A. Little Help

• Subject: Motivating shop managers
• Essential Reading: Shop Owner
• Author: Art Little

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If you are reading this article and your manager is upfront burning the shop down, keep your seat. I started out as a manager, but most of my career I made a living by managing transmission-shop managers. They are a group who require from time to time, shall we say, a little motivation. There are ways that I know of to do that and I am willing to share. The big three are:

• Chew them out
• Pat them on the back
• Use humor, but get your point across.

Most important, you need to make some rules and enforce them or they will make their own rules and end up managing you. Put in writing your shop policies and procedures. Trust me on this one. Managers are a fun and challenging group to work with. They possess a gamut of skills and personalities. They can make you rich or break your heart. A lot of your success will ride on whom you recruit to be your manager. Pick the right one and you are halfway there. The other half is training. I have found that if they know what you want them to do and how you want it done, they are easier to manage and motivate on a day-to-day basis.

I had one manager whom I would call every morning at 7:15 and just chew his rear end out for about five minutes. If I did that every day he was good to go. If I didn’t, he could not function. He would lie back and let the shop run him. I tried being nice to him by patting him on the back – no good. He started taking advantage of me. I tried being funny and having a good time with him, and he started taking time off. It was only when I chewed him out that we were both happy. He just needed somebody to get his motor running first thing in the morning, and I was happy to accommodate him. Works for me. He was easy to manage once I figured him out, and one of my top producers.

Another manager was a Vietnam veteran. I was a little timid about chewing him out. When I tried to joke around with him he would stiffen up, start looking at me funny. So, I tried patting him on the back to motivate him. I would compliment him on things that he was doing well to reinforce his good behavior. If he had a good sales day I would be the first to compliment him. If he had no customer complaints I would point that out in front of the owner. If he recorded all his leads I would take him out of the shop and eat lunch with him and tell him how important he was to the company – stuff like that. He ate it up and that led to more good behavior. He was on fire after I figured out his button. He was always trying to impress me after that. What a manager he turned out to be, looking back on him today.

The most fun I ever had in a shop was with a guy whom you could not pat on the back and get anywhere. He saw right through that stuff. When I tried to chew him out it made me feel bad. So, I went to the backup technique and tried humor with him. He thought I was kidding and did not respond the way I had hoped. He was presenting a real challenge to my management skills. He had a very dry sense of humor and saw the world in a much different light from most of us.

I figured out the key to his lock one day. I brought him into my office and closed the door. We told a few jokes and talked about the latest gossip to set the stage. Then, I stopped and got real quiet for a moment. Then I handed him a list of instructions and told him that I was going to turn him into a fine white powder if he did not conform to my way of doing things. While he was reading the list I got up, turned the light off, walked out of my office and locked the door, leaving him sitting in the dark. After about 30 seconds he yelled through the door for me to let him out, and I yelled back, “Are you going to comply?”

He said, “Yes, if you buy lunch.”

The moral of this story is, using your sense of humor to manage and motivate works only when you end with clear, concise instructions and a firm commitment from the manager.

In summary, a chewing-out motivates by fear. That is a lazy man’s style of management and creates a hostile environment. A pat on the back motivates by positive reinforcement. That takes a little more effort and creates a positive environment. Humor motivates by speaking to their lighter side. It requires a good sense of humor and creates a fun environment.

The pro uses all three when he manages managers. For example, I would take a guy whom I was managing by positive reinforcement and go into his shop and chew him out just to get his attention. Then I might go out in the shop and kick over a trash can, stomp the trash on the floor for about 15 seconds, then get in my car and leave. They thought I was crazy. They may have been right. But it has been my experience that it is not a bad thing if managers think you are crazy. It keeps them on their toes around you. The point is, you can mix up the management techniques and keep them motivated. When one is not working, go in and try another technique until something works.

There are other techniques to motivate managers. Food comes to mind. I know managers who would walk through fire for a cheeseburger. Money is another driver. There are guys who would upsell their own mother to make a bonus check. Time off is a big one. I remember that when I was a manager, I would quit to get some time off. We were working 60- to 70-hour weeks with no vacation for three or four years, and time off was more important to me than money – for a little while.

Some managers like having a title. It makes them feel important. Make up a title and give it to him. It doesn’t cost you anything. Make him the chief of sales, the president of production, parts commander, the service director; yes, that’s it, the service director. If it makes him feel good it is no skin off my back. I am glad to help him out. He is motivated now. My job is done.

Contests. Challenge them. Be creative. Here’s an example: I want my parts costs to be below 25%. Everything below that I will pay out to the shop. The manager will receive the parts money in the form of a check and decide how to spend it. I did this one time and saw mounts that had been ordered mistakenly and left in the cobwebs at the shop get sent back to the parts house for a return credit. Flywheels were next, then the builder started telling the manager to sell the job for more, and it caught on fire from there. I paid it only quarterly because I was in a war for employees with my competition. If employees left before the quarter was up, they lost all their parts money. That was the game, that was the challenge. It worked. It saved me money and slowed employee turnover.

Training is another great way to motivate managers. They get all hopped up when you train them. This is where you are tested. Here is what I know about training in a nutshell.

• Be prepared.

(Note to self: It helps if you know what you are talking about. You might get your teeth knocked out if you say the wrong thing. When I told you they were a challenging group, this is what I was referring to.)

• Tell them the truth and they trust you.
• Give them hope and they follow you.
• Tell them a story and they remember forever.

Now, get up and go see whether the shop is completely burned down. If there is anything left, you might use one of these zingers to start putting out the fire. It is your shop. Get with your manager and go manage it.

Art Little is the founder of TransTeam. His website is the home of the National Employment Headquarters for the transmission industry. He has been an industry pioneer in Internet technology since 1997, and his background in shops goes back almost 30 years. He is respected nationwide as an owner and manager who specializes in multiple-shop management. Today he is a software developer for the transmission industry, offering apps that make everyday tasks in a transmission shop easy by using today’s technology. TransTeam’s mobile technology puts transmission-shop production on a smartphone. Art invites all Transmission Digest shop-owner fans to go to his website and become a TransTeam fan. Visit www.transteam.com.