevents, whether it's our cake
day or this, and that we'retalking about that, and a couple
of things I'm going to bring upthat we've talked about for
years and years and this is justanother piece.
So, like 360 degrees, we'realways talking about this

(16:38):
ownership and how to care, andwe tell, we tell customer this.
I saw this quote early on in mycareer and it made so much sense
.
It says customers are notdependent upon us, we are
dependent upon them and in ourindustry, whether it's getting
your old change, ordering a partor buying a car, people have

(17:00):
options.
Now we think we do a awesomejob and above everybody else,
but the reality is there's othergood people out there and they
could come in contact withsomebody else and just because
you messed up once, or youweren't open or you didn't have
the availability, if they comein contact with another great
experience, you have a shot atlosing that customer for now and

(17:23):
in the future.
So sometimes and y'all resonatewith this that you've done
business with somebody andthey're like man, they were kind
of like take it or leave it,it's my way or the highway, and
they acted like there's none oftheir options out there.
That's not the truth and wetalk to our employees about, hey
, we're dependent upon them,they're not dependent upon us.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
Absolutely.
I love that.
And you know, going back tothis is you diving more into a
previous episode you had talkedabout, but really the next level
of leadership that you go into.
I love this example that youbrought up, that whenever you're
moving to the next capacity ofwhatever leadership it is, and
you have a employee walk up toyou and is like, hey, man, I

(18:06):
need your help with this, youdon't get frustrated, you don't
get mad, because I myself amgoing through it early.
I'm like where are my othermanagers?
I need help.
Why are y'all coming to meinstead?
I love the example of hey,follow me.
This way, I want to show youthis is mason or this is blah
blah, this is x, y or z way.
I want to show you this isMasoner, this is blah, blah,
blah, this is X, y or Z, andwe're going to work through this

(18:29):
and sit there for a minute.
It's no different than me andhim saying, hey, this is Mrs
Smith on the showroom.
It's kind of your nice way ofsaying hey, this is what you
need to do.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
You should greet this lady yes and greet this lady
yes, and that's a really goodpoint.
So how to define employeeownership within the culture?
You really, you really honed inon that.
But talking about don't solveall their problems.
No, yesterday I had a guy.
I was like hey Shelby, like Idon't know why, I'm the cardinal

(19:00):
social media person, but it waslike hey Shelby and I always
try to introduce, cause I'm thecardinal social media person,
but it's like hey Shelby and Ialways try to introduce because
I'm seeing like hey, they'resyncing.
I need to help them.
Like hey, I'm about to make avideo on this platinum plus, can
you tell me the differencebetween it and a platinum?
I said no.
I said how do you think I knowwhat?
I know?
Like I don't know.
I researched it.

(19:21):
If I want to know something, Ilook it up.
I said why can't you do that?
Do you have a phone?
Does it function?
If not, get on the computer.
He's like yeah, yeah, but likewhat's the difference?
I said if I told you, you wouldnever know how.
You don't know how.
And I want to show you wherethe water, how to find the water
, how to clean the water and howto be able to reuse.
Well, that's mean, why wouldn'tyou just tell me he's like so

(19:43):
you're not going to tell me?
I said no, I said just chat GPT, just like I told you, just
like I showed you on theexpedition.
But I apologize for doing itall for you.
Put in there hey, tell me thedifference between a platinum
and a platinum plus, and thenyou should take your Ford test.
And he was like oh, so notsolving all their problems for
him.
Like every someone says I wantto talk to mr lewis.

(20:04):
It's not saying no, I don'twant to talk to you, but they
need to understand what's thedepth of that and how much.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
And so if you give them some of that ownership,
then they start having someownership and saying, oh, I get
to help some of the lewis'scustomers solve x problem, or I
help them with x, or y, if youdon't take the time to teach
them them, like you're sayingthere and we've all been caught
in what you were talking aboutearlier of hey, it's just easier
on me to just do it myself.

(20:30):
Let me just answer thatquestion.
If you create that expectationof hey, go ask Taylor, go ask
Shelby.
They always know when they walkinto the office if there's
three options on who they canwork a deal with or ask a
question.
They'll always come to you,which bogs down your time and
you can't ever work on thebusiness.

(20:50):
Now I'm gonna go back to whattaylor said for a minute,
because this is going to helpsome of you guys out there, some
of y'all that absolutely or mayeven have obliterated employee
because you were frustrated withthem, okay, and just browbeat
them and maybe it was deserved,maybe it wasn't, most likely it
was Okay.
A professional way to do itwithout embarrassing them is the

(21:15):
non-empty transitioner handoffand that's what Taylor was
talking about.
So when an employee comes andasks you something and you had
another manager that you'vehired to be a manager right
there, instead of just blowingup or saying hey, go ask them,
you get out of your chair, youwalk over to them and you
explain employee A, manager A.

(21:38):
Here's what employee A needs.
Manager A is there any way youcould help them with that?
Do you need my assistant or isthis something that you're
capable of handling?
Employee a are you good withthat?
You two work together andfigure this out.
I'm gonna keep working on thebusiness to create y'all some
more traffic.
Is that okay with y'all?

Speaker 2 (21:57):
and so then the working on the business is going
back and seeing, uh-oh, didthey not know or do we not have
a defined process?
That that's the segment thatwe're in yep is to say, okay,
working on the business in thebusiness was solving them,
helping them buy a car service,a vehicle.
Find larry.
Working on the business issaying, hey, do we have our

(22:18):
processes?
And they don't follow it.
They don't care, it's antiqu.
Or do we not have a process?
Let's define one, let's designone, let's ask some people Keep
yours, and then let's go.
And then so you're like, hey,junior, I apologize, hey, senior
, I apologize.
Here's our new process.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
So a great step two and Shelby just led into that is
I intro, not an empty one.
I intro employee manager, I letthem work through that, they
work through it.
Then I talk to manager hey, Iwant to recap when everybody
else is not in there, I want torecap what just went on.

