There have been enough books written about managing people to fill a large library. Most of these talk in platitudes about effective leadership strategies or motivational techniques for team building. Each book takes a different approach but drives toward the common goal of inspirational qualities not seen since Jesus Christ was around.
That being said, regardless of your learned skills for speech giving, leading by example, or management by exception, your employees will still have a “cross to bear” regarding many things in the work place. Managing most of these types of things are impossible, but recognizing them keeps you from wasting your time or being greatly disappointed. While Facebook allows you to manage your friends, there is no real world app.
The automotive parts and service industry is challenging due to the fact that 90 percent of our customers are upset that something is wrong with their vehicle or that they will have to spend money that was not part of their budget. In order to deal with the type of clientele, we must staff our businesses from top to bottom with a respective 90 percent of type-A personalities. Let’s face it, if you have one sharp knife in the dishwasher, that’s sort of an expected thing. But a dishwasher full of sharp cutlery can be dangerous for the person responsible for loading and unloading, polishing and putting items away. This is the area where all you have learned about winning friends and influencing people will go awry.
Being a good person does not make you a good manager. Likewise, being a good manager will not result in you being thought of as a good person. In fact, being a good manager will almost definitely disqualify your chances of winning a popularity contest. For that reason, you must understand there is a delicate balancing act that requires tightrope skills for the manager.
Just like any well-trained circus entertainer performing death-defying acts and miraculous feats to astound the audience, a well run parts store and service center’s performance relies on people who are called upon daily to perform at their highest level to satisfy their clientele and fellow employees.
An independent owner or manager of an auto parts store or service center requires the same adherence to general policies from an operational standpoint much the same as any business, so I’m not going to preach to the choir.
Giant automotive retailers have a very similar set of policies and principals. Yet, we are vastly different, in as much as we are alike, when it comes to managing people. The little nuances are the biggest differences, and that oxymoronic comparison of differences can lead to a major issue that affects every small business, and especially our little slice of heaven called the automotive aftermarket. Mostly due to the fact that our employees are like a family of gypsies.
A better illustration would be if you worked for Wal-Mart, and Sam Walton worked at that same store. Every day, he took an intimate personal interest in your training and development, and thought you were a great person. He bought your children birthday presents every year, attended the same church, helped coach your daughter’s softball team, and never once said a word about you having to take unscheduled time off for any reason. Heck, Sam even paid you in advance for time you had not earned for the unscheduled time off!
And then one day Sam asked you to work a day that you had scheduled yourself off. Possibly Sam became reliant on your punctuality, and came in late often. Or Sam got a little upset that you seemed to not answer the phones in a timely enough fashion. Or Sam questioned you about some merchandise you had sold a family member or friend at cost or a greatly reduced price. I’m not saying that you (the reader of this article) would think any differently of Sam, but most employees will develop a big chip on their shoulder and proudly display this chip to every other employee you have on the payroll. Sadly, managers are not granted reciprocal understanding by their crew. Nor should we be. Our duties and responsibilities are to manage, not socialize.
I’ll venture a guess that those of you reading the last paragraph, either said to yourself, “I know where this is heading he’s talking about me,” or said, “that happened to us so many times!” If not, you’re either in denial or a very good manager/owner.
There is a simple solution for this problem. Those who have experienced these types of situations know the answer, and for you newbie owners and managers, read and understand what follows.
You cannot be close friends with people who work for you, and you should never hire your friends. Why? Friends always take advantage of friends, talk about each other, and pressure each other to do things that are not good decisions, whether they be business decisions or not. We’ve all got at least one ‘needy’ close friend that seems to need you at the most awkward of times, borrows stuff that never gets returned, is always too busy to return a favor when asked, and loves to see you suffer so they have something to talk about within their close circle of friends that do not include you. And you want this person to work for you? Go ahead, don’t listen, and your entire business livelihood and personal peace of mind will be based upon how your employed ‘friends’ really think of you, and your leadership. It’s easy to take each other for granted when you become too close.
It’s not hard to develop a relationship with people who work for you. I care for all of them. I’m not saying you should be an ogre! In fact, I suggest the opposite. You should be very friendly, accommodating, understanding and supportive to a point. That being said, you should display these attributes within policy.
Understandably, there is an exception to every rule, but being an employer or manager requires taking equal exception to every rule that employees want to be exempt from the responsibility of adherence.
Being a good manager or boss is not like providing a high level of customer satisfaction at the parts counter or the service desk. It’s a tighter standard, a different standard, and if you’ve befriended every employee who works for you to the degree that begging is required for them to accept their paycheck, to keep them happy you allow them to charge everything to an account at cost that later requires payroll deductions, you are afraid to ask them to perform a task for fear of an argument, and leaving early is just accepted as a perk that is neglected when payroll rolls around.
When these employees leave you or quit, it’s like being personally unfriended. Facebook unfriending is not aggressive or confrontational. Employment unfriending is quite different: Quitting with no warning, no contact after the fact, and giving you notice of their departure in a text message. The new social media two-week advance notice combined with a Facebook block. Then, to make matters more emotionally worse, they actually post on their social media how much they like their new “friends.” But I digress.
As you can likely decipher, I just lived this. It was not very friendly. My heart was not a “Twitter” and I had no “Pinterest” in going through it. I was too “Linkedin” and “MySpace” was violated.
I changed my Facebook cover photo to that of a baboon, then thinned out my “friends” to include only family. I fully expect them to treat me poorly because #whataputziam. It was truly all my fault on so many levels. Don’t make the same mistakes. Sorry disgruntled employees who quit – your now “friendly” ex-manager.
Subscribe to Aftermarket Business World and receive articles like this every month….absolutely free. Click here.
