For us in the automotive repair industry, leadership is without a doubt a challenge as we struggle to keep our shops afloat and in the black. One of the greatest challenges in the midst of this is our labor operation and in this, keeping each of our individual technicians engaged, motivated and productive. There is no doubt that a productive shop is a profitable shop, but keeping our individual technicians productive is a problem that plagues the automotive repair industry and once again our poor leadership skills are having a negative impact in this critical area.
A common mistake I see many shop owners and service managers make is building their business around the efforts of one of their technicians (often the one that has been with them the longest) while seeming to forget or be blind to the efforts of the other technicians on their staff. All of us want to be noticed and acknowledged in our daily efforts. Placing that one tech as the most capable, hardest working or most productive tech we have on staff, is probably great for him or her but likely frustrating and counterproductive for the rest of the employees. I am certainly not telling you not to love and appreciate this one special technician of yours, but I am saying that it is incredibly important for you to find ways to love and appreciate the rest of your technicians in the very same way.
I have run into this problem any number of times and invariably the reason we end up worshiping this exalted technician beyond all others and beyond all reason, comes down to some misguided variation on loyalty. Don't get me wrong loyalty is a great thing, but loyalty in and of itself never paid a bill, never by itself assured the viability of a shop and never by itself made us better. Until all of these other things are accomplished, loyalty does not assure our survival or growth, though certainly it is nice to have.
I am one of eight kids and as the third oldest, grew up as a middle child very aware of the extra attention and praise heaped upon both my oldest and my youngest siblings. I was without a doubt a middle kid who had to stand in line to get my acknowledgement and to this day I am irritated with the unfairness of it all. The chances are very good that my parents would dispute that there was any favoritism going on, but I can guarantee you it sure didn't feel that way growing up. If you are consciously or unconsciously showing favoritism toward one of your techs, I can guarantee the rest of your techs are noticing and are just as frustrated as I was as a middle child. Those old sayings about blind pigs and broken clocks are certainly true and applicable here, and like them, I know I had my moments that mattered, and it hurt that nobody noticed. Very shortly after I graduated from high school I enlisted in the Army and got a guaranteed duty station overseas. I just needed to get away. If you are not careful and too obvious in having favorites among your techs, it might be your 'B' and 'C' techs that have a similar need. It might be your 'B' and 'C' techs who move on to greener pastures.
My whole point in reliving the pain of my long lost youth is that placing any of your staff members, particularly any of your technicians, on an altar and making it obvious to the world that they are your favorite and can do no wrong is one of the most destructive actions you could take as a shop owner or service manager. It is about as damaging to team morale and cohesiveness as anything you could possibly do. Even if your 'favorite' is extraordinary, even if he or she is the most loyal, productive, knowledgeable and experienced tech you have ever known, you need to find ways to highlight the efforts of all of your techs (never faking it) and let everyone on your staff know that you see and appreciate their efforts. There is nothing more frustrating to a person who works hard and tries to do the right things than to not be noticed and/or appreciated.
Under the best of circumstances, making your living as a technician is tough. With an industry that struggles with sales, profitability, staffing and the negative impact of poor leadership practices, it is not entirely surprising that technician turnover is pervasive and our inability to keep our shops fully staffed is a major risk for most shop owners and the automotive repair industry as a whole. In the midst of all this, showing favoritism to one technician adds nothing but rather takes this challenging environment and makes it much worse.
Let me ask you this: how would you feel if no matter what you did or how much you contributed at work, nobody noticed or acknowledged your effort? Technicians tend to be a fairly competitive group anyway, very conscious of who is getting the 'gravy' cars, who has the biggest tool box and who is selected to handle the really tough diagnostic jobs that come in the shop. As a skills and performance driven profession, we as shop owners and service managers have every reasonable expectation that our technicians have an ever increasing knowledge and experience base that will allow them to take on the service and repair jobs that we throw in their direction. In the very same way, it is reasonable that we as leaders and as managers would acknowledge the work they do for us. If you are failing to do this and, in particular, if you have a favorite among your technicians and are taking the time to compliment him or her above and beyond all others, you are missing great opportunities to strengthen your team and make it far more likely that you will continue to suffer technician turnover. If he or she is that bad (which I don't believe) and not deserving of your acknowledgement or compliments, then fix them or fire them. All of us benefit from being made aware of the things we are doing wrong and the things we are doing right. We all need to know that our efforts matter and that our hard work is appreciated. Everyone is hurt by favoritism in the workplace, including our favorite.
Always remember that loyalty is from the top down and learning to love and compliment all of your technicians is a great way to build a high performing team of technicians who will likely stick around.