(22:55):
What can we do to better getyou involved, where they'll come
see you to ask those questionsso I can continue to work on the
business?
What do you think the processshould be?
Do you have any input so we canmake sure that what just
happened doesn't happen again?
So then they know too.
That's then the coaching momentand then you're creating what

(23:15):
we're talking about here, thisculture of ownership and
expectations through example inthe moment, and then, when the
time's right, after the moment,when it's not embarrassing to
anybody to get their feedback,then to put that process in
place.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, that's also important right Not doing the
confrontation, working on thebusiness so that it can,
otherwise it never grows pastyou and if you take yourself out
of it, it it suffers massively.
Right, because you were.
You're putting up pots and pansholding all the water and all
the things and making it reallythrive and then you don't ever

(23:52):
get to scale, move to work orany of those things or vacation.
You're just like what happenedthat's a great.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
We'll call it a thermometer or checks and
balances for all the businessowners out there.
And hey, we've all been there,yeah, okay.
So don't think you're on anisland by yourself.
You think you've built abusiness, but if you step back
and you listen I love listeningto Shark Tank about this,
because they call them straightout.
They say no, the business isyou.
Without you, there is nobusiness.
And if that's you out there,it's okay.

(24:20):
You don't have to sell yourbusiness.
It's just time to look at howdo I empower, how do I build an
actual business?
And don't be offended by that.
But if everything has to funnelthrough you and you can't
remove yourself for a week, takea month, take something extreme
, and you're like man, Iwouldn't go on vacation for a
month.
I haven't either.
Okay, but you just run throughthat test.

(24:41):
If I wasn't here for a monthand I came back, what would it
look like?

Speaker 2 (24:48):
And that's how you get to define clear expectations
and ownerships within youremployees right.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
Let me give you one other tip that we talk about
with our employees.
We're just talking about theseexpectations and these ownership
, and it's so important that youclearly communicate to your
employees that they know that.
They know that we're in thecustomer service business and
people in America have lots andlots and lots of options and
less and less and less loyal andless loyal.

(25:15):
That's a very good point.
We tell them this hey, yourcheck you get now it's direct
deposited.
But your check you get for yourpayroll, it may say Lewis on it
, it may be signed by a Lewis,but we're just the transfer of
funds.
It was funded by your customer.
Without the customers in theretail business, we wouldn't

(25:37):
have the funds to transfer toyou.
So, even though it says Lewis,it's really coming from the
customer, you.
So, even though it says Lewis,it's really coming from the
customer.
And when you can reframe yourmind to think that way and you
go okay, where's the moneyreally coming from?
Okay, it's not coming from Matt, shelby or Taylor, it
transferred from them, but itcame from us providing a great
customer service and a greatexperience that then they'll

(26:00):
tell others about.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, yeah, that's really good points.
Good points, well hey, it'stime to dive into the good old
fun fact quiz yeah, last week itwas rapid fire.
Y'all came really close down tothe end, but one.
I just got a single questionfor you this?
week in an automotivemanufacturing.
What is the name of theoverreaching system focused on
ensuring that every vehiclemeets established quality

(26:21):
standards that define processand responsibilities?
The name of the overreachingsystem focused on ensuring that
every vehicle meets establishedquality standards that define
process and responsibilities?
Whoa, a, b, c, d Hit us with it.
So A is supply chain management,b is quality insurance,
assurance, qa, for short version, thank you.
C is product forecasting and Dis market and sales strategy.

(26:45):
So keep those in your head andwe will revisit them after you
finish getting wound up.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Okay, so the next step in that we did a really
good job breaking down, you know, just expectations and how we
start going through the culture.
But then it's building aframework, and not only building
a framework for theexpectations but also for
feedback, because things change,and especially in our business.
They change is how you getfeedback from customers on their

(27:15):
quality, on the experience, onthe expectations, and then what
you do with that feedback tocontinue to mold and adjust to
make sure that you're staying ontop of it.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Absolutely.
I think that's good on thecustomer side and on the
employee side.
I realize you know, even if youteach and they understand and
build that framework and here'sour game plan and here's our
process, that we wrote and allthe things we just talked about
and understand, it's not saying,hey, this is the only way, my
way, the highway Now, that'stricky.
That's saying so, should wefollow this plan or not?
Yes, you should follow thisplan.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
But with your key people, leaders, within it, you
can say hey, if you see in themoment in the field that this is
a pain point for the customer,this is a pain point for a
technician or for thesalesperson, take note, because
there's a really good part whensomebody says, hey, this isn't
on the internet or this doesn'twork, we'll say give me an

(28:12):
example yes and so then we'llsay, hey, I need a week's worth
of examples so we can see ifit's a one-off or just, you know
, squawking something over here.
We're just one customer thatwanted everything free.
Or give me some more examplesand give me some depth in that.
But understanding that therecan be some feedback, that we
can move a process if there's amore efficient way.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Now we need to break that down a little bit so you
understand and we've learnedthis through a lot of years and
doing it right and doing itwrong is when you hear of
feedback something messed up,something didn't meet
expectations.
I want you to do a couplethings for me and I'm just
telling you, if you'll put thisin place, it's a game changer.

