If you’re a shop manager, there’s a good chance you’ve learned the value of strong leadership either by choice or out of necessity. Leadership is required to keep employees motivated, productive, and directed towards a common goal. Shop leadership is about more than making sure vehicles are repaired correctly – it’s about making sure that customers feel valued, like their time and money are being treated with respect. For independent businesses, shop leadership is about making sure that both employees and customers know that your shop plays an important part in individual lives and in your community.
If you step away from your shop, is there a leader to take your place?
If not, you’re in a high-risk situation. If you are in an accident or face a health challenge and are temporarily unable to oversee your business, it’s not going to be in good condition when you return. Many owners find themselves unable to step away from their shop at all, working each day it’s open for years without a vacation – this leads to burnout and an inability to step aside for long enough to do longer-term strategic planning. And years from now, when you go to sell your shop and retire, buyers will not be interested if the shop requires your presence to turn a profit.
What can you be doing now to promote leaders within your ranks? This will be a topic of several blog posts over the coming months. The first element of any strong leader, however, is to manage a company with a well-defined culture that employees appreciate and contribute to maintaining.
To figure out how to build your shop culture, first you have to ask “What are my shop’s goals?” Your goals might include happy customers, turning a profit, taking care of employees and their families, or contributing to the wider community. Once those goals are in place, you can set aside some time to meet with your employees and discuss whether they share those goals, how good of a job you are doing in meeting them, and what processes could be put in place to improve them.
If you’ve never done this before, you might be surprised to learn that your employees don’t know what’s important to you, and what larger goal you have with your shop. You might also find out that the time taken to have this meeting will pay for itself many times over, as easy-to-implement ideas can save hundreds of hours of wasted employee time over months and years.
If you implement some ways to measure and bring attention to how well you’re meeting those goals each month you might also see continuous improvement as employees strive to improve their results. This small investment in your culture can improve morale, results, and the sustainability of your business whether you need to take a short or long leave of absence. It will also prepare you for the next element of shop leadership: mentoring your shop’s next set of leaders.
To learn more about how Repair Shop Websites can help improve your business results, call us at 866-665-1605 or email us at Team_RSW@repairshopwebsites.com