It’s never easy to look in the mirror and face the truth (really, what is the truth?) wondering why there’s so much turnover. Where the average turnover for YOY is 100% – asking yourself everything from is it the on-boarding, quality of personnel, management, or is it me? Why are people quitting me, BUT not the job? Where I’m spending thousands of dollars to onboard them – only for them to quit and sell cars at another dealership using the training we paid for?
The fact of the matter (for those facing extreme turnover) is that – you are right – they are most likely quitting you, not the job.
You don’t trust your management despite their getting great results
Your team of managers is getting excellent results. Sales are up. They are working as a team. But for whatever reason, you just cannot help yourself but nagging them for the one percent of things that might not be exactly the way you envision. But instead of encouraging them – thanking them for the effort they have put in – you put them down. Belittle them, laugh at them. All of which just crushes the moral – essentially crumbling their foundation. It is like taking a muffin and just squeezing it in your hands until your hand is left covered in chocolate stains, which represents the team’s morale you just smashed.
You don’t empower your managers.
People make mistakes. We are human after all, no? The point of having a manager (or a team of managers) is so that you – the GM – can work on building the store as a whole. Given that a dealer has multiple businesses under one rooftop (sales, service, parts & body shop). This cannot happen, though, when you do not empower your managers to make the most straightforward decisions without clearing it through you first. For example, your sales manager cannot even order pens or notebooks for the team. Or in some cases, the manager is not allowed to purchase enough computers. So your team cannot do their job. You see, what happens is the employees note that the GM does not respect the manager as they cannot even order them their supplies! And what happens is that – in most cases – the employee will then not respect their manager causing dissension at all levels. Where instead of the employee going to their manager they will go to the GM. And then you as the GM get frustrated at the managers because they are not going to them first.
You micromanage the way you micromanage – you just can’t help yourself.
This is the worst. You know it is terrible when you micromanage the way you micromanage. You are the type that will assign a project to one employee. Calling them multiple times – hover over them – and question their every move. To the point where s/he will examine their capabilities, which causes for mistakes to be made. All while you were working on the same project yourself. Not to mention, you asked two other people to do the same thing. Not good. If you have asked for someone to complete a project, let them. Where calling the vendor behind them not only puts the vendor in an awkward position – it tells your employee that you do not value and or need them. Not to mention, your project will be delayed costing you money. Just stop it.
You treat others with haste and disinterest – the sign of an apology text, call & email
Agh, yes. You scream at your managers in front of their employees about a mistake that you made only to send them many apology texts, calls, and emails. But instead of having a conversation to discuss ways to prevent this (aka not micromanaging) you show their employees that you do not respect them. So heck, if you do not respect them why do I have to? This creates a very hostile – walking on eggshells – environment. One that halts productivity. Not to mention, all that energy wasted on finding ways to navigate the craziness or mood swings could be spent on refining the sales process. Better yet, it could be used to develop actualized career development plans. Ones that translate to the younger workforce who want to ensure that the company – whatever it may be – values them as a person. Not just as an employee.