(28:56):
Number one listen, okay, listen, be empathetic, take notes, but
do not take action yet.
Gather the information and then, after you've listened to them,
you've gathered the informationthen go verify.
You must do these things beforeyou react, and what you're

(29:19):
doing is you're trying todeclutter all the noise and all
the emotions to say is this aone-off, did somebody exaggerate
?
And it wasn't quite that.
There's always two sides to thestory, and I even tell my
managers yes, I want you to backthe employees.
Well, absolutely.
But before you go to a decisionor a thought, or rather to

(29:41):
react, you better go verify andstay neutral ground.
Gather the facts, put your plantogether and then you can react
.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
So let me tell you, based on that, our highest
frequency customer through ourdealership is via service, and
even more pinpoint is via theoil change Yep Right On average
three times a year on, onaverage nine times, or three
times three, before they evercome back to buy a car, and
those are times that we get towow.
That's also one of our entrylevel positions, and so we have

(30:14):
to make sure that our qualityassurance, or QC, is good there,
and we've worked on that.
We serve every single consumerthat comes.
Through the opportunity to giveus positive feedback I will
they also get the opportunity togive us negative feedback, and
so, and ding, somehow I noticedthe other day my wife gets the

(30:36):
google reviews oh okay, yeah, umthird party yeah.
so then, when she asked me, incase you don't know, we don't
talk about the business.
Well, I don't talk about thebusiness with my wife, I have a
job, you know so forth and so on.
But I was with her the otherday and she got an alert and it
was a one-star review.
I was like you got a review, isthat what you got?

Speaker 1 (30:56):
going on.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
She's like yeah, it looks like something.
I was like how do I turn thisoff my phone?
I don't even know it's that AIcoming in I don't know, I've got
too many of them turned on, butanyways, so there was one.
For example, a customer said Iknew, I don't know, I don't
remember the exact words, butnot a bait and switch, but I

(31:17):
knew it was too good to be true.
They charge way too much for anormal change.
Fun fact, we don't.
We've shopped it and we're oneof the lowest in the markets.
But customer perception wecharge way too much.
It's more than it was in 1970.
Right, and you're right, it is.
And this costs more than yourhouse, we know it.
So we also do a four wheelrotate and they also do an

(31:38):
inspection and all the otherstuff.
And they said they did this,this and this, right, and they
make a little situation reallybad.
And it wasn't even a situationbecause we have technology.
I had.
One of my service advisors waslike hey, can you check?
And they've learned thelanguage I need to know hey, at
3 o'clock to 3.30, red F-250,will you check and see if we

(32:00):
rotated the tires?
We got a bad Google review.
We got a bad manufacturersurvey, we got an upset customer
.
And then you have because theyknow we're going to inspect this
and you have a service manager,service advisor and technician
and technician advisor all ofthem like oh my gosh.
So I said y'all, let me inspectbefore I react and say what the
heck, why can't we rotate thetires?
you idiot, and I don't mean that, but that's what I feel,

(32:23):
because I'm just getting tingedand pinged with this because we
got a lot.
So I checked the camera realquick and you know sometimes you
say it best when you don't sayanything at all.
It's a song I recorded our teamharmoniously four people
rotating the tires.
It's so efficient.
It was like a NASCAR pit crewin slow-mo.
They rotated the tires.

(32:44):
I sent the video to the advisor, said hey, I saw this review
come through.
If you don't mind, will yousend this to them and just show
them?
Hey, we did in fact rotate yourtires.
If you had any other questionsor any other concerns, please
let us know yep right and justin today's world, everyone's so
much more vocal, right you think?
there's somebody's pulling thewool over their eyes, but we've
got systems to help us make sure.

(33:06):
And then we have the cameras toprove, yeah, uh.
And then it's like don't reactquickly, to say another, I told
you and it's like, hey, by theway.
And so then at that pointtechnician really doesn't know
that you got a one.
Serve you.
They don't have the alerts likemy wife does.
And so I'm like hey, I just wantto let you thank you for always
doing your job.
Service advisor thank you forfollowing up.

(33:27):
Service manager thank you forkeeping a close eye on all these
people, because they'll whackyou right like that with
feedback and follow through.
But if there is a situationwhere you can see where we
didn't, then you just followthrough with it.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
So that video, like you said, is worth a thousand
words or even more.
Yeah, that works both ways.
Yes, so it works with acustomer of like,
non-transparent, we don't haveto get emotions involved.
It's not heated, is this yourtruck.
Yeah, is this the best way?
Can I text this over to you?
You know, I want to send youthe footage of the truck.
We do this complimentary.
We record all this for you,compl the tires.

(34:01):
You can send it to theemployees to look at.
So, both sides there.
That's now the framework,through technology, to be able
to fix that up.
Then the employee knows, hey,they're watching.
Even when they did rotate it,we found that the employee still
knows they're watching.
Right, you know both sidesthere.
For that, clear expectations.

(34:23):
But you must communicate aboutit.
If you're sitting there andI've done this if you're sitting
there just hoping and you kindof brush it off because you're
like man, I've had a tough day,I'm wore out, I don't want to
deal with this.
I'm sure it was a one-off thing.
They'll know better next timeand fix it.
Then it happens again.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Well, because they know, I think, that car left
here and I didn't tighten thelug nuts, oh should I not?
sign something.
And then they're like oh, I,you know what, I didn't get in
trouble for that.
You know that one never cameback.
So the next time they're like,hey, this is gonna take a little
bit extra to replace the cabinair filter.
No one really noticed that, Ididn't, you know, never mind the

(35:03):
right thing or wrong thing todo.
And so then they realize it'slike a trip to breaker.
Then it's easier and easier forit to keep doing not the right
thing.
Yeah, it just slowly slips away.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Yeah, I'm going to say this one more time so y'all
don't miss this, and I get it.
Business owners have emotionsinvolved and they're very
attached to your business.
It's your baby.
You've laid everything on theline.
You need to be or it won't work.
You need to be.
However, you must check youremotions at the door.

(35:34):
If you have a customercomplaint, even if you know deep
inside of you that there's noway that's accurate, you must
allow the customer to dumpwhatever emotions they have
going on and then you can moveforward.
If you throw a wall up, even ifyou're 110% right and the
customer is off the rocker, youcannot address that.

(35:58):
They're wrong and you're rightuntil you get that well-drained.
Okay, it's just.
I've heard this before withbusiness owners out there and
they're like blah, blah, blah,blah, blah and they get all
defensive and they're like no,I'm winning this battle, I'm
right.
Well, are you really?
Because you just pissed thatcustomer off more and then now
they're telling everybody aboutthat.

(36:18):
I'm not saying pay foreverything, but what I'm saying
is you must take it in thecorrect context and not react
until you research and even ifthe customer was wrong with what
they say, you got to walk themthrough that with the video
after they've answered thequestion going.
they listened to me, they cared,they took the time to gather
the information and I was wrong,that's the difference More

(36:42):
times than not.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
If you'll let a customer unload like that, it
takes care of itself, it takescare of itself.
And if you have facts behindfacts, not emotions.
Now, facts are not.
Hey, matt's wrong, I'm going tosmack you with it right there.
No, let it happen and gothrough.
And then I promise you moretimes than not, may not be that

(37:07):
day, it may be a month later, itmay be that you hear it from
someone else, from word of mouth.
They're going to come back andsay you know, I was wrong in the
way that I came off on that.
I'm sorry, you did it all rightthere, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
And it comes back tenfold down the road, and we
definitely, definitely,definitely have learned to teach
that.
So it's not just the three ofus that have to fade the heat
from every single customer.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
No, because it's not fun.
It's not like I'm sitting heresaying, oh, dump, it's so fun.
No, no, no.
It still wears on you rightTakes a toll on you.
For sure you know your hair'sgoing to turn gray.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
You're going to lose it For sure you know your hair's
going to turn gray, you'regoing to lose it One of the two,
and I think we've all gotsomething of that going on.
So we push that down, thatemployees have the ability to
take responsibility, and that'sa.
They laugh about it, but nomatter what a customer say, hey,
I apologize, I would be waymore upset.
I take full responsibility,like you take responsibility.
You had nothing to do with that.

(38:02):
It was like I'd be way madderthan you, and so you can help
them de-escalate, and so then itum, so I want to talk about
what those are one-offs kind ofright, and they need attention,
but how do you do it in thenormal daily and without
confrontation and withoutwaiting for an alarm and alert?
Uh, review to come across isregular reports in meetings that

(38:26):
have KPIs and then metrics ofyou versus the rest of the team.
Those do a really good job ofsetting the expectations of hey,
here's our expectations of a70% on this or a 32% on that, or
we at least need to be XPVR.
And so, in those reportsgenerally, when they know it's
important to you, it's importantto them and we're going to go

(38:47):
over it at this time, on thisdate.
And here's the metric thatgives opportunity for attaboy.
Good job Proud of you, keep itup.
Gives an opportunity for, hey,a little growth.
And this gives an opportunityfor I'm at the bottom.
I better change something.
It's not just, it's the way itis.
No, everyone else is doing good.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Absolutely.
So let me grab a hold of that.
A couple of things that we havelearned, especially in this
past year, on how to structurethat meeting and who's in there.
So let's take a CSI or KPI orwhatever you want to call it.
Have a smaller meeting withjust those head of employees
that are effective there.
Don't drag everybody else tothe mud.
That doesn't have anything todo with that.

(39:26):
Okay, and the first thing youneed to go over is some type of
KPI report.
All right, now what this does isestablishes a couple of things.
Number one it establishes thetrue numbers.
So everybody in the room in ourcase, if we have all the
service managers from all thelocations they're in the room,
we'll say the numbers are nakedup there.

(39:47):
They won't lie, because it'shere's where your CSI is, you
know, here's your surveys,here's your Google reviews we're
talking about right now.
So we go over that.
Everybody reads, talks abouttheir process, and then, because
we've established, we've warmedeverybody up, they're now
talking.
Ok, you, you got to get peopleengaged and talking.
You got to establish whatyou're talking about and you got

(40:08):
to get the data that doesn'tlie.
Then you go around and askeverybody what's your process.
What are you doing?
What do you think we should doto increase or make a better
process here?
Here's a key part.
I had to learn this.
I've not always been the bestat this, but I learned from
people smarter than me and it'snow implemented into my meetings

(40:30):
.
When I'm looking for feedback,when we're looking for how do we
increase or how do we adjustthings, I'm the last one to talk
.
If I give my opinion first, itwill shut down everybody else's
opinion.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
So you'll start the conversation, go over the
numbers and then let everyoneelse speak.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yep, and I heard that from a very successful
entrepreneur.
And I started doing that andthe people in the room that had
always been silent during themeetings Started speaking.
They started speaking.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Well, good now, because they have to right.
And when you unpack that rightthere, we learned that from
other businesses and we learnedthat from a 20 group, because it
was pure numbers.
Because you get a blowhard or aguy that says I'm really good
at this, and so then you'd flipthrough the numbers where
everyone's on the same line ofcomparison and you're looking at
it like, hey, do you see him?

(41:20):
He's awful in this, you knowwhat I mean, and so.
But then you look at the top ofthe page and you're like, hey,
what's Jason doing over there?
What's Steve doing over there?
And you're like, yeah, yeah, bequiet, be quiet, he's not doing
very good.
And you're like, hey, what areyou guys doing?
Absolutely Right.
And so then it was like, hey,let's bring that to our business

(41:41):
, yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
So then you get to talk.
You know we're we're verypositive culture.
So then maybe, after we goaround the numbers, then I can
still direct, or you can direct,or Taylor can direct the
meeting, but you're just leadingit, you're like a moderator.
Yeah, okay.
So then we'll start off with apositive.
Hey, joe has the highest CSIscores.
Joe, walk us through what yourprocess is and how do you do

(42:03):
that?
And then you go to the flipside.
Hey, bob, over here has thelowest ones.
Bob, tell us about your process, joe, what do you think Bob
could implement?
And again, at the very end andI know you're just itching as an
entrepreneur because you'realways the one that people look
at for the answers Save it forthe recap and the call to action

(42:25):
on what they need to do.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Because learning pyramid, if you just get in
there and say it, and here'swhat you need to do, and by
getting questions, good, readybreak, at best they retain 5%,
that's it.
But if you make them starttalking, tell them why your
number's so good, and hey,what's your area, and they're
like, oh gosh, and they reallygot to put some heart into it.

