A short personal reflection (YouTube short) by Chris Collins about overcoming initial intimidation in a management role and deliberately building rapport with automotive technicians through curiosity and regular, genuine conversation. The speaker argues that investing time to know technicians deeply builds loyalty and signals that the business cares.
I was a little intimidated by the shop at first, so it was not a strong suit of mine early in my management career. But I feel like that was one of the things that you said is, obviously it's a whole team. And then I was like, well, I don't have good rapport with techs. And I remember you saying to me is like, well, that's your fault. Like, in the sweetest, nicest way that you could. Yeah. But you're like, no, that's your responsibility. Like, it's not. It's not my fault. You know, just because I don't know how to work on cars doesn't mean I can't build a relationship with somebody. Right. So I really found that when what happened is if you ask the technicians and get to know them and be naturally curious on a really, really deep level. And like, I was talking to my techs about all that stuff, and I can't tell you how many times I would have, like, you know, we close at 6 and I would be in with a technician, he'd just talking to me about what's going on in life till 7 or 7:30 at night. In that hour and a half that you spend with that technician, like, it's worth its weight in gold. Because, like, their loyalty and their feeling that the business cares about them. You could never. You can trade that for a billion dollars. I don't think.
