A short interview between Chris Collins and Sam about leadership in a service-drive/retail context. Core messages: employees mimic leaders ("monkey see, monkey do"), presence and leading by example are critical to team motivation and behavior, and building deep rapport—especially with technicians—drives loyalty and performance. Practical practices discussed include spending time on the drive/shop, visible office placement, goal-setting/comp conversations, and a store-level competition (the "comp") to motivate advisors.
Chapters
You have to look at yourself. That's right. Because most of the behavior that happens happens.
Because people copy. It's monkey see, monkey do in a lot of ways. Right. Like, what is. What is the key to being a good parent? At the end of the day, it's being present.
Most of what kids, you know, you don't have to teach kids a lot of stuff. If you're around and they see you, they're gonna learn, Right?
Yeah.
When we're kids, we learn by watching adults. And then sometimes we learn from our friends at school that know more about.
Remember, learning a lot of stuff from.
Birds and bees and things like that. But you learn from. From who you're around.
And what you see. And so.
Well, I mean, I think the example of your service drive is a good one in the sense that those advisors were kind of a reflection of.
Me, probably. Yeah. Just like our coaches. And, like, we're all kind of very similar, and a lot of the elite members are very similar. Like, we all kind of are pretty much the same.
MO. Yeah.
The same kind of people, the same values, I guess.
Right? Oh, I think that's true.
So you. You kind of attract who you are.
Definitely. We attract who we are. But I was consciously trying to hire people that were different than I was. At the end of the day, I hired a lot of people that were similar to me, but I was consciously like, I'm like, oh, there's, you know, that there's someone for everyone.
What you're saying is they came from different vocations.
Yeah. Different walks of life.
So a lot of times the. The leader or manager that would be saying, like, hey, my people aren't motivated. Do you think that there's a chance that that person shows up a little late, shows up a little unprepared, isn't exactly putting in the best day of work, getting involved.
Their presence isn't felt everywhere. Is that possible?
Yeah. So the thing I wrote down in relation to that was speed of the leader, speed of the team kind of thing. Yeah.
And so what sort of things did you do as a manager to make sure your presence was felt?
I was always on the drive. Like, I got when I was in my office and it had been too long, I was like, oh, no, I'm missing something. So getting out there and constantly talking to people and. And.
With customers was super light. Like, I mean, you gotta remember, too, when you're in the same place for 14 years, like, you know everybody that comes in the door. So I was trying to convey to my People that, like the joking around and building relationships and everything like that. So that part of it was a lead by example. And then on the backside, like, we were really looking at the activities. We did a lot of, like, goal setting and talking about results. And everybody was. Well, you gotta remember, too, we had a store that was really involved in the comp. So we were constantly talking about that. I remember having everybody explain to everybody.
What the comp is.
So that's the thing that we have as part of our coaching program that essentially pits stores against stores of, like, branded.
Like, brands from around the country. The advisors compete, and then the stores are graded based on the performance of the advisors. So I remember all the time having. Having people in my office. Oh, that was another thing too. My office. I moved onto the drive as opposed to being in the waiting room. That was another huge thing. That was a big difference. So my office. Yeah, my office overlooked the drive and then I could look to my left and see the shop. So I had a bird's eye view of both sides. That was probably a game changer as far as that goes, because the other office that was supposed to be the manager's office was empty. The only time people went in there was to mark the board. So trying to do that. But I remember everybody was all in. Like it was a big team thing. Like we were trying to win as a team.
I just remember you being out and about. I remember you being in the shop a lot.
Oh, I talked to the technicians.
I also remember when we would walk through the shop together, the enthusiasm from the technicians and your rapport with them was evident that there was a team atmosphere. And they were, you know, you were doing advanced calculus, in a sense, with the way you were doing instant inspection and all that. The willingness to do. The willingness the techs had to do things was not normal.
In the sense that you had logistical issues with the building, but they were still very willing.
So I would imagine you were in the shop a little bit too, or that's the sense I got.
Well, I think that something to remember about that too, is that 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, it's like, well, that's your fault. Like, in the sweetest, nicest way that you could yeah.
Like, no, that's your responsibility. It's not my fault. Just because I don't know how to work on cars doesn't mean I can't build a relationship with somebody. So I really found that what happened is if you ask the technicians and get to know them and be naturally curious on a really, really deep level. And I was talking to my techs about all that stuff and I can't tell you how many times I would have. 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, like, it's having a team that would go to war with you and feels like you actually care about them is.
So if I said my impression was that your presence was felt in the shop, what specifically do you think caused that?
Certainly, like the way that we were looking at cars and with the customers, like the instant inspection part and just getting out there and always talking about, what are we doing today?
Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driver Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