(42:46):
Amongst all the people thatneed to be a part of it, they're
going to remember it.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
The other thing that could be the silent killer
during one of those meetings isyou could have one or two
employees that have an amazingidea that maybe is 180 different
to what you're doing right now,and if you talk first and they
don't think it lines up withyou're their boss.
They'll never bring it up.
You have to allow a platformfor people to pour in.

(43:18):
It's okay.
If it's not your idea, get overit.
Your job is to recruit, supportand elevate up as many people
that can help your business growas possible.
It's about the business, it'snot about you.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
And remember more often than not that you hired
that person to support, build orhelp what you have going on.
You know what you know whenyou've been doing what you know,
but you don't know any of thisover here, yep.
So what's to say?
As long as it doesn't say, hey,let's just have an empty
parking lot and see if we canjust sell parking spots, as long
as it's not that they said, hey, what if we did this?
Like, okay, let's start that ona micro level so we don't throw

(43:59):
the baby in the bath and thebath water out.
Yeah, let's just start them ona micro level.
You know, let's just change oneof those bays to do that and
the others can operate, and thenyou might be piling in a whole
new thing.
Right, because you hired thosepeople, because they're better
at that than you, chances are.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
And I hope they are.
That's why you hired them.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Right, that's if you're hiring talent, that you
should definitely do that.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
You should you should , and it's been a great
discussion there on just onframework and feedback and
opening the platform.
You guys have employees thathave some great feedback that
can help you with that, but youhave to give them the
opportunity and the platform todo that.
All right, let's get back toyour automotive fun fact quiz of

(44:42):
the week.
In automotive manufacturing,what is the name of the
overarching system focused onensuring that every vehicle
meets the established qualitystandards through defined
processes and responsibilities?
I remind you guys, it was Asupply chain management, b
quality assurance, c productionforecasting or D marketing and
sales strategy or D marketingand sales strategy.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
You know, a lot of times people ask when their car
shows up if they ordered it, andthey're very specific and
they're like, hey, this thinghas some miles on it.
And we say, hey, it has mileson it because it's gone through
what we would say QC, but aninspection process to make sure
that they built it correctly andit functions.
Yes, you're right.
The answer to that one is itcorrectly and it functions.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Yes, you're right, the answer to that one is
quality assurance.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
Quality assurance Okay.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
I was right on it.
Quality assurance.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
All right.
So now we'll go into the lastcore segment on this cultivating
a culture of trust andpsychological safety.
Okay, big words, let me breakit down.
Focus emphasizing the trueaccountability in their
environment every single day,where team members feel safe to
take a risk, admit mistakes andlearn from them without blame or

(45:57):
punishment.
So a safe space where employeeshave the ability to take a risk
, that they realize that theycan admit mistakes without being
fired Okay, right and that theycan learn from mistakes from
them or someone in thedepartment, without fear of
blame or just raw punishment.
So how do you create a culturewithin your business where those

(46:22):
things resonate?
That was deep, it is.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
I will say here and we don't have all this figured
out, I don't know that anybusiness does at that deep level
but you continue to cultivatewhen opportunities are there to
encourage people.
And one thing we talk aboutwith mistakes and we see this
when we hire somebody fromanother organization when

(46:48):
they've made a mistake Maybethey've bid a vehicle wrong or
they used the wrong rebate orthey didn't price out a service
repair or they ordered the wrongpart.
If somebody makes a mistake,their head's not on the chopping
block here.
But we have to use thatopportunity to train and to
coach so they don't make thatmistake again.
You know, don't ever let theopportunity of a mistake pass

(47:13):
you by.
So that's our thing we try totalk about is we put their mind
at ease and we're not saying,hey, this is going to go without
being spoken about or to figureout how we're going to go
forward.
But together let's work throughthis and figure out how we
don't make that mistake goingforward.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
I think that's a really good point.
And so then you have to helpdefine, distinguishing the
difference betweenaccountability and blame, right.
So the accountability that, yes, I did mess up, but I'm not
blaming on you like you fool.
Why did you do that?
Right?
So that is a really good thingwhat you talk about, and we say
that often and we have tore-talk about it.

(47:52):
Re-bring it up, don't waste theopportunity Like fix the issue
with the consumer, fix the issue, make sure that it's handled
and done properly.
And that might be where youhave to re-insert yourself and a
higher level self to be able to.
You know, no different thanwhen Chick-fil-A messes up a
meal, you know they're not justbringing you the fries, they're
bringing a new sandwich, newfries, new drink, my pleasure.

(48:13):
I apologize, here's a coupon,right.
Then they forget what happenedwrong because the good was
better than the mistake, right?
So you reinsert that.
Then you're going to do a quickhey, let's just take a look at
this and see what happened.
Is there a process?
Is there not a process?
And then, just knowing there isaccountability within this
system, we're just not going tosay that was Matt, he was the

(48:35):
one that did it wrong, he's introuble.
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
I'm doing my job Right and I think my favorite
thing to go through there and dowhen you're doing that this is
you not escalating the situationor anything.
But a lot of times youraccountability comes out in this
of, hey, shelby, walk methrough what you did there.
And they're like oh no, I didthis.
Like the other day I had amanager that was brought in from
a different organization and hewas going through and we were

(49:01):
working through some things withdealer trade and swapping out
inventory and I was like, no,walk me through this situation.
And they're like no, we didthis.
I said no, walk me through whatyou did.
I continued to say it andthey're like oh, gosh, okay.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Just like, actually what do you mean?

Speaker 3 (49:17):
So then I moved over and I said, okay, you two stop
what you're doing.
So there's different levels.
So you have to say, hey, let'scheck on that real quick.
And if they don't continue torespond to it, then you really
move forward Like, no, we needto talk about this now, let's go
ahead and move forward and showme what you've done.
But whenever you walk throughit with them, not only are you

(49:37):
saying, hey, we don't need to dothis, yes, but hey, let me show
you how we need to do this here.
And you're finding a solution,that solution you talked about.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Whenever things happen, so I want the audience
to understand something, becauseI know you know this, yes, but
I don't want everybody to missit.
When you walked that managerand you kept questioning him, he
got to the root cause of it.
Was that in the middle of ithappening or was that?

Speaker 3 (50:03):
after it happened, after the fact.
If there's something that'shappening that needs your
immediate attention, fix it andlet it go on, or let the manager
.
If it's not destructive andit's not going to dismantle it,
let the manager continue to gothrough with it, because the
last thing you want to dobecause myself included it's

(50:24):
taken in my department some timeto grow up my managers that I
brought on Last thing I want tosee is Joe and Schmo sitting
there.
Whenever I'm doing a coachingmoment they're like oh, taylor
has some doubt, there's some.
Note, there's doubt in thatmanager moment.
They're like oh, taylor hassome doubt, there's some.
No, there's doubt in thatmanager.
Uh see, I knew there wassomething wrong with that
manager.
And then it busts that walldown that you have built that

(50:46):
other manager up.
So if it's something needs tobe addressed during the time,
absolutely grab a hold of it,but if not, no, it's after the
fact.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
You walk up and you walk them through it so there
are very few situations whereyou need to stop what's going on
and like their desire like ifwe see a technician not torquing
lug nuts on a wheel, we shouldstop right then.
If we hear a salesperson sayingit's a four-wheel drive truck

(51:13):
and we know it's a two-wheeldrive truck, we got to address
it right then.
You know what dual drive truck,we got to address it right then
.
You know what?
But if they missed the rebateand we've already presented
figures, you know we're going tostay true to our word there.
But, like Taylor said, we'renot going to address it until
after the fact, not in front ofwhoever they're over, because we
don't want to belittle themwhere we reduce the trust on

(51:35):
that.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Now there's a little bit of downside.
I'll tell you if you overlydon't like confrontation or if
you're used to just taking allthe punishment and all the
things, you'll miss out on theopportunity to seize that and to
cultivate accountability.
So there is proper timing indoing that.

(51:57):
It's not in front of the people.
It's not in the action, justlike you said, but it needs to
be pretty quickly.
Sure, because they're like,oops, I messed up, let's see
what happens.
When you find a quick break,then you need to get to it.
You all have had that feelingwhen there's been something
wrong and you're like I need tohave that sit down like this, or

(52:20):
I need to far spectrum, I needto let this person go, and
you're like I don't want to doit to the end of the day, cause
I don't want to be disruptiveand I need all the things to
work and the only person that itpunishes is you.
That's right.
You're sitting there all day,so know the proper time in
coaching and counseling in that.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
But find it and then go and it's OK.
Do you need a system?
Do you have a question?
Is there something I can helpyou with?
Do you see the value in why wewould do it like this versus how
it happened?
And they're like hey, I waslike no, this is a discussion,
like you know, I'm not giving aseminar, I'm not disciplining.
You're just like hey, have Ilet you down?
And I give you that.
And they're like Whoa, dude,just held me accountable without

(53:03):
punishing me, like lashing intome, like you, idiot, why'd you
do it wrong?
It's like hey, have I messed up?
I'm taking responsibility, so Iget to take the pressure off
their shoulders.
You did something wrong, but Iwant to see is there something

(53:24):
that I did wrong that I can helpyou to have the time, tools and
training to be successful?
And they're like no, I knew Iwas supposed to do it like this.
Okay, then let's do it right.
And what else can I do to helpyou in that or no, I really
didn't know.
I was like my bad, let medesign the process.
Here's the process.
Does this all make sense?
And then you have to keepcircling back to it, right, and
then you have to keep circlingback to it.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Right, you do, and the timing you talk about there
is so important.
I can tell you, if I'm in adepartment and I see a coaching
moment that I know that needs tobe addressed, I will quickly,
when possible which most of thetime I can I'll adjust the rest
of my schedule to allow me tostay in that department to
address it.
When it's fresh on everybody'smind whether I got to pull them

(54:07):
into office or not.
Why will I push other meetingsand other stuff to give me a 15
or a 30 minute window?
Because that coaching in themoment pays dividends down the
road for it to not repeat itself.
Now I'm going to go into acouple of things.
Here is on that part, when I'mcoaching a manager and I need to
say this so everybody out thereunderstands and how you talk

(54:27):
and what you want to do on yourown, that's up to you.
But if you address somebody bydog cussing and belittling them
and the reason I'm saying thisis because I hear it out there
If you do that, can I tell youwhat happens to the person
you're talking to?
They're like a dog.
They go into the cornerhunkered over, preparing

(54:50):
themselves to be attacked andthey're not absorbing anything.
You're going over.
In fact, as soon as I and thisis going to smack some of y'all
in the face as soon as I hear amanager, entrepreneur, leader
speaking and coaching somebodylike that, it shows me somebody
who is a I don't want to sayweak, who is an average manager,

(55:13):
because they don't know andthey won't take the time to
improve on themselves, onactually how to walk somebody
through what happened, to find asolution and how to improve.
They manage by fear, and when Ifind somebody that manages by
fear, I see somebody that's notwilling to work on themselves
and really look at how to fixthis going forward.

(55:36):
You know, and that's somethingthat we just continually we have
to talk about, all right, thissubject we're talking about,
this one, is very difficult toput on paper in writing with a
process, because somebody wouldlook at it and be like no, your
process says we at least get onebad opportunity, one mistake,

(55:56):
and then we'll do this and thenwe'll do that.
So this is more of a cultureand more that you know the
leader talks about, but thereare times when something happens
that you do need to go aheadand do a write up.
It doesn't mean that they'regetting fired, but you do need
to document it.
You know?
Hey, you didn't put the drainplug in, yeah.
Okay, you're not getting firedtoday, but we are addressing

(56:19):
this, everybody's acknowledgingit and get it on paper and that
depends on severity.
It does Right.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
How clear it is or does it have actual physical
elements?
We've learned that the hard waythat you have to document HR
would tell us document, moredocument, more document, more
document, more.
One, because the employee knowsit's serious and there was
areas of improvement.
Two, just like the pathway ofemployment, Like it helps for
growth and development on ourside, as a manager's side, as
the employee's side, their HRside, their future employment

(56:57):
Document, document, document.
So they take you serious andthey understand what I've done.
So even if you're saying like,well, how do I know when the
coaching, counseling needs tohappen constantly, and then you
need to understand the severityof it it's like, hey, I'm going
to put this on paper the secondtime we've had to talk about
this and I just want to makesure we're on the same page and
if you had questions then we cango over that.
I'm going to put this on yourfile so we do know if we need to

(57:20):
pick up next time hopefully notThen where we left off at if I
was clear about what wasexpected.
And so then nature's like, hey,thank you, Employees, like I
never knew that.
No, you know, sometimes ouremployees will go over something
and proper expectations wherewe started this thing and we've
done our best.
Like really, really grown athousand percent of what we used

(57:41):
to do.
Like well, no one ever taught me.
It's like well, junior PeeweeHerman, no one ever taught me
there's only platinum andplatinum plus.
But I want to be successful, soI figured it out.
Why hadn't you done that?
I'm like my bad.
I'm the entrepreneur, You'rethe worker.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
Let me show you and you have to be overly clear on
that.
I was going to a meetingyesterday almost came undone.
We were going over the basics.
We're talking about blockingand tackling like hello, my name
is, but we had moved to fillout a form really quick.
So I hand out the form and goover and they're all talking

(58:14):
over half of the class.
No one's wrote anything down.
They've just been talking backand forth Like hold on, let's
stop, let's reboot here.
Everybody hold their pen up.
And it was a perfect layup.
If you would have thought of analley-oop, I said do you want to
know why y'all aren'tsuccessful?
I looked back and I was like,probably because your managers

(58:37):
haven't held you accountableenough to be able to write down
on the paper.
So, just like you're talkingabout whenever you don't go
through and you think, hey, moveit real quick.
Hey, you do this, come pick uptrash, let's go do this, do that
?
No, if the clear writtenprocess is not in stone there,
if you don't tell a managerevery time no different than I

(58:58):
had one that was like hey, Itold him this the second time
he's been late, I'm going totalk to him.
I said great, print a form, makesure you send it over there
with a sheet of paper.
We have to have clearexpectations, so communicating
that overly, but clearexpectations.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Because you'll have let's talk, tough employee
situations, like if you're abusiness leader or manager
listening or you're just on theother side listening.
You'll have what you think isjust a train wreck of employee
Always shows up late, alwayswants to leave early and needs
an extended lunch, their kid'salways sick and they might not
even have kids.
Always got the excuse and youjust give them grace and grace

(59:36):
and grace and grace and grace.
Don't even live here anymore,you know.
And then HR is like you need towrite them up, you need to run
them up, and you're not tryingto live in negative town.
You're just like hey, get towork, come on, let's go.
Like, what have you posted?
Who have you called?
You know, let's get on my clock.
And then you'll be like hey, we, we've done this 14 times.
You and I talked about this.

(59:57):
We have to let you go.
You're not performing yourduties that you were hired for
and they'll sit down with HR inan exit interview and be like I
had no clue.
I was doing really good.
I was doing better than Billy,steve and Larry.
I was doing better.
They've never written me up andyou're like are you kidding me?
Everyone could write a book inhere about how you haven't

(01:00:20):
performed your job duty.
So if I could tell you,anything is over-communicate and
overly document so everyone canbe on the same page.
It'll generally solve or save aplane crash before it happens.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
And we've had to push ourselvesto that because that's
uncomfortable for us, that's notnatural.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Everything we've said today is we have all lived
through of us, none of us,naturally, none of it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
We were born Five years ago.
The stuff we're talking aboutNever even inside.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
We were not coaching, teaching and learning about it.
So if you're in the shoes, likeoh, I'm in that boat, it's okay
.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Yeah, it's okay, like learn from our experience today
right, reach out today, we canhelp you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
Yeah, no doubt.
I love that.
We got texts last week hey,what about this?
Hey, what about this?
Please do reach out to us, likeif you're telling me you've got
all these concerns and issues,we're going to let a manager
handle it, you're right, untilit really needs us, but if you
need direct connection, thenreach out Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
So that's super solid there, so I think we probably
have talked about the parts andpieces, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
So now the frequently asked questions.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
Now these come as curveballs and raininess, and
really good and all the goodthings and I love it what you do
.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
Right, because it pushes you out of this element.
I'm not going to ask you,taylor, what else you would do
in your next life, or whatever,but Matt your question today
what do you rely on the most tokeep your day productive?
Walk us through how youschedule, maybe where you have
been, where you've moved to,what does?

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
that look like Mine is a mix of things because it
depends upon what I'm in themoment of.
So let's just talk about whenmy day starts, and I'll try not
to make this too lengthy herebut when my day starts and I'll
try not to make this too lengthyhere but when my day starts and
I have control of all the toolsI could use, that works through
technology to start with.
So when I'm getting ready formy day, I look at all the stuff

(01:02:12):
from the previous day, from theprevious day that was on my
to-do list which is usually in anotes section in my phone.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
Okay, so when you're on your phone, we're in the
notes section.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
In the notes section, accomplishments or things that
I'm looking at anything thatrolled over, okay, so then that
rolls over for today, and thenI'm going through anything else
and I'll just randomly puteverything that I can think of
on there Just taking it down,just taking it down.
Like I'm not trying to organizeit not trying to make it matter
, everything gets on there.
Okay, then I organize it bypriority.

(01:02:44):
Here's what must be done, notjust my mind, because other
people are waiting on me forthis.
Okay, these must be none, noexception.
This is next in line, and, if Ican get to it, I'd like to
accomplish this as well.
So that's how my day starts.
Then, as I'm going through theday, depending upon the format
I'm in, I may have old schoolpen and paper.

(01:03:07):
If I'm in a meeting wherethere's no technology, I will
start writing on paper, so Idon't have the other people in
the meeting thinking I'm messingaround on my phone.
Yeah, even though I know I'mnot.
Yeah, I'll put it there andthen I'll translate it over.
Okay, use a ton of calendars.
You know and we've reallyimproved on that in the past

(01:03:28):
couple of years, especially thepast year of calendar invites.
You know, calendar invites arenot just for what we used to use
them for, of Zoom and go-tomeetings and this, and that it's
for all the things you havereally advanced in your digital
calendar and I'll give you thatWell thank you, I appreciate
that.
So I don't have an assistant andI don't use AI as much as I

(01:03:50):
should.
That doesn't mean I won'tadvance there, but my main thing
starts off with technology,starts with in my phone calendar
, but then pen and papermigrates back into the
technology.
So if I'm in one of thosemeetings that nobody has
technology, I'm not going to bethe only one on my phone.
I'll take notes and thenafterwards I'll integrate those
in Okay, Super solid.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
All right, Taylor, when starting your day, do you
have a daily goal, targetachievement?
Do you have something in mindto start with or walk us through
that?

Speaker 3 (01:04:20):
Move the metal.
No, I'm kidding, yes, no, I'lltell you really what, in this
stage of my life that I'm incurrently, it's whenever I'm
leaving one that I am so blessedto have a job and to be able to
to be able to go to work.
So many people nowadays arelike I got to go to work.
I'm like, no, I'm blessed to goto work, and then the cherry is
that I get to work, obviouslywith family and be our business.

(01:04:44):
But then the thing that reallyis driving me of the goal there
is how successful is my daygoing to be?
And it needs to be able to gointo focusing on how I can make
everyone else's day successful.
So, all of my salespeople, allof my managers I don't really
necessarily I know my dailytravel rate of a goal that I

(01:05:06):
need to hit, but if I stare at300, I want to sell 300 of this
May.
You have to get it down intobite-sized pieces.
So, as I go around, my goalthere is diving into how do I
make every single personsuccessful.
I know whenever they hit all oftheir goals.
My goal is going diving intohow do I make every single
person successful.
I know whenever they hit all oftheir goals.
My goals can be hit, so it'sgood really diving into there
that's really good, my takeaway.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
So you didn't ask, but I'll tell you what are your
takeaways on that?
huh thanks hey, when you weretalking, matt, about technology
one thing that you said you putall the things down and you
organize them.
I read a book recently, danMartell how to Buy Back your
Time.
I highly recommend it.
It is in depth.

(01:05:48):
It is in depth but it's so good, it's all applicable.
And so he puts those things inhierarchy of what needs the most
attention and when yourattention span is the best and
how to buy back your time, andthat's really good.
On helping with that, so whenyou're in the flow state of
ordering things, or when you'rein the hey, let's coach and
counsel, so you can kind of bein the same mind frame when

(01:06:11):
you're working on those things.
So you're not like, hey, let merun out to the garage and do
this, and let me get to thekitchen, oh yeah, in the garage.
Like think if you could do allyour garage stuff at the same
time.
That for business and then foran assistant.
None of us have assistants.
We assist each other.
But I will tell you my I foundthis long time ago Otter AI is

(01:06:33):
my note taker and it follows meeverywhere.
So any meeting that I'm a partof, it's an AI assistant that
just runs in any virtual meetingand I have non-virtual meetings
as well that I can use it withbut it takes a full summary so I
can go back and listen to thewhole thing.
I'm like, hey, what didNavaholt say about that?

(01:06:54):
Or hey, what was Ford saying inthis or in that Viotto call?
But then it gives me a summaryand key takeaways.
It really keeps me organized.
It just plugs in with mycalendar and then it
re-references those.
So those are two good thingsthat I would point out.
Those are good points Book toread and auto AI.
So thanks for joining us today.
Episode 38.
Yep, talking about, once again,culture, but the accountability

(01:07:17):
, creating a team, how to takeownership, how to get your team
to take ownership, what to do,what not to do, what we've
learned, what we've grown on.
As always, check us outlewissupershorecom, join us
Crossroad Conversations and letus know in the notes and the
comments.
Give us feedback.
Who do you want to hear fromYep?
What do you want to hear about,what to hear about, what's good
and what?

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
we should not do again.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
We appreciate you guys, hope you have a great day.
Hey, if you enjoyed thisepisode, be sure to give it a
like, share with your friendsand family.
You can visit our website.
Send us the questions aboutwhat you want to know, what you
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But make sure you tune in nexttime where we bring in another

(01:07:59):
guest and we talk more about theautomotive industry.